The Global Search for Education: How to Support Your Education System
Sep13

The Global Search for Education: How to Support Your Education System

 “70% of the variation in student achievement is accounted for by factors outside of the control of schools.” —  Charles Ungerleider  Professor Charles Ungerleider tells me he wrote his book, Failing Our Kids — How we are Ruining Our Public Schools (McClelland & Stewart, 2004), after he completed a term as Deputy Minister of Education for British Columbia.  For 40 years he had observed the Canadian...

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The Global Search for Education: The Technology Connection
Aug09

The Global Search for Education: The Technology Connection

 Will Apple’s iPad 2 change the way we watch a book or appreciate nature?  photo courtesy of Susan Leslie. “If you asked a parent they might call it intuitive. If you asked a musician they might call it inspiring. To a doctor it’s groundbreaking. To a CEO it’s powerful. To a teacher it’s the future. If you asked a child, she might call it magic.” …And if you asked the producers of the Apple...

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The Global Search for Education: If Music Be the Food….
Jul26

The Global Search for Education: If Music Be the Food….

 Leon Botstein will conduct the landmark production of Richard Strauss’s opera Die Liebe der Danae opening Bard Music Festival July 29 photo courtesy of Bard College.  If music be the food of educational excellence, play on Maestro Botstein. Give me excess of Richard Strauss’s Die Liebe der Danae at Bard Summerscape 2011. That strain again Maestro, it had a dying fall. It came o’er my ear like the sweet sound of...

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The Global Search for Education: A View from Norway
Jul12

The Global Search for Education: A View from Norway

 Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland  Why have I never been to Norway, I wonder as I view the breathtaking images of this amazing country on Google search. I email my close friend, Norwegian expert and talented architect, Maddy Vigeland, and ask her to share with me a Norwegian view for my new education post. “A few things come to mind,” Maddy emails back. “In addition to skiing, the fjords — miles and...

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The Global Search for Education: Teacher Be Good
Jun28

The Global Search for Education: Teacher Be Good

 Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake in Bad Teacher  courtesy of Sony Pictures. Bad Teacher is a new comedy starring Cameron Diaz as a totally inappropriate teacher, Elizabeth Halsey. As the movie begins, Elizabeth is not excited about the first day of school. Nor is she interested in putting her students first. Truthfully, Elizabeth’s primary focus is finding a guy who’s going to take care of her. To find out whether...

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