24. “After a long life, and 30 years in
public schools, I’ve concluded that
genius is as common as dirt. We
suppresses genius only because we
haven’t yet figured out how to
manage a population of educated
men and women.”
-John Taylor Gatto
25. W o rk i n g-class ch i ld re n
le arn i n g o u tsi d e o f sch o o l—
te rm e d i n th e stu d y as
h o m e sch o o le rs—
outpe rforme d u p p e r class-
ch i ld re n i n sch o o l o n th e i r
A le ve ls an d G C S E s.
79. How learning journals work:
• Once per day, you review your goals for
the day, week, and year.
• Write down what you’re going to learn
that day
• The next day, check if you met those goals.
• Repeat the process, and set new goals for
the day
81. How review boards work:
• Once a week, students get together in
groups of four to evaluate progress
• Each bring their learning journal, and shares
the progress they have made
• This produces peer accountability. Students
then discuss their goals for the week
• The next week, students hold each other
accountable for their goals
84. T h e le s s o n :
Working with peers
in c r e a s e s
learning outcomes
85. Idea: Competency based classrooms
Instead of making your students do all classwork, offer
them the option to take the test on day 1. If they past, let
them learn more advanced material
Unschooling is a self-directed form of homeschooling. John holt, an educator from NYC coined the term. Through the 1970s he ran a magazine called Growing Without School. It was delivered to home in a brown paper bag as though one wouldn’t want the mailman to see what you were getting in the mail.
worked on political campaigns
organized collaborative learning groups
helped build a library
went to conferences
the cost of education is skyrocketing -- not just in the US, but also in the UK
the cost of said education results in students taking on astronomical debt
in the US, student loan debt outpaced credit card debit
has topped 1 trillion dollars
all this has lead to speculation about an education bubble -- will it pop, just like the housing bubble? one thing to note: student loan debt is UNFORGIVEABLE in the case of bankruptcy
if college were preparing its grads for success 22% wouldn’t be working jobs that don’t require a degree
we’re having out more and more As. and no, we aren’t getting smarter.
Academically Adrift found that 36% of students showed no improvement in critical thinking, complex reasoning, or writing, after four years of college and less that half of students surveyed had taken a class that required more than 20 pages of writing over the entire semester.
At college, life was at parties. I recall before I left, a student asked me over dinner, “Aren’t you going to miss the beer and girls?” I responded, “Nope, I’m more interested in champagne and guys.” The idea that learning should happen at college was considered absurd. If universities stopped issuing credentials, half of my fellow students would be gone by tomorrow morning.
Control group classrooms were taught in traditional methods: lectures, homework, etc. The experimental classrooms has peer review groups where students helped each other. This was in grades 1 and 2. At the end of 2 years, 75% of kids in the control group were spelling correctly on average while the peer-review classrooms were spelling 87% correctly on average.
College students were asked to play a game of labyrinth. Reader + Dollinger 1982 All students were asked to get the ball thru the maze as quickly as possible. 1/2 the students were also asked to set a timer, effectively giving the students a deadline. After 10 mins, the experimenter returned for all students and engaged them in another task, then left them for another 8 minutes instructing them to do as the please. 50% of those without the deadline continued playing the game whereas less than 1/3 with the deadline continued.