Letters
Perla Praise
How circular this world is! I met Perla (“One on One,” winter 2009) in 1974 in Tunis, Tunisia, where, as a foreign service officer with the U.S. Information Agency, I was serving as cultural affairs officer. Perla had a grant to coach tennis to aspiring Tunisians. I encouraged her to apply for the Foreign Service, which she did and where she served for a few years before moving on to her current career. I’m glad I spotted the smarts, talent, imagination, and a sassy sense of humor.
William Stephens Jr., via the website
Teaching Teachers
Upon receiving my winter issue of Ed., I was delighted to notice an article on middle school readers (“In the Middle,” winter 2009). Unfortunately, although a well-written overview, it was a disappointment. In quoting case studies and describing some of the current scene with readers at the middle school, the writer neglects any mention of the real reason for the problem, i.e., the teaching of reading to grades 1–5. Contrary to current belief, these students do not read well now. Mention is not made of the inadequate training of teachers who, for years, have just taught decoding skills but not comprehension skills. Curing the problem with literacy coaches and short-term pilot programs as encouraged by colleges of education and others will only serve as a Band-aid. Training institutions need to accept their responsibilities to train and prepare teachers of reading instead of seeking more useless dissertation and study topics. Teachers at all levels and of all subjects need to be readers themselves.
Jackie Ziff, Ed.M.’57
Long Days
Clearly the quality of teaching and learning is key to the success of ELT schools (“Time Hasn’t Been on Their Side,” winter 2009). Teachers must have rich professional development to engage, challenge, and provide students with 21st century skills. Perhaps, then, professional development needs to be re-envisioned and expanded beyond current teacher collaboration within buildings. Quality online learning for teachers, for example, offers the flexibility to be incorporated within the ELT day or completed at other times convenient for teachers.
Bess Kapetanis, via the website
Interesting idea. If you want public school teachers to do this, it is going to mean two things: first, money; second, very clear parameters around extended duties. I teach all day and go home to being a parent of school-aged children that need my help with their homework. How can I help my own kids at night if kids I teach during the day are calling me? How are we supposed to have time to get our kids to the doctor’s or dentist’s or their commitments if we’re teaching so long?
Katriona, via the website
I think expanding the hours that students spend in school is not very creative and does not address many other issues that play roles in the success of students. I would like to know if anyone has studied when a person’s brain becomes completely functional in the morning and at what point in the evening does it slow down? In my high school, we started at 8:25 a.m. and had a 20-minute break at 10 a.m. We did that because they found that starting too early was not helping anything because people are still waking up.
Cornell Woodson, via the website
During the Australian summer holidays I read Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success. It resonated well with what I have observed having worked as a teacher for 30 years across various socioeconomic environments. Generally, Gladwell maintains that students from high socioeconomic groups are given more out-of-school opportunities. Gladwell calls this “concerted cultivation and intense scheduling.” It made me reflect on the absurdity of our “one-size-fits-all” approach to education. If education is meant to be an equalizer, and it should have this potential, why are we not providing opportunities within education systems for students from poorer homes to access extra time?
Maria Leaver, via the website
Tweet Success?
This is one of the most intriguing articles (“Thanks for the Add. Now Help Me with My Homework,” winter 2009) I’ve read about online social networking. As a retired high school teacher now in the “world” of social media, I have spent countless hours thinking of how I could have used this phenomenon in my classroom; perhaps a new pen pal, where kids could correspond online with people from other countries, generations, and cultures, gaining first-hand access to anecdotal history that would otherwise be, in all probability, inaccessible. Or as mentioned in the text of the article, creating a large, universal circle that would include the disadvantaged and immigrant students with just, literally, the tips of fingers and a keyboard. I will go back and reread the article many, many times, internalize it all, and then go on my perpetual campaign to bring the world to each student. A beautiful read.
Sharon Couto, via the website
Finally, an article about the potentially positive aspects of social networking sites for teens. I get so tired of adults assuming the worst about technology and teens. Every parent discussion on the topic attempts to scare us into believing that the positive attributes of technology are few and far between. Connecting with people via writing is a great skill to have. Who says my 15-year-old daughter shouldn’t hone that skill in her spare time? Additionally, the focus on low-income teens in the study was great information for me, as I work for a foundation that provides scholarships to low-income teens at independent high schools around the United States.
Jennifer Schauffler, Ed.M.’95, via the website
I’ve never doubted that social networking sites and other “cloud apps” could be used by participants in a positive way. What I find disturbing is that discussion and criticism of these tools rarely goes further than user-to-user privacy. Yes, you can you can set your keg party photo album to “private” in Facebook. What I question is the wisdom of subjecting us and our children to the data mining and analysis that these companies are employing. A great deal of information is being collected about us, and we have no say in how it can be used.
Dean, via the website
We’re Impartial
“Music to My Ears” (winter 2009) page 14, line 3: “Disinterest”? Please tell me that I am not the only person on earth who still believes there is distinction between “disinterest” and “uninterest.”
Gary Blauvelt, M.A.T.’63
Go Gardner!
Professor Howard Gardner has impacted more students than he will ever realize (“15 Minutes Has Turned into 25 Years,” fall 2008). I was overwhelmed when I first learned of his theory of MI 14 years ago, at age 42. I am now a teacher. My sole goal is to impress adolescents with the fact that they are smart. I have students tell me that my class, with an MI-Howard Gardner focus, is the first time that they feel smart. It’s overwhelming to hear.
Kathy Keene
My children attend New City School in St. Louis, Mo., which was one of the first schools to really turn the multiple intelligence theory into a 20-plus-year practice. Though I will agree that Howard Gardner’s contributions are broader than MI, I think that he is being awfully humble based on the impact that the theory has had. … I know that Howard doesn’t want to be an “MI rock star,” but I think that there is still much to be learned and much to be done with this work. So I will just say thank you Howard, we truly appreciate what you have given us!
Cheryl Milton Roberts
Rural Fresh Air
I found the article “Boon, Not Boondock” in the recent edition of Ed. (fall 2008) to be a true breath of fresh air for those of us interested in rural education. Much like an individual profiled in the article, I am also “from the hollers” of Appalachia and have seen our education systems to be too heavily influenced by trends that are intended for urban and suburban schools. As pointed out in the article, rural schools share a unique set of concerns and issues that have been overlooked for decades. Frankly, it is refreshing to read that others in the education community are beginning to see that techniques and approaches that have been effective in Boston are a bad fit for rural West Virginia.
Conrad Lucas II, Ed.M.’05
