The Ken Robinson Channel

On divergent thinking and our outdated educational system (good)

On how schools kill creativity. (TED) (great)

On educating the heart and mind.  (awesome. long.)

Colbert, Tyson, and e=mc²

Neil de Grasse Tyson, that is. For an hour and twenty minutes. In one of the best interviews about anything I've ever seen, Stephen Colbert and the astrophysicist chat about the universe, our society, science education, and even James Cameron.

Some excerpts:

Colbert: Is knowledge always a good thing?
Tyson: I have to say yes.
Colbert: Why?
Tyson: Because it empowers you to react, and possibly even do something about it, if something needs to be done.

Tyson: Some of the greatest poetry is revealing to the reader the beauty in something that was so simple you had taken it for granted.

Also, The Most Amazing Fact Ever  (Tyson).

Soldiering.

Good news: The U.S. is giving money to aid in the education of Lebanese college students. They're also giving 100 times that much to the Egyptian military.

The Commodification of Education

“What we’re seeing are the spoils of what happens when education is treated not as a public good, but as a commodity, as just another way to turn a profit.” - Robert Applebaum

Alexander Zaitchik, for Salon, argues that while forgiveness of student loan debt is a step in the right direction, the more pressing issue is creating an environment in which education is valued and affordable.

Harvard Tackles Teaching

Harvard kicked off its Initiative for Teaching and Learning with a daylong conference. Thanks Gustave M. and Rita E. Hauser, for the grant which financed the project.

12 Dozen Places to Educate Yourself Online for Free

You can learn anything you want on this wonderful series of tubes! From Marc and Angel Hack Life.

The Reproduction of Privilege

“The education system is an increasingly powerful mechanism for the intergenerational reproduction of privilege.”
— Anthony Carnevale

"The 'income achievement gap' – differences in standard test scores and grade point averages – between children from families in the top 10 percent of the income distribution and those from families in the bottom ten percent has been growing. Reardon has found that the income achievement gap between children from the highest and lowest income deciles is roughly 30 to 40 percent larger among children born in 2001 than among those born in 1976."

That is, if you come from a wealthy family, the more likely you are to test well, and go to and graduate from college. Which strengthens your earning potential, and your kids' likelihood of the same. Upward mobility is becoming impossible.

Takeaway: We need to make education more accessible.

6 Pakistani Women

"According to a 2011 poll of experts by the Thomson Reuters Foundation Poll, Pakistan is the third most dangerous country for women in the world. It cited the more than 1,000 women and girls murdered in "honor killings" every year and reported that 90 percent of Pakistani women suffer from domestic violence."

Here are the stories of 6 incredibly brave women from Karachi.

Big Red Feud

"Two Cornellians on opposite sides of the education debate—controversial former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee '92 and teachers' union leader Randi Weingarten '80—sat down with Cornell Alumni Magazine to talk about school reform. (But not together.)"

The High Cost of Low Teacher Salaries

Dave Eggers offers simple and elegant advice for dealing with the decline in U.S. Education: make teaching a more attractive profession.

Stand and Deliver

More than 25 years after Jaime Escalante's Garfield H.S. students inspired a Hollywood script, Jay Matthews challenges teachers across the country to pick up where they left off, by encouraging all interested students to take AP exams.

Advanced Leadership Initiative

Harvard University's Third Stage education, taking adults at the top of their fields, and opening up its campus/resources to them as they develop a "social purpose project."

The Rubber Room

A 2009 New Yorker article discusses "the battle over New York City's worst teachers."