BLAM

That doesn’t mean, though, that Silicon Valley is still not a huge, critical, important part of our economy, and Wall Street will remain a big, important part of our economy, just as it was in the ’70s and the ’80s. It just won’t be half of our economy. And that means that more talent, more resources will be going to other sectors of the economy. And I actually think that’s healthy. We don’t want every single college grad with mathematical aptitude to become a derivatives trader. We want some of them to go into engineering, and we want some of them to be going into computer design.

-President Obama via NYT magazine

The main points of the NYT article

But our graduate system has been in crisis for decades, and the seeds of this crisis go as far back as the formation of modern universities. Kant, in his 1798 work “The Conflict of the Faculties,” wrote that universities should “handle the entire content of learning by mass production, so to speak, by a division of labor, so that for every branch of the sciences there would be a public teacher or professor appointed as its trustee.”

Unfortunately this mass-production university model has led to separation where there ought to be collaboration and to ever-increasing specialization. In my own religion department, for example, we have 10 faculty members, working in eight subfields, with little overlap. And as departments fragment, research and publication become more and more about less and less. Each academic becomes the trustee not of a branch of the sciences, but of limited knowledge that all too often is irrelevant for genuinely important problems

If American higher education is to thrive in the 21st century, colleges and universities, like Wall Street and Detroit, must be rigorously regulated and completely restructured. The long process to make higher learning more agile, adaptive and imaginative can begin with six major steps:

1. Restructure the curriculum, beginning with graduate programs and proceeding as quickly as possible to undergraduate programs. The division-of-labor model of separate departments is obsolete and must be replaced with a curriculum structured like a web or complex adaptive network. Responsible teaching and scholarship must become cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural.

2. Abolish permanent departments, even for undergraduate education, and create problem-focused programs. These constantly evolving programs would have sunset clauses, and every seven years each one should be evaluated and either abolished, continued or significantly changed. It is possible to imagine a broad range of topics around which such zones of inquiry could be organized: Mind, Body, Law, Information, Networks, Language, Space, Time, Media, Money, Life and Water.

3. Increase collaboration among institutions. All institutions do not need to do all things and technology makes it possible for schools to form partnerships to share students and faculty.

4. Transform the traditional dissertation. The average university press print run of a dissertation that has been converted into a book is less than 500, and sales are usually considerably lower.) For many years, I have taught undergraduate courses in which students do not write traditional papers but develop analytic treatments in formats from hypertext and Web sites to films and video games. Graduate students should likewise be encouraged to produce “theses” in alternative formats.

5. Expand the range of professional options for graduate students. Most graduate students will never hold the kind of job for which they are being trained. It is, therefore, necessary to help them prepare for work in fields other than higher education.


This is alot of the stuff we've been talking about.

What Colleges AREN'T Producing

College Sucks. Times op-ed.



Via NY Times

Fun Fact about Math

This is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Mathematicians held about 3,000 jobs in 2006. Many people with mathematical backgrounds also worked in other occupations. For example, there were about 54,000 jobs as postsecondary mathematical science teachers in 2006.

Out of 57,000 mathameticians, 94.7% of them teach math at colleges. Talk about a masturbatory field.

Tim's cheating and attempts at obtaining an education.

I cheated my way through high school. Why? Because it was easy and few subjects could retain my interest for more than a semester. And if I were placed in that same educational setting, I would do it again. I would start the school year in a enthusiastic and optimistic mind set, I would finish all my home work as soon as I got home, I would study for at least 2 hours at night; but after a month of that I would get bored out of mind and would just copy someone else's work. And once that mentality set in it only got worse, copying a homework assignments and involves little effort, but that lead me to not studying and eventually skipping out on classes. I would often have to cut deals like this with my teachers; "If I pass the final with whatever grade, you'll pass me for the year", some teachers said agreed to the deal, but others dismissed my slacker initiative as a cop out for doing work, which it was. Every school year ended with me trying to learn a year's worth of material in about two weeks. Sometimes it worked, more often than not it didn't. So ended up at summer school quite often.

The actually test and retaining the information was never the problem, whatever state mandated test we had I would usually pass with no problem, it was the test that were given periodically throughout the quarter, say every two weeks that would kill me. It felt like there was never anytime to see how information I was learning was relevant or related, or at least see at it all works together. It was like bam, learn A, test, ok learn B, test; I was like "Whoa, how are A and B related or relevant to one another." I asked every teacher "Why I'm I learning this?", "When am I going to need to know about quadratic equations ever?" So high school was a bust, I graduated at some ungodly low rank, didn't even know we had a rankings system until senior year; I made a feeble attempt to move up but soon realize it was impossible and then actually moved down in the rankings, go figure. I did well on the SAT's even though the first time I took it I forgot to bring a calculator. So I got into college, some how.

Then it all clicked. When I had the opportunity to pick whatever subjects I wanted to learn, I instantly become invested in my education. It was never about trying a bunch of random classes, but about having the opportunity to say "This interest me. I want to learn more about it" and be given the opportunity to do so.

John's Schooling

I went to what was once the 25th best high school in the country, and got to see the best and the worst of what the educational system can offer.

I'll start from the beginning though. I went to Palm Beach Public Elementary School, which was considered a great elementary school. What the hell did I know? I was like 8 years old. But the year before I was supposed to start 6th grade at Palm Beach Public Middle School, they closed it down. I now had to go to my local school, Conniston.

It felt like I was going to school in Compton. It was mostly hispanic, and I was scronny, white and nerdy, and so were my friends. I took a gym class and tried to tell the teacher when I found my trapper keeper in the locker room toilet one day. She told me I shouldn't have left it out.

The 8th graders smoked, I took all the normal classes, and spent free time drawing dinosaurs and Mortal Kombat characters. Towards the end of the year, two 7th graders got in a fight over a wrist watch, which was resolved by a gunshot to the chest. I don't believe they let you have watches in jail or when you're dead and buried in the ground, not that it would do you much good in either place.

The next year, my grandmother offered to pay for me to go somewhere safe, like Catholic school. My mom thought it would be better to have options, which was fortunate because a new Middle School of the Arts was opening up in time for me to audition. I grabbed all of my dinosaur and Mortal Kombat drawings and hoped that pencil and paint would save me from yardsticks and uniforms.

7th and 8th grade were mostly normal, but because I went to a magnet school, at least two of my classes were art classes. The rest of my classes were identical to any other school, but what made my school "better" was that I could take classes I wanted in the fine arts.

High school was basically a continuation of that. Normal high school classes supplemented with electives in the arts. My grades were below average, even though I discovered a knack for design and film. I aced my AP Statistics midterm, and almost failed my final exam. Physics was the only class I really excelled at because, outside of my art classes, it was the only subject I had an interest in. I graduated with a 2.8 GPA and a fairly decent portfolio for a 17 year old.

I went to three different state/community colleges, and found all of them a useless continuation of high school, except that now they charged me.

High School Experience

Before I describe my high school experience, I should probably give you an idea of the type of student I was back then. First and foremost I was an athlete. (I would have used the term jock, but for someone who stood at 5’10 and weighed 150 lbs., the title didn’t seem to fit.) Every waking hour revolved around some extra curricular activity, sports related of course. If I wasn’t practicing or playing I was focusing on socializing or in other words goofing off. I never enjoyed being in the classroom. I probably slept through 5 of the 8 classes I had each day. Needless to say that my drive to learn was almost none existent.
The school I went to was very small and very private. I say very private because no one really knew of it. The student population was about 180, yes that is 9th through 12th grade. My class was probably around 50 students, which was obviously one of the larger classes. You would think with such a small student to teacher ratio that the level of learning would be comparably higher then say to a high school of 2,000 students. Think again. The school as a whole seemed to care more about your obedience then your education. For example, I rarely turned in homework on time or at all with little to no punishment. Yet I was in detention almost every other week for a uniform infraction. I don’t know about you but that seems a little ass backwards. Not to say that there wasn’t any good teachers at the school, but they were few and far between. Now that I think about it, the money spent on tuition was pretty much paying for your grades. To put this in perspective, I graduated with a 3.2 GPA which was somewhat of a surprise considering the fact that I was in summer school prior to graduating. Now, I know its possible to bring your grades up in a year, but there was one underlying factor that didn’t make sense. Which was the fact that every single student in my class graduated with a 3.0 GPA or better. Also, for a Georgia resident to qualify for the Hope scholarship he/she must graduate with a 3.0 GPA or higher. That just seems a little too coincidental to me.

Chomsky, Baby!

What a nice old man! The whole visit was a pretty coincidental. The building that houses Chomsky's department is the Alexander W. Dreyfoos Building. My high school was called Alexander W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts. So not only was I in the Alexander W. Dreyfoos Building interviewing Noam Chomsky about high schools, it turns out that Alexander W. Dreyfoos was a photographer who went to MIT. Anyway, here's the photo I gave to him, the photo I took of him, and the recorded interview.



I'm going to try and work on the background to declutter it.


The interview can be found here.

This is Newton (because all my post must sound like a line from 300)

A true scientist is an artist of natural philosophy, a philosopher ponders the science of art, an artist paints philosophy like a mad scientist, and the greatest of each has super crazy vision.

Using a Leadership Role to Put a Human Face on Science

This is Newton.

A video inspired by the mathematician, Steve Strogatz. At the age of thirteen, Steve was astonished to find that pendulums and water fountains had a strange relationship that had previously been completely hidden from him.

Parabolas (etc.)

New Nike ACG site

The new ACG site has a cool, galaxy interface—but it lacks a z-axis. Could be a cool way to show our curriculum.

Building Materials

Guys,
If you have any materials that could be contributed to the model it would be much appreciated.

Possible materials:
FoamCore–white
Balsa or Bass wood
sheets of metal or plastic
And whatever you think will work

Peliminary list of classes

Here is the list. Its word for word, so it might be a little chaotic.

Shape and form–sculpture, ceramics, etc..
Color Theory–painting, still life,
Principles of design
photography–lighting, printing
3D modeling–math related
Printing–silk screen, digital
Music
Production
Instrument specific
reading & writing sheet music
history
cinematic orchestra
creative writing
Choir
Applied math
All Sciences
Birds in Flight
Economics
Geography
Presentation Class–public speaking, Storytelling
DJ Mixing
World History
US History
Personal Finance
Strategy(ideation)–Chess
Exploration–Discovery's "Planet Earth"
Myth Busters
Culinary Arts–food science(Alton Brown)

Some examples

Waldorf Curriculum

My So-Called Life

I only asked one question during high school, and it was " What I'm I learning this for, again?" and all my teachers would respond with the same answer "Because you NEED too." But I never felt that any of the information was pertinent to me, so I slacked off. I cut class, didn't do my homework; and when I did do my work it was half-assed.The only incentive I had during high school was basketball, and during basketball season was the only time I focused on my classwork. Luckily I can regurgitate information and passed most state exams, and I cut deals with teachers to pass me if I achieved certain scores on test (which I knew I could pass). Basically, I saw the system as a joke, so I treated as one. My teachers aren't to blame for my lack of interest, the subjects and information which I was taught was just fucking boring. In hindsight, I wouldn't change a thing. I learned how to bullshit, found loopholes in the system and still go my diploma and went to college. The same thing everyone else was trying to accomplish.

Tim's highs school years in chronological order:

9th Grade - failed math 1 and earth science

10 Grade - Failed math 2 and biology (blame that on Megan Rowe and getting suspended in the middle of the year for telling a teacher to stop calling my house and leaving creepy messages.)
-1 week out of school suspension
-3 day in school suspension
-Summer school

11th Grade - Failed Math 3 and chem
-Summer School

12th Grade

High school kinda sucked.

Waldorf Curriculum links

http://www.academeatlanta.org/curriculumchart.html
http://www.academeatlanta.org/private-high-school-curriculum.html

enjoy

NEWTON on X-Mas

NYT op-ed "ten days of newton"

“ I teach science to young elementary students partly to share their passion for discovery but also to help them to develop tools -- particularly the scientific method -- that will aid in maintaining their natural curiosity and open-mindedness throughout life. Whether they become scientists or not, perhaps critical-thinking skills will enable them to (i) resist falling prey to dogma, (ii) make informed decisions, (iii) respect others' opinions and cultures, and (iv) support funding for scientific research and education.”
-a reader's comment

I think this rather insightful, instead of us trying to figure out what were going to teach, lets take a step back and ask "What should each student get out of this class/subject?"

Some reading

I started to compile a list of books on education and curriculum planning.

I'm picking up the Ken Robinson book "Out of our minds" today, most of the books on the list can be found at the library.

Here is the list via Amazon

Michelle Rhee on Charlie Rose

Michelle Rhee on Charlie Rose

Michelle Rhee articles:

http://rhee.htm

http://www.tntp.org/index.html

http://www.newsweek.com/id/154901

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1862444-1,00.html


What makes a great teacher via TIME

Victore booked

Dec 16th. 3pm

"Anything that happens in D.C. tends to matter beyond D.C.

, because the school system is held up as an example for education,” says Kevin Carey, the research and policy manager at Education Sector. In the past, the city’s failure was taken as proof that urban public education wasn’t working. Rhee’s goal is to make Washington a showcase proving that view wrong. If she succeeds, she could have a stunning impact on American public education.

The Atlantic "The Lighting Rod" -Michelle Rhee article

John Beilenberg Portrait

Here is the official John Beilenberg portrait. Enjoy.

The first dates were incorrect

These are correct

Thurs. Dec. 11: Leave Atlanta

Friday, Dec. 12: Interview in DC

Sat. Dec. 13: Drive to PA (130 miles)

Mon. Dec. 15: Interview in PA; Drive to NYC (110 miles)

Tues. Dec. 16: Interview in NYC

Wed. Dec. 17: Interview in NYC

Thurs. Dec. 18: Drive to RI (150 miles) Do interview; drive to Boston (about an hour drive)

Friday, Dec. 19: Interview in Boston

Waldorf_Curriculum

Teaching of academic subjects as lesson "blocks"

In both the elementary school and secondary school, most academic subjects are taught in "main lesson" blocks of 3-5 weeks. For these blocks, each pupil writes and illustrates a "main lesson book" representing the material learned in the block.^[4]

[edit] Language and literature

In Waldorf education writing and reading are introduced at age six or seven; Beginning with oral storytelling, a Waldorf child listens to and summarizes oral language. Then, using imaginative pictures of sounds (e.g. a snake shape for the letter "s"), the children gradually learn the abstract letter forms, and move on to phonetics, spelling, grammar and punctuation. After recording their own stories and illustrations in personal books, children learn to read from the words they wrote themselves. In secondary school, there is an increased focus on literature. ^[5]

[edit] Mathematics

Formal instruction in numeracy begins at age 6/7 with the four primary operations of arithmetic. Fractions are introduced at age 9/10, decimal numbers and proportions at age 10/11, percentages and rates of interest at age 11/12, algebra at age 12/13. At the secondary level, topics include algebra, geometry, conics, trigonometry, probability, combinatorics and calculus. Descriptive geometry and projective geometry are introduced at age 15/16 and 16/17, respectively.^[2]

[edit] Nature and science

Life sciences begin from age 6 or 7 with stories of "the living world."^[2] Observation and description of "the living world" begins at age 9 or 10.^[5] The curriculum includes lesson blocks on farming (age 9 or 10), animals (age 10 or 11), plants (age 11 or 12), as well as geology, human biology and astronomy (age 12 or 13).^[5][2] Children are taught that they are interdependently connected with nature and the environment around them, and that that as a result of that interdependence, how they treat nature and the environment is at least as important as how they treat themselves and each other.^[6]

At secondary school, Waldorf schools study the historical origins, cultural background, and philosophical roots and consequences of scientific discoveries. By the end of their secondary school education, students are expected to have a grasp of modern science equivalent to that achieved in other schools. ^[1]

[edit] History and geography

History begins with "mythical and archetypal narrative" (age 6-9 years). At age 10 history lessons begin to draw upon the local environment in connection with local geography. Beginning at age 11, history is introduced as a formal subject.^[5]

[edit] Foreign languages

Two "foreign" languages are taught from age six on.^[5] Foreign language instruction in the first two years is purely oral; reading and writing of foreign languages are generally introduced toward the end of third grade. Language teaching in the first three years aims to give the children a sense of a greater belonging and understanding of the other. This helps develop a relaxed relationship to things unknown, which is extremely important for all learning thereafter, especially for further foreign language training. ^[2]

[edit] Art, crafts and handwork

In the elementary years, drawing is practised daily and painting weekly; in addition, children are taught modelling and sculpture with beeswax or clay.^[5] Also taught is an approach to drawing geometric and dynamic forms created by the early Waldorf pedagogue Hermann von Baravalle and known in the schools as "form drawing".^[2] Art instruction continues through the high school.

Handwork (including knitting, crochet, sewing and embroidery) is taught from age 6 on, with projects which may include cushions, socks, gloves and dolls.^[5] Woodworking normally begins during 5th or 6th grade. The secondary school crafts curriculum includes some combination of woodworking, basketry, weaving and book-binding.^[6]

[edit] Music

In the elementary school, children sing daily with their class teacher. Generally, weekly singing lessons with a specialized music teacher begin at an early age and continue as choral instruction through the end of a child's Waldorf experience. Music is sometimes also integrated into the teaching of subjects such as arithmetic, geography, history and science.^[7]

Recorders, usually pentatonic, are introduced in first grade, the familiar diatonic recorder in third or fourth grade, when the children also take up a string instrument: either violin, viola or cello. Waldorf pupils are generally required to take private music lessons when a class orchestra is formed, usually at age 10, although many already do. By age 11, the children may switch to or add to, learning other orchestral instruments such as the woodwind or brass to play in the school orchestra. Orchestral instruction continues through the end of a child's Waldorf experience, though in many schools it becomes elective at some point.^[4]

[edit] Eurythmy

Eurythmy is a movement art, usually performed to poetry or music, created by Steiner and "meant to help children develop harmoniously with mind, body and soul".^[5] Eurythmy is a required subject in Waldorf Schools in all years.^[5]

Waldorf School_Info.

Waldorf education (also known as Steiner or Steiner-Waldorf education) is a pedagogy based upon the educational philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, the founder of anthroposophy. Learning is interdisciplinary, integrates practical, artistic, and intellectual elements,^[1] and is coordinated with "natural rhythms of everyday life".^[2] The Waldorf approach emphasizes the role of the imagination in learning,^[3][4][5] developing thinking that includes a creative as well as an analytic component.^[6][7] Studies of the education describe its overarching goal as providing young people the basis on which to develop into free, moral^[8][9] and integrated individuals,^[10][11][3] and to help every child fulfill his or her unique destiny (the existence of which anthroposophy posits).^[2][12] Schools and teachers are given considerable freedom to define curricula within collegial structures.^[13]

Curriculum

Main article: Curriculum of the Waldorf schools

There are widely-agreed guidelines for the Waldorf curriculum,^[39][40][41] supported by the schools' common principles;^[33] nevertheless, independent Waldorf schools are autonomous institutions not required to follow a prescribed curriculum. Government-funded Waldorf-method schools may be required to incorporate aspects of state curricula.

There are a few subjects largely unique to the Waldorf schools. Foremost among these is Eurythmy, a movement art usually accompanying spoken texts or music which includes elements of role play and dance and is designed to provide individuals and classes with a "sense of integration and harmony".^[2]

Waldorf schools generally introduce computers into the curriculum in the teenage years.^[42]

• U.S. Waldorf schools survey

A 1995 survey of U.S. Waldorf schools found that parents overall experienced the Waldorf schools as achieving their major aims for students, and described the education as one that "integrates the aesthetic, spiritual and interpersonal development of the child with rigorous intellectual development", preserving students' enthusiasm for learning so that they develop a better sense of self-confidence and self-direction. Some parents described upper grades teachers as overextended, without sufficient time to relate to parental needs and input, and wished for more open and reciprocal parent-school support. Both parents and students sometimes described colleges of teachers as being insular and unresponsive. The students overall were positive about the school and its differences; experienced the school as a "community of friends"; and spoke of the opportunity to grow and develop through the broad range of activities offered, to learn when they were ready to learn, to develop imagination, and to come to understand the world as well as oneself. Many students spoke of the kindness of their peers and of learning to think things through clearly for themselves, not to jump to conclusions, and to remain positive in the face of problems and independent of pressure from others to think as they do. Improvements the students suggested included more after-school sports programs, more physical education classes, more preparation for standardized testing, a class in world politics and computer classes. Faculty, parents and students were united in expressing a desire to improve the diversity of the student body, especially by increasing representation of minority groups such as African-Americans and Hispanic Americans.^[6]

• Standardized testing: USA and Germany

Despite their lessened exposure to standardized testing (especially in the elementary school years), U.S. Waldorf pupils' SAT scores have usually come above the national average, especially on verbal measures.^[24] Studies comparing students' performance on college-entrance examinations in Germany found that as a group, Waldorf graduates passed the exam at double to triple the rate of students graduating from the state education system,^[24][35] and that students who had attended Waldorf schools for their entire education passed at a much higher rate (40% vs. 26%) than those who only had part of their education at a Waldorf school.^[68] Educational successes of private Waldorf schools may partially reflect the social status of their students.^[35]

Proposed Interview Schedule

Realistically, this is gonna be about a week and half interview deal. Thinking about plane tickets, holiday travel, and current low gas prices it makes sense to drive. Especially since we'll be hauling gear.
I'll drive the Xterra and Leigh Anna will come with us.

Guys double check the dates, if we can line up the people we want I am sure missing critque will not be a problem.


Thurs. Dec. 11: Leave Atlanta

Friday, Dec. 12: Interview in DC

Sat. Dec. 13: Drive to PA (130 miles)

Mon. Dec. 14: Interview in PA; Drive to NYC (110 miles)

Tues. Dec. 15: Interview in NYC

Wed. Dec. 16: Interview in NYC

Thurs. Dec. 17: Drive to RI (150 miles) Do interview; drive to Boston (about an hour drive)

Friday, Dec. 18: Interview in Boston

**this probably goes without saying but we need to line up the interviews on the date we will be in town. And the sooner the better.

Another Interviewee

I was talking to Eric and he thought Bruce Mau would be a good choice. let me know what you think.