Reading List on the Net {06.05.15}

For some reason it really makes me smile when the links put here are from different sources. I read a lot about Charlotte Mason and education, and sometimes I link to the same website. In those cases, it's almost like I should just say, "Go read the whole site!"

Reading to young children messes with their head, er, I mean shows positive activity in their brain. This is just one of those things that make one shake their head. We know that reading to children is a good activity. I've seen links to the opposing posts, but honestly haven't actually read any, that suggest parents not read to their kids so that it will level the playing field. Hogwash. Read to your children. Don't shortchange them.

“We are excited to show, for the first time, that reading exposure during the critical stage of development prior to kindergarten seems to have a meaningful, measurable impact on how a child’s brain processes stories and may help predict reading success,” said study author John Hutton, M.D., National Research Service Award Fellow, Division of General and Community Pediatrics, Reading and Literacy Discovery Center, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. “Of particular importance are brain areas supporting mental imagery, helping the child ‘see the story’ beyond the pictures, affirming the invaluable role of imagination.”

This isn't education- it's testing, testing, testing. Really the title says it all but the post has quite a few snarky lines, and other good points beside, to drive home this point. Yes, this is a post in a UK but it is fairly relevant here in the US where testing is becoming The Way to Get Ahead for students {and if students do well, then it's the way for teachers, too}.

A secondary pupil in year 9 can expect to be doing a sit-down test at the rate of one a week for a whole year.

The SAT is no longer what it once was. Speaking of tests...As I've never taken the SAT I don't know how the new versus the old. But according to Wilt in the article, it is now being used as an achievement test, when it was created as an aptitude test. I've always found it to be a little silly.

Right now, students spend more than $860 million on SAT test preparation. 

There is a partnership now in place with the College Board and Khan Academy to give free test prep.

Secret school created by Tesla Motors CEO. Elon Musk, who I did not know was affiliated with Tesla -which has a showroom just down the road from my home-, PayPal, and other ventures, started his own school because he didn't like his kids' school. Apparently he didn't like his own early school either, where he was bullied; not lightly, but beaten to the point of needing hospital care.
But apparently what makes his created school newsworthy is that it is somewhat secret, as in it doesn't advertise and is right now primarily for kids of SpaceX employees, and there are no grade levels.

Musk is "making all the children go through the same grade at the same time, like an assembly line,"

"It's important to teach problem solving, or teach to the problem and not the tools," Musk says.

Possibility, Not Heredity- Children are born with potential to be either good or bad {sometimes both!}. It isn't an issue of genes necessarily. In Charlotte Mason's day, and even today, the thought was that it was part of your heredity. If you had a wayward relative, you could be destined to be the same. And who could blame you; it's your genes. We can change who we are. We can be guided and influenced.

In her [Charlotte Mason] culture, if someone had fainted, told a lie, or gotten drunk, there was probably a grandparent somewhere to blame.

What Does Good Think of You?- Today Silvia sent this link to me as I am thinking about and preparing for a {in-real-life} book discussion group. This by far the most important link in this post. It is at least the one that made me think the most.

...the student is usually being robbed of the ability to think through the text deeply, carefully. The student is hustled along to the conclusion of the matter without being shown what they need to look at, what they need to think about.

The teacher who understands the insignificance of his own thoughts is best suited to lead his students into genuine wonder; if the lit-teaching Mr. Smith doesn’t recognize his own opinion is less important than the opinion of Mr. Rousseau or Mr. Burke, he is probably not an interesting enough person to listen to anyway.  

The world may be digital, but paper notebooks are still relevant- How long will the 'debate' go on over which is better; or even if paper will someday be obsolete? Paper is awesomely wonderful. Digital is great and practical, and very useful. Paper is awesomely wonderful.

"The stuff that really matters goes onto the paper..."

 ...for so-called digital natives, iPhones and other high-tech gadgets are commonplace. Paper is the curiosity.