Trung Le

You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it. ? Albert Einstein

Assessment

The test scores are out again. And once again, American kids aren't doing so well.

"Education is the point at which we decide whether we love the world enough to assume responsibility for it? And education, too, is where we decide whether we love our children enough not to expel them from our world? nor to strike from their hands their chance of undertaking something unforeseen by us, but to prepare them in advance for the task of renewing a common world." --Hannah Arendt

If you want to know where Professor Stephen Heppell is, don't call his house or email his assistant -- check his Facebook page. Stephen has been known to fly around the world in ridiculously short amounts of time, stopping off at multiple locations to demonstrate how children of the third millennium are learning differently. His emphasis: Rethinking the impact of digital media on pedagogy.

“I just feel it's inevitable that there will have to be change. The only question is whether we're going to do it starting now, or whether we're going to wait for catastrophe.” --Alvin TofflerWe live in a global economy, unquestionably. The common metaphor, pioneered by Thomas Friedman is that “the world is flat.” Technology and a less expensive knowledge-based workforce in countries like India, Brazil and Vietnam have leveled the economic gap between the developing world and western countries. An alternate view, held by urban theorist Richard Florida, seems more compelling to me.

"I am entirely certain that twenty years from now we will look back at education as it is practiced in most schools today and wonder how we could have tolerated anything so primitive."-John W. Gardner, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, "No Easy Victories" (1968)

Education reform is in the air and taking root in thousands of classrooms across the country. From overhauling No Child Left Behind to closing poorly performing schools and raising student expectations, the push for change is powerful.