children, learning, information, technology

[Doreen Nelson]

YEAH John!!!!! They hate to hear the truth.... let's keep telling it.

Did I send you the news about the MA Program???? Finally, I am making
significant progress.  This December, only three people had enrolled and it
appeared as if the program might fold up as you know, the university does
little to promote it.  Using funds from the Center for City Building
Education, I won a big battle..

As of today, 52 people are enrolled to start a new cohort group this spring
April 4th to be exact..

Over a six-year period from 1995?2001 the average size of a group was 7-10.
You can imagine what the impact will be with another 50 disciples who each
have a new crop of students each year.

I never thought that I would see the day when I wouldn?t have to beg
teachers and institutions to go on with this work.  It is so slow and so
labor intensive.  Yet, as the numbers grow, the collected data showing huge
improvement in reading, mathematics, science and school attendance makes it
clear that we are in some small way saving children?s lives.

If you have a few moments look at my debut as a talk show host al la Charlie
Rose.  The streaming video can be found by going to video.csupomona.edu -
the link called EDUCATION that WORKS is right in the middle near the top of
the page. It's not so easy to watch on the computer, and you have to
download the video player ( they give you instructions)  but at least you
can get the flavor of the program.

I'm doing the second show next week and plan to do a bunch just to get
practice.... so would be glad to have any comments

Where are you with piece and when can we celebrate?

Doreen

> From: John Steinmetz <johns at cogent.net>
> Reply-To: squeakland at squeakland.org
> Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 11:37:57 -0800
> To: squeakland at squeakland.org
> Subject: children, learning, information, technology
> 
> About learning from websites, filtering information, and so on, I
> want to toss in Neil Postman's comment: our society's problems are
> not problems of lack of information.
> 
> In my opinion, among the many things often missing from children's
> education, access to information is far from the biggest problem.
> Some of my more pressing concerns: children need a chance to develop
> love for the natural world, to stretch their imaginations in various
> ways (including play), to contact the beauty in mathematics and other
> subjects, to get good at some activities that are difficult and
> worthwhile, to move their bodies, to make things (cookies, paintings,
> music, proofs, stories, plays) for themselves. Children need to drink
> deeply of beauty and goodness and fun in the world--including
> beautiful things that have been made by people who came before.
> 
> Maybe I haven't even mentioned the most important priorities, but I
> fear that overemphasis on developing practical skills and collecting
> facts will send to the future too many people who can manipulate
> information without being very well connected to life. We need to
> grow more citizens who are not numb.
> 
> And so with video games and movies, if we talk only about their
> content (are they too evil? scary? violent?), I think we miss the
> more important point that bombarding children with manufactured
> imagery and prefabricated experiences may inhibit their ability to
> imagine their own worlds and their own characters. Imagination isn't
> just important for so-called "creative" activities; even reading
> depends on it, because you must be able to form an inner experience
> of what you're reading. We're already hearing about children who can
> decode written words but can't understand what they read. And I hear
> from some teachers about children who arrive at preschool unable to
> play "lets pretend," and about their older siblings who reach college
> unable to form an image in response to hearing a piece of music.
> 
> Any strong medium can foster numbness or encourage aliveness,
> depending on how it is used. I think it helps to keep in mind a
> question like this one from Alan Kay: what kinds of people do we want
> to send to the future?
> 
> John
> 
>