The BBC has reported that Zhou Youguang, the man who brought literacy to millions in China after the communist victory in 1949, died on Saturday 14thJanuary, a day after celebrating his 111th birthday. After working as a Wall Street banker, Zhou decided, in 1949, to return to China to help with rebuilding the country. In… Continue reading Zhou Youguang, inventor of Pinyin
Readers of the blog will know that I keep my eye on the USA’s National Public Radio (npr) website for what people are talking about in the world of education. Last week, npr ran a piece on the work of Jim Stigler, a psychology prof at UCLA. As a graduate student back in the 70s,… Continue reading Eastern education: a site of struggle
I haven’t posted about anything from The USA’s National Public Radio (npr) for some time now but one of their latest pieces really caught my eye this morning. It’s titled ‘From Silicon Valley: A New Approach To Education’ and, although it’s not exactly new, it should scare the beejesus out of higher education sectors everywhere.… Continue reading The shape of things to come?
National Public Radio (npr) in the USA are currently running a piece on recommended ‘Freshmen common reads’. These are books many colleges and universities ask their new intake of students to read over the summer and be prepared to talk about in the first week of the first semester on campus. Npr have been asking… Continue reading Freshmen common reads
I noticed that npr (National Public Radio in the USA) devoted half an hour’s air time yesterday to the subject of the summer ‘recess’. Although they have a longer summer break than we have here, research in the USA indicates that ‘all kids, regardless of the income level of their family, experience over two months… Continue reading When school’s out for summer
Since yesterday’s posting, I’ve spotted an interview on npr (National Public Radio) with Ben Zimmer, who writes the ‘On Language’ column for The New York Times Magazine. He offers the following contributions to the American Dialect Society’s ‘Words of the year‘ nominations: ‘junk’, his particular favourite – you’ll see why if you look at his… Continue reading Word of the year II
My guess is that unless you keep abreast of US politics, you probably won’t have heard of Michelle Rhee. She was, until very recently, children’s chancellor to Adrian Fenty, mayor of Washington, DC, until he was defeated in the Democratic primary on September 14th.Over her three years in tenure Rhee turned education in Washington schools… Continue reading Goodbye to Michelle Rhee, children’s champion
I’ve just seen this rather fascinating video, originally posted on the irvingparentsforum. I picked it up on the kitchen table math blog, posted by the inimitable Catherine Johnson, and it’s certainly worth sharing.The context for the interest in this subject relates back to a story, reported by npr, that broke into the news earlier this… Continue reading Money, money money? Or autonomy, mastery and purpose?
As is so often the case, npr (USA’s national public radio station) has been reporting an item of major interest to everyone interested in how we should be teaching our children to read.They got the ball rolling by reporting that, after twenty-six years of broadcasting and over two dozen Emmys, the much loved TV programme… Continue reading No crock of gold at the end of Reading Rainbow.
