I posted this article nearly a year ago on blogger spot. it received some attention and I think it is an important article. Here it is again. Rather long but very interesting especially when you have or teach gifted children.
Reprint of NYT Article February 2, 2010 Creative Commons license 2011
Op-Ed Contributor
By SUSAN ENGEL
New Marlborough, Mass.
THE Obama administration is planning some big changes to how we measure the success or failure of schools and how we apportion federal money based on those assessments. It’s great that the administration is trying to undertake reforms, but if we want to make sure all children learn, we will need to overhaul the curriculum itself. Our current educational approach — and the testing that is driving it — is completely at odds with what scientists understand about how children develop during the elementary school years and has led to a curriculum that is strangling children and teachers alike.
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By Lesli A. Maxwell
Premium article access courtesy of Edweek.org.
Thousands of California public schools face the prospect of slashing up to a week of instruction, canceling bus services, or laying off nonteaching staff in the middle of this school year because state revenues are expected to fall below what the governor and lawmakers counted on when they approved an $86 billion general fund budget last June.
The Legislative Analyst’s Office—the nonpartisan fiscal adviser to California’s state lawmakers—predictsRequires Adobe Acrobat Reader the state treasury will be down as much as $3.7 billion, which would automatically trigger up to $2 billion in midyear spending cuts in public programs that will fall hard on K-12 education. The analyst is also projecting a $13 billion shortfall in next year’s budget.
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A lovely story of random acts of kindness and art
Reprinted from NPR Creative Commons license
12:29 pm
November 30, 2011
by Robert Krulwich
He? She? It? Whoever it is, the Phantom Sculptor is suddenly back!
Book sculpture man standing outside
Enlarge Chris Scott/Flickr
As I recently reported, somebody has been dropping glorious little paper sculptures into libraries and museums all over Edinburgh, Scotland, and we’ve just heard (thank you, alert reader Paul Smith) that there are now three more.
And they will be the last.
I was looking back at past students works from 1999 – 2006, at Santa Fe Community College. I was a drawing, painting and art history adjunct instructor and helped co-found, write grants and was the project director of the summer series program, Make Your Mark, that offered Visual and Performing Arts program college credit to high school students. We received a yearly $15,000 grant from the NEA and NMArts program.
http://youtu.be/LQhSXcyDHLA
Under the banner of high-tech progress, corporate lobbyists have rammed through legislation privatizing K-12 education across the country.
in New Mexico http://www.nmlegis.gov/Sessions/11%20Regular/final/SB0427.pdf
Shel Silverstein
Years from Now
Although I cannot see your face
As you flip these poems awhile,
Somewhere from some far-off place
I hear you laughing —and I smile.
Shel Silverstein
The dedication of Shel’s new book of poems published by Harper-Collins grabbed me. The simplicity and elegance of his line drawings makes drawing look so simple putting a pen to paper or a stylus to a tablet. What I found creative about looking at the Harper-Collins webpage was that it also included classroom activities. Activity guide was created by Sue Ornstein, a first-grade teacher in the Byram Hills School District in Armonk, New York.
Jul 6, 2010 – 7 min – Uploaded by OregonStateUniv
Watch Portland artist Shelley Jordon at work in her studio. The OSU professor of art is becoming recognized for her moving …
High School Drawing Program
