BlogHer - education - Comments

Green, important issues

melaniej99 — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 02:51:50 -0500

Green, is an important issue, since the world facing global heat and others critical environment problem :)

You are right

cutiebootycakes — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:39:45 -0500

You and I are in the same age group and while education was important we were not pushed the way kids are today. As a matter of fact my mother chose not to have me skip a grade but in hindsight she would have made a different decision because I was self taught that entire year. I think some parents end up setting unrealistic expectations for their children and set them up for failure and disappontment.Cutie Booty Cakes

little geniuses

calm mama — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:06:14 -0500

My son has been speaking since 10 months and now, at 16 months, has impressive articulation skills which he uses to say hundreds of words.

He only speaks one language though, unless sign language counts? I only speak one language myself, so it's going to take work for me to expose him to others. Honestly, I'm a little afraid to have him start learning languages that I cannot speak, even though it might be good for him.

I'm committed to keeping him away from TV until he's three, so the videos aren't an option.

I've also wondered if he needs a preschool to help foster and develop his seeming language acuity. I've wondered if my reading to him has had much to do with his growth. Or is it that he likes us to read because he's naturally verbal? I don't think any parent should worry that their kid isn't talking because they weren't read to *enough*.

I consider myself extremely lucky that my child can express himself, let me know what he needs, etc. It's super fun to have an early talker. But do I want to or need to do something more for him than read to him, be present and receptive to his talking?

I plan to check out some local preschools that accept kids starting at age 2 -- and see how he responds. If he likes it and seems to be enjoying himself, then great. I myself loved school, so maybe he will too?

http://thecalmbeforethestork.com

http://twitter.com/afterthestork

Education Has Become More About the Parents Than The Kids...

kdc521 — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:55:26 -0500

in my opinion anyway. Perhaps my opinion is formed because I live in NYC (where there's even a recently released documentary "NURSERY UNIVERSITY" about the madness).

Maybe old age (I'm 35!) has caused me to forget, but I don't remember parents being so obsessed about education when I was growing up. My parents definitely didn't pressure me and I read early/was in Talented & Gifted classes/went to a great Ivy League University/etc. I simply think that every kid has their own "thing" and parents need to nurture that.

(Not every kid is going to be "school smart", but that's alright. Many super-successful people weren't!)

-Kimberly/Mom in the City

That is great!

cutiebootycakes — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 11:16:43 -0500

Erica, your child is so lucky to have a parent that is multilingual. I know that studies show that this is indeed the right time in a child's development to introduce language and I think if it is done organically that is a wonderful thing.
Cutie Booty Cakes

Multiple Languages

parenthoodforme — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 10:40:06 -0500

I am tri-lingual and am teaching my 2 year old Italian. It is fun seeing him learn different words for the same things. I know it is so important for children to learn more than one language. I wish our schools required this.

Erica Schlaefer

President

Parenthood for Me, Inc.

www.parenthoodforme.org

http://parenthoodforme.blogspot.com

Thanks for the encouragement!

fionacrosbie — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:59:33 -0500

Hello Gena,

You can't imagine how excited I was to find your posting. This is a red letter day for me, the first comment on my first post in my first blog! Thank you for your kind comments and I'm delighted that you liked the website. If you think the 'front end' is cool, you wouldn't believe the teaching area that sits behind it. It's our baby and we're really, really proud of it.

We had some great news today. Our partners, the University of Hertfordshire (just outside London in the UK), who validate our Degree courses, have given us the go ahead to develop the final year of our Design Degrees for online delivery. This means that people can study for a UK Design Degree from anywhere in the world. We've also been approved to develop a Digital Media Degree, which was the subject next on our list. This means a lot of hard work to come, but we're used to that and we are extremely excited about it. Keep checking the website from time to time and you will see what's happening.

PS. Thanks for the tips about bugaboos (that's a new word for me) Also, seeing your lovely picture has encouraged me to upload mine, so fingers crossed, here goes....

More Education In All Forms Please

Gena Haskett — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 06:38:27 -0500

I think it is great that your company is providing online educational access to creative topics like design. I went to your site and it looks very cool.

Keep posting and be on the look out for the bugaboos. Yank them out when you can before you hit send. I speak from way too much experience.

Gena - Out On The Stoop

Blogging and spelling....

fionacrosbie — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 04:45:27 -0500

I've just re-read my posting of late last night and identified a number of spelling errors. Affer instead of after can be put down to a typo, but it's particularly embarrassing that I can't spell embarassing.

Outstanding notes

Jesse the K — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:34:43 -0500

... as per usual.

FYI: Dave Hinsburger in Toronto, has published scores of sex ed pamphlets for disabled people and their staffs. His writing and work model sex-positive respect for individual rights.

He posts daily over at Chewing the Fat

His funny and thought-provoking pamphlets are available from Diverse City Press

thanks for the great review

cory — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:04:17 -0500

Hi Liz,

Thanks so much for typing so furiously during the panel and then putting this up. It was so great to have all three of you presenting, you all offered different perspectives but I think all forced the audience to begin constructing disability and sexuality in different ways (well, almost everyone, I'm not sure the guy in the hat got it).

As for the folks approaching you afterward, that's exactly what we were talking about. I do think it takes a lot of re-education. I've sat on volunteer committees where we have had to patiently explain over and over that the organization needs to set aside some money to pay people for their time. That by and large, folks living with disabilities are un- and underemployed. And these are organizations serving people with disabilities! Eventually some clue in. The more people who not only ask for it, but explain why it's so f-d up that they have to ask, the more we can slowly change that expectation.

I really appreciated your contrasting SXSW with Sex:Tech. I moderated a panel at SXSW as well, and the organizers did specifically ask people to consider "diversity" but without more institutional support I'm not sure they'll ever change. And honestly the hipster ethos of SXSW is generally disability-phobic in my experience. That's not the organizers fault. As I mentioned at the panel, Sex:Tech fell short last year around but they incredibly supportive of the panel.

Oh, and it's nice to know your suspicions about me have dissipated. I'm nothing if not proudly innocuous.

Cory

As usual, you opened my eyes AND made me laugh

artpax — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:16:39 -0500

Good job Liz! I love your writing style, you pack in so much information, expect a high level of reader participation and intellectual agility, and you don't lecture the reader for not already knowing about the subject. Of course I had to read your post as it deals with one of my favorite topics... sex! Muwahha!! Anyway, thanks for sharing and I will pass this on to a client at work who organizes Planned Parenthood gatherings and fundraisers. Maybe Strumpets and Crumpets, and Pro-Choice Pasta can be followed by "Pimp da gimp" or maybe not.

Peace.

Nancy

Who is working on consolidating 15 years of blog entries on at least 15 blogs into one megablob of a blog that is not yet ready for prime or public time....

I'm a community college counselor/professor

lauriewrites — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 22:30:27 -0500

And I'll say off the top that you know way more than I do about this topic, Leslie, so this is just a reflection from my little corner of the education world.

Much of what I do is rooted in career counseling. I tell my students that they MUST think entrepreneurially now. They have no choice. Zero. it's a different hiring and working world and the only way they're going to be well-prepared for it is to be flexible and think of themselves and their talents before loyalty to an organization. (NOT that they should be jerks at work - be respectful and good workers but always know the sands are shifting.)

ALL of our students are so different but the one thing they have in common is that they all need to or want to be employed in some way (this is how I keep myself from going insane while trying to serve an incredibly diverse student body, anyway.) I think we do a pretty cool job in our career and transfer programs in focusing on the ways we can help them do that - obviously better in some of our programs than others. As an institution, however, or as individual teachers? It's all over the map. I think it's still our responsibility to stay pretty much in the public domain, given our funding and our mission, but I do think it's our responsibility as well to help them CONNECT with entrepreneurial resources.

And for my students, sometimes just giving them an idea or showing them how to access a resource is enough, even if it's not monetary reward that results. For instance, I worked blogs into my last career development course. I am INSANE about forcing them online and helping them learn how to communicate in this environment. Society makes assumptions about access to and awareness of digital resources that many of my students don't have access to or if they do they don't understand the value of them or how to use them appropriately. Just getting them on Blogger was like pulling teeth for some. Others really took to it and I could tell were jazzed - just like I was once upon a time - by the immediate, relatively easy-access route to self-publishing. We were contacted by Roadtrip Nation through the wonders of SEO and they came to our campus as a result. That was a learning opportunity I couldn't have planned.

So I guess where I'm coming from and where I work every day, it's still teaching the basic concepts, no matter what organizations, entrepreneurial or otherwise, are involved. Because as i repeat, without fail, multiple times every semester to students who are crushed because they can't get into our most competitive business bachelor's program and have to choose another major: you don't have to have a business degree to open a lemonade stand. You just have to know how to run it, and those skills can come from lots of different places.

Laurie

LaurieWrites

engineering philosophy

edtechdev — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 12:10:16 -0500

I think taking more of an 'engineering' point of view may change/reform/improve education.

And all teachers are tweak or design or fiddle to some extent in the same way that engineers do.

And open education and other efforts I think will enhance this, perhaps allow educators to become even more like engineers, and less like consumers of curricula and so forth (although being a smart consumer is always important and useful too).

So perhaps another way to put it is that the engineers will fix education, be they entrepreneurs, educators or other folks.

entrepreneurship

mashadutoit — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 06:48:48 -0500

Scary stuff, some of it. I agree with your points on the value of teaching entrepeneurship, especially as you seem to be suggesting, with a good dollop of ethical perspective.

This post made me think of a dillema we have here in South Africa.

As you may be aware, we have enormous challenges with providing even the most basic equipment to schools in our poor comunities. Many schools dont even have classrooms and happen wherever the class gathers. No books, desks, nothing.

Someone came up with the idea of a "lapdesk" which is a curved piece of board which a child can hold on their lap and write on. It is easy to carry around and store. Its sounds great till you get to this bit:

Each Lapdesk is printed with a design and message that is meaningful to
the Lapdesk sponsor - thus fashioning the portable desk into a media
platform that effectively delivers information on social issues and
corporate branding to hard-to-reach emerging market communities.

The quote is from here http://www.lapdesk.co.za/main.html

Which all sounds all very nice and shiny - but it simply makes my hair stand on end.

Who gets to decide what is an apropriate message to reach "the emerging market communities" which in this case are small and very poor children?

Would it be OK if skin whitening creams sponsored these desks? Or junkfood companies? Or even if it is something merely dubious like Kellogs - this feels like seriously shaky territory. The company presumably gets some kind of tax break for contributing to the community. You know, "corporate social investment". But this corporate social investment is purely - advertising.