Educators » Carol J. Carter

Gossip Girls and Boys Get Lessons in Empathy

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Spoiled behavior among young adults has long been a problem, but schools are tackling those problems first-hand by developing programs and classes to teach students empathy. LifeBound publishes a book and a program called People Smarts for Teenagers, which focuses on teaching students what Daniel Goleman terms “emotional intelligence.” Goleman argues that your EQ is more important than your IQ in college, career and life. People Smartsâ€”and EQâ€”is all about how you understand and manage yourself, relate to and work with others, and handle life disappointments and setbacks. These qualities go into someoneâ€™s personal gristâ€”and those are some of the greatest indicators of life success.

ARTICLE:

By WINNIE HU
Published: April 4, 2009

SCARSDALE, N.Y. â€” The privileged teenagers at Scarsdale Middle School are learning to be nicer this year, whether they like it or not.
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English classes discuss whether Friar Laurence was empathetic to Romeo and Juliet. Research projects involve interviews with octogenarians and a survey of local wheelchair ramps to help students identify with the elderly and the disabled. A new club invites students to share snacks and board games after school with four autistic classmates who are in separate classes during the day.

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Get Smart

CAROL’S SUMMARY: Is IQ hereditary or environmental? Is there any correlation between intelligence and creativity or genius? As the article below suggests, if IQ differences are indeed largely environmental, what might eliminate group disparities? IQ tests which traditionally measure â€œfluidâ€ intelligence(the ability to abstractly reason) and â€œcrystallizedâ€ intelligence (knowledge) donâ€™t always correlate to skills, abilities and outcomes. What role do habits of success like conscientiousness and perseverance play in raising intelligence and the ability to actually accomplish thingsâ€”in the words of Howard Gardner, â€œ to make things happenâ€? What programs can schools put in place to level the playing field and help all kids learn more and do more, regardless of their economic background?

As Title 1 programs strive to be more effective at helping at-risk populations, these questions are crucial to figure out the best programs to propel kids forward with the global skills needed to be successful in our interdependent world. Measurements which can provide hard data will be essential in evaluating progress and determining next steps.

ARTICLE:

By JIM HOLT
Published: March 27, 2009

Success in life depends on intelligence, which is measured by I.Q. tests. Intelligence is mostly a matter of heredity, as we know from studies of identical twins reared apart. Since I.Q. differences between individuals are mainly genetic, the same must be true for I.Q. differences between groups. So the I.Q. ranking of racial/ethnic groups â€” Ashkenazi Jews on top, followed by East Asians, whites in general, and then blacks â€” is fixed by nature, not culture. Social programs that seek to raise I.Q. are bound to be futile. Cognitive inequalities, being written in the genes, are here to stay, and so are the social inequalities that arise from them.

To view this entire article visit www.nytimes.com

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Proximity to Fast Food a Factor in Student Obesity

CAROL’S SUMMARY

The study below shows that fast-food restaurants nearÂ schools is linked to obesity among students. But the issue doesnâ€™t stop there. Many school cafeterias serve high sugar, high carb menus with a plethora of soft drinks available from vending machines for purchase throughout the day. Data suggests that students who have diets high in sugar and carbs with very little protein have a hard time focusing, staying awake and keeping their attention on the subject matter at hand.

The Steamboat Springs school district in Colorado just banned these types of foods and beverages from their schools. No doubt with the obesity link and the even greater risk of students with attention problems, more districts around the country will follow suit. Parents would do well to think of ways that students can reduce sugar dependence and experiment with meals that feature protein and vegetables, which can form lifelong patterns of health. The alternative is a large crop of emerging students who become adults that tap out our healthcare system because they didnâ€™t form healthy eating habits in their youth.

ARTICLE
New York Times
By RONI CARYN RABIN
Ninth graders whose schools are within a block of a fast-food outlet are more likely to be obese than students whose schools are a quarter of a mile or more away, according to a study of millions of schoolchildren by economists at the University of California and Columbia University.

To view the entire article visit
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/health/nutrition/26obese.html?emc=eta1

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Our Students Need More Practice in Actual Thinking

CAROL’S SUMMARY: To be ready for the challenges of the global world, students need to have highly developed critical and creative thinking skills, problem-solving and decision-making to name a few. The trouble is, the standardized testing pattern rarely promotes critical and creative thinking.

How can you as a parent promote critical and creative thinking skills at
home?
* Ask questions of your child. Question-asking is one of the most prized
skills and helps you as a parent to be a coach for your child as they grow
older and need more complex thinking skills at their disposal.
* Do creative and different things together as a family. Spend time asking your
kids what they would do in the world if they could do anything–get them to
think big. Whatever they share, ask them to come up with small steps that could move them closer to their big dream. As much as possible, spend time at home imagining, creating and sharing your vision.
* Ask what else. If your child suffers a disappointment or a setback, ask what other good can come from that door closing. What will this setback
do to provide a stepping stone to a new experience?

The more you demonstrate thoughtful, probing and interesting behaviors with
your child, the more they will see critical and creative thinking first-hand
from you.

ARTICLE:

By ROB JENKINS

During a recent meeting of a committee charged with reviewing my state’s higher-education core curriculum, a committee member asked, “Do students really need two math courses?”

In a word, yes.

Admittedly, as an undergraduate English major, I may have asked the same question myself a time or two. And certainly it’s true that, in the nearly three decades since I sweated through pre-calculus, I’ve never once had to factor an equation â€” nor, frankly, do I remember how. (Just ask my teenagers, who’ve occasionally been misguided enough to ask me for help with their algebra homework.)

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Researchers Propose 6 Ways to Keep Community-College Students Beyond the First Few Weeks

CAROL’S SUMMARY:
Community colleges lose almost half of their freshmen before their first year is over. Administrators are carefully observing, for the first time ever, what maze of experience a typical incoming students goes through in their first three weeks on campus. Many students don’t have the coping skills to negotiate finding the right people, getting the right signatures or even finding the right classroom on time. So, what can community colleges do to streamline the process, make the steps more simple and provide more direction in that first month of school?

Additionally, how can we better equip most community college students with the wherewithal to persevere beyond the things which daunt them, intimidate
or stymie them? Certainly, many things in life are frustrating and perplexing and hard to figure out. Those who use their minds and abilities to work through road blocks, can make their way safely to the other side, ready for even more complex challenges next time. So, how do students need to be challenged more in high school to develop college and life coping skills?

ARTICLE

By STEVEN BUSHONG
March 18, 2009
Chronicle of Higher Ed

Thanks to online video sharing, academics’ lecture missteps, intentional and otherwise, are sometimes preserved for posterity.

Some students at community colleges never make it into the enrollment statistics. They drop out before the first count is taken, usually a few weeks into the semester.

A report to be released today by the Center for Community College Student Engagement seeks to help officials understand the student experience in those critical first three weeks, and how they might engage those at-risk students and prevent them from becoming dropouts.

The report, “Imagine Success: Engaging Entering Students,” is based on data from the Survey of Entering Student Engagement, or Sense, conducted this fall. Its findings come at a time when community colleges are being called on to help achieve a national goal set by President Obama: to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020.

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Where Education and Assimilation Collide

Nearly two-thirds of English learners are second or third generation Americans born in the United States. Those numbers have seen a huge spike in the last twelve years. These students, called English Language Learners, make up the fastest growing group of students in the country. In the last few years, these students have been thousands strong in rural towns and suburban districts which are all equipped to deal with their needsâ€”states like Arkansas, Georgia and North Carolina.

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Helping Students Find a Sense of Purpose

Motivated by the increased coverage of student misbehavior, the school-reform movement is working to bring back moral education to the intellectual learning students do today. Bringing moral, or character education, back will help students see the purpose to their studies. Even lack of purpose has a deep impact on the character education of youths, showing just how important these are.

Questions to consider:

1. Do you know the importance of what is taught in each of your classes?
2. Does this or would this help you become more invested in your education?
3. What are the pros of character educationâ€”academic, emotional and social intelligence? What are the best ways to promote these issues in and out of class?
4. What are the potential costs short term and long term to avoiding the character education piece of learning?

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ARTICLE:

A Q&A With William Damon

By SUSANNAH TULLY
March 13, 2009

William Damon, a professor of education at Stanford University, has long advocated “character education” as a key component of school reform. The author of several books on the subject, his latest is The Path to Purpose: Helping Our Children Find Their Calling in Life (Free Press, 2008). The Chronicle Review asked him to discuss the role of schools in moral development and how they can encourage students to define their goals and aspirations.

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Great Depression a Timely Class Topic

CAROL’S SUMMARY: The current economic crisis has students more interested in history, because of parallels with topics like the Great Depression. There is an opportunity for students to reinvent themselves in much the same way the men and women did after World War II. The current generation of students has much to learn from the determination, spirit, perseverance and innovation the â€œGreatest Generationâ€ had to offer.

Questions to consider:
1. Do you find yourself more interested in topics of study that apply to you today?
2. How could teachers make more lessons applicable to the lives of their students?
3. How can students come up with their own solutions for some of our national and world problems?
4.What contributions can students make in the next few years that will equal the Works Progress Act, the vision behind the National Parks, and other programs hatched during the Great Depression?

ARTICLE:

By Mary Ann Zehr
March 9, 2009

Margo M. Loflin teaches sophomores in Oklahoma, a state that was once part of the Dust Bowl of the Great Depression era. But most school years, her high school students donâ€™t find the struggles of Oklahoma farmers to combat drought and financial hardship in the 1930s relevant to their lives. That’s not true this year.

“I’ve taught [the Great Depression] for a long time. Usually, kids are not interested at all. They were very interested this year,” she said recently.

Ms. Loflin, who teaches U.S. history at Norman High School in Norman, Okla., is among a number of history and social studies teachers who have found that because of the parallels they’re able to draw between the current economic crisis and the Depression, their students are seeing that history is relevant. Theyâ€™re engaging more deeply in history lessons than they have in previous years.

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