2008 May 01 Archive at The Core Knowledge Blog

Archive for May 1st, 2008

You Can’t Handle the Truth

Published by Robert Pondiscio on May 1, 2008 in Core Knowledge and Teaching. 0 Comments

For the Google generation, what happens to the concepts of truth and knowledge in a user-generated world of information saturation?

This question posed in an excellent, thought-provoking article by Monica Hesse in the Washington Post (”Truth: Can You Handle It? Better Yet: Do You Know It When You See It?”) has profound implications for educators. It has become an irritating cliche that children do not need to cram their heads full of facts when they can merely Google their way through the sum of human knowledge. But repeat inaccurate information enough times, and it becomes universally accepted as fact. The paper cites an apocryphal quote from Abraham Lincoln, falsely attributed to the 16th President on over 11,000 web sites “including quote resources Brainy Quote and World of Quotes.”

Comedian Stephen Colbert coined the term “wikiality” to describe this phenomenon, meaning “a reality where, if enough people agree with a notion, it must be true.” Information specialists have another label for it: the death of information literacy.

The Post notes an interesting experiment by the Hoover Institution: When 100 terms from U.S. history books were entered into Google, the topics’ Wikipedia articles were the first hits 87 times. “If it’s wrong is the big If, the question that plagues librarians and teachers today,” notes the Post. “Of course, the information might be right–in one study, published in Nature, that reviewed scientific entries side-by-side, Wikipedia was found to be only slightly less reliable than Encyclopedia Britannica (four errors to Britannica’s every three). There’s at least a decent chance that the wisdom of the crowds is fine wisdom indeed.”

“Information is about tidbits, crumbs of data,” Hesse notes. “Information can be carried around on a Trivial Pursuit card. Information says, ‘It’s currently 95 degrees in Anchorage.’ Knowledge is different. Knowledge is about context — about knowing what to do with accumulated information. Knowledge is saying, “Dude, based on what I know of Alaska, it’s never 95 degrees in Anchorage.”

School for Bounty Hunters

Published by Robert Pondiscio on May 1, 2008 in School News. 2 Comments

A suburban Ohio school district has begun offering $100 for tips on children who aren’t supposed to be attending the schools because they live outside the district.

The crackdown was prompted by bus drivers in the Copley-Fairlawn district outside of Akron, who saw students getting off in front of vacant buildings or parents in cars dropping off students at the bus stop. Since September, 45 illegal students have left and six others stayed and paid the annual nonresident tuition of $7,614, according to the Associated Press. At least four $100 bounties have been paid out.

An Big Brotheresque notice on each of the district school’s websites doesn’t mention the $100 payment, but makes the point impossible to miss: “If you know of children attending the Copley-Fairlawn City Schools that are not living within our school district, please call the Board of Education Office at 330-664-4800 and report their names, addresses, and the information you have that would indicate that they do not live within our district. Information supplied will be kept confidential.”

Schools Forced to Act Against Bullying

Published by Robert Pondiscio on May 1, 2008 in Educational Policy. 0 Comments

School districts in Florida will have to adopt policies against bullying and harassment under a bill expected to be signed by the governor. The state Senate on Wednesday unanimously passed the measure, which was taken up after a Cape Coral boy committed suicide in 2005 after being bullied.

“The law would prohibit the bullying or harassment of any public school student or employee during regular school hours or at school-sponsored events and activities,” according to the Associated Press. “The bill also would prohibit bullying over schools’ computer systems. School districts would be required to report all instances of bullying or harassment to appropriate law enforcement agencies and to notify the parents of both the bully and the victim.”

A number of state legislatures have proposed laws requiring schools to have anti-bullying policies and programs, according to National School Safety and Security Services, an advocacy group. The mother of the Florida boy who died in 2005 says she has already spoken to U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) about federal legislation.

Y Teach?

Published by Robert Pondiscio on May 1, 2008 in Teaching. 0 Comments

Men accounted for less than one-fourth of all elementary school teachers in 2006–a forty-year low–according to statistics released recently by the National Education Association (NEA). The highest percentage of male teachers can be found in Kansas and Oregon, where about one-third of teachers boast a Y chromosome (hey, it’s the Core Knowledge blog), while fewer than one in five Mississippi and Arkansas teachers are men.

“We’re experiencing a significant male-teacher shortage,” Reg Weaver, president of the NEA tells Edutopia. “Teachers in elementary school typically don’t make as much money as teachers in high school do,” Weaver says. “More than 50 percent of male teachers are at the high school level.”

Edutopia sites research conducted by MenTeach, a nonprofit organization that promotes the recruitment of male teachers, suggesting that low status and as well as pay deter males from entering education. “If you started paying teachers $150,000 per year, you’d see a lot of guys going into the field,” admits Bryan Nelson, founder of MenTeach, stating the obvious. You’d see a lot more guys going into any field that paid $150K.

Amazing statistic cited by Edutopia: There are 150 participants in program called Call Me MISTER (Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models), which provides tuition assistance and leadership training to male African American students pursuing education degrees at South Carolina’s Clemson University. “When they start working, they will double the number of black men teaching in the state’s elementary schools,” the magazine notes.