At Big Learning, we just got preliminary results on how well our program builds 21st century skills like persistence and independence. Over eight weeks, we followed our students who started out most weak in these skills. We measured how well they completed their design projects each week in our Toymaking class. Persistence, as measured by how well they completed the week’s project, improved by 43%, to an average of 4.5 out of 5 possible points. Their ability to work independently, as measured by the number of questions they asked the teacher, improved by 30%.

If we can accomplish that much in eight sessions, imagine what we could do in a whole school year!

I’ve been on hiatus for a bit, but I’m eager to start writing again. Check back in the next couple of days.

Didja hear about the professor who took a hammer to a student’s cell phone? The New York times says it’s Teacher v. Technology. College professors are complaining that all kids do in their class is socialize via computer and text message. And they’re sick of that “old excuse:”

“Naturally, there will be many students and no small number of high-tech and progressive-ed apologists ready to lay the blame on boring lessons. One of the great condemnations in education jargon these days, after all, is the ‘teacher-centered lesson.’

“I’m so tired of that excuse,” said Professor Bugeja, may he live a long and fruitful life. “The idea that subject matter is boring is truly relative. Boring as opposed to what? Buying shoes on eBay? The fact is, we’re not here to entertain. We’re here to stimulate the life of the mind.”

“Education requires contemplation,” he continued. “It requires critical thinking. What we may be doing now is training a generation of air-traffic controllers rather than scholars. And I do know I’m going to lose.”

Yah, I guess I’m one of those progressive educators. And I’m still thinking that there ought to be a really good reason for a long lecture, and it ought to be well done and well delivered. You’ll never find anyone who agrees more than I do that education requires “contemplation and critical thinking.” But do long, lifeless lectures stimulate those activities, or prevent them? What a lot of progressive practices do is FORCE contemplation and critical thinking, instead of allowing students to hide behind a notebook (computer).

The Times goes on to say that professors are fighting back by subscribing to monitoring and technology-zapping equipment. I think they’d do better to fight back by getting students out of their seats and doing something during class.

What we have here, if you’ll excuse the movie allusion, is a failure to communicate. Professors know why their lectures are intellectually interesting because they already understand the material and know why the ideas are important, even crucial. But students need an entry point - a bridge between what they already know and what the professor is trying to tell them. Without it, they can’t see the value and turn to texting. When students are more active in class, they’re engaged in building that bridge and it pays off - in student learning and teacher sanity.

I was almost (but I hope not quite) insufferable during our recent vacation, armed with library books about our destination’s natural history that I’d checked out in advance. Boy did they come in handy! So many of the interesting things we saw were explained in my precious books.

Plus, I discovered a really meaty nature guide that I think is worth owning, and an absolutely charming nature writer named Scott Weidensaul.

And so my love of the library was amplified even further. Free books for all - one of the best ideas ever to flow into the raging river of civilized society.

Despite what you’ve read about libraries being unnecessary in the internet age, libraries are in fact keeping up very well, and have become hot destinations for the 18-24 set. According to C. Nevius of the San Franscisco Chronicle.

Libraries have unexpectedly become cutting edge. It’s not just true here; it is a national trend. A survey released this year by the American Library Association found that “the number of visits to public libraries in the United States increased 61 percent between 1994 and 2004.”

And it isn’t just old fogies researching knitting. A 2007 poll found that 68 percent of those between 18 and 24 years old had visited a library in the past year, and 74 percent of those 35 to 44 had done the same.

Some of that popularity is due to media offerings - internet access, DVD collections, and the like. And some is due to pages borrowed from bookstore marketing manuals, with coffee bars, attractive displays and pop-culture tie-ins.

In the Mission Bay children’s section, for example, there is a flashy exhibit of the favorite books of the kids of two pitchers for the Giants, Jim Brower (who is now with the Yankees) and Kevin Correia.

“We’ve learned something from bookstores,” says Barnes. “This isn’t musty and it isn’t just (book) spines on shelves.”

If you haven’t visited your library in awhile, here are some sites to whet your appetite.

Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC)

New York Public Library kids’ site

American Library Association

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060808/OPINION03/608080353/1035/OPINION

This article asks, is the spending spree before school really necessary? It got me thinking about the whole back-to-school hoopla. I searched Google News today to see what everyone’s writing about “Back to School.” Here’s what I found out:

• Almost all the articles deal with either fashion or trendy school supplies
• Most of the remaining articles are about getting your kids to go to bed earlier
• There were also a few about talking to your kids about their fears and concerns.

So, in a nutshell, the advice isn’t very helpful to those of us thinking about learning. I guess I’ll have to make my own advice to myself:

1. Think about the unique opportunities for development that summer presents, and be better about taking advantage of them in the few remaining weeks. More free summer concerts, reading, playing outside, playing music together, and making things.

2. Squeeze in a few things, like typing practice, that will make school easier for kids.

3. As the day approaches, do something to encourage excitement and positive anticipation, like going out to lunch with a school buddy after meet-your-teacher day, and maybe a school-supply project. Here’s a lunch box project that’s the kind of thing I mean.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/20/AR2006062000650.html

http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/fall2001/faucet.html

http://summermatters.com/

http://www.nayre.org/

The Washington Post page has two articles - one on summer math and the other on year-round schooling. The year-round schooling one is provocative:

“The ideal of a slower-paced summer filled with extracurricular learning is appealing. But such learning requires a parent at home or a smorgasbord of day care and summer camps–and the good ones are not cheap. Summer vacation looks more and more like a playground for the well-to-do and a wasteland for those lower down the economic scale. ”

The second link is a study indicating that more-of-the-same summer school might not be the answer, though. It examines achievement differences between rich and poor kids, and finds that they actually accelerate in the summer. And summer school, as it’s currently conceived, historically (and surprisingly) widens the gap between rich and poor.

But I, who love summer vacation and am in a position to make it beneficial for my kids, still want schools that shrink achievement gaps and promote equality.

The third link is a site that advocates for continuing the practice of extended summer vacation. The fourth link is an organization advocating year-round schooling. Explore them and use the “comments” link below to voice your opinion: should we shorten summer vacation?