Fascinating study about the probabilistic operation of our unconscious.Pouget's extensive earlier work . . . suggested the human brain is wired naturally to perform [statistical] calculations. . . ."We've been developing and strengthening this hypothesis for years—how the brain represents probability distributions," says Pouget. "We knew the results of this kind of test fit perfectly with our ideas, but we had to devise a way to see the neurons in action. We wanted to see if, in fact, humans are really good decision makers after all, just not quite so good at doing it consciously. . . . It's weird,...
Educating Goldfish: Multiple Lines of Intelligence Evolution
From Scientific American:As is the case with many traits—complex brains and sophisticated cognition have arisen multiple times in independent lineages of animals during the earth’s evolutionary histo...
Gándara and Contreras: Rescuing the American Dream
I just finished the new book, The Latino Education Crisis: The Consequences of Failed Social Policies, by Patricia Gándara and Frances Contreras (HUP, out in January). Written in an accessible style but with copious footnotes and references for those so inclined, the book documents where we are now, and where we might go, in our education, and care of, the Latino population. Fast-growing and largely neglected, this population's characteristics are documented in the book with charts, tables, statistics, and heart-wrenching stories about dreams deferred and aborted. I was particularly struck by...
Revisiting the Moynihan Report
The Moynihan Report Revisited: Lessons and Reflections after Four DecadesSummaryDouglas S. Massey and Robert J. Sampson Moynihan Redux: Legacies and Lessons The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 2009 621: 6-27. [PDF] [References] [Request Permission] James Q. Wilson Pat Moynihan Thinks about Families The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 2009 621: 28-33. [PDF] [References] [Request Permission]...
Academic Freedom "at Risk?"
An article in today’s Inside Higher Education, “Speech Restriction Draw Fire,” details a plan at Northeastern Illinois University to require protesters to submit copies of fliers and signs to administrators two weeks before they can be displayed on campus (http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/12/23/speech). Back in September we learned that the University of Illinois has sent an email to all employees (including faculty) that forbade displaying bumper stickers or political buttons on campus unless they were non-partisan (http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/09/24/buttons). A few weeks later...
Caring and Power
The holidays sometimes intensify my wonder about how little the privileged care about those with less. I don't exempt myself, feeling somewhat poor this season when I am also incredibly privileged.New research seems to indicate that people who have a sense of personal power have less compassion for those below them. As I've argued earlier, it is precisely this sense of personal, individual, power that is a key component of middle-class culture.The fact that many cultures emphasize the concept of “noblesse oblige” (the idea that with great power and prestige come responsibilities) suggests that...
What Arne Duncan means for educational policy--the view from Chicago
President-elect Obama's choice of Arne (pronounced "arnie") Duncan for education secretary startled me a bit, because I expected Obama to name either an accomplished academic to the post (like Linda Darling-Hammond), or someone with broader experience in the trenches of education, that is, involving more than being a capital-fund-supported educational "reformer" or CEO of the Chicago Public Schools. Duncan has never taught in a K-12 school--other than tutoring...attended the U of C Lab Schools and Harvard (and so has no experience being a student in a...
Our Kids are Scared
Some powerful posts on DailyKos yesterday about the impact of the economy on middle-class kids. The first: "Mrs. K, I have nothing to barter." "Mrs. K, I don't have lunch money"For my 8th graders, some of my kids didn't get an 80% (mastery) on the Forms of Government test. As per my usual routine, I gave up my lunch and offered a LUNCH BUNCH study time and test re-take opportunity. One student arrived early sans lunch. I was busy gathering up lab equipment off tables from my 7th grade science class, so I wasn't looking at my early student as I said, "Hey, go on and get your lunch. You can...
I blog because I teach
This was originally posted at Daily Kos. While strictly speaking it does not address policy, it explains in part my involvement with educational policy, and hence seems relevant here as well. I was sitting in a Starbucks in Arlington, Virginia. Across the table from me was Tom Vilsack, the Governor of Iowa and a man who was considering running for President of the United States. What was he doing taking time out of his schedule to talk to me, a guy who taught high school in Maryland? Why was he listening to what I had to say, and asking followup questions?It was because I blog. Tom Vilsack’s...
If It's Good Enough For You, Is It Good Enough For Me?
When President-Elect Obama announced he was sending his children to Sidewll, the media carried the story for its requisite two-days, then promptly moved on to more pressing economic matters.As a former teacher, a university professor who teaches teachers, a vocal critic of standardized schooling, and a future parent (June 26th-ish), I paid more attention to this story than most.I had a number of questions.What type of schooling does the president and his wife want for his children? Is that type of schooling good for all children? Would it be good for mine?When I visited Sidwell’s website, and...
How should K-12 education resources be distributed in a democracy?
We thought our readers might want to see this Forum over at Stanford University:Thinking Twice is a newspaper column that appears monthly in the Stanford Report. Each month Stanford scholars take a multi-disciplinary look at the same issue from their uniquely informed points of view. FORUM QUESTION: How should K-12 education resources be distributed in a democracy?Equality and Educational Policy, by Debra SatzAmerican schools are funded by a complex formula of national, state and local dollars and there are significant differences in the funding of the K-12 schools that students attend. If some...
Memory Recorded on DNA? The Ground Level of Learning
Interestingly enough, it may be that memory is stabilized by alterations in the DNA of particular neurons. This article argues that the DNA in neurons involved in a particular memory are altered through a process of "methylation," which basically means that a tiny CH2 molecule is "snapped" on to nucleotides of particular genes to get the neuron to "remember." (Sorry, I was a bio chem major undergrad for a long tim...
Florence Nightingale, Statistics, and Reform
I thought this article was fascinating, about how some of our key approaches to representing statistics were created by Florence Nightingale as part of her social reform effort.As impressive as her statistics were, Nightingale worried that Queen Victoria’s eyes would glaze over as she scanned the tables. So Nightingale devised clever ways of presenting the information in charts. Statistics had been presented using graphics only a few times previously, and perhaps never to persuade people of the need for social change. In doing so, she ignored the express advice of her mentor, Farr. “You complain...
The Next Nation At Risk Report
also posted at Daily KosThe original A Nation At Risk came out in 1983. It began: Our Nation is at risk. Our once unchallenged preeminence in commerce, industry, science, and technological innovation is being overtaken by competitors throughout the world. . .(snip) . . the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people. What was unimaginable a generation ago has begun to occur--others are matching and surpassing our educational attainments. The scary language continued. Note just the very...
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