I came across this great (month old) article on NYtimes today. I thought it a tremendously useful and courageous contribution by these schools to teach the importance of character and to attempt to instill it. It may be even more important than academic grades. It may make all the difference especially in families where there aren't resources or a long background of education. The Gates foundation would do well to serve such efforts.
From one of the comments :
Einstein himself said that had he been a junior professor rather than a clerk in the Swiss patent office, he might not have developed his thinking as he did. Being a junior professor would have obligated him to publish, as a clerk he earned a living and physics was his hobby. A faculty position, he said, would have made it hard to avoid "superficial analysis" - i.e. produce results to ensure promotion.
How can you create a learning environment that allows curiosity to predominate? Can it be done? John Holt addressed these issues in his classic "How Children Fail". It seems his ideas were never heeded and now we have Seligman with his Positive Psychology industry focusing on individual character traits while ignoring the social context in which the schools exist.
What if the Secret to Success Is Failure?
Einstein himself said that had he been a junior professor rather than a clerk in the Swiss patent office, he might not have developed his thinking as he did. Being a junior professor would have obligated him to publish, as a clerk he earned a living and physics was his hobby. A faculty position, he said, would have made it hard to avoid "superficial analysis" - i.e. produce results to ensure promotion.
How can you create a learning environment that allows curiosity to predominate? Can it be done? John Holt addressed these issues in his classic "How Children Fail". It seems his ideas were never heeded and now we have Seligman with his Positive Psychology industry focusing on individual character traits while ignoring the social context in which the schools exist.
