The Global Search for Education: How to Support Your Education System
Sep13

The Global Search for Education: How to Support Your Education System

 “70% of the variation in student achievement is accounted for by factors outside of the control of schools.” —  Charles Ungerleider  Professor Charles Ungerleider tells me he wrote his book, Failing Our Kids — How we are Ruining Our Public Schools (McClelland & Stewart, 2004), after he completed a term as Deputy Minister of Education for British Columbia.  For 40 years he had observed the Canadian...

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The Global Search for Education: The Technology Connection
Aug09

The Global Search for Education: The Technology Connection

 Will Apple’s iPad 2 change the way we watch a book or appreciate nature?  photo courtesy of Susan Leslie. “If you asked a parent they might call it intuitive. If you asked a musician they might call it inspiring. To a doctor it’s groundbreaking. To a CEO it’s powerful. To a teacher it’s the future. If you asked a child, she might call it magic.” …And if you asked the producers of the Apple...

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The Global Search for Education: A View from Norway
Jul12

The Global Search for Education: A View from Norway

 Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland  Why have I never been to Norway, I wonder as I view the breathtaking images of this amazing country on Google search. I email my close friend, Norwegian expert and talented architect, Maddy Vigeland, and ask her to share with me a Norwegian view for my new education post. “A few things come to mind,” Maddy emails back. “In addition to skiing, the fjords — miles and...

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The Global Search for Education: Australia on the Move
Jun14

The Global Search for Education: Australia on the Move

 Young Australians present to their classmates In Vicki Abeles’ movie, Race to Nowhere, we met U. S. kids who were so overscheduled they had no time to be kids. The film suggested we were preoccupied with testing and performance, undermining what our kids should be doing in the classroom, let alone in their down time. So what is happening down under? I’ve been to Australia six times for business and personal reasons (my...

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The Global Search for Education: How to Develop World Leaders
Jun07

The Global Search for Education: How to Develop World Leaders

 Dwight teacher Paul Sanders and student learn Mandarin in Beijing “I don’t speak a foreign language. It’s embarrassing,” said President Obama recently. It is embarrassing, Mr. President, but it does not surprise me. You did not grow up like I did. Five different overseas schools and numerous cultures before I was 12, and then an international boarding school. My parents (with six children) were following a pay...

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