The latest in education? Or "everything old is new again?"

I first started teaching in 1985. I started to go to school in 1965. I'm still going to school. In the past 40 years, I have seen many teachers with differing educational styles. Students have different learning styles, too. In my professional classes, I have often heard how important it is that teachers continue to learn, either by becoming more expert in their subject area or by staying attuned to the latest "best practices" in the field of education. Over the years, however, I have seen many fads come and go. It makes me a bit leery to hear of some new practice or way of teaching that is reported to be the best thing since sliced cheese.

Interestingly enough, several stories ran this week on the subject of education. I'm going to share with you the links and provide a little bit of introduction. You can feel free to react to any or all of them.

The first has more to do with culture, I suppose. It reports that "teenagers are getting younger." Here's an excerpt:

In some ways, it's simply part of a kid's natural journey toward independence. But child development experts say that physical and behavioral changes that would have been typical of teenagers decades ago are now common among "tweens" — kids ages 8 to 12.

Some of them are going on "dates" and talking on their own cell phones. They listen to sexually charged pop music, play mature-rated video games and spend time gossiping on MySpace. And more girls are wearing makeup and clothing that some consider beyond their years.

What do you observe? Do you have younger siblings who act in the way described in the article? Are parents simply unable to resist the pressure of the culture, and too busy trying to be buddies than to be parents?

Now, back to school. Blissfield reports a successful program called 'DRIVE' that has had a great success in motivating students to complete their homework and improve their grades. Read about the program here. What do you think? What are the special motivators? It sounds like "Do your homework or else you'll have noon hour detention and after school detention for the remainder of the year." I get a kick out of the statements describing how much the kids "love" the program. Well, maybe if the students won't do homework they should consider cancelling homework. Or would that be too much like the clowns running the circus (or inmates running the asylum)?

Everything old is new again...old concepts like "detention" and "homework" are making a comeback in Blissfield. And in La-la land, single sex classrooms are the rage. The thinking goes that boys and girls have different learning styles. Boys favor a competitive environment, but girls love to have partners and groups and work together cooperatively. Or, as one young lady put it in this article, "I like math now a lot more than I used to. Boys are a distraction because they goof around a lot and it's easier for me to concentrate when they're not there." Read the article and consider the case for and against single-sex classrooms.