Category — New York City
nyt: chinese and american learning of math and science or… how how policy documents legitimize regimes
http://www.prattsenate.org/nytimes_07_02_06.htm
http://www.internationaled.org/mathsciencereport.htm
http://www.pekingduck.org/archives/003837.php
to the NYT articles and letters above…. I respond thusly:
I tend to agree more with the Letters, than with the nyt article and even less so with the report.
I think we have to be very careful about accounting for the cultural institutionalization of learning in China and the U.S. We need to be much more careful than the 29 page report. The report does not do that very well at all, it basically assumes a ‘most similar systems’ model of society and culture to make its comparison. This model is not justified in my mind. The U.S. and China are involved in fundamentally different projects in their educational systems though they have similar goals. Time on task type training, which is ‘efficient’ in China, might not be ‘efficient’ in the U.S. where we likely focus on a different sense of freedom, creativity and progress in learning.
I think it would be far more productive, policy-wise, to actually address the issues within the u.s. in regards to graduation and retention rates. Achievement measurement is grossly affected when there are an overwhelming percentage of people who are being ‘left behind’ or ‘unaddressed’ by the school systems in the u.s. In fact, i think we can probably fairly easily show that the single norm distribution basis for ’science and math education measurements’ is actually multi-modal and the arguments based on the covering norm are actually hiding very serious social and educational issues. If the needs of the people represented in the lower achieving modes of the population were addressed and they were taught and graduated, I think you would see the measured norm of science and math education change dramatically in the u.s.
What then is the real politics and policy behind the report? It seeks to legitimize national standards and national testing, taking away a power that has been relegated to local democracies and replacing it with national bureaucracies. It seeks to remove teacher control of the curriculum. It seems better teaching of teachers (ok, i agree with this one, give us educated and inspired teachers). It seeks to replace the open system of education and admissions with examination based access to education, (given what we know about cultural biases in the sat and act … ), etc. etc. In short, I think what we have is just a document that seeks to expand the currently promoted educational regime, which in the last 7 years or so has demonstrated significant problems addressing the needs of all students in the U.S.
July 7, 2006 No Comments
New York Daily News – City News – He’s clinging to his clunker
New York Daily News – City News – He’s clinging to his clunker:
The Inwood resident has let his 1982 Honda Civic, bought brand new, sink into such an extreme state of rot that it has become a legend in the neighborhood where the Arkansas native has lived for 20 years.
“People actually recognize me in other sections of town because of the car,” he says. “The reactions range from laughter to anger to kindred spirits giving me the thumbs up, and everything in between.”
The car continues to run perfectly well despite 170,000 miles on its odometer, and taking as much punishment as New York can dish out.
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this seems to be the ideal state of affairs…. drive it until it is dead.
June 26, 2006 No Comments
Map of the Day: Best of NYC Maps
Map of the Day: Best of NYC Maps:
The NYPost has a feature about maps mashups, and they even give a shoutout to our Gothamist Map Mashup (look for a re-release next month!) We’ve been tracking NYC mashups for months– and currently have dozens in our maps archive. Here are our top ten mashup picks:
Ghostbusters map, Bike routes map, Murder map, Flood map, Beer map, Gawker Stalker map, NYC Streetart Map, Atomic Bomb map, Garbage map
And of course, the NYonTap bar/subway map, which still deserves the “best NYC mashup” award.
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some of these could be very handy…
June 15, 2006 No Comments
The Morning News – The All Girls School, by Mara Bodis-Wollner
The Morning News – The All Girls School, by Mara Bodis-Wollner:
In Bodis-Wollner’s artist’s statement for her “All Girls School” exhibit (up now at the Jen Bekman gallery), she writes:These photographs stem from my preoccupation with the experience of disappointment amidst celebration. In this series, I focus on issues of trust, intimacy and betrayal in the friendships of women and girls; specifically how deception, unspoken exclusions, and discomfort are manifested in women’s body language and gestures.
I create the critical moment of a semi-unconscious inhibition and I look for where and how the tension just below the surface rests. Sometimes the perfect moment occurs when the gaze has landed onto a place of unselfconscious mistrust and introversion. I explore how gesture and gaze function to create an outsider, and the ways in which these visual clues shift ostracism from one subject to another both inside and outside the photograph.Precisely. But what drew us to her pictures was the storytelling. Each shot has a dozen narratives that pop off the surface if you trace the subjects’ eyes. Admiration, frustration, loneliness, jealousy—it’s your 10-year high school reunion and big family dinner all rolled into a single uncomfortable moment.
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if you’ve been on the other side of these looks, you know the feeling….
May 21, 2006 No Comments