Washington to Washington

Why Facebook is the end of education

2010-12-09T14:53:00.000-08:00

I’ve spent the morning reading education articles in the New York Times. The front page of Tuesday’s print edition carried an article titled “In PISA Test, Top Scores from Shanghai Stun Experts”. Of the 32 industrialized countries or localities tested, the United States ranked 23rd in science, 17th in reading, and 31st in mathematics. In a world where science, reading, and mathematics abilities open doors, this is not a positive sign for the future of American students. I attended a town hall event Tuesday morning where the PISA results were released (yes, you’ll see me in the front row at 1:45) and was surprised to hear that American students predicted they’d score at the top of the pack. For our students, reality doesn’t match perception. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called the results a wake-up call and reiterated President Obama’s statement earlier this year that the country that out-educates us today will out-compete us tomorrow. The New York Times ran another education article yesterday, “Parents Embrace ‘Race to Nowhere,’ on Pressures of School”. A low-budget documentary has parents, students, teachers, and principals talking about the sleeplessness, hopelessness, and mindlessness many high-performing students experience as they juggle school and homework with sports, community service, college entrance exams, and family. Many students feel they’ve had their childhood stolen from them. Schools across America are showing the film in gymnasiums and auditoriums, and then talking about ways teachers and parents can change students’ experiences. In our low...

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Why I love the national parks

2010-10-15T18:37:00.000-07:00

When I arrived in Washington, DC, I knew I’d be living in a place unlike anywhere else in the country. I knew I’d be living at the seat of government. I knew I’d be living in the shadows of our nation’s forefathers. I knew I’d be living among monuments and museums. What I didn’t know is that I would be living among national parks. At home in Spokane, it’s a four-hour drive to West to Mount Rainier National Park, and a four-hour drive East to Glacier National Park. Here, I hop on my bicycle and ride a few miles to the George Washington Parkway, cross the Potomac River, and find myself in the National Mall, surrounded by presidential memorials and monuments to American veterans. Each is a national park. I walk throughout the city and find myself at Ford’s Theatre, the site of President Lincoln’s assassination. It’s a national park as well. I stand outside the White House, the symbol of American democracy, and recognize I’m standing before a park. I’ve loved the national parks as long as I can remember. The sulfur of Yellowstone National Park is the smell of adventure. The alpenglow of Grand Teton National Park is the portrait of natural beauty. The lava of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is the re-creation of Earth’s earliest days. The parks preserve the very best of America. And this year, I’m starting to see that the national parks idea is bigger than just wild places and open lands. The national parks are the story of us. I’ve explored many of America’s national parks, and I’ve never been disappointed. Just the opposite, really: each park I visit becomes my new...

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Why we need to get rid of science class

2010-09-21T18:51:00.000-07:00

This September has been unlike any other I’ve experienced. I’m living in a high-rise building. I’m wearing a suit to work. I’m traveling to a new city every weekend. And, for the first time in twenty-seven years, I’m not spending my days in a classroom. It’s a step nearly all Americans take. Except for the few who choose a career in teaching or academia, time in the classroom eventually comes to an end. For some, this moment comes early: students lose interest in education or find new responsibilities at home, and their schooling ends before graduation. For some, the moment comes much later: many doctoral students spend twenty or more years in classrooms before ending their formal schooling. But eventually, the days in a classroom end and a new stage of life begins. For me, that moment came this September. My situation is unique, as I plan to return to the classroom next fall, but for the first time in my life, I have an outsider’s perspective on the role of school in society. I look at our nation and think about the things that tie us together. History. Values. Culture. Should school be on that list? What role does school play in turning us into Americans? The enormous variety of educational systems across the country, and the wide discrepancies in achievement across those systems, makes finding an answer to that question nearly impossible. But we can start with a simple idea: most Americans under twenty have spent more time in a classroom than in any other place outside their home. Regardless of the quality of their school, regardless of graduation rates or AP...

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Why this is the year I become an American

2010-09-08T19:20:00.000-07:00

For a little over thirty years, I’ve been a Washingtonian. But I haven’t been an American. At least, not yet. There’s a difference. It took me a cross-country drive, a visit to Mount Vernon, and a meeting at the U.S. Capitol to see it. Driving through the rolling fields and prairies of the great plains, walking the path of George Washington along the Potomac River, and speaking with teachers from every corner of the nation, my experiences over the past several weeks have me thinking about my identity and what it means to be a citizen of this country. Until I left for the nation’s capital, I had always considered myself an American. Now, I’m not so sure. There’s overlap, of course: the values of the nation radiate across the states, and my upbringing and my experiences have been similar to those of millions of others throughout the country. But there’s more to being part of this nation than merely living within it. So who am I? A Washingtonian? An American? I’m not sure anymore. Here at the seat of our nation’s government, I’ve found myself thinking about my country in a way I never have before. It’s not just the marble buildings and the monuments and the museums. It’s something more. We call it the United States, but I’ve never understood the concept until now. Here in the capital, I’m starting to recognize how the nation fits together. And I’m starting to learn how I fit in to it all. On my journey East, I pass through Nebraska and Iowa. I’ve always imagined flat fields with endless rows of corn. That’s not what I find. Instead, small family homesteads with...

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Why school should be like Space Camp

2010-07-17T18:22:00.000-07:00

In mid-June, I had the opportunity to visit Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama as part of the Honeywell Educators at Space Academy scholarship program. I’d been excited about it for months, and like any wannabe astronaut, I had expected the shuttle simulator to be the highlight of my week. Complicated, challenging, exciting — my simulated rocket ride would be a true adventure. I had loved space exploration as a child, and my time in the simulator would almost certainly be the closest I would ever come to spaceflight. It had been a dream of mine for many years. Like many other American children, I had at one time been obsessed with NASA. Posters of astronauts and satellites had hung on my walls; books about spacecraft and rockets had laid scattered about my room. Space travel was the ultimate adventure. How surprised I was, then, to find that other people, rather than machines and rockets, could become the most memorable part of my week. My simulated shuttle time was wonderful — indeed, the experience far exceeded my expectations — but it wasn’t the best part of my time at Space Camp. My experiences with other teachers were the most meaningful and unforgettable parts of my adventure. I’ve met many educators during my years of teaching, and I’ve been a part of some teacher groups that have truly impressed me with their intelligence and passion. But never have I been part of a group as consistently impressive as my Space Camp peers. We only had a week together. I wish they were my coworkers. It was a delight to be around people who were so adventurous, so creative,...

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Why I'm moving to the other Washington

2010-05-22T11:21:00.000-07:00

In about two months, I'll be moving from one Washington to another. For the upcoming school year, I'll be working at the National Science Foundation headquarters in the nation's capital. I'll be part of the Office of International Science and Engineering, which focuses on partnerships between US and foreign scientists. Most of my job duties will focus on grant administration: organizing grant applications, coordinating review panels, writing recommendations, and monitoring awardees. Boring? I sure hope not. But even if it's not as high-energy as my normal days in the classroom, I'm looking forward to life on the East coast. Chesapeake Bay, Virginia Beach, Mystic Seaport, Colonial Williamsburg -- there's so much I've never seen. It's all part of my Einstein Fellowship, which I was awarded this spring by the United States Department of Energy. Along with about thirty other teachers from around the nation, I'll be spending a year working at a government agency in Washington, DC. Some of the other fellows will work on Capitol Hill, some will work at the Department of Energy, others will work at NASA. The Fellowship program was created by the United States Congress in 1994 in the Albert Einstein Distingushed Educator Act. This year's fellows will be the largest class ever. Originally, fellows worked only in the US Senate and House of Representatives, but over the years, other federal agencies have joined the program. The goal is that classroom teachers share their experience and expertise...

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