Good Learning
The world is filled with great ideas for helping people learn or for people who have created conditions for learning on their own. As best I can, I am providing some examples of fantastic approaches to learning here.
Hack Learning
http://hacklearning.org/
Suli Breaks: Why I Hate School but Love Education
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_ZmM7zPLyI
Causal Fallacy in Teaching and Learning
http://www.newfoundations.com/TeLeHTML/ACausalFallacy.html
Would You Send Your Kids To a School Where Students Make the Rules? - About the Sudbury Valley Schools
Mark Oppenheimer
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116015/sudbury-valley-school-alternative-education-right-my-kids
Hack Learning
http://hacklearning.org/
Suli Breaks: Why I Hate School but Love Education
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_ZmM7zPLyI
Causal Fallacy in Teaching and Learning
http://www.newfoundations.com/TeLeHTML/ACausalFallacy.html
Would You Send Your Kids To a School Where Students Make the Rules? - About the Sudbury Valley Schools
Mark Oppenheimer
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/116015/sudbury-valley-school-alternative-education-right-my-kids
Related Works
Discover related works by others, with occasional reviews.
Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life, 2014
William Deresiewicz
https://www.amazon.com/Excellent-Sheep-Miseducation-American-Meaningful/dp/1476702721
In this personal diatribe/plea/jeremiad/love letter, Deresiewicz does two things: he shows the multifaceted, pernicious effects of preparing for and then attaining a super-elite status at a school such as Yale, and he pleads the case for the traditional liberal arts as the best key to a "meaningful life." With his own story interwoven with quotations from students, with research, and with good energetic argument, he covers much of the same ground that I do in my forthcoming book, "I Love Learning; I Hate School": An Anthropology of College (Cornell 2016), but our solutions are antithetical. I agree that learning to jump through all the arbitrary hoops, learning to be a "leader" (everyone!), learning to pile on activities, learning to psych out the tests--all this contributes to a sense of ill-being and distress among our highest-achieving students. When college faculty begin to hear the anguish and fear of our students, we cannot possibly believe that this system is in their best interests.
But I diverge from him on the solution. I too love literature, and I read constantly, seeking wisdom and advice and models, reading classics with zest. But I do not believe that this is the only repository for wisdom and models of the meaningful life. As an anthropologist, I believe that wisdom exists in every generation and may be expressed in multiple media. While Shakespeare was surely a gifted author of plays and sonnets, would anyone dispute the gifts of Joni Mitchell or Bob Dylan, or of Francis Ford Coppola? Can we not also seek guidance from our contemporaries, and in forms that are less remote from our everyday usage, though still beautiful and inspired?
Philosophizing did not end sometime in the past. So, young people seeking illumination have even more places to turn, and guides to find, than in the past. Their assistants in this process might be seminar leaders, or they might be providers of TED talks. This reassures me; there is a wealth--a surfeit--of brilliant production all around us.
Now our challenge is not finding worthy readings, listenings, watchings. It is deciding where to start.
Deresiewicz--brilliant writer, if occasionally less terse than I might wish--has raised a critical issue: Let us not take for granted our institutions, just because they possess prestige. Let's look hard at them. And let's keep in mind what we really need our institutions to do, if it is they that will do them: help find meaning, not just points and credentials.
I recommend this book to anyone ready to call into question the nature of our higher educational systems. And that should be everyone.
Students Used to Take Drugs to Get High. Now They Take Them to Get Higher Grades
Carole Cadwalladr
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/15/students-smart-drugs-higher-grades-adderall-modafinil?CMP=ema_565
Showing how students seeking an edge turn to "cognitive enhancement" substances
Why Preschool Shouldn't Be Like School
Alison Gopnik
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2011/03/why_preschool_shouldnt_be_like_school.html?wpsrc=sh_all_mob_tw_top
Showing the negative effects of being taught
The Case Against Grades
Alfie Kohn
https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/case-grades/
Showing the negative effects of grades and other rewards
Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life, 2014
William Deresiewicz
https://www.amazon.com/Excellent-Sheep-Miseducation-American-Meaningful/dp/1476702721
In this personal diatribe/plea/jeremiad/love letter, Deresiewicz does two things: he shows the multifaceted, pernicious effects of preparing for and then attaining a super-elite status at a school such as Yale, and he pleads the case for the traditional liberal arts as the best key to a "meaningful life." With his own story interwoven with quotations from students, with research, and with good energetic argument, he covers much of the same ground that I do in my forthcoming book, "I Love Learning; I Hate School": An Anthropology of College (Cornell 2016), but our solutions are antithetical. I agree that learning to jump through all the arbitrary hoops, learning to be a "leader" (everyone!), learning to pile on activities, learning to psych out the tests--all this contributes to a sense of ill-being and distress among our highest-achieving students. When college faculty begin to hear the anguish and fear of our students, we cannot possibly believe that this system is in their best interests.
But I diverge from him on the solution. I too love literature, and I read constantly, seeking wisdom and advice and models, reading classics with zest. But I do not believe that this is the only repository for wisdom and models of the meaningful life. As an anthropologist, I believe that wisdom exists in every generation and may be expressed in multiple media. While Shakespeare was surely a gifted author of plays and sonnets, would anyone dispute the gifts of Joni Mitchell or Bob Dylan, or of Francis Ford Coppola? Can we not also seek guidance from our contemporaries, and in forms that are less remote from our everyday usage, though still beautiful and inspired?
Philosophizing did not end sometime in the past. So, young people seeking illumination have even more places to turn, and guides to find, than in the past. Their assistants in this process might be seminar leaders, or they might be providers of TED talks. This reassures me; there is a wealth--a surfeit--of brilliant production all around us.
Now our challenge is not finding worthy readings, listenings, watchings. It is deciding where to start.
Deresiewicz--brilliant writer, if occasionally less terse than I might wish--has raised a critical issue: Let us not take for granted our institutions, just because they possess prestige. Let's look hard at them. And let's keep in mind what we really need our institutions to do, if it is they that will do them: help find meaning, not just points and credentials.
I recommend this book to anyone ready to call into question the nature of our higher educational systems. And that should be everyone.
Students Used to Take Drugs to Get High. Now They Take Them to Get Higher Grades
Carole Cadwalladr
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/15/students-smart-drugs-higher-grades-adderall-modafinil?CMP=ema_565
Showing how students seeking an edge turn to "cognitive enhancement" substances
Why Preschool Shouldn't Be Like School
Alison Gopnik
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2011/03/why_preschool_shouldnt_be_like_school.html?wpsrc=sh_all_mob_tw_top
Showing the negative effects of being taught
The Case Against Grades
Alfie Kohn
https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/case-grades/
Showing the negative effects of grades and other rewards
Education Sites
Explore more about education.
Inside Higher Ed
insidehighered.com
The Chronicle of Higher Education
chronicle.com
100 Best Higher Education Blogs [In their view!]
http://www.onlinedegreeshub.com/blog/2009/100-best-higher-education-blogs/
Education News
http://www.educationnews.org/
Education News: Higher Education
http://www.educationnews.org/higher-education/
Inside Higher Ed
insidehighered.com
The Chronicle of Higher Education
chronicle.com
100 Best Higher Education Blogs [In their view!]
http://www.onlinedegreeshub.com/blog/2009/100-best-higher-education-blogs/
Education News
http://www.educationnews.org/
Education News: Higher Education
http://www.educationnews.org/higher-education/
Anthropology Sites
Explore more about anthropology.
Neuroanthropology
For a greater understanding of the encultured brain and body...
http://neuroanthropology.net/
Anthropology World News
Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University
http://anthropology.tamu.edu/news/
Anthropology in Practice
http://www.anthropologyinpractice.com/
Anthropology Works
http://anthropologyworks.com/
Culture Matters
http://culturematters.wordpress.com/
Language Log
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/
Neuroanthropology. Understanding the Encultured Brain and Body.
http://blogs.plos.org/neuroanthropology/
SLA Blog
Official blog of the Society for Linguistic Anthropology
http://linguisticanthropology.org/blog/
Insider Higher Ed
http://www.insidehighered.com/
Savage Minds
http://savageminds.org/
Neuroanthropology
For a greater understanding of the encultured brain and body...
http://neuroanthropology.net/
Anthropology World News
Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University
http://anthropology.tamu.edu/news/
Anthropology in Practice
http://www.anthropologyinpractice.com/
Anthropology Works
http://anthropologyworks.com/
Culture Matters
http://culturematters.wordpress.com/
Language Log
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/
Neuroanthropology. Understanding the Encultured Brain and Body.
http://blogs.plos.org/neuroanthropology/
SLA Blog
Official blog of the Society for Linguistic Anthropology
http://linguisticanthropology.org/blog/
Insider Higher Ed
http://www.insidehighered.com/
Savage Minds
http://savageminds.org/