Global Village Voice

IHE often publishes interesting stuff on their blog. This piece uses food examples but the concepts about how we act out tradition, habit, and culture are applicable across many areas of life.  Examining the assumptions that underlie these habits is an essential part of progressive homeschooling.

http://humaneconnectionblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/what-humane-world-looks-like-rethinking.html

Posted under Culture, Current Events, Education, Homeschooling

3StoryFilms is working on a documentary about homeschooling, focusing on the wide cross-section of families utilizing the homeschool model, answering frequently asked questions, and challenging the prevailing myths that surround discussions about homeschooling.  Keep tabs on them here:

http://www.3storyfilms.com/

Posted under Current Events, Education, Homeschooling

This is an interesting look at a particular type of alternative education that can be adapted to fit an unschooling, homeschooling or distance learning family.

Free to Learn is a 70 minute documentary that offers a “fly on the wall” perspective of the daily happenings at The Free School in Albany, New York. Like many of today’s radical and democratic schools, The Free School expects children to decide for themselves how to spend their days.

You can watch the whole documentary online here: http://www.educationrevolution.org/freetolearn.html

Posted under Activism, Current Events, Education, Homeschooling

We read an interesting letter to the editor of the Indianapolis Star today, arguing that we must model democracy in our schools in addition to teaching it as an academic exercise in order for students to truly learn the value of the principles.  Here is an excerpt:

In contrast, England enacted the Citizenship Order. Research showed when schools “take into account students’ ideas and opinions in ways that are transparent, regular, and accessible,” school climate and grades improve. Schools are mandated to have a viable student council where students share real-world responsibilities. It appears the British believe learning about democratic citizenship must be more than an academic exercise.

The Institute for Democracy in Education believes an authentic civic education will remove the contradictions in our culture — which embrace democratic ends for schools but resist the actual practice in schools of the democratic means from which the ends cannot be separated.

Read the full text here: http://www.indystar.com/article/201009260245/OPINION01/9260335

Posted under Culture, Current Events, Education, Politics

There was an interesting article in the Harvard Education Letter recently about the increasing diversity of the student body and the cultural gap that often exists between these students and their teachers. An excerpt:

Despite initiatives to increase the diversity of teachers in the United States, many do not share the same racial, ethnic, or cultural background as their students. According to the most recent figures available from the National Center for Education Statistics, 83 percent of teachers in U.S. public schools were white as of 2007–2008; while 56 percent of students were white, 21 percent were Hispanic, and 17 percent were black. Charter school teachers were only slightly more diverse: 73 percent were white, 12 percent were black, and 9 percent were Hispanic.

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Posted under Culture, Current Events, Education