A Child Left Behind

Dave and I just got back from Minneapolis at a MERLOT conference and Dave raised the idea that this national group of educators covering most disciplines in higher education should be a policy making group. Why not produce a Merlot report on the state of education in America. The discussion moved to possible topics. Dave hit it out of the park. He wants to investigate the child that is left behind -- like the entire NBA.

There are some very successful individuals that meet this definition. College and becoming a nuclear scientist was not in their DNA. So, why should every student be defined as successful by meeting a college bound agenda? and a failure if they don't. There are many very successful careers that do not need this as a measure of success.

Then we should not make being left behind as a failure, it just might be a success. Glass half full, Glass really full. Just because the student's educational glass is half empty does not mean that there is only failure in the future for them.

If a technical school does not need the "standardized tests" it does not mean that the school or the individual is a failure.

What is illiteracy? Not enough English? Math? Who sets these rules. I am a musician - these standardized tests don't test anything that is really important to me -- music theory, playing the clarinet, writing world class songs.

So this might be the problem. We need more music in the standardized tests. Just get rid of some of the English and Math. All students must be able to play the piano and the oboe.

Yes, this could save the world.

Don

Flash back

Listening to Obama's speech in Berlin today I remember the same kind of inviting global perspective years ago when I was in college. I was in the marching band at Berkeley and we were having a bonfire rally (yes for the football team). I was back stage in the outdoor theater waiting to go in. Just a few feet away was Bobbie Kennedy. I could feel the heat of this man.

He came out and spoke about the citizens of America and how they needed help. He did not speak of war or force of any kind except the force of the individual to work together with like minded individuals to help the least of us. It was the Kennedy theme but it resonated with me and the others their at this "pep" rally.

I just don't understand why such a large percentage of our population (usually the haves) don't feel any obligation to the have nots.

I guess protecting one's money is everything.
"The government should not take my money"
"Cut taxes -- I don't want my money going to those lazy poor people."
On and on . . . . . .

I know so many struggling poor people who keep saying these same tired lines.

Don't they know that they are not rich enough to be a Republican?

Don

Watching the pros

The World Music online course is developing well. The main authors are such pros. Their expertises do not parallel as much as overlap. One has taught the course for several years and one editor/author has a honest love for the musics and cultures and has lived in many of these countries. The third is a world authority in several cultures and is a complete academic.

Dave and I are essentially producers of the project pedagogically and technologically. The three content specialists together have a vast body of knowledge. Translating it to the goal of this course has been interesting and at times difficult.

The collection of listening examples for the course is being put together by Sony. They are also securing rights for the selections. There are selections that I have never heard of that surprisingly that Sony can not secure rights. I can understand the Beatles not giving rights for our Rock collection but these selections are far far far from the public eye and not valuable to the mass market. Weird. Somebody is not sharing and this is an educational product. AND they would make a little bit of money.

Regardless, it will be a wonderful addition to our suite of online music courses.

Don

Summer is Here

Today was my last day of school. I teach 3-6 year olds.

Snow in June

Who would have thunk it. We (Dave and I and wives and friends) are in Steamboat Springs, CO just to experience the hot springs and the high country. At 5 am it started to snow. It is June and was 80 degrees yesterday. Love it -- snowed in June. So what do you do in June when it snows? You make little snowmen and put them on the railing of the balcony. That is what you do.

Don

Our Secret Concert

This year Don, Jeff and I organized with some insider students a secret concert. To attend you had to figure out when and where it was to be. We tried to deconstruct the normal composer/performer roles as well as redefine venue to include electronic media.

Basically, the multimedia students became the composers for the music students who worked with them to draft definitions for musical composition and improvisatory performance. We also wanted to share the "musical experience" with attendees by including them in the greater performance ensemble.

It was a fitting final concert for Don and me. We worked from a conceptual premise that changed week to week as we met with our students. And, the students were great! They trusted us and offered new fresh cross currents to our thinking and were unencumbered by traditional curricular trappings. I was incredibly proud of them.

So.... the multimedia students created video scores which guided all of us through performances. We captured the performances on video and produced them on YouTube -- our final venue. Jeff and his students were essential in completing this final step.

You can find the videos on YouTube by searching for "secret avant garde experience."

If you want I have the SLOs for the creation of the content; the performance is the authentic assessment; and the rubric for evaluating our success is the number of times the YouTube videos are viewed. Viral = Success!

Dave

Education Think Tank

I have been thinking about starting a think tank (now that I am retired and dangerous as Lisa says). It should be an educational think tank that is free from the pressures of tenure, bureaucracy, educational fads, program building, or career building. Look what has come out of political groups that have failed from the beginning -- no child left behind. What a disaster.

I have lived through so many fads like "Total Quality Education" -- now, thank God, a forgotten movement. At present the latest fad is "Student Learning Outcomes" SLO. Where is the back pressure on this movement? Out of obligation Dave and I pounded out the SLOs for the music department. If it were something wonderful, we would be better for having done this. But, we just used the accepted verbs in the order desired. And of course, we did not abuse the presentation on the hallowed form. To mess this up would have made the experience drag on and become even more ugly than it is.

So back to the think tank. It would be fresh and welcoming to not try and persuade others of an idea but let ideas or reflections bubble up in a room of proven visionaries and creative thinkers.

I think it should be called The Megill Group (it seems all think tanks have a name like this). Our product would be white papers on the insights or outsights of the group.

Yep, the Megill group needs to meet. Now that every day is Saturday, I guess it will have to be on Saturday.

Don