Learning Curves: Home Schooling
The tremendous growth of the home schooling movement is a by-product, in part, of the growing number of Christian conservatives. But many families have opted to home school their children for reasons unrelated to political or religious beliefs.
Learning Curves: Choosing an Educational Approach
Parents or other care-givers must make a choice about the educational approach they believe is best for their children. Some may choose public school, while others opt for private school, and still others decide that home schooling is the best choic...
Learning Curves: Attracting and Retaining Good Teachers
Along with low salaries and student behavior problems, a lack of administrative support is another reason why many teachers choose not to remain in their jobs. Making matters even worse is that teachers who are trained in one subject area are someti...
Learning Curves: Education and Financial Success
Increasingly in the United States, there's a strong link between professional success and education. Some sociologists believe this is due to the changing nature of jobs in America, and the growing importance of developing skills that are best acqui...
Educating to end inequity
This program addresses teachers' efforts to level the educational and social playing fields for their students by examining public school reform and its relationship to social change. Educators who taught on the western frontier in the late 19th cen...
The problem with boys: falling behind in school and life
According to education statistics across North America, boys now perform poorly compared with girls - and with boys of previous generations. What is causing this trend? What can be done to help both genders succeed? This program presents insights fr...
Lynn Stiles Teaching
Lynn Stiles lecture on Optics
Those who can ... teach
Historically, America has displayed an ambivalence toward public school teachers, expecting much from them while frequently offering little respect, meager pay, and inadequate working conditions. This program traces the evolution of teaching as a pr...
Battle of the brains: the case for multiple intelligences
For decades, IQ tests have been the gold standard for measuring intelligence. But is one standardized test really adequate for every taker? This program advocates a different approach, creating an array of unusual challenges to assess brainpower and...
Still Waters
A remarkable one-room school in Brooklyn is facing a tough year. It's the run-up to the US presidential election and anti-Latino rhetoric is ramped up--an extra source of tension for a hard-pressed Latino community already threatened by gentrificati...