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A young vibrant gifted urban science teacher expressed a concern to me yesterday. The teacher suggested that he feared being forced to teach “ELA” (English Language Arts) since that is all the district cares about given the testing mania destroying our nation’s public schools.
The President, heads of corporations, pundits, politicians and demagogues of all stripe chatter-on endlessly about the need to improve math and science education. I agree. They even gave their concern an acronym, S.T.E.M. You know something is a serious priority when it has its own acronym, right?
I actually wanted to believe the hype that Science, Mathematics, Engineering, Technology, AND the arts would realize a renaissance in our public schools. Much of my career has been dedicated to this proposition.
That is why I have organized a low-cost, world-class, one-of-a-kind learning event for educators interested in S.T.E.M. for January 22, 2009 in Philadelphia, PA USA.
Constructing Modern Math/Science Knowledge is a one-day preconference before Educon 2.1. Some of my intellectual heroes – the people who inspired my career or taught me to understand the importance of computing – will lead small group minds-on experiences at the renowned Science Leadership Academy.
If you can’t make it to Philadelphia yourself, please blog about the event and tell your colleagues about it too. They will thank you as do I.
Veteran educator Gary Stager, Ph.D. is the author of Twenty Things to Do with a Computer – Forward 50, co-author of Invent To Learn — Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, publisher at Constructing Modern Knowledge Press, and the founder of the Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institute. He led professional development in the world’s first 1:1 laptop schools thirty years ago and designed one of the oldest online graduate school programs. Gary is also the curator of The Seymour Papert archives at DailyPapert.com. Learn more about Gary here.