The Wrong Education System for the Right Brain
November 4, 2022
Nobody thought Edward Hughes was a successful student. He was used to getting C’s and B’s in school, and his test scores were not exactly stellar. When he turned sixteen and took his high school preliminary standardized test, he scored below average. Imagine everyone’s surprise when Edward announced in his junior year that he wanted to go to Cambridge, one of the most prestigious universities in the world. To qualify, Edward would need to get one of the highest scores on his final exams… Not likely. You see, the teachers at Edward’s school did not have a “growth mindset.” If they did,…
In a Micro School in Washington, a Teacher Works at the Pace of His Students
April 22, 2020
Mike Meadows remembers a student he taught English at Prince George’s County Public Schools in Maryland, just about 10 miles outside of Washington, DC. The student was quiet and rarely talked. Meadows worried he wasn’t getting through to her. In a classroom of 30 students, it was easy for her to get lost in the fray. Meadows class, British Literature, had been working through a unit on Shakespeare, focusing on a less popular play, The Taming of the Shrew. One day he took her aside and talked to her. He remembers it distinctly. He asked her directly about her impression…
How Public School Coding Program is Driving Up Opportunities for Diverse Students
February 24, 2020
Sandra Nissim says that, as a high school student outside San Francisco, she was reluctant to attend a summer coding camp, despite the insistence of her parents. That changed the first week. “I was hooked. It totally changed what I wanted to do with my life,” she says. The next year Nissim became the co-president of a new chapter of Girls Who Code, a nationwide non-profit that aims to increase the number of women in computer science. She says the organization filled a void for her and girls her age because, previously, all the attention related to computers was paid…
