Sunday, March 23, 2014

3-23-13 CURMUDGUCATION

CURMUDGUCATION:






The Coming Teacher Shortage
Friday I sat down for coffee with the president of a local university (in my other incarnation as a local newspaper columnists, I get the occasional request to chat). Among other things, she confirmed what I have been hearing for a while-- enrollment in state school teacher programs is plummeting.Part of the problem is that, at least in my part of Pennsylvania, the college-age demographic sector i

News from Institute of Grittology

Here at the Institute of Grittology, we're committed to helping monetize the work of our research partners, The Research Institute for the Study of Obvious Conclusions ("Working hard to recycle conventional wisdom as proprietary programing").

Our speakers bureau has determined that statements such as "treating children with support and kindness helps them do better in life" do not enhance the revenue stream. However, folks will fork over good money to hear "it is our collective responsibility to strive at all levels of our educational communities to provide environments for students that are calm, supportive, encouraging, thoughtful, and planned, which provide opportunities for students to ignite their latent capabilities to be resilient." 

In addition to repackaging such insights as "people who don't quit tend to finish more stuff," we have found that Grittology also provides good cover for traditional management insights such as, "If people think you're abusive, they just need to suck it up and grow a pair." If people find a situation 
 
3-22-13 CURMUDGUCATION Week
CURMUDGUCATION:Who Puts the Scary in Pearson? Meet Knewton.Behind the data generating-and-collecting behemoth that is Pearson is a company called Knewton. And here's a video from the November 2012 Education Datapallooza (a name that I did NOT make up, but was officially given the event by the Dept of Education, because they are so hip. I believe they also listen to the rap music).  In just under t