The great existential question of my youth, thanks in large part to Woody Allen:  What is the meaning of life?

And now, the great existential question of my adulthood, thanks in large part to standardized testing:  What is the purpose of public education?

I will answer both in this post, I hope, but it should be very clear at this point that if we don't ask good questions, we will never get quality answers.  And also, if we don't get quality answers, especially to question number 2 above, we will never know how, when or if we have been successful in the job of educating young people.

I have supported Barack throughout his run for the White House, so it is not easy or unambiguous to have to write this about his recent policy speech on education:

Obama is heading down the wrong path on education reform.  Seriously wrong.  Not everything is wrong.  But enough of it is to really set off alarm bells.

Now, it is early, and there is always hope that in the "fierce urgency of now", a guy with young children, who himself had access to an elite education, will eventually get it right.

But, this is not a good start. 

Where to begin...?

And it's about time people realize that.  Some of us have been talking about the importance of play for quite awhile.

But, recently, some pediatricians have gotten around to quantifying the value of play for young people.

Not just for their emotional well-being, not just for their psyches, not just for their physical health.  No.  Those benefits would not be enough.  You see, in order to matter in today's fast-paced, competitive world, it only matters if play is good for their test scores.

I'm being a little facetious, but not terribly much.

Lot's of fulmination right now as Obama takes office and people like Arne Duncan, his new Secretary of Education, begin to flesh out what approach they will take in their new positiions.

Duncan is saying some of the right things.  Too much testing.  We need to improve dramatically.  This is our moment to get it right.  

But, he's also saying some things that could continue taking us down the path of top-down, authoritarian control over the learning of children.

There is an interesting article in the latest NEA Higher Education publication, The Advocate.  Every once in awhile, this publication has a quality piece on specific pedagogical approaches that are supported by research. 

CRISP is an acronym for five basic issues surrounding the development/planning for a particular class period.  They are:

1. Contextualize
2. Review
3. Iterate
4. Summarize
5. Conclusion

I know, I know, this sounds vaguely like Speech Class 1.0.:  Tell them what you're going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them.