DAVID WEES

Thoughts from a reflective educator.

education

Are teachers overpaid?

January 12, 2012

Two authors of a controversial paper from the Heritage Foundation suggest that teachers are overpaid for their efforts. Here is my response.



Is my son a writer?

January 10, 2012

This is a list my son created of things he wanted to make sure he got done for the day.

Writing a list

 

Does this make my son a writer? Is it more important that he is attempting to use text to get out his thoughts? Or is it more important that I help him correct the mistakes that he has made to make him a 'better' writer?



Schools are...

August 11, 2011

I tried a little experiment today with Google. I started by typing "learning is " into Google and waiting to see what the auto-suggest feature would come up with.

Learning is fun

 

Next, I typed "Teaching is " into the auto-suggest.

Teaching is fun

 

Finally, I typed "Schools are " into Google.com.



I am a feminist

July 10, 2011

"Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women." Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism



Is our k to 12 education system successful?

June 21, 2011

If we want to discuss whether or not our k to 12 education system is successful, we must first examine its possible purposes.

Suppose the purpose of our education system is to produce kids who are ready for college. Given that only 61.9% of students (in Canada) even attend college, and that not all of those people complete college, then our system is failing at least 40% of its youth by this measure of its success.



Lemonade stand

June 7, 2011

Lemonade stand

I saw some little kids and their parents at a lemonade stand on Sunday, and I thought to myself, "how cute!" I found out that the proceeds from the lemonade stand were going to be used to help fund sports equipment and other necessary supplies at a local elementary school, and I thought to myself, "how sad."



Derek Stolp on "A Mathematician's Lament"

June 7, 2011

I recently contacted Derek Stolp, author of Mathematics Miseducation: The Case Against a Tired Tradition and shared with him Paul Lockhart's essay entitled "A Mathematician's Lament." With his permission, I'm sharing his thoughts below.