Jack P.
Shonkoff, M.D.
is the founding director of the
Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University and the chair
of the
National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. |
Dr. Eric Hanushek, is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, an associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a member of the Koret Task Force on K–12 Education. Background on Dr. Hanushek |
Stewarding the Health of Our Children's Learning
Nancy Hennessy, M.Ed., served as the president of the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) from 2003-2005 and is an experienced teacher, administrator, diagnostician and consultant in both regular and special education. |
David Boulton: what aspect of a child’s development is not fundamentally affected by how well they’re learning? Nancy Hennessy: There is no aspect. |
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David Boulton: One of the things that it seems that we need most in our society is a reframe of the meaning of the word learning. Dr. Mel Levine: I agree. David Boulton: It's not just the 'utility' through which we acquire knowledge, skills and experience... Dr. Mel Levine: Right. David Boulton: It's the process through which we extend ourselves into our lives in every way. Dr. Mel Levine: Exactly. |
Dr. Mel
Levine is the author of A
Mind at a Time, The
Myth of Laziness and Ready
or Not, Here Life Comes. He is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of North
Carolina Medical School in Chapel Hill and the Director
of the University's Clinical Center for the Study of Development and
Learning. Dr. Levine is also the co-founder of All
Kinds of Minds, a nonprofit Institute for the study of differences
in learning, and co-chairs the Institute's Board of Directors with Charles
R. Schwab. |
Dr. Eric Hanushek, is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He is also chairman of the Executive Committee for the Texas Schools Project at the University of Texas at Dallas, a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a member of the Koret Task Force on K–12 Education. |
Dr. Eric Hanushek: It's not that somebody knows the current science, because the current science might be wrong. But it's that somebody knows how to learn about new science, and adapt. It's also how they learn to adapt to workplaces... how to learn to do something that they had never even thought about doing when they were in school. That's the key element. David Boulton: So then the fundamental intention of our education system must be to use knowledge, skills and experience not just as the end, but as the means through which we're exercising how well someone is able to participate and become self-extending in learning what they need to learn when they need to learn it. Dr. Eric Hanushek: Yeah, right. Precisely. (from an unreleased interview) |
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David Boulton: The thing that I've been most interested in is what might be called the 'ecology of learning'. And, 'stewarding the health' of 'the ecology of learning' in our children, because I think ultimately that our children's learning is the most precious natural resource on the planet. Siegfried Engelmann: Absolutely. I agree 100 percent. David Boulton: We're so busy with what we should be teaching them, that the quality of their learning, how they're participating from the inside-out in their learning, is getting lost. Siegfried Engelmann: Oh, yeah. It's like, yeah, we have to respect their learning. |
Siegfried Engelmann (from an unreleased interview) |
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Dr. Keith Stanovich is Canada's Research Chair of Applied
Cognitive Science at the Department of Human Development and Applied
Psychology, University of Toronto. He is the author of: Progress
in Understanding Reading: Scientific Foundations and New Frontiers,
Who
Is Rational? Studies of Individual Differences in Reasoning, How
to Think Straight About Psychology, and, The
Robot's Rebellion: Finding Meaning in the Age of Darwin. |
David Boulton: if you take more than a one generation view of our collective human problems, whether it's ecological or political, whatever it is, it comes down to: the most precious resource on this planet is how well our children learn." Dr. Keith Stanovich: Yes. David Boulton: There's no getting around it. Dr. Keith Stanovich: Yeah. David Boulton: Nobody can argue. Dr. Keith Stanovich: No. David Boulton: Therefore, the most important thing we have to do collectively is to steward the health of their learning, how healthily they're learning. Dr. Keith Stanovich: And find out how to do that best. David Boulton: Exactly. Which then translates into inside-out participation. They're not coma patients. Dr. Keith Stanovich: Uh-huh. David Boulton: We can't just move their brains around like we might exercise the leg of a coma patient and expect that that's going to serve them. Dr. Keith Stanovich: That’s right. We can't just inject them. |
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David Boulton:
Is there an educational mission
that trumps, that is more important than
stewarding
the health of our children’s learning? Dr. Grover (Russ) Whitehurst: No, when put that way. |
Dr. Grover (Russ) Whitehurst is the Director of the Institute of Education Sciences, and an Assistant Secretary of Education with the U.S. Department of Education. Dr. Whitehurst administers the Institute, including the activities of the National Center for Education Statistics, the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance and the National Center for Education Research.
|
Dr. James J. Heckman is
the recipient of the
2000 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, (with Daniel
McFadden), the 2005 Jacob Mincer Award for Lifetime Achievement
in Labor Economics, the 2005 University College Dublin Ulysses
Medal, and the 2005 Aigner award from the Journal of
Econometrics. He is the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service
Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago and the
author of:
Inequality in America: What Role for Human Capital Policies?,
numerous other books and hundreds of technical articles related
to economics. |
It starts with recognizing the fundamental, profound, and capital value of 'stewarding the health of our children’s learning.' Dr. James Heckman: I agree. I think everything points in that direction. David Boulton: Which is deeper and more radiant than saying we’re about this particular thing or that particular thing. Dr. James Heckman: I agree. I think you want to get to a basic set of principals and this is clearly it. |
Why Learning? (1988)
Individually, all that we will ever 'know' about:
- surviving, earning a living and making a contribution;
- thinking globally and acting locally;
- behaving responsibly - personally, socially, practically and profoundly;
- becoming healthy, happy and successful adults...
... we will have learned.
Collectively, all that we will ever 'know' about:
- collaborating productively, peacefully, multi-culturally and with equity for both genders and among all peoples;
- ending hunger, disease, homelessness and poverty, physical, psychological and ecological abuse;
- parenting, educating, and caring for children so that they can survive, thrive and be fully alive ...
... we will have learned.
All that we will ever 'know' about who we are, what we are, why we are, how to do things and how to change things, we will have learned.
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The Significance of Learning
Learning is where the practical meets the profound. It is our greatest common denominator - the one area of agreement, implicitly, that is as relevant to:
global warming
global relations
global economics
as it is to:
a child's physical, emotional, cognitive, linguistic... - developmental - well being
an adolescent's social, emotional, intellectual and educational success
an adult's pursuit of vocational, academic, occupational, professional, scientific, artistic, philosophical, political, or spiritual development.
Whether divinely endowed and/or evolutionarily differentiated, it is our capacity for learning
that most distinguishes us from all other forms of life (1,2,3,4,5,6).
Though qualities like
love, compassion, and intelligence, are not learned, how each
of us expresses such qualities is all but determined by our learning.
