Parent Cortical Mass

PCM's Top Articles of the Week

This week marks the 200th anniversary of Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice, and, depend on it, there’s an app for that! ● Even though Mayor Bloomberg was not on the ballot in this week's elections, his brand of education reforms came before citizens throughout the nation in state initiatives and local school board races. Joy Resmovits reports on how his style of free market policies fared. ● PCM Influencer Randi Weingarten writes in support of the common core standards, countering the hits they are taking lately. ● Rarely do we have articles by Influencer Clayton Christensen, but his op-ed in the New York Times this week is significant. He makes bold predictions about online education. ● With daylight savings time ending last weekend, don’t miss the delightful article on reasons to play outside in the dark.

Parenting

I Learned All I Need to Know on Marriage from Pride & Prejudice - K.S. Prior, Atlantic

If Your Kid Was Bullied, When Did You Intervene & When Not? - Michael Winerip, NYT

Keeping Teens 'Private' on Facebook Won't Protect Them - Danah Boyd, Time

Anne-Marie Slaughter, Care, and Men - Ashely Milne-Tyte, Broad Experience

Does Putting Your Child Before Yourself Make You Happier? - Janice Wood, PsychCentral

Why Thinking You Did Great After the SAT is a Sign You Bombed - Debbie Stier, Time

How to Fall in Love with STEM - Connie Matthiessen, GreatSchools

Kids Who Sleep More, May Eat Less - ScienceDaily

Learning

How the Power of Interest Drives Learning - Annie Murphy Paul, Mind/Shift

How Does Electronic Reading Affect Comprehension? - John Jones, DML Central

Assessing Informal Learning Environments - Vera Michalchik, Interviewed by DML Central

Attention in First Grade Critical to Academic Success - Traci Pedersen, PsychCentral

Why Deliberate Practice is the Only Way to Keep Getting Better - Drake Baer, Fast Company

Education

Results of the Election for Education. Did Bloomberg Reforms Win or Not? - Joy Resmovits, HP

9th Grade: Most Important Year in High School - Michele Willens, The Atlantic

Schooled: Smartest Kids in the World [Podcast] - Dana Goldstein, Amanda Ripley, Slate

The Way Forward on Education - Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, HP

Online Education an Agent of Transformation - Clayton Christensen, Michael. Horn, NYTimes

Will States Fail the Common Core? - Randi Weingarten, Huff Post

Feds Declare Hunger Games More Complex than Grapes of Wrath - B. Greteman, New Republic

Could Coding Be the New Foreign Language Requirement? - A. Adam, H. Mowers, edutopia

The Charter-School Lie: Market Based Ed Gambles With Our Children - Jeff Bryant, Salon

The Role of the K-12 Parent - Education Week

Resources

Stride and Prejudice App: A Jane Austen Endless Runner - Amy Kraft, GeekMom

Kids' Thanksgivng Books for Gratitude, History, Humor - Melissa Taylor, Imagination Soup

12 Reasons to Play Outside After Dark - Laura Grace Weldon, GeekMom

A Little Bit of Electronic Literacy - Ayah Bdeir, Scientific American

Best Streaming Video on Daniel Boone, Annie Oakley, Other Folk Heros - M. Petrilli, Fordham

What is the Best YA Novel of All Times? - Entertainment Weekly

Read a few articles each week, and gain parent cortical mass! If you enjoy our weekly article roundup, please email it to a friend or share on social media. Thank you!

Clayton M. Christensen

Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School; Founder, Innosight Ventures; Co-founder, Rose Park Advisors

At 6’10” Clayton Christensen literally stands head and shoulders above the crowd, but that is a minor reason for why he commands attention.  His list of accomplishments is what impresses--Rhodes scholar, Harvard MBA, best-selling author of five books, including a masterpiece, The Innovator’s Dilemma, and a venture capitalist.  A humble and spirited man, Clayton Christensen is a renowned influencer in the business world, but not so much in education policy.  But because his theories and models on “disruptive innovation” give education reformers great confidence, he’s made our list.  His important book, Disrupting Class, is one of PCM’s Top 10 Books for Parents. 

For many years now business leaders, including giants like Gates and Buffet, have contended with disruptive innovation in their industries, and many believe it’s time for disruption in the education system, so that America’s labor force isn’t left behind. 

Christensen, whose expertise is econometrics, is the son of teachers, the spouse of a teacher, and a teacher himself.  He says these personal connections to the life of schools and teaching affect his thinking.  He has studied the education data, plugged the numbers into his models, and forecast when disruptive technologies will cause a “breathtaking flip” in public education.  This flip, he says, will start in 2012 and be completed by 2019.  He didn’t write the reformers playbook, but his ideas are in there.

-- Go to PCM's Top 10 Influencers List --