Making Minds Matter with Bill Costello » Curricula

Liberty Starts in School

Bill Costello — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 05:33:04 +0000

American public schools are not producing students who can think. How can we expect to maintain our liberty when our citizens lack the ability to reach independent conclusions on issues of the day?

Students learn to think by hearing both sides of an issue, weighing the evidence, applying reason, and forming independent conclusions. However, American public [...]

The Erosion of American Higher Education

Bill Costello — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 05:33:51 +0000

In America, the cost of higher education has been rising faster than inflation and health care costs for more than two decades.

Money Magazine calculated that college tuition rose by 439 percent from 1982-2007.

According to Mark C. Taylor, author of Crisis on Campus: A Bold Plan for Reforming Our Colleges and Universities, four years at a [...]

Superman’s Not Coming, Schools Need Iron Man

Bill Costello — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 06:14:16 +0000

The new documentary Waiting for Superman currently playing in theaters around the nation explores the failures of American public education: it serves adults instead of kids, teachers’ unions impede progress, and teachers need better training.

However, the movie offers little in the way of solutions.

Perhaps what’s needed is a sequel that offers solutions for fixing American [...]

The Federal Takeover of Education

Bill Costello — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 05:53:11 +0000

Federal control over education has been growing since the 1960s despite the fact that the word education does not appear in the Constitution of the United States.

Now, as the current administration pushes for national education standards, federal control over education is about to expand considerably at the expense of state and local control.

Texas Education Commissioner [...]

National Education Association Selling its Saul

Bill Costello — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 06:24:46 +0000

The National Education Association (NEA), the U.S.’s largest labor union, is promoting communism to the millions of American public school teachers it represents. Teachers who are influenced by their union’s efforts are more likely to indoctrinate American children into communism.

For the past several months, the NEA website has recommended that its members read books by [...]

Fixing American Dumbocracy

Bill Costello — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 07:10:54 +0000

The world has been turned upside down: socialism is on the rise in the U.S. and capitalism is on the rise in China. The former is a result of an uneducated electorate that fails to understand socialism’s history of producing poverty; the latter is a result of pragmatic leadership able to put aside communist ideology [...]

The Last American Skill

Bill Costello — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 07:31:17 +0000

According to a recent Newsweek article titled “The Creativity Crisis,” research shows that American creativity is declining for the first time. If this trend continues, the nation’s economic and national security will be at risk.

The research is based on results of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, which has been used to test American creativity [...]

China Exports Chinese Language

Bill Costello — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 07:42:38 +0000

In an effort to promote its language and culture, China is funding Chinese education programs in the U.S. While critics question Beijing’s motives and view the programs as propaganda vehicles to spread China’s influence, the U.S. should embrace this opportunity to learn more about its largest creditor, trading partner, and competitor.

Funding from the Chinese Ministry [...]

More U.S. Students Learning Chinese

Bill Costello — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 03:50:33 +0000

Over the past decade, the number of U.S. schools offering classes in Chinese has increased from roughly 300 to 1,600 according to a government-financed survey.

As China continues to rise as an economic rival, more and more parents and educators believe that learning Chinese can provide opportunities.

Also over the past decade, thousands of U.S. schools have [...]

Thinking Skills Required of the Next Generation

Bill Costello — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:54:50 +0000

In Five Minds for the Future, Howard Gardner describes five kinds of minds—or cognitive abilities—that he believes are critical to success in the 21st century: disciplined, synthesizing, creating, respectful, and ethical.

Garner argues that anyone can cultivate these ways of thinking with time and effort.

Parents and educators should help the next generation cultivate the thinking skills required for [...]

The Conceptual Age

Bill Costello — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:43:50 +0000

In A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, Daniel H. Pink describes the four major historical ages: agricultural age (farmers), industrial age (factory workers), information age (knowledge workers), and conceptual age (creators and empathizers).

Pink suggests that while left-brainers ruled the first three ages, right-brainers will rule the upcoming conceptual age. I tend [...]

The World’s Greatest Dream Machine

Bill Costello — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 03:34:24 +0000

In The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, Thomas L. Friedman states: “On such a flat earth, the most important attribute you can have is creative imagination—the ability to be the first on your block to figure out how all these enabling tools can be put together in new and exciting [...]

Nation of Innovation

Bill Costello — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 02:06:09 +0000

As U.S. factory jobs and back-office jobs continue to move to China and India, Americans need to focus on developing the primary skills they have left to offer the global marketplace: creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation.

For centuries, the U.S. has been the world’s leader in these skills, which are more important now than ever before. China and [...]

Singapore Math vs. U.S. Math

Bill Costello — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:56:15 +0000

Singapore Math differs from the way math has been traditionally taught in the U.S. in several ways. Instead of teaching students how to apply formulas, Singapore Math teaches students different ways to solve problems. Rather than using paper and pencil, problems are often solved mentally. Rote memorization is replaced with understanding the “why” behind each [...]

Students Achieve Mastery with Singapore Math

Bill Costello — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 01:55:56 +0000

The math textbooks and workbooks used in Singapore have produced the best results in the world. Titled “Primary Mathematics”—but often referred to as “Singapore Math”—the book series is based on the national math curriculum of Singapore.

The focus of Singapore Math is on depth, rather than breadth; a few important concepts are covered in great depth [...]

Let’s Get Back to Worksheets

Bill Costello — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:38:33 +0000

The U.S. is falling behind the world in math. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said, “We are lagging the rest of the world, and we are lagging it in pretty substantial ways.”

A special analysis put out by the National Center for Education Statistics found that the math performance of U.S. high schoolers was in the [...]

America’s Reading Gender Gap

Bill Costello — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:24:06 +0000

The good news is that reading scores for 9- and 13-year-olds are the highest ever according to results recently released from the 2008 National Assessment of Educational Progress.

The bad news is that boys trail girls in reading performance at all age levels. The gap at age 9 is 8 points, at age 13 is 8 [...]

Reform Math Holding U.S. Back

Bill Costello — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:05:25 +0000

New math results on the most important nationwide math test show only 39 percent of fourth graders and 34 percent of eight graders scored at or above the proficient level. Most students do not have the knowledge and skills commensurate with their grade level.

These results aren’t surprising considering the fact that many U.S. schools are [...]

What Japanese Schools are Doing Right

Bill Costello — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:03:41 +0000

I recently had the opportunity to visit a Japanese school. Kadena Elementary School is located on Okinawa Island in the town of Kadena, and is not to be confused with the school of the same name operated by the U.S. Department of Defense Dependents Schools.

The purpose of my visit was to research successful practices of [...]