Thanks to the Huffington Post Parent column, we have these beautiful stores of good (and some not-so-good) teachers. Enjoy, and remember — I am looking for teachers’ stories, too.
Just send me an email or comment on this blog.
by Casey Hurley
February 1st, 2012 — Book Thoughts, For Teachers, By Teachers, Teacher Reads
Thanks to the Huffington Post Parent column, we have these beautiful stores of good (and some not-so-good) teachers. Enjoy, and remember — I am looking for teachers’ stories, too.
Just send me an email or comment on this blog.
January 14th, 2012 — For Teachers, By Teachers
By Aneika McDonald, MAT student
“The Six Virtues of an Educated Person” by J. Casey Hurley, is an extremely informative, and eye-opening expose on the social and political factors that impede progressive reform in the public education system. The book opens our eyes to the ways in which our insistence on incorporating democracy into the education system greatly contributes to, and is perhaps the root cause of our challenges and failures. In discussing the power and influence public officials wield over educational policy, Hurley illustrates how the education system is destabilized by the shifting winds of political discourse and controversy. The political influence on the school directly impacts the core elements of the school system from its stated purpose, and delivery methods, to its assessment and definition of success. Hurley also identifies and discusses the virtues he believes form an educated person and skillfully weaves them into an alternative model for the education system in which the cultivation of these virtues becomes the purpose of the educational system, as well as the driving force behind the community and aesthetic based approaches to institutional assessment, and improvement.
January 3rd, 2012 — Book Thoughts, For Teachers, By Teachers
A publisher once told me, “Teachers don’t buy books.” I interpreted that to mean teachers are too busy, too intellectually lazy, or too cheap to buy books.
Now that I have written a book for teachers, I interpret the claim differently. Whether teachers buy books or not has little to do with teacher busyness, intellect, or economic priorities. Some teachers are professionally busy, a few are not; some are intellectually vigorous, a few are not; some face financial hardship, a few do not.
November 4th, 2011 — Book Thoughts, For Teachers, By Teachers, Teacher Reads, The Six-Virtue Definition is Useful
The primary purpose of The Six Virtues of the Educated Person (TSVOTEP) is to start a philosophical discussion about what it means to be educated. The book describes the definition promoted among today’s policymakers (achieving high standardized test scores); and then it argues for a definition that is rooted in philosophy instead of politics.