Sorbonne Confidential

Why Do They Hate Us? The education debate turns virulent in the US

Thoughtful piece from Thomas H Benton in The Chronicle of Higher Education 

By now, most academics are inoculated against attacks from the right, the conversational relics of the culture war of a generation ago: Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind (1987), Charles Sykes's ProfScam: Professors and the Demise of Higher Education (1988), and Martin Anderson's Impostors in the Temple (1992), to name just a few. I almost feel nostalgia for that time, since the conversation was about what professors should teach. There was no doubt, as yet, whether higher education would continue in some recognizable form.

Over the last 20 years, the positions on both sides have hardened. But now the criticisms of academe are also coming from the left, and not just from the think tanks and journalists, but increasingly from within academe. Some of those works include Marc Bousquet's How the University Works: Higher Education and the Low-Wage Nation (2008); Cary Nelson's No University Is an Island: Saving Academic Freedom (2010); and, most recently, Higher Education? How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids—And What We Can Do About It (2010), by Andrew Hacker and Claudia C. Dreifus; and Mark Taylor's Crisis on Campus: A Bold Plan for Reforming Our Colleges and Universities (2010).

For the past several months, The Chronicle's forums and the comment section of its articles—and the larger blogosphere—have been abuzz with discussions of a string of seemingly anti-faculty articles with titles like "Goodbye to Those Overpaid Professors and Their Cushy Jobs" (July 25) and "Do All Faculty Members Really Need Private Offices?" (July 30). The majority feeling seems to be that the present model of higher education is no longer sustainable, and that the necessary changes will focus—for good or ill—on the working lives of professors.

via chronicle.com

Interview with Peter Gumbel : On Achève Bien Les Ecoliers, a critique of antiquated and harmful teaching methods

Laurel Zuckerman questions journalist Peter Gumbel about his new essay On Achève Bien Les Ecoliers, a fascinating analysis of the impact of French classroom practices that has attracted major media interest in France and abroad.

The interview was recorded in French (which Peter Gumbel speaks fluently) and English in a café on rue de Rivoli just before the book came out. It is the first in a three part series on the On Achève Bien Les Ecoliers and the French education system.  

 On Achève Bien Les Ecoliers (They Shoot Schoolchildren, Don't They?) 

From the Publisher’s blurb:

71 % of French students regularly suffer from « l’irritability».

63 % suffer from nervousness.

One out of four has stomach pains or headaches every week.

40 % complain of frequent insomnia.

Why is France the only country in the world to discourage children in the name of what they are not, instead of encouraging them for what they are?

 

In this exceptionally convincing and well-argued analysis of the French education system based on a close reading of international studies as well as interviews and research, acclaimed journalist Peter Gumbel explores the culture of failure, of humiliation, and of harsh--even cruel--practices which perpetuate and accentuate inequalities in France.

Gumbel demonstrates, to an extent that will surprise even the system’s critics, how French teaching methods shortchange not only the less able students, but the most gifted students as well.

Full disclosure: Having explored French teacher training in Sorbonne Confidential, I believe that On Achève Bien Les Ecoliers should be required reading for all parents, teachers, and students in France and beyond.

  

 Laurel Zuckerman: The launch of On Achève Bien les Ecoliers is a phenomenal success. Could you talk about how your publisher achieved this? 

 

Peter Gumbel: It started with the proposal itself. I pitched this to my publisher and he took it to his comité de lecture (which decides whether to publish). He called me up afterward and said: I had a pretty strange afternoon. Half the people thought you were completely right, and half thought you were completely wrong and they spent the whole afternoon arguing. If that’s going to be the reaction in France you’re on to something.

He was very smart about trying to find a national magazine that would be interested in having it. So they went to all the magazines in June July. Nouvel Obs was interested but wanted to have an exclusive. The negotiation was done with the editor in chief. We said, you can have exclusive rights but you need to put it on the cover.

That kicked it off and then the British press picked up on it

 

LZ The Guardian ran a terrific piece.

PG Yes, and all this before the book came out. The pre-publication buzz has been fantastic. Whether it now translates into people running out to buy the book, I don’t know.

 

LZ What do you have lined up on TV and radio?

PG Well, it’s been wall to wall really, France inter, Humeur Vagabonde, early morning segments, phone ins, France 24, JDD and the most terrifying this of all, I was invited to do a debate with the bête noir of the education establishment, Jean Pierre Brighelli who’s a flaming reactionary. He’s a very aggressive debater and I did a face off with him which will run on France 5. I had to really prepare well. He’s a formidable character. I fundamentally disagree with him. In his book he describes the methods of humiliation I completely disagree with. He even mentioned that one of his students committed suicide and said these things happen.

 

LZ How long have you been working with your French publisher Grasset?

PG They published a previous essay of mine in  2006 called French Vertigo about the French economy where I took an opposite view of what everyone else was saying. I said France was reforming itself and let me show you how. Interesting enough, I see that French Vertigo has been given a new lease of life by this new book.

 

LZ Is On Achève Bien Les Ecoliers going to come out in English and if so will you keep the title (They Shoot Schoolchildren, Don’t They? )

PG I wrote this for the French. If I were to do a book in English I would need to rewrite it because I’m so focusing on things the French will know.

LZ In your book you go into the causes in detail. What solutions do you propose?

PG I outline key steps that I believe are needed to reform the system. They are, briefly,

- 1) a massive overhaul of teacher training to introduce international, proven "best practices" into French classrooms, as well as some basic psychological training (ie the importance of motivation and positive feedback) and a lot of practical experience and classroom simulations. New teachers shouldn't be allowed to set foot in a classroom until they feel comfortable they know how to handle a variety of situations. I also think teacher training needs to be a continuous career-long undertaking, with regular refresher courses etc.

- 2) There needs to be a much clearer national debate and consensus around what school is for and what it should be like for kids. That's hard, but my hope in writing this book is that it might stir the pot a bit.

- And 3) I advocate international exchanges of teachers, allowing French ones to get out of the country for a few weeks or months to see how others do it (and vice versa). That could open some eyes. 

LZ Based on what you found out writing this book, do you see any lessons for the British, who are facing serious problems with their school system?

PG What I learned is that almost no one has a school system that is really good. Every country has its own problems. And in Britain there is the chronic decline in standards. Foreign languages are no longer obligatory. And that’s not very clever. What’s good in France is that they insist on a high level of general culture

 

LZ Do you think that it’s possible—not utopian—to maintain a high level without brutalizing the children?

PG Yes, brutalization doesn’t work. All the research out there shows that effective teaching is personalized teaching in the classroom with different students learning at different speeds. A good teacher can deal with this. It’s very difficult to do. Countries that have done that have success and countries that have not don’t.

I think the key is teacher training. Very intensive, very smart teacher training.

  

For more information, see The Guardian,  Time and Le Monde.

 On Achève Bien Les Ecoliers is available at all French bookstores and on amazon, fnac and other sites.

The six secrets of a happy classroom - Schools, Education - The Independent

Innovative classroom practices to get ALL students involved in learning--from The Indepedent

Something we can all learn from: how to improve teaching techniques

* Stop students putting their hands up to ask questions – it's the same ones doing it all the time. Instead introduce a random method of choosing which pupil answers the question, such as lollipop sticks, and thus engage the whole class.

* Use traffic-light cups in order to assess quickly and easily how much your students understand your lesson. If several desks are displaying a red cup, gather all those students around to help them at the same time.

* Mini-whiteboards, on which the whole class simultaneously writes down the answer to a question, are a quick way of gauging whether the class as a whole is getting your lesson. This method also satisfies the high-achievers who would normally stick their hands up.

* A short burst of physical exercise at the start of the school day will do wonders for students' alertness and motivation. As any gym addict or jogger will tell you, it's all about the chemicals released into the brain.

* Ditch the obsession with grades, so that pupils can concentrate instead on the comments that the teacher has written on written classwork.

* Allow students to assess the teachers' teaching – they are the ones at the sharp end, after all. Letting pupils have a say is empowering and, if handled constructively, is highly enlightening.

via www.independent.co.uk

Why More Students Rely on Tutors - NOT JUST IN FRANCE - NYT debate

Private tutoring has made rapid gains in France, especially in math and English. But, as we see from this NYT's debate, the rise of private after-school help is not just a French phenomenon. Why?

"A generation ago, after-school tutoring was fairly rare. That's changed. More students now seem to need professional help to keep up with the instruction, especially in math and science courses. Tutoring centers, like Kumon, are proliferating. Affluent parents can pay for private tutors, while in some lower-income districts, publicly financed programs offer after-school instruction.

What has changed in teaching approaches or the curriculum that causes more students to seek tutoring? Are science and math courses being taught at too advanced a level?"

--Why More Students Rely on Tutors, a NYT debate

via www.nytimes.com

France Scores An F in Education - TIME - Peter Gumbel

Originally 
designed to level out class differences, France's education 
system instead perpetuates them 

Interesting article from Peter Gumbel, author of On Achève Bien Les Ecoliers, in this weeks Time.

Some highlights:

• while they have been good at producing a relatively small number of extremely bright students who go on to run the country — a vestige of the system's elitism that dates back to Napoleon — French schools are increasingly failing to cater to the much larger number of students who have less stellar abilities

• one-fifth of 11-year-olds finishing primary school still have serious difficulty with reading and writing. By the age of 16, almost as many — about 18% — leave school with no formal qualifications whatsoever

• In international comparative tests of 15-year-olds, France's overall scores are at best mediocre and have been dropping abruptly in the past decade. Even at the top end, the proportion of brightest kids is lower than it is in many other countries, especially Finland

• Increasingly it is a place where children from poor backgrounds do far worse than kids from better-off backgrounds. An analysis by McKinsey & Co. shows that the performance of French schoolkids can vary widely depending on their socioeconomic background: especially in math, race and class affect scores even more markedly than they do in the U.S., where the gulf between white, black and Hispanic students has been widely documented.

For the complete Time article see : France Scores an F in Education

Watch for our upcoming interview with Peter Gumbel on On Achève Bien les Ecoliers.

Facebook CEO Zuckerberg to Donate $100 Million to Newark Schools - WSJ.com

Mark Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old founder and chief executive of Facebook Inc., plans to announce a donation of up to $100 million to the Newark schools this week, in a bold bid to improve one of the country's worst performing public school systems.

via online.wsj.com By BARBARA MARTINEZ And GEOFFREY A. FOWLER

Dégoûts d’école - Libération - Aujourd’hui, la Journée du refus de l’échec scolaire alerte sur un mal peu reconnu.

Un enfant qui pleure tous les matins en allant à l’école, un autre qui se plaint d’avoir mal au ventre, un ado qui ramène de mauvaises notes et dit «qu’il s’en fiche». Souvent, derrière ces signes se cache de la souffrance scolaire, un mal assez peu reconnu en France et qui, pourtant, peut faire des ravages. Cette année, l’Association de la fondation étudiante pour la ville (Afev) a choisi de consacrer la troisième édition de la Journée du refus de l’échec scolaire qui se tient aujourd’hui, à ce phénomène encore trop souvent nié. Pourtant, selon un rapport de 2009 de l’OCDE, la France est 22^e sur 25 concernant la qualité de vie à l’école, et deuxième pour le stress ressenti par les élèves, juste après le Japon…

via www.liberation.fr   Par VÉRONIQUE SOULÉ

On achève bien les écoliers - Le Cercle de Recherche et d'Action Pédagogiques et les Cahiers pédagogiques

On achève bien les écoliers

La recension du livre de Peter Gumbel suivie d’un entretien avec l’auteur

Dans l’ouvrage retentissant qu’il vient de publier, Peter Gumbel ose poser la question taboue du « bonheur à l’école ». Cela nous a donné envie d’aller plus loin avec lui. Le bonheur n’est-il pas une idée neuve dans l’école française ?

via www.cahiers-pedagogiques.com

extrait: 

 ...sans doute l’auteur met-il le doigt là où ça fait mal : le système éducatif français ne va pas bien, il accentue les écarts entre les « bons » et les « faibles » et ne cherche pas pour autant les solutions qui devraient s’imposer : développer la créativité, la confiance en soi, travailler sur des compétences à acquérir et non partir de lacunes qu’on n’arrive jamais à combler. Et en plus, on ne peut pas non plus dire qu’il fonctionne bien pour les meilleurs. Injuste et inefficace, cela fait beaucoup... --Jean-Michel Zakhartchouk dans Cahiers Pédagogiques 

Top of the class: How do you lure the cream of Britain's graduates into teaching in inner-city schools? - Schools, Education - The Independent

A question which organisation is the biggest recruiter of Oxbridge undergraduates? You might expect the answer would be Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers or a big City finance house. In fact, it is Teach First, the education charity set up to woo the country's brightest graduates into teaching in the country's most disadvantaged schools – if and only if they have not followed the traditional teacher-training path to the classroom. Currently, it mops up around 8 per cent of graduates from the two universities and is set for a massive expansion. Now it is planning to double its numbers.

via www.independent.co.uk

An Elite French University Creates an English-Language Campus - International - The Chronicle of Higher Education

The opening of the Reims campus, which offers most of its courses in English, marks the first time that a French higher-education institution has created a campus specifically focused on North American studies, and on attracting students from that part of the world, institute officials say.      via chronicle.com

The Reims campus, in eastern France, is the sixth outside of Paris to be opened by Sciences Po. Each of the institution's other regional outposts also has a specific geographic focus. The first branch campus, opened a decade ago in Nancy, has a Franco-German orientation, for example, while the one in Menton is focused on the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and the Persian Gulf. Sciences Po recruits internationally to give each campus, including its latest, a global flavor.  Richard Descoings, the longtime director of Sciences Po, says that the succession of campuses reflects an evolving notion of how a successful university must orient itself.  "Most universities in most countries are extremely nationally focused," he says. Only a handful have realized that, in order to train "the future global elite," they must turn their attention outward.  Read complete article in The Chronicle of Higher Education