The Daily Riff - BE SMARTER. ABOUT EDUCATION.

When Was the Last Time You Shadowed Your Child-Tween-Teen in School for a Day?

"It is a grim experience." - Grant Wiggins responds to a John Merrow post about the Saving Our Schools Rally Read more

The 3 Myths about Competition: How it affects student motivation

"When 85% of school is built around competition . . " Read more

Ten To-Do's for Young People to Consider

#1 - Build a "Personal Board of Directors" Read more

Is Learning a Sport?

Students should not go to school to win - students should go to school to learn. Read more

Harry Potter Dissed by Oscars. Video - Humor.

Videos: Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes : How It Should Have Ended Read more

Santorum on ABC's This Week w/George Stephanopoulos

Higher education as indoctrination machines for liberalism & what makes him want to "throw up" Read more

Passion-Based High School vs. High School Boredom: Choose

"We cannot afford to tweak around the edges" ----Dennis Littky, co-founder Big Picture Learning, New TedxNY Talk Read more

Jon Stewart & Arne Duncan: Two Different Conversations

Last night on The Daily Show, Sec'y of Education Arne Duncan joins Jon Stewart. Video. Read more

TEENS -- A LOST GENERATION? NOT SO FAST.

Over 14 million views - "brilliant" video - under two minutes Read more

Say 'No' to the Greek Chorus

"The mess, the mess! . . . an engraved invitation to transformation. . . Certainty is dead. . ." Read more

Have The Jetsons Arrived?

From "Connect A Million Minds" Initiative - 3 Minute Video. Read more

Michelle Obama beats Jimmy Fallon in White House Race

Video--- FLOTUS Michelle Obama takes on Fallon to promote her Let's Move initiative. Read more

The Dark Side of Our Achievement Culture

New "Race To Nowhere" Trailer Video Read more

"It's Disengagement, Stupid"

The 10 Essential Rules for Engagement Read more

Is This The Best High School in America?

WATCH: How These Six Minutes May Change Your Idea of Innovative Education (dramatically). Phillips Exeter, Harvard Westlake & Lawrenceville may be taking notes from this charter school leading the next wave. Does your High School look anything like it? Read more

Noam Chomsky: The Purpose of Education

"Education is really aimed at helping students get to the point where they can learn on their own. . . " Read more

21st Century Skills: A "thorny problem" in the classroom

. . . .most high schools' science "experiments" are really "demonstrations," because they are "rigged" for the right answer, thereby disqualifying them as true experiments where outcomes are unknown. Read more

A Wild Conversation with Maurice Sendak

"There's something in this country that is so opposed to understandingthe complexity of children."-Maurice Sendak, author, Where the Wild Things AreStephen Colbert and Maurice Sendak sit down for a interview.  Not for children. Humor.            ... Read more

Three Young Women Wow Crowd at TEDx

" . . .making my own opportunities when I didn't even know what I was doing." Read more

What Color is My World? by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

African-American Inventors & Innovators: MSNBC Morning Joe video Read more

"I can write a 20-page research paper and my roommate can't .."

It's an amazing skill. Also, they feel more comfortable talking. They report they are participating in class discussions and backing up what they say with evidence and that they feel very comfortable in their first year of college. It's amazing how often we hear from college profs and job recruiters how these skills - writing, communicating, researching and supporting an argument in-depth - are lacking, even from "A" students. A disconnect of assessment, one would think. Read more