Getting Ahead in School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out.. Students"

Parents Forum
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<p>As some of you know may know... many colleges offer [video and audio] lectures to download for free (Berkeley, OpenCourseWare from MIT, etc)...</p>

<p>Stanford offers some pretty interesting lectures through iTunes (for free)...</p>

<p>I encourage you guys to download the lecture "Getting Ahead in School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students" by Denise Clark</p>

<p>You can get it at <a href="http://itunes.stanford.edu/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://itunes.stanford.edu/&lt;/a> from the "Faculty Lectures" section.</p>

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<p>I have been listening to some of the itunes "lectures" and just finished up listening to your suggestion. Thank you for directing me to it. I am going to pass it on to our staff. I recommend it also to the CC crew. Food for thought.</p>

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<p>Wow, Stanford on iTunes is amazing.</p>

<p>I've been listening to a lot of the politics-related things for a class...hot stuff!</p>

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<p>Yes it is and the MIT opencourseware is also very good for things like physics and psychology.</p>

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<p>I believe podcasts are with us for good! As one who can't run over to a good local college for a class or two, the learning materials online via podcasts like on the Stanford site are a way to keep up with discussions that are taking place on colleges around the country.</p>

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<p>How many of these lectures allow non-students to listen? I mean I don't attend any of those top-tier colleges, but which allow students to do that?</p>

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<p>Many do. I listened to a lecture from a Harvard class last week with the video. Just find the podcasts. If you have itunes, they are available there. If you don't have it you can download it for free. It organizes all the podcasts online and it is like a "lending library." It is purely wonderful.</p>

<p>Theonekid, Does the kind of cheating described by the Stanford lecturer occur where you attend school? How right on was she about the students' lives. Do you feel it is an accurate portrayal? I am a teacher overseas and I could relate to some of it and not to other parts. It is done, I know that. What do you think if you don't mind?</p>

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<p>I liked the talk by Fred Hargadon, former admissions director at Princeton and Stanford. The perspective provided was pretty good and he was fairly amusing.</p>

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<p>Overseas,</p>

<p>I have been debating (with myself) about purchasing an I-POD. I teach an online course and am thinking about podcasting my lectures. Do you really think I-PODs are here to stay? I have never used one. How is the sound quality? Is the audio easy to upload? What size do you recommend? THANKS!</p>

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<p>I don't have an ipod. I download everything onto my computer and listen and watch. I think the concept is here to stay. The sound quality is great when I have used my son's old ipod. I am sure others actually have the ipods and can speak about them. I am not challenged by anything on the computer and make films with students and use garageband etc. But I am not used to carrying around these portable devices including cell phones with the same capabilities. I am training myself right now! : )</p>

<p>Uploading the audio if it is anything like when I do my video work must be a breeze. Nothing to it. I believe if you learn to use garageband the audio will come out fine. Audio is tricky. If you listen to some podcasts you will notice that some audio is better than others. It is very important. So it is a learning curve but I believe your students would use the site you develop and benefit from it.</p>

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<p>Hi Overseas,
Thank you so much for the info. I will PM you with some questions about video because I don't want to hijack this thread :-)</p>

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<p>I would say that she figured out a lot of the things kids in every school with an Honors, AP or IB curriculum do (my friend and I were surprised of how accurate she was on some of the things we observe every day, it is pretty disturbing); I really believe most adults are unaware of most of the things she mentioned and this should change. In fact, some of the "techniques" I've never even heard of myself (e.g. photocopying pages of the book). Most kids might like a few classes here and there, but most dislike all of their classes and are really "playing [the game of HS] school".</p>

<p>As far as the lectures go:
/*******************************************************/</p>

<p>I especially like the MIT audio lectures because you can put them on any mp3 player (since they are already in mp3 format) and listen to them on the go-- if you have never taken psychology, I strongly suggest listening to the intro lecture set: (<a href="http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Brain-and-Cognitive-Sciences/9-00Fall-2004/CourseHome/index.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Brain-and-Cognitive-Sciences/9-00Fall-2004/CourseHome/index.htm&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p>

<p>I've found the intro physics lecture set to be really amazing (video); Prof. Walter Lewin really is a great teacher (<a href="http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-01Physics-IFall1999/CourseHome/index.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-01Physics-IFall1999/CourseHome/index.htm&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p>

<h2>MIT</h2>

<p>(Simply search the opencourseware site for "audio" to get a list of all the audio and video lectures: <a href="http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p>

<p>Many more amazing things over at mitworld (e.g.: Prof. Walter Lewin on Education: “How to Make Teaching Come Alive” <a href="http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/33/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/33/&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p>

<p>General MIT World:
<a href="http://mitworld.mit.edu/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://mitworld.mit.edu/&lt;/a> </p>

<p>"MIT World™ is a free and open site that provides on-demand video of significant public events at MIT."</p>

<p>More free lectures: </p>

<h2>Berkeley:</h2>

<p><a href="http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses/feeds.php%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses/feeds.php&lt;/a>
Or <a href="http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<h2>Harvard: </h2>

<p>General: <a href="http://athome.harvard.edu/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://athome.harvard.edu/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Computer Science:
<a href="http://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Ecscie1/?page=podcast&type=static%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~cscie1/?page=podcast&type=static&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<h2>More on Stanford: </h2>

<p>Sort of like a lecture: <a href="http://french-italian.stanford.edu/opinions/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://french-italian.stanford.edu/opinions/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<ul>
<li>"Entitled Opinions (about Life and Literature) - hosted by Professor Robert Harrison - is a weekly literary talk show that ranges broadly on issues related to literature, ideas, and lived experience."</li>
</ul>

<p>There are other ‘major’ schools that do this, I’m sorry but I have forgotten which do.</p>

<p>// I hope this is helpful!</p>

<p>PS: I have heard the ipod video can lag/hang a bit.</p>

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<p>The internet is full of wonders, I should have mentioned that there are many Winamp SHOUTCast broadcasts that are pretty interesting too...</p>

<p>And for those of you who are fond of Prof. Noam Chomsky, I hope you are aware that there are a ton of his speeches and lectures all over the internet: <a href="http://www.chomsky.info/audionvideo.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.chomsky.info/audionvideo.htm&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.zmag.org/Chomsky/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.zmag.org/Chomsky/&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.chomskytorrents.org/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.chomskytorrents.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>I listened to her lecture this morning. I am a parent and I found it pretty accurate. The thing that surprised me a bit was the extent of the grade grubbing and the cheating.</p>

<p>I think it will move things in the direction of more standardized testing because it is easier to implement. Though her recommendation is quite the opposite.</p>

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<p>Theonekid, thanks very much for starting this thread. I have now downloaded I-Tunes and am listening to William Devant a professor of Stanford talk about sleep disorders. </p>

<p>You provided great links.</p>

<p>Let me encourage you to add as many links as you want.</p>

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<p>TOK, thank you for posting this thread. This is a great use of the technology.</p>

<p>Two thumbs up!</p>

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<p>Eagle: I must admit that I myself have found group projects, like she describes,... to be the most fun and effective.... but often "social loafing" might take place... so you have to be very careful you dont fall victim to it.</p>

<hr>

<p>I'm glad you guys have enjoyed these.... </p>

<p>Hopefully one day more people will start pushing for change.....
I'm just so happy to be able to watch these lectures, I've always belived you can learn [pretty much anything] on your own if you really want to.... without even attending college.... these lectures give a new meaning to this idea =-P</p>

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<p>Theonekid, my son kind of let me know some of the things that were going on. He graduated from HS last year. He is not a grade grubber and I have always thought it was to his detriment. He got kicked out of class one day since the teacher asked him if he had done the reading and he was truthful and said no. When he told me later, he also added well, no one else had. They just kept quiet. But in the end he got the highest IB marks in his whole class! Funny thing, the teachers just couldn't figure it all out. Nothing is as it seems. </p>

<p>Anyway, listening to that lecture that you provided the links to and hearing about the kid in the study who was more truthful...I thought of my son and how I never really appreciated his honesty nor did anyone else. The grade grubbing behaviors were more valued. And I thought, what a disservice in schools for the adults/teachers to be so stupid about what is really going on.</p>

<p>Thanks for the other links! I will pass them on.</p>

<p>dstark, I listened to the one on the railroad....I am a western history buff!</p>

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<p>This is a summary from the Stanford professor's lecture on stressed out kids.</p>

<p>One interesting thing is students cheat more than ever, especially the best students. Students will do whatever it takes to succeed. Success means great grades which leads to acceptances to great colleges which leads to making lots of money.</p>

<p>Kiss-asses get better grades than other kids.</p>

<p>Kids are overworked. </p>

<p>Kids are sleep deprived.</p>

<p>Kids believe that if they aren't a success in school they will fail in life. Kids believe they will be flipping burgers if they don't go to certain schools.</p>

<p>Successful kids are depressed even when they get into colleges the want to go to. They are depressed at the colleges. </p>

<p>Schools are putting more stress on students than society puts on workers.</p>

<p>Kids can only eat on a schedule.</p>

<p>No time for kids to reflect on what they are actually doing.</p>

<p>The curriculum doesn't reflect what kids want to learn. Everything is about the grades.</p>

<p>Schools only emphasize a small amount of the intelligences that exist. Math and verbal skills. </p>

<p>Competition between kids is intense and students lie to each other. </p>

<p>Kids think where they go to school affects how much they are going to make and how much a person makes determines how successful a person is.</p>

<p>Students should be told that success is being happy, healthy and well-rounded.</p>

<p>We have to be OK with our own kids going to no-name schools.</p>

<p>Credential based communities are hurting our kids and getting a credential is not the recipe for success.</p>

<p>Stanford and MIT are trying to change their admission policies. They don't want kids taking 10 APs and killing themselves.</p>

<p>When kids work on real life issues, they actually enjoy the work and grades become less important.</p>

<p>There is a MISCONCEPTION. After 1 or 2 years after graduating, society becomes merit based. It is the kid, not the school that determines success.</p>

<p>The home and school are training bright kids from a very early age to be overachievers.</p>

<p>We should be looking at the whole child.</p>

<p>Denise Clark Pope is the professor.</p>

<p>Overseas, I am going to listen to the lecture about railroads. Sounds good.</p>

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<p>theonekid said, "Hopefully one day more people will start pushing for change.....
I'm just so happy to be able to watch these lectures, I've always belived you can learn [pretty much anything] on your own if you really want to.... without even attending college.... these lectures give a new meaning to this idea =-P"</p>

<p>That kind of talk isn't allowed on CC.</p>