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Free online lectures: Explore a world of ideas

Funding provided by:

Harvard Graduate School of Education

The Askwith Education Forum, at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is endowed through the generosity of Patricia Askwith Kenner and other members of the Askwith family, and acts as a galvanizing force for debate and conversation about education in its narrowest and broadest perspectives. Each year, the Forum welcomes a number of prominent people from diverse fields to speak about issues relevant to education and children. Recent topics have included immigration, values, affirmative action, education reform, and the arts. All of these events are free and open to the public.break

http://www.gse.harvard.edu/askwith

Boston Youth Question the Value of the U.S. Educational System

Tue, Apr 18, 2017

A group of community organizers and students met in a classroom in Harvard's Graduate School of Education to speak with aspiring educators. The question they raised: _Are We Being Educated or Incarcerated?_ "There's too much emphasis on behavioral class management and curriculum development. As a result of such, there's very little engagement and relationship development between teachers and students. Consequently, our urban youth of color are not being effectively educated; they are being mentally colonized, marginalized, and incarcerated." — Emdin (2016) and Quiceno (2017) This discussion gave some youth an opportunity to share with Harvard students and education professionals their personal narratives about the disciplinary issues they have encountered within the public and charter school system. They also offered some recommendations to dismantle the "school-to-prison pipeline".

Boston Talks About Racism

Partner:

Harvard Graduate School of Education
Artists As Activists: Muslim Women Artists

Tue, Feb 11, 2003

Munir Jiwa discusses his current research, entitled: *Toward an Anthropology of Islam: Visual Arts and the Construction of Muslim Identities in the USA*. This lecture is part of the Arts in Education Program's John Landrum Bryant Lecture Performance Series. **Munir Jiwa** teaches at the New School University in the areas of anthropology and religion with a focus on the arts, museums, media, and material culture. He consults globally on the subject of Islamic affairs and communications.

Forum Network

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Harvard Graduate School of Education
Passionate Teacher, Passionate Learner

Thu, Feb 7, 2002

Robert Fried suggests that every teacher could be a passionate teacher, one who engages young people in the excitement of learning and ideas, if teaching were not being undermined by the ways we "do business" in schools. *The Passionate Teacher and Passionate Learner* draws on the voices, stories, and success of teachers in urban, suburban, and rural classrooms to provide a guide to becoming - and remaining - a passionate teacher, despite day-to-day obstacles. Following the success of *The Passionate Teacher: A Practical Guide*, Robert Fried's new book is an inspirational and practical guide to reclaiming students' passionate engagement in learning. All preschool children are passionate, curious learners. Somewhere along the way many, many kids become alienated from the passion for learning. Deborah Meier, principal of Mission Hill pilot school in Boston, author, and education reformer, provides commentary.

Forum Network

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Harvard Graduate School of Education
Lessons from Japanese and Chinese Education

Wed, Mar 13, 2002

James Stigler, co-author of *The Teaching Gap: Best Ideas from the World's Teachers for Improving Education in the Classroom* and *The Learning Gap: Why Our Schools Are Failing and What We Can Learn from Japanese and Chinese Education*, speaks about his understanding of teaching and learning based on his research of math education in the United States, China, and Japan.

Forum Network

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Harvard Graduate School of Education
In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning

Mon, Oct 28, 2002

Deborah Meier discusses her new book, *In Schools We Trust: Creating Communities of Learning in an Era of Testing and Standardization*, which explores how we can restore faith in our schools in an age of standardized testing and curricula. In a multi-layered exploration of ways to engender trust between parents and teachers, between teachers and students, and among diverse ethnic groups, she traces the success stories of small public schools that she and her colleagues have created in Boston and New York. How do we create a dynamic where teachers and students are trusted to use their own judgment in education? Are standardized tests ever appropriate? She probes these, and other, provocative questions in this lively discussion.

Forum Network

Partner:

Harvard Graduate School of Education
Steven Pinker: Modern Denial of Human Nature

Thu, Nov 14, 2002

Steven Pinker, the Peter de Florez Professor of Psychology at MIT and author of How the Mind Works and The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language, discusses his latest book, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature. Steven Pinker explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. He shows how many intellectuals have denied the existence of human nature by embracing three linked dogmas: the blank slate (the mind has no innate traits), the noble savage (people are born good and corrupted by society), and the ghost in the machine (each of us has a soul that makes choices free from biology). Pinker tries to inject calm and rationality into these debates by showing that equality, progress, responsibility, and purpose have nothing to fear from discoveries about rich human nature. He claims that the blank slate concept denies our common humanity and our individual preferences, replaces hardheaded analyzes of social problems with feel-good slogans, and distorts our understanding of government, violence, parenting, and the arts.

Forum Network

Partner:

Harvard Graduate School of Education
Privatization and the Public Good?

Wed, Dec 4, 2002

Martha Minow, Harvard Law School professor, discusses her book, *Partners, Not Rivals: Privatization and the Public Good*, and explores what happens when private companies, nonprofit agencies, and religious groups, instead of government, manage education, criminal justice, legal services, and welfare programs. She is joined by John F. Kennedy School of Government faculty member Mark Moore, director of the Hauser Center for Non-Profit Organizations, and the Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice Policy and Public Management. Gary Orfield, Harvard Graduate School of Education, professor of education and social policy, introduces these distinguished guests. This event was co-sponsored by the Harvard Children's Initiative.

Forum Network

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Harvard Graduate School of Education
Educating for Human Rights and Global Competency

Tue, Feb 10, 2009

Felisa Tibbitts, of Human Rights Education Associates, and Ed Gragert, of the International Educational Resource Network (iEARN), examine the relationship of Human Rights Education and Global Competency. Sixty years ago, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As the world has become more integrated, human rights have become increasingly helpful as a moral compass to guide global competency. The discussants address a variety of approaches to human rights education, what is known and not known about their effects, and the implementation challenges to universalizing Human Rights Education. Fernando Reimers, Ford Foundation Professor of International Education and Director International Education Policy Program provides the introduction and moderation for this forum.

Forum Network

Partner:

Harvard Graduate School of Education
Yes We Can: Closing the Achievement Gaps

Tue, Mar 10, 2009

The authors of three recent books address how closing racial achievement gaps is indeed possible.

Forum Network

Partner:

Harvard Graduate School of Education
Stanley Kaplan: Democratizing American Achievement

Tue, Apr 23, 2002

Stanley Kaplan discusses how the knowledge and skills to triumph in education can be taught to any and all students.

Forum Network

Partner:

Harvard Graduate School of Education