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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

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.

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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.

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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.

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Meet the Poet: Billy Collins

Thu, Dec 12, 2002

In this intimate discussion, Billy Collins shares his thoughts on poetry as well as select readings from his works.

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Baudolino: Lying About the Future Produces History

Tue, Oct 15, 2002

Umberto Eco, author of *The Name of the Rose*, speaks about his latest book, *Baudolino*.

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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.

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Lessons from the Child Witness to Violence Project

Thu, Mar 14, 2002

Betsy McAlister Groves, founder of the nationally recognized Child Witness to Violence Project at Boston Medical Center, dramatically disproves the myth that very young children are not affected by violence. Drawing on her experiences with the project, Groves contends that many children in the US witness violence at home, in school and on television, and that adults can, and should, help these children cope with their reactions.

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Keeping Hope Alive: New Era of Youth Civic Engagement

Wed, Feb 25, 2009

Thinkers and practitioners from the worlds of research, policy, media and technology, politics, youth organizing, and schools discuss the causes and consequences of recent trends in youth civic engagement. The panel considers how youth can become further civically engaged and empowered. As we enter a new era of civic opportunity, this is the ideal time to reflect on how young people's increasing civic awareness and involvement can be further nurtured and fostered. At the same time, we must also consider how the circle of civic engagement can be expanded to include those youth who currently remain disengaged and/or disempowered. To these ends, Askwith Education Forum participants discuss such issues as who is involved (e.g. college-educated vs. other youth), how youth get involved (e.g. school vs. youth organizing vs. technology-mediated opportunities), and what the implications are for the future of youth civic empowerment. Speakers include: Peter Levine, director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE); Joe Kahne, professor of education at Mills College; and Miriam Martinez, youth education council director for the Mikva Challenge. Howard Gardner, professor of cognition and education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, introduces and moderates the forum. This forum is co-sponsored with the Civic and Moral Education Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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Answering Only to God: Faith and Freedom in Iran

Tue, Apr 15, 2003

Jonathan Lyons discusses his book Answering Only to God: Faith and Freedom in Twenty-First-Century Iran.

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Language Police: Restricting What We learn

Tue, May 6, 2003

Diane Ravitch discusses her latest book The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn. Ravitch maintains that America's students are compelled to read texts that have been censored by publishers who willingly cut controversial material from their books. Her book documents the existence of an elaborate and well established protocol of beneficent censorship, quietly endorsed and implemented by test makers and textbook publishers, states, and the federal government. School boards and sensitivity committees review, abridge, and modify texts to delete potentially offensive words, topics, and imagery. Publishers practice self-censorship to sell books in big states.

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