Author: EdwardBerger

  • EVALUATE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF YOUR SCHOOLS AND TEACHING METHODS

    Are your educational approaches and your evaluation procedures based upon competition and not collaboration and cooperation? Do you focus on data-driven, right or wrong regurgitation of what you believe is important? Is there a class valedictorian and models of achievement that all students are expected to conform to? If so, your class or school is…

  • FINDING LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

    Thumb Butte seems to be waiting for heavy wet snow this morning. Some of its cracks and crevices are already highlighted by tendrils of white. The sun is hidden behind thick clouds that moved in during the night. They reflect the rays of sunlight away from the land and hopeful thoughts of warmth. The town…

  • REFLECTIONS

    In a weekly Zoom meeting with fellow educator Dan Kenley, I had the incentive to think back into the ‘50s when I started forming my educational philosophy. In 1961 I began teaching social studies at Cherry Creek High School near Denver. I had just graduated from Colorado State College of Education and was certified to…

  • WHY IS WOKE DANGEROUS?

    First and foremost, a “woke” populus scares the stuffing out of grifter politicians. Imagine trying to convince people to ignore facts and buy a skewed version of truth? Our last president lied to the American people over 30,000 times. Unfortunately, his ongoing popularity also proves that for a sizable number of people, lying does not…

  • FALSE BELIEFS ABOUT THE NATIONAL DEBT

    Tune in to anyone ranting about the national debt and you will hear a load of bull about how it will destroy our children’s futures. Their words are meant to convey that spending on programs like Social Security, Medicare, or any type of program that helps citizens survive and prosper, is bad. Their arguments may…

  • THE WHACK-A-MOLE SYSTEM THE FEDERAL RESERVE USES TO CONTROL INFLATION

    The Federal Reserve’s policies of raising interest rates to slow down the economy increases the cost of goods and services including food, clothing, shelter, and jobs. Middle-class Americans and the poor are already desperately struggling to survive in our economic system. Higher interest rates have added to escalating rates of child poverty, hunger, the destruction…

  • GREED AND POWER CREATED A SYSTEM THAT BLOCKS ADVANCEMENT

    When I was visiting schools in India, rich and powerful people were afraid of an educated populace who would demand a say in how the country was run, and want a piece of the economic pie. They worried that educated people would take their power. In the USA, there were similar concerns directed at the…

  • AMERICA MUST UPDATE ITS FLAWED GOVERNANCE

    The United States of America—We the People—must update our governmental systems or we will not be a democracy that reflects the will of the people. There is conclusive evidence that the system of government we practice now has been undermined and compromised. The world we live in today, is radically different than that of the…

  • RETHINKING THE NEED FOR TRADITIONAL EDUCATION

    My sons love to travel, explore and learn about different cultures. Recently, they were in central Asia. When they arrived in Kazakhstan, one of the first things they did was buy SIM cards for their iPhones. Then, they accessed a translation app that allowed them to use their devices to read signs and carry-on multi-lingual…

  • REBUILDING OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM

    In 2018, I was regularly blogging about issues with the American school system. I was also keeping up with advancements in Artificial Intelligence that were seen, at that time, as new tools that teachers and industries could use. As I learned more about AI, as I read Yuval Noah Harari, Max Tegmark, articles in Wired…