Editorial Staff

Will Fitzhugh on the Enduring Relevance of History Research & Writing

/0 Comments/in , , /by Editorial Staff
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

Will Fitzhugh, founder and editor of The Concord Review, an international journal that has published high school students’ history essays for 30 years, joins “The Learning Curve” this week. He discusses the importance of assigning serious history research and writing, and reading non-fiction, in K-12 education. Will describes the diverse backgrounds and successful college and career paths of some of the students published in The Concord Review.

Stories of the Year: New Orleans became the first city in the U.S. to convert all of its district schools to charters – with promising student achievement results. A new California bill will make it illegal for public schools to suspend disruptive students in grades K-8. Will this experiment address overreliance on punishment in the classroom, and racial imbalances in school discipline? A U.S. News story found that 20 percent of federal Title I funding meant for low-income, rural students instead went to larger urban districts with a higher proportion of wealthy families.

Newsmaker Interview:

Will Fitzhugh is the founder of The Concord Review. In well over 100 issues since 1987, the Review has thus far published nearly 1,300 history essays, averaging 8,500 words, by students from 45 states and 40 foreign countries. The Concord Review’s student authors most often attend Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, and other Ivy League colleges. Will earned a bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Harvard.

The next episode will air on January 3rd, with guest, Lance Izumi, senior director of the Center for Education at the Pacific Research Institute and author of the book, Choosing Diversity: How Charter Schools Promote Diverse Learning Models and Meet the Diverse Needs of Parents and Children.

News links:

The Lens: “New Orleans Quietly Becomes First Major American City without Traditional District Schools”

The Sacramento Bee: California Bans Schools from Suspending Disruptive Kids

U.S. News: Congressionally Mandated Report Confirms Much of Federal Education Funding Is Wastefully Spent and Unfairly Allocated

Recent Episodes:

UCLA’s Prof. James Stigler on Teaching & Learning Math

Professor Stigler discusses the enduring teaching and learning challenges in U.S. STEM education, international student achievement, math pedagogy debates, and international standardized tests. He explains possible strategies for mitigating COVID-19-related learning loss.

UK’s Laura Thompson on Agatha Christie, Queen of Crime Mystery

In this week's episode of The Learning Curve, guest co-hosts Mariam Memarsadeghi and Mary Connaughton interview Laura Thompson, author of "Agatha Christie: A Mysterious Life." Ms. Thompson discusses into Agatha Christie's life, her iconic characters, and her impact on the mystery genre, including adaptations of her works in film and theater, as well as her mysterious 1926 disappearance. The interview concludes with a reading from Thompson's biography of Agatha Christie.

John Steele Gordon on America’s Economic Rise

This week on The Learning Curve, guest co-hosts Charlie Chieppo and Derrell Bradford interview John Steele Gordon, the author of 10 books on business, economic, and technology history. They discuss the keys to America’s transformation into the world’s foremost economic power and its economic prospects for competitiveness in the twenty-first century.

Dr. Ramachandra Guha on Gandhi’s Enduring Legacy

This week on The Learning Curve, guest co-hosts Charlie Chieppo and Mariam Memarsadeghi interview writer and biographer Dr. Ramachandra Guha. The author of the definitive two-volume biography of Mohandas K. Gandhi, Guha discusses Gandhi’s formative educational experiences, spirituality, political leadership, and philosophy of nonviolent resistance.

Paul Vallas on Chicago, School Reform, and Teachers’ Unions

This week on The Learning Curve, guest co-hosts Charlie Chieppo and Mary Tamer, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform, Massachusetts, speak with Paul Vallas, former CEO of the Chicago Public Schools and a candidate for mayor of that city earlier this year.

U-Ark. Prof. Albert Cheng on Classical Education & School Choice

This week on The Learning Curve, guest co-hosts Charlie Chieppo and Alisha Searcy speak with Albert Cheng, an Assistant Professor at the Department of Education Reform in the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Arkansas. Professor Cheng talks about the importance of classical education for guiding educational philosophy and practice and shaping the character of students.

Professor Jay Parini on Thirteen Books That Changed America

This week on The Learning Curve, Jay Parini, Professor of English and Creative Writing at Middlebury College, discusses his book Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America, detailing how William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation, The Federalist Papers, and the works of Thoreau, Stowe, Twain, Du Bois, and others have shaped the American mind, character, and identity.

Colossal Academy’s Shiren Rattigan on Microschools and School Choice

This week on The Learning Curve, guest co-hosts Charlie Chieppo and Kendra Espinoza interview Shiren Rattigan of Colossal Academy, a microschool in Florida. They discuss how Shiren became interested in K-12 education and how and why the COVID-19 pandemic led to her founding a microschool.

U.K. Cambridge’s Prof. David Abulafia on Oceans, Seas, & Global Trade

This week on The Learning Curve, Professor David Abulafia from Cambridge University discusses the many roles of the world’s oceans in human history and trade. He focuses on how the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans, along with the Mediterranean Sea, have spurred the rise of civilizations. He concludes with a reading from his book The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans.