Dr. Gary Ackerman

Rationalizing isn’t substantiating.

Well... at least rational folks see the difference.

In my experience, lectures can be made more interesting and interactive, yet they rarely are.

“We need to do this thing in schools.”

Yeah… there’s no evidence it helps.

“All the more reason!”

I can’t imagine being so afraid of being wrong that I would not change my mind.

I’m cleaning out files, including high school research papers from the 1980s. I remember my teachers telling us “you need to know how do footnotes.”

No. No, we did not.

One way to be sure I’ll never vote for you is aligning yourself with those who want to ban books.

Should teachers abandon the presentations that accompany their textbooks in favor of those created by AI?

“We’ll get to it as soon as I tell them all the basics they need” contains a condition that is never met.

I’ve worked in schools for 35+ years. Leaders who assign blame are familiar to me. Very familiar.

“People don’t trust x” and “x isn’t accurate” are not the same.

“Can someone help me find the research supporting this widely used teaching practice? I can’t find it.”

That’s because it doesn’t exist.

I’ve been in education since 1988. I knew their parents. I knew their grandparents. It isn’t young people.

I’m convinced there are two kinds of knowledge:

Things we know when tested in the classroom.

Things we use to solve pragmatic, critical, creative problems.

They are not the same. One doesn’t matter.

#education #teaching

When I taught math, I’d show my students my 4th grade report card with the D in math. I’d also show them the Cs in writing, then the books I’d written.

Clear definitions are great, especially when doing science. They are, however, things we impose on nature and they can start meaningless arguments.

If you are a leader who does not pay attention during presentations, especially those being made by your members, you lose all credibility.

“With a bit of imagination, nothing can be truly anomalous.” -Stephen Jay Gould

The fact that science has proven itself wrong is not evidence that pseudoscience is correct.

“Numbers do not guarantee truth.” -Stephen Jay Gould

Students often don’t find resume writing workshops valuable because they recognize there is too little for them to add. But advisers don’t let that stop them.

Note to leaders: if you want to understand the article, you need to read more than the title.

“I have an open door policy” is leader speak for “if you have a problem, I’ll be busy.”

“Students have the right to do anything.”
“Students must follow our rules without exception.”

Reality, and functional schools, lies between those extremes.

One thing I have learned over 35+ years in education is how to spot attempts to pull me into conflicts and how to avoid reacting when someone tries.

Some problems are mine alone. Others are solve with my team. Yet others, I assist in solving. But there are some that are not mine.

Differentiating them is essential to being a productive worker.

It’s one thing to find literature that supports your view, but you research doesn’t begin until you read that which does not support your view.

There is no one more expert than a person asked to join a committee whose work marginally on a topic about which they know nothing.

In my experience, once educators understand students and how to put them at the center of teaching, they changes their practices in an irreversible way.

Meaningful feedback from some lessons can be automated, for other lessons it cannot. If you lessons don’t include both, you are missing the point.

The fact a large part of society has been convinced to abandon science with devastating effects is going to be what the early 21st century is known for.