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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

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.

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No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning

Wed, Apr 7, 2004

Abigail Thernstrom, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and Harvard historian Stephan Thernstrom, discuss their new book about the racial gap in academics.

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Meet the Poet: Dana Gioia

Tue, Feb 10, 2004

Dana Gioia speaks about the relationship between poetry and education. **Dana Gioia**, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, is an internationally-acclaimed poet. His books include *Can Poetry Matter?* and the award-winning poetry collection *Interrogations at Noon*. A teacher of writing at several colleges, Gioia founded "Teaching Poetry," a conference dedicated to improving high school teaching of poetry and the West Chester University Conference on Form and Narrative, the nation's largest annual all-poetry writing conference.

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Education for All

Tue, Oct 26, 2004

Fernando Reimers, associate professor of education at HGSE moderates this conversation on universal primary education. Panelists discuss why children across the world, particularly girls, children from poor societies, children who work, and children in conflict - do not have access to a basic education, why they should, and what's being done about it. Dean Ellen Condliffe Lagemann will introduce the distinguished speakers which include: Carol Bellamy, executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); Gene Sperling, director of the Center on Universal Education, Council on Foreign Relations; Vivien Stewart, vice president for Education, Asia Society; and Elaine Wolfensohn, World Bank.

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Consuming Kids: Hostile Takeover

Wed, Oct 13, 2004

Susan Linn, instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and associate director of the Media Center at Judge Baker Children's Center, discusses how all aspects of children's lives, including their health, education, creativity, and values, are at risk of being compromised by their status in the marketplace. Interweaving real-life stories of marketing to children, child development theory, and the latest research, Linn reveals the magnitude of this problem and show what can be done about it.

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Adequate and Equitable School Funding

Tue, Nov 16, 2004

This discussion addresses the question of adequate and equitable school funding, an issue that has been debated and extensively litigated in Massachusetts and other states across the nation for many years. Panelists include *Sacramento Bee* education columnist Peter Schrag. Schrag presents findings from his latest book, *Final Test: The Battle for Adequacy in America's Schools*; Michael Rebell, executive director of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, successful plaintiffs in the New York state suit to secure adequate resources for students in New York City; and Robert Costrell, chief economist for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the Executive Office for Administration and Finance. The panel is moderated by Robert Schwartz, Harvard Graduate School of Education lecturer on education, and former president of Achieve, Inc., an independent, bipartisan, nonprofit organization created by governors and corporate leaders to help states improve their schools.

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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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Edmund Barry Gaither on Art History and Curation

Wed, Apr 10, 2002

Art historian and curator Edmund Barry Gaither discusses his work at the Museum of the National Center for Afro-American Artists. This lecture is part of the Arts in Education Program's John Landrum Bryant Lecture Performance Series.

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Learning Through Music: A Model for Arts Integration

Thu, Nov 7, 2002

Lawrence Scripp explores music as a medium and model for interdisciplinary teaching and learning. Contemporary educators and researchers have been interested in the possible links between the learning students do in music and learning across the curriculum. Using music as a point of departure, Scripp discusses the innovations and controversies with regard to early development of symbol system skills (literacy in music, math, and reading); arts-integrated teaching and learning processes; research in music and learning transfer; and a "design standards" approach for the development of research-based interdisciplinary music curricula and assessment practices in public schools. This lecture is part of the Arts in Education Program's John Landrum Bryant Lecture Performance Series.

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