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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

Chinese in America: A Narrative History

Thu, May 1, 2003

Iris Chang, author of *Thread of the Silkworm* and *The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II*, an account of Japanese war crimes in Nanking, China, speaks about her latest book, *The Chinese in America: A Narrative History*.

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A Nation Reformed or a Nation at Risk?

Wed, Feb 19, 2003

This discussion, led by some of the contributors to the recently published book, *A Nation Reformed?*, in response to the 20th anniversary of the release of *A Nation at Risk*, focuses on the educational gains and losses of the last 20 years. The panel is moderated by the book's editor, David Gordon, and includes Timothy Knowles, deputy superintendent for the Boston Public Schools; Kim Marshall, former principal of Boston's Mather Elementary School, now with New Leaders for New Schools; Jeff Howard, founder and chair of the Efficacy Institute; and Gerald Holton, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Professor of the History of Science Emeritus, Harvard University, and a member of the National Commission on Excellence in Education which produced *A Nation at Risk*.

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Another World: Alternative Ways to Globalization

Fri, Feb 28, 2003

Panelists explore alternative and constructive pathways to globalization in "Another World Is Possible", the culminating forum of the Student Research Conference. Speakers include Noam Chomsky, Professor of Linguistics at MIT, Mel King, former Massachusetts State Representative, Carolina Contraras, Somerville High School Atrevete organizer, Dayanna Fernandez, Somerville High School Atrevete organizer, Leonida Zurita Vargas, Quechua Community organizer from Rural Bolivia, and moderator Melissa Chabran, student 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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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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Paradigm Spinning: Artists as Agents of Social Change

Wed, Mar 14, 2001

Suzi Gablik departs from what she calls "the faded ethos of modernism," and explains why she sees artists as agents of social change. 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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Blue Guitars: Arts and Aesthetics in Learning

Tue, May 4, 1999

Maxine Greene, professor emerita of philosophy and education and director of the Center for Social Imagination at Columbia University, shares her vision of the power of the arts in education to transform student indifference into a state of wide-awakeness. This lecture is part of the Arts in Education Program's John Landrum Bryant Lecture Performance Series.

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Holding the Truth: Reflections of a Navajo Artist

Thu, Feb 24, 2000

Melanie Yazzie, contemporary Navajo multimedia artist, and visiting professor at the University of Arizona, gives a lecture and slideshow on "Holding the Truth: The Personal and Political in Art." This event iss co-sponsored by the Harvard Native American Program. **Melanie Yazzie** is a Dine (Navajo) artist of the salt and bitter water clans. Yazzie works in a variety of media including prints and ceramics, among others. Through her installations, she examines both internal and external influences on Native people. For instance, neither the cloth in the Dine skirts nor Blue Bird flower are indigenous to the Dine people, but after being filtered through the hearts and hands of one of its women, they become synonymous with it. The monotype is another example of art that challenges Native portrayal in the dominant culture. By using the personal example of her own family, Yazzie presents real portrayal of Native culture, without idealizing, degrading or commercializing it.

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