Clair Berube - Böcker

American science education is in trouble. As the United States continues to lag behind other nations in science achievement, the question is asked: how can we better get our students excited and inspired by science? This is the science teacher’s duty. The irony of the education profession is that some of the most important aspects of it are the hardest to measure and replicate. The things that matter most can be the hardest to quantify. Some teachers can know the different learning styles, intelligences, and brain preferences of their students. They can know best practices of how to deliver instruction. They can do all these things and more, but still not convey imagination and passion for science to their students.But some science teachers do inspire. These special teachers seem to possess something the others don’t, but what is it? Exceptional science teachers make us feel better about ourselves through their teaching of science, and bring us to a higher quality of life as a result, while some science teachers can be the leading researchers in their fields, yet leave us flat. What is the recipe for this unique, special teacher? And why is it so hard to explain and describe?The objective of this book is to uncover these aspects of teaching that are so hard to measure and quantify. This is achieved through interviewing people who are either current or retired teachers, or who were positively affected by a teacher, and also through case studies of exceptional teachers in order to quantify and explain the exact traits and personality quirks of these exceptional people. The contribution to the field of education this book hopes to achieve is the examination of the question; why do some teachers have that “X” factor, what, exactly is it, and how can we all have it?

American science education is in trouble. As the United States continues to lag behind other nations in science achievement, the question is asked: how can we better get our students excited and inspired by science? This is the science teacher’s duty. The irony of the education profession is that some of the most important aspects of it are the hardest to measure and replicate. The things that matter most can be the hardest to quantify. Some teachers can know the different learning styles, intelligences, and brain preferences of their students. They can know best practices of how to deliver instruction. They can do all these things and more, but still not convey imagination and passion for science to their students.But some science teachers do inspire. These special teachers seem to possess something the others don’t, but what is it? Exceptional science teachers make us feel better about ourselves through their teaching of science, and bring us to a higher quality of life as a result, while some science teachers can be the leading researchers in their fields, yet leave us flat. What is the recipe for this unique, special teacher? And why is it so hard to explain and describe?The objective of this book is to uncover these aspects of teaching that are so hard to measure and quantify. This is achieved through interviewing people who are either current or retired teachers, or who were positively affected by a teacher, and also through case studies of exceptional teachers in order to quantify and explain the exact traits and personality quirks of these exceptional people. The contribution to the field of education this book hopes to achieve is the examination of the question; why do some teachers have that “X” factor, what, exactly is it, and how can we all have it?

This book examines American societal structures and institutions, beginning and ending with public education, and exposes how dysfunction and the investment in this dysfunction is an actual political agenda. The Investments focuses on the capitalization, privatization and dismantling of public education, and how other social systems such as for-profit prisons, healthcare (or the lack thereof), racism and current immigration issues, the investment in criminalizing people called “the other”, and the military/industrial complex are all co-dependent and symbiotic. At the Nexus of it all is American public education. An educated population threatens the status quo, so the pipeline between public education and other social institutions is real. Each has a toxic connection and reliance to each other. Each chapter will delve into the rigging that takes place to purposefully attempt to cripple public education and consciously create a permanent underclass, usually without the knowledge of the general public; and the egos, identities and sinister political forces behind such manipulation. Education is the hub of this book: because public education is the best vehicle for democracy America has ever known, and therefore, unbeknownst to many Americans, in the crosshairs. There is a vast conspiracy for power and control going on in our country; and many Americans are ignorant of the conspiracy. This book pulls back the curtain on the investment some in power have made in their efforts to create a permanent underclass in American society.

This book examines American societal structures and institutions, beginning and ending with public education, and exposes how dysfunction and the investment in this dysfunction is an actual political agenda. The Investments focuses on the capitalization, privatization and dismantling of public education, and how other social systems such as for-profit prisons, healthcare (or the lack thereof), racism and current immigration issues, the investment in criminalizing people called “the other”, and the military/industrial complex are all co-dependent and symbiotic. At the Nexus of it all is American public education. An educated population threatens the status quo, so the pipeline between public education and other social institutions is real. Each has a toxic connection and reliance to each other. Each chapter will delve into the rigging that takes place to purposefully attempt to cripple public education and consciously create a permanent underclass, usually without the knowledge of the general public; and the egos, identities and sinister political forces behind such manipulation. Education is the hub of this book: because public education is the best vehicle for democracy America has ever known, and therefore, unbeknownst to many Americans, in the crosshairs. There is a vast conspiracy for power and control going on in our country; and many Americans are ignorant of the conspiracy. This book pulls back the curtain on the investment some in power have made in their efforts to create a permanent underclass in American society.

STEM and the City (second edition) is a book that takes the topics of the first edition and brings them into a post-Covid educational world. Urban public schools are under attack, and the American culture wars are re-emerging and finding their way back into public school curriculum. The authors remain true to their original premise: that American public schools are the greatest vehicle for democracy we have, and because of that they are struggling to re-invent themselves in an America where some are trying to shut them down. Drs. Berube and McKinney discuss STEM schooling during Covid lockdown, the effects it has had on urban science and math students, and schooling post-Covid as schools opened back up to face students traumatized by the experience.The culture wars rage on in classrooms, governors’ mansions, school board meetings, and content "experts" who dictate which books to ban from school library shelves. There is hope, however, and the authors use their experience in the classroom, both at the middle school and college level, to reassure teachers (especially STEM teachers) that the children of America still need you.