Not all schooling is equal. In too many schools, too many students suffer an education of drill and memorization but are deprived of high-level thinking activities, of intellectual discussions, of opportunities to synthesize information and respond creatively—elements that form the basis of education for other students in other schools.
The Genteel Unteaching of America's Poor, a new report by Kylene Beers, NCTE President and senior reading advisor to secondary schools, Reading and Writing Project, Teachers College, discusses how important it is that all students experience a rich, intellectually rigorous curriculum filled with all sorts of writing. This report will be formally announced on Friday, March 6, 2009, at 1:15 p.m. during the Celebration of Teaching and Learning Conference in New York City; see the March 4 press release, How Children Get Left Behind.
National Day on Writing
- To draw attention to the remarkable variety of writing we engage in and help make writers from all walks of life aware of their craft, NCTE has established October 20, 2009, as the National Day on Writing.
- To celebrate composition in all its forms, we are inviting diverse participants --students, teachers, parents, grandparents, service and industrial workers, managers, business owners, legislators, retirees and many more -- to submit a piece of writing to the National Gallery of Writing.
National High School and College Writing Awards
- NCTE, in partnership with The Norman Mailer Writers Colony, will sponsor annual awards for high school and college writing.