David sent this:
Ben,
I wanted to alert everyone to what I believe to be a potentially very troubling trend in education. The Spanish teachers at my community college organized an immersion retreat for Spanish teachers in the area. One of the financial backers was McGraw-Hill, the publisher of the book we use Puntos de partida. I had never heard of a publisher ever giving money to an event on our campus. Just a few days ago there was a big article in the New York Times that told of how Pearson is financing trips to Brazil and other exotic places for the education commissioners in numerous states in the U.S.
David Young
My comment: in 2008 the heralded 20th c. teacher trainer Dr. Miriam Met came to my district for an all day training of well over 200 language teachers. I was there with Dale Crum. Mimi mainly talked about how to use Realidades. At the back of the room was a table set up with all sorts of Realidades related materials on it. Beyond the table was a higher up in the Realidades company who had flown out from Philadephia to accompany Dr. Met. All but a few of the teachers in attendance were very excited about such a valuable training.
The Problem with CI
Jeffrey Sachs was asked what the difference between people in Norway and in the U.S. was. He responded that people in Norway are happy and