The Unexamined Education

I generally listen to fiction so it’s an interesting change listening in on this examination of teacher and student roles. They’ve also started securing feature of “super teacher” movie reviews. As a description, this podcast features two professional educators/administrators who work at Montessori-influenced private schools. The general gist of things is that they believe that many features of current American education are harmful or otherwise require additional scrutiny (which leads to the name of the podcast). It takes a strong student-led position, advocating for the ability for both students and teachers to personally tailor their education. The format is a friendly chat, sharing past experiences and examples from popular media, together with a good deal of off-the-cuff theorizing. Here’s my breakdown of various elements: -Production quality: the voices are clear and the editing is smooth. There aren’t really any gaps where people pause or are at a loss for words. Everything is stripped down and minimal, so there’s only light opening music and no other special effects, which works for this format. -Characters: while I know this is a non-fiction podcast, it’s still a performance, as they acknowledge is true of all teaching in general. The two speakers have good camaraderie and balance each other well. Their positions as current educators able to try out there principles gives them authenticity. -Topics: each episode meanders over a lot of area but it’s all relevant. I think this would be valuable for basically anyone wanting to dig deeper into how they feel about education. I look forward to listening to new episodes, and would recommend this to anyone interested in education.

Wonderfully engaging and thoughtful look at education. The hosts manage to be both critical and understanding of the constraints put on public Ed today while providing insightful commentary based on their years of experience. Great listen for anyone in the world of education!

There are few times that something comes along to change your view on the world. This is one of those moments.

These open and honest conversations examine the gap between the current state of education in America and what they believe education should be from the educator’s perspective. Engaging, thought-provoking, and entertaining.