News release
Computers for Families is requesting computers for the coming school year from local business and individuals. The program seeks dual core or Pentium IV PCs capable of running Windows 7, as well as flat screen monitors, USB mice, USB keyboards, and power cables. Donated computers are refurbished and distributed to local elementary students and their families who do not have access to technology.
Computers for Families is a project of the Santa Barbara County Education Office and the Santa Barbara Partners in Education. During its 18-year history, the program has refurbished more than 10,000 computers, distributing them through 30 local elementary school networks to students in need. The program serves a secondary purpose of reusing hardware that may otherwise end up as landfill.
The program is the beneficiary of many local businesses, such as Citrix Santa Barbara:
Said Vic Walton, Senior Manager of IT Support, Citrix Santa Barbara, “Citrix Santa Barbara is proud to partner with Computers for Families as we direct our surplus equipment to families in our community. It’s a wonderful way for us to reach out to our neighbors and provide them with the technology that is increasingly important in this interconnected world. We’re happy to put older but still viable equipment to work for families rather than in a landfill, and Computers for Families makes that easy.”
Individuals or businesses with computers to donate are welcome to drop them off at the loading dock at the Santa Barbara Education Office at 4400 Cathedral Oaks Road, Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. For additional information please contact Kris Mainland White, Computers for Families Coordinator at 964-4710, ext. 5400 or cff@sbceo.org.
Monday, September 15, 2014
Passion for learning
Radio Commentary
Turning children into lifelong learners can be the ultimate joy for teachers and parents alike.
The benefits of this effort will continue to emerge throughout an entire lifetime.
Getting A’s is a great feeling for a student. But in the long run, generating a genuine curiosity and desire to learn can make a bigger difference than any grade on a test.
Imagine the potential of children who are curious about the world around them and who are happy with themselves.
That combination can lead to success in almost any arena.
Parents and teachers have the power to set the tone for a child’s academic accomplishments.
Praise children for their effort, for working independently, and for the energy they’ve spent in achieving a goal.
The process of studying well and learning deeply should be the highest priority.
If you look behind good grades you will often find a great deal of love and support.
Your children deserve the best chance to become true, lifelong learners.
Help maintain their enthusiasm for gaining knowledge, not just good grades.
Turning children into lifelong learners can be the ultimate joy for teachers and parents alike.
The benefits of this effort will continue to emerge throughout an entire lifetime.
Getting A’s is a great feeling for a student. But in the long run, generating a genuine curiosity and desire to learn can make a bigger difference than any grade on a test.
Imagine the potential of children who are curious about the world around them and who are happy with themselves.
That combination can lead to success in almost any arena.
Parents and teachers have the power to set the tone for a child’s academic accomplishments.
Praise children for their effort, for working independently, and for the energy they’ve spent in achieving a goal.
The process of studying well and learning deeply should be the highest priority.
If you look behind good grades you will often find a great deal of love and support.
Your children deserve the best chance to become true, lifelong learners.
Help maintain their enthusiasm for gaining knowledge, not just good grades.
Friday, September 12, 2014
62nd annual Breakfast with the Authors slated for Saturday, Oct. 4
News release
Members of the community will be able to enjoy a delicious quiche brunch and conversation with world-renowned children’s authors and illustrators at the 62nd annual Breakfast with the Authors sponsored by the Santa Barbara County Education Office (SBCEO) from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 4, in the SBCEO auditorium, 4400 Cathedral Oaks Road.
Confirmed authors and illustrators include Caroline Arnold, Susan Casey, Mel Gilden, Heidi Gill, Joan Bransfield Graham, Valerie Hobbs, Amy Goldman Koss, Sara Louise Kras, Robin Mellom, Alexis O’Neill, Marianne Richmond, Sherry Shahan, Greg Trine, and Eugene Yelchin.
Registration deadline is Sept. 26. Pre-registration is required and can be done online at http://sbceo.org/s/BWA2014Reg. More information and registration materials are available at http://sbceo.org/s/BWA2014 or by contacting Rose Koller at 964-4711, ext. 5222, or rkoller@sbceo.org.
Members of the community will be able to enjoy a delicious quiche brunch and conversation with world-renowned children’s authors and illustrators at the 62nd annual Breakfast with the Authors sponsored by the Santa Barbara County Education Office (SBCEO) from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 4, in the SBCEO auditorium, 4400 Cathedral Oaks Road.
Confirmed authors and illustrators include Caroline Arnold, Susan Casey, Mel Gilden, Heidi Gill, Joan Bransfield Graham, Valerie Hobbs, Amy Goldman Koss, Sara Louise Kras, Robin Mellom, Alexis O’Neill, Marianne Richmond, Sherry Shahan, Greg Trine, and Eugene Yelchin.
Registration deadline is Sept. 26. Pre-registration is required and can be done online at http://sbceo.org/s/BWA2014Reg. More information and registration materials are available at http://sbceo.org/s/BWA2014 or by contacting Rose Koller at 964-4711, ext. 5222, or rkoller@sbceo.org.
Starting early
Radio Commentary
From early on, children should have books to read, people reading to them often, and the chance to see others reading and writing.
Children should also be encouraged to talk about books they know, adding their own story lines or creating new endings.
The home environment has a significant impact on reading. Make sure it is filled with printed material.
Put up some signs around the house that use the child’s name. Have toys like alphabet refrigerator magnets. Label common objects with word cards.
Several Internet sites publish lists of wonderful children’s books.
There is no substitute for a caring adult who takes time with a child.
Vocabulary, language skills, and knowledge about the world are gained during interesting conversations with responsible, caring adults.
In daily life, parents should point out and read words that appear in a child’s environment — store signs, labels, TV titles.
Have your toddlers share in making grocery lists and checking them off at the store. Sing songs and tell stories whenever the opportunity arises.
Above all, talk to your child whenever possible. Simply hearing the rhythms and sounds of language helps with reading.
From early on, children should have books to read, people reading to them often, and the chance to see others reading and writing.
Children should also be encouraged to talk about books they know, adding their own story lines or creating new endings.
The home environment has a significant impact on reading. Make sure it is filled with printed material.
Put up some signs around the house that use the child’s name. Have toys like alphabet refrigerator magnets. Label common objects with word cards.
Several Internet sites publish lists of wonderful children’s books.
There is no substitute for a caring adult who takes time with a child.
Vocabulary, language skills, and knowledge about the world are gained during interesting conversations with responsible, caring adults.
In daily life, parents should point out and read words that appear in a child’s environment — store signs, labels, TV titles.
Have your toddlers share in making grocery lists and checking them off at the store. Sing songs and tell stories whenever the opportunity arises.
Above all, talk to your child whenever possible. Simply hearing the rhythms and sounds of language helps with reading.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Science skills
Radio Commentary
The principles of science form an umbrella over almost everything we do. Many educators feel that science is also one of the most innately interesting subject areas for children.
But sometimes a sheer love of science can get bogged down in the details of memorization of abstract concepts.
To help your child develop an interest in science, try these tips:
The principles of science form an umbrella over almost everything we do. Many educators feel that science is also one of the most innately interesting subject areas for children.
But sometimes a sheer love of science can get bogged down in the details of memorization of abstract concepts.
To help your child develop an interest in science, try these tips:
- Discuss family eating habits in terms of how the body uses various kinds of food. The body can be viewed as a machine, and food as the fuel.
- Encourage children to tinker with old clocks or broken appliances to see what makes them “tick” — after you have removed all electrical cords.
- Try to hide any distaste you might have for your child’s interest in insects, scummy water, and other unappetizing aspects of nature. Children often find these natural items fascinating and should be encouraged to learn about their environment.
- Demonstrate scientific thinking by challenging general statements with the question, “How do you know that’s true?” It helps children understand the difference between opinion and fact.
- Encourage any interest in collecting rocks, leaves, shells, or other natural objects. Provide a place to display and observe the collections.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Lofty goals
Radio Commentary
Recognizing the importance of education to our national well-being, the early leaders of our country created publicly funded schools to educate children from all walks of life.
They were seeking to do more than just teach children reading, writing, and math.
They believed that a system of publicly supported schools ought to accomplish seven major goals:
These goals are worthy of our great democracy. But they are hard to measure.
In fact, many of these goals can only be evaluated over a span of many years, when we can finally see how students have applied their learning.
We hear critics of public schools call for alternatives that shift funding and responsibility for education to the private sector. And we hear calls for ever-more reliance on test scores to measure school achievement.
When we weigh these ideas, it is important to remember the whole picture of what we seek from public education.
We need to weigh suggestions against the lofty goals we had in mind when public education was first conceived. They remain essential in a democratic
Recognizing the importance of education to our national well-being, the early leaders of our country created publicly funded schools to educate children from all walks of life.
They were seeking to do more than just teach children reading, writing, and math.
They believed that a system of publicly supported schools ought to accomplish seven major goals:
- prepare people to become responsible citizens
- improve social conditions
- promote cultural unity
- help people become economically self-sufficient
- enhance individual happiness and enrich individual lives
- dispel inequities in education, and
- ensure a basic quality level among schools
These goals are worthy of our great democracy. But they are hard to measure.
In fact, many of these goals can only be evaluated over a span of many years, when we can finally see how students have applied their learning.
We hear critics of public schools call for alternatives that shift funding and responsibility for education to the private sector. And we hear calls for ever-more reliance on test scores to measure school achievement.
When we weigh these ideas, it is important to remember the whole picture of what we seek from public education.
We need to weigh suggestions against the lofty goals we had in mind when public education was first conceived. They remain essential in a democratic
Still the best investment of all time
Newspaper column
Columnist Nicholas Kristoff of the New York Times recently used the story of a 14-year-old girl in Vietnam to underscore the point — proved true countless times in countless ways — that education is the best investment of all time for a family and for a society.
We take so much for granted in our nation, especially about our schools. Yet this country was founded by people with foresight and wisdom that has withstood the test of time. Among the genius strokes our Founding Fathers crafted for the new nation was the radical notion of free public education. They believed that every adult member of a community should fund the education of all the community’s children, as a way of ensuring that the community would continue to flourish and thrive.
It was simple: Free public education for all, as a shared obligation and a rich reward. It resulted in a trained work force, informed electorate, and ongoing expertise in matters of sustenance and survival.
Kristoff reinforced the point by telling the story of a malnourished Vietnamese teen who woke early every morning in a daunting effort to get an education. After he first wrote of her plight, his readers donated $750,000 to the aid organization that was helping her, Room to Read.
Two years later, Kristoff returned to see what had become of that effort, right after the kidnapping of Nigerian schoolgirls. The stories became merged by the fact that the obstacles facing girls’ education exist worldwide. In rural Vietnam, though girls do not face kidnapping to obstruct their efforts to obtain an education, they do face enormous pressure to stop their schooling at age 15 to start working and help their impoverished families.
As Kristoff wrote, “Poverty holds far more girls hostage worldwide than any warlord.”
The young girl Kristoff wrote about was one such example, coming from a family in deep poverty and ill health. Her mother had died of cancer, leaving behind large medical debts. Her father moved to the city for higher pay, returning only on weekends. So at 14, this young girl became the head of the household.
Kristoff said that schooling became possible only because “Room to Read” paid for school fees, books, a uniform, school bag and bicycle, while also providing a broad range of counseling and training.”
When Kristoff returned to see what the money had wrought, he found the girl, now 16, near the top of her 11th grade class. She still wakes at 3:30 every morning and commutes an hour each way to school. She has only one uniform, which she washes in a bucket each evening and hopes it will dry by morning.
Her plan is to continue to the university to study economics and her school administrator believes she will do it. “She is very poor, but very tough and is making an incredible effort to succeed,” he said.
Wrote Kristoff: “The bottom line is that a village girl of prodigious talent is now a star at a good school and potentially headed for college and a professional career because readers were willing to invest in her.”
Then came his major point: “It puzzles me in my travels that the donors who invest most in education are fundamentalist Wahhabi Muslims from Saudi Arabia. Often in Africa and Asia, I see madrassas that they have established to inculcate reactionary attitudes, because they understand that education is the best tool kit to change societies. We don’t even compete.”
He added: “If a single aid group like Room to Read can create opportunity for millions around the globe, think what we could do as a nation.”
Resources are a major factor, but so are our society’s attitudes toward education.
Kristoff mentioned to the young Vietnamese girl that American students might not be happy to wake up at 3:30 a.m. and that in fact many are tardy to schools that are located much closer than hers. She was shocked.
“Education is the priority for me, so getting up very early, going a long way — those are very minor inconveniences when I’m able to pursue an education,” she told him.
Americans used to know and deeply appreciate the value of education. We have wandered from those visions of our Founding Fathers, who knew that free public education for all was the best and only reliable foundation of an enduring democracy.
It is worth restating again and again: Public education has always been the glue that binds us together. Supporting it is still the best investment for our shared future.
Columnist Nicholas Kristoff of the New York Times recently used the story of a 14-year-old girl in Vietnam to underscore the point — proved true countless times in countless ways — that education is the best investment of all time for a family and for a society.
We take so much for granted in our nation, especially about our schools. Yet this country was founded by people with foresight and wisdom that has withstood the test of time. Among the genius strokes our Founding Fathers crafted for the new nation was the radical notion of free public education. They believed that every adult member of a community should fund the education of all the community’s children, as a way of ensuring that the community would continue to flourish and thrive.
It was simple: Free public education for all, as a shared obligation and a rich reward. It resulted in a trained work force, informed electorate, and ongoing expertise in matters of sustenance and survival.
Kristoff reinforced the point by telling the story of a malnourished Vietnamese teen who woke early every morning in a daunting effort to get an education. After he first wrote of her plight, his readers donated $750,000 to the aid organization that was helping her, Room to Read.
Two years later, Kristoff returned to see what had become of that effort, right after the kidnapping of Nigerian schoolgirls. The stories became merged by the fact that the obstacles facing girls’ education exist worldwide. In rural Vietnam, though girls do not face kidnapping to obstruct their efforts to obtain an education, they do face enormous pressure to stop their schooling at age 15 to start working and help their impoverished families.
As Kristoff wrote, “Poverty holds far more girls hostage worldwide than any warlord.”
The young girl Kristoff wrote about was one such example, coming from a family in deep poverty and ill health. Her mother had died of cancer, leaving behind large medical debts. Her father moved to the city for higher pay, returning only on weekends. So at 14, this young girl became the head of the household.
Kristoff said that schooling became possible only because “Room to Read” paid for school fees, books, a uniform, school bag and bicycle, while also providing a broad range of counseling and training.”
When Kristoff returned to see what the money had wrought, he found the girl, now 16, near the top of her 11th grade class. She still wakes at 3:30 every morning and commutes an hour each way to school. She has only one uniform, which she washes in a bucket each evening and hopes it will dry by morning.
Her plan is to continue to the university to study economics and her school administrator believes she will do it. “She is very poor, but very tough and is making an incredible effort to succeed,” he said.
Wrote Kristoff: “The bottom line is that a village girl of prodigious talent is now a star at a good school and potentially headed for college and a professional career because readers were willing to invest in her.”
Then came his major point: “It puzzles me in my travels that the donors who invest most in education are fundamentalist Wahhabi Muslims from Saudi Arabia. Often in Africa and Asia, I see madrassas that they have established to inculcate reactionary attitudes, because they understand that education is the best tool kit to change societies. We don’t even compete.”
He added: “If a single aid group like Room to Read can create opportunity for millions around the globe, think what we could do as a nation.”
Resources are a major factor, but so are our society’s attitudes toward education.
Kristoff mentioned to the young Vietnamese girl that American students might not be happy to wake up at 3:30 a.m. and that in fact many are tardy to schools that are located much closer than hers. She was shocked.
“Education is the priority for me, so getting up very early, going a long way — those are very minor inconveniences when I’m able to pursue an education,” she told him.
Americans used to know and deeply appreciate the value of education. We have wandered from those visions of our Founding Fathers, who knew that free public education for all was the best and only reliable foundation of an enduring democracy.
It is worth restating again and again: Public education has always been the glue that binds us together. Supporting it is still the best investment for our shared future.
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Schools and skills
Radio Commentary
There is no thrill quite like the one that comes from mastering a challenge.
Remember the first time you realized the marks on a page were words, and you could understand them?
Or the first time you looked through a microscope, played an instrument, or understood what someone was saying in another language?
U.S. schools seek to give that same opportunity to every child every day by helping students set high standards and specific goals.
Education also gives students life skills like self-discipline, patience, and knowledge about the importance of sharing. Students learn to pay attention when others are speaking.
Many schools also teach children how to solve disagreements through conflict resolution. Extracurricular activities, from student government offices to volunteer projects, also offer chances to learn life skills.
Wrote author Tomas Henry Huxley: “Perhaps the most valuable result of education is the ability to make yourself do the things you have to do, when they ought to be done, whether you like it or not.”
And former Xerox CEO David Kearns added: “Education not only imparts the great lessons of history, citizenship, and science, it also teaches people to think, to solve problems, to take risks, to be an entrepreneur, and an innovator.”
That is, in fact, the great strength of the American public school system and always has been. It deserves our support.
There is no thrill quite like the one that comes from mastering a challenge.
Remember the first time you realized the marks on a page were words, and you could understand them?
Or the first time you looked through a microscope, played an instrument, or understood what someone was saying in another language?
U.S. schools seek to give that same opportunity to every child every day by helping students set high standards and specific goals.
Education also gives students life skills like self-discipline, patience, and knowledge about the importance of sharing. Students learn to pay attention when others are speaking.
Many schools also teach children how to solve disagreements through conflict resolution. Extracurricular activities, from student government offices to volunteer projects, also offer chances to learn life skills.
Wrote author Tomas Henry Huxley: “Perhaps the most valuable result of education is the ability to make yourself do the things you have to do, when they ought to be done, whether you like it or not.”
And former Xerox CEO David Kearns added: “Education not only imparts the great lessons of history, citizenship, and science, it also teaches people to think, to solve problems, to take risks, to be an entrepreneur, and an innovator.”
That is, in fact, the great strength of the American public school system and always has been. It deserves our support.
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