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The face of medical education is changing and patients may not like it one bit. “There is a movement towards principles and concepts rather than specific courses,” Bailus Walker, Jr. of the Howard University School of Medicine said on April 4, 2012 at a conference in Crystal City, VA. “Entrance to medical schools will be based on principles and concepts rather than biochemistry knowledge.” “The old departmental barriers and walls are coming down.” Dr. Walker thinks this is a good thing. He calls it a “convergence of disciplines.” “That will lead to more STEM education,” he said, referring to training...

CHICO — Changes in the curriculum at Crosspoint Academy have some parents, including prominent radio host Delilah Rene Luke, concerned the private Christian school in Chico is straying from its biblical focus. But school leaders defend the changes, saying the new materials will grow the school’s 290 students into the next generation of Christian leaders. “The idea that Crosspoint is still fundamentally rooted in strong Christian values and delivers a curriculum with a Christian perspective in mind has not changed and that has never changed in this process,” said Eric Rasmussen, superintendent of schools for Crista, the Christian ministry organization...

From Homeroom to Eternity by: Malcolm A. Kline, July 08, 2009 A new study by a trio of professors from the University of Minnesota found that 15 percent of teens surveyed expected to die young. Given what schools are teaching, that may not be too surprising. Iris Wagman Borowsky, Marjorie Ireland and Michael D. Resnick looked at data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health from 1995, 1996 and 2001-2002. They found that “At time 1, 14.7 % of 20,594 respondents reported at least a 50/50 chance that they would not live to age 35.” “In adjusted models, illicit...

Former Toyota President Shoichiro Toyoda has founded Kaiyo Academy, a $175-million school that he modeled after Britain's Eton Academy -- a school that boasts 19 British Prime Ministers among her alumni and the second-in-line to the throne, Prince William. In Japan there is dissatisfaction with the 'dumbing-down' of its curriculum. Four years ago, the government cut 30% of the workload off the elementary and junior high school curriculum. Toyota's Kaiyo academy is attractive for many reasons. 1. It is backed by Toyota. 2. It is focusing on developing kids who can do more than just pass exams. 3. It is...

The London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat has published a report by Huda Jasim on changes made to Iraqi schoolbooks following the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. The new schoolbooks will be introduced with the start of the 2005/6 school year in September. According to the report, the Iraqi education minister formed a committee of senior educators and specialists to reexamine the country's school curricula for the new Iraq. The committee proposed substantial changes to be made to the school textbooks, with the aim of completely eradicating the Saddam personality cult and placing considerably less emphasis on the Ba'th Party than...

Arab World Studies Notebook lobs Muslim propaganda at teacherse-mail letter of 8 October 2003 from The Textbook League's president,William J. Bennetta, to Stuart Elliott, of Wichita, Kansas 8 October 2003 Dear Mr. Elliott: I have been reviewing schoolbooks and other instructional publications for about eighteen years, and during that time I have developed three general observations. Writing an analysis of a good publication is enjoyable and usually is easy. Writing an analysis of a weak publication is typically a more difficult task, requiring much explication of the publication's failures and follies. Writing an analysis of a patently fraudulent publication is...