Dominican School of Education to host educational reformer Deborah Meier

Dominican University’s School of Education will host author and educational reformer Deborah Meier for a lecture on Thursday, November 17, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. in the Bluhm Lecture Hall, Room 108 in Parmer Hall.

Meier’s talk, “Why Educate? What is it that we value so that every single 18 year old can do ‘it’?” will step back from the traditional debates in educational policy and examine what the basic purposes of public education are. The talk is the second event in the SOE’s four-part Signature Seminar Series.

Meier is currently a senior scholar at New York University’s Steinhart School of Education, director and advisor to the Forum for Democracy and Education, a board member of The Coalition of Essential Schools. She has gained renown over her more than 40 years as a teacher and educational administrator at schools in Chicago, New York and Philadelphia. An advocate for change in traditional public education, she founded, taught at and reformed several public schools that achieved high academic marks while serving largely poor and minority populations.

Her latest book, Playing for Keeps: Life and Learning on a Public School Playground, was published in 2010. Her 2004 book Many Children Left Behind gained widespread attention for making a case against many reforms enacted under federal No Child Left Behind legislation.

The Signature Seminar Series will continue on February 8, 2012, with a screening of the internationally acclaimed documentary Waiting for Superman, followed by commentary provided by Dr. Charles Payne of the University of Chicago. A concluding gala event honoring difference makers in education will take place on April 16, 2012.

For more information about any of the events, visit www.dom.edu/soe/signatureseries or contact Marilyn Ludolph, associate dean of the School of Education, at (708) 524-6695 or mludolph@dom.edu.