Sam spent five years at the First Amendment Center as the co-director of the First Amendment Schools program. He came to the Center from the public school system of New York City, where he taught high school English and History. Sam also spent four years teaching the same subjects at a private school in Brooklyn.
Sam’s first teaching experience was in Beijing, China, where he joined the faculty of the Foreign Languages department at Beijing Normal University as a visiting lecturer. He taught two American History & Literature courses to third-year undergraduates.
Sam’s writings about his work have appeared in both magazines and newspapers, including the Washington Post, Education Week and USA Today. A periodic contributor to CNN and MSNBC, Sam is also the author or co-author of four books: The First Amendment in Schools (ASCD, 2003), First Freedoms: A Documentary History of First Amendment Rights (Oxford University Press, 2006), American Schools: The Art of Creating a Democratic Learning Community(Rowman & Littlefield, 2009), and We Must Not Be Afraid to be Free: Stories Of Free Expression in America (Oxford, 2010).
Sam has a Master’s degree in American Studies from the College of William & Mary, and an M.B.A. from George Washington University, where he specialized in non-profit management and organizational theory. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he graduated with a double major in Afro-American Studies and History.
notes from live interview (future of ed via @stevehargadon):
his book
more
he wants to write stories of people that are doing the work.
quotes read by steve:
democracy in schools, it means teachers stop being authoritarian and more authoritative, etc...
I think people need to create democratic learning communities, and that's really hard to do well.
richardcclose: We are looking at a grant to build community based democractic learning in Nigeria's Delta with war zone youth
we must not be afraid to be free
it's hard to create an environment that is trusting and regulated enough
sam says we err on the side of too much freedom - with not that much learning taking place
richardcclose: We are working with a women's homeless shelter.. They will be writing thier own curriculum
check out his post - to what do i owe my fidelity
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Democracy_and_Education
ichardcclose: Learning on the open web is Democratic learning because it is globally collaborative. Voting is done on You Tube - twitter
charles haines was his leader..
ongoing journey to try to better understand how we do that well -
kirsten olson: I work very intimately with a democratic school. it's beautiful but messy, students are not acculturated to it coming from a conventional public school environment
distinction between a democracy and republic
term that means most to sam - democracy with a lower case d
create an environment where everybody does better because everybody does better
democracy and capitalism seem to be incompatible... yet we need to keep working on bringing them together
had to leave half way through.
previous post on sam
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