Education

Distinguished members of the Swedish Academy, Ladies and Gentlemen: Through the mediums of television and the Internet, I imagine that everyone here has at least a nodding acquaintance with far-off Northeast Gaomi Township. You may have seen my ninety-year-old father, as well as my brothers, my sister, my wife and my daughter, even my granddaughter, now a year and four months old. But the person who is most on my mind at this moment, my mother, is someone you will never see. Many people have shared in the honor of winning this prize, everyone but her. My mother was born...

Colorado College’s 125th Anniversary SymposiumCultures in the 21st Century: Conflicts and Convergences “One material civilization, multiple spiritual cultures” (I prefer the German distinction of civilization and culture) is a favorite topic of mine. The first part of the topic means that modernization is irresistible in the world. People almost everywhere (there may be a few exceptions) prefer electric lamps to oil lamps, air conditioners to hand fans, cars to horses for transportation, houses to tents for living. Modernization has made great improvements in diet, clothing, housing, travel, and longevity, no matter the culture, religion, morality, or “nationality” of a people....

President Obama’s first term was absorbed by dealing with the Great Recession. I hope that in his second term he’ll be able to devote more attention to the Great Inflection. Dealing with the Great Recession was largely about “Yes We Can” — about government, about what we can and must do “together” to shore up the safety nets and institutions that undergird our society and economy. Obama’s Inaugural Address was a full-throated defense of that “public” side of the unique public-private partnership that makes America great. But, if we’re to sustain the kind of public institutions and safety nets that...

With the easing of international sanctions, UK universities are re-engaging with Burma at a time when the country’s higher education sector finds itself caught between two reviews. It’s lunchtime, but in the offices of the National League for Democracy (NLD), no one is stopping work. As we go up a tight staircase into an office hung with portraits of leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her father General Aung San, activists work energetically around tables strewn with documents and maps. Student volunteers flick between drafting policy papers on antiquated PCs and checking Facebook on their iPhones. The NLD, Burma’s main...

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania September 14, 2010 As Prepared for Delivery— Hello Philadelphia! It’s wonderful to be here. Today is about welcoming all of you and all of America’s students back to school – and I can’t think of a better place to do it than Masterman. You’re one of the best schools in Philadelphia – a leader in helping students succeed in the classroom. And just last week, you were recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School for your record of achievement. That’s a testament to everyone here – students and parents, teachers and school leaders. And it’s an example of...

It is now almost four years since I first walked through a series of winding by-lanes in a Mumbai slum toward my new job as a teacher at a low-income school. I was forced to confront India’s educational inequities squarely in the eye. Students filed into a dilapidated old school building, and my own musty classroom, crammed with cupboards, barely left any room to move. What was more jarring than my physical surroundings, however, was the magnitude of my students’ achievement gap. Only a handful of my third-grade students could read first-grade books, and almost all struggled with elementary arithmetic....