Blog Post: Rank their suggestions (1 - 5) in order of importance, and explain your ranking

1. bell hooks
2. Jerry Large
3. Keith Gilyard
4. Deb Anderson
5. Barry Boyce

Reasoning: The article from bell hooks (why isn't this name capitalized?) is largely about the value of critical thinking skills and how our education system needs to promote critical thinking, not obstruct it. I have for some time felt the same way - that one of the biggest and most overlapping problems in society is a general lack of critical thinking and ability to consider a subject from the perspective of others. This article was unquestionably my first choice. Jerry Large discusses the idea that in order to be successful as a student, one must have character. More importantly, that character - which I agree is vital to success in education - is something which can be taught. Large's writing is interesting to me and is it something I had not thought much about previously, so I ranked it second behind hooks. Third is Keith Gilyard, who is simply arguing for the importance of humanities and arts in education. While I disagree the extent to which these subjects are essential to one's education, arts programs are often being dropped completely, which is a problem. The biggest problem I have with Gilyard's writing is he hardly supports his argument at all. Fourth is Deb Anderson, who is saying that teachers need to become politically engaged and involved setting education policy. While education policy may need changes, simply saying that polititions can't make decisions on education because they're not teachers is useless argument. To say that someone's opinion isn't valid because they're not qualified to speak about something is completely unproductive. The focus of Anderson's suggestion is based not on the problem that needs solving, but rather, who is solving it. I had a hard time taking Boyce's suggestions such as having parents teach yoga to their children seriously, and ranked it last.