PITT TO PRESENT HORACE MANN LECTURE

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 12 -- The University of Pittsburgh's School of Education will present the thirty-sixth Horace Mann lecture with guest speaker David Berliner on Thursday, March 15, from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., in the William Pitt Ballroom, Fifth and Bigelow, Oakland. A reception will follow.

Berliner is the dean and Regents' Professor in Arizona State University's School of Education. His speech, titled "Business and Education: A Problematic Relationship," argues that because of simple, inaccurate beliefs, business often hurts, rather than helps, our public schools. He claims that the reform effort which business supports may be anti-education and anti-democratic, though it is certainly pro-training. Berliner maintains that what hurts American schools the most is poverty, which is a condition that business might actually be able to help.

Interested in researching the study of teaching, teacher education, and educational policy, Berliner has served as president of the American Educational Research Association, and is a member of the National Academy of Education and the Laureate Chapter of Kappa Delta Pi, an international honor society in education. He has received the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Education from both the Horace Mann League and the American Educational Research Association.

The purpose of the lecture series is to reaffirm Mann's faith in the public school system and to focus on issues and concerns related to public education.

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