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Welcome back, I.N.K. readers.... Another school year begins and one where we're gaining strength and a real voice. Our Ink Think Tank Website has been updated with many new features. But that's not what I want to discuss today.

For the past two years, I’ve been working on a very innovative project, and it has taken me a while to find a way to get others to share my vision. I’ve been on a very steep learning curve, but learn I have! I think I’ve finally figured out how to present my idea so others get it. I’m going to make it very specific and concrete. So this is an experiment; I’m going to share my outside-the-box thinking with you.

Here are the questions I’m asking:

* What would happen to the learning environment of your school if your teachers and a team of award- winning children’s nonfiction authors collaborated in a large-scale, school-wide project where everyone was involved in sharing knowledge and skills?

* Is the love of learning—the passion that drives us children’s nonfiction authors--contagious? Can you catch it from us? Because lifelong learning is who we are and what we do

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* What happens to student literacy when the core reading material is children’s nonfiction literature? Our books are normally considered “enrichment” and relegated to a secondary role in student learning, if not completely ignored in most classrooms, although they more than meet national educational standards. Suppose that they become the intellectual meal rather than a sometime dessert? Can you imagine it?

* How could personal contact with the award-winning authors of the books enhance the professional development of your teachers in both literacy skills (writing) and knowledge of content?

* How can these questions be addressed in a way that is affordable for a school and yet compensates authors (who have no salary or benefits) for their time and expertise?

Ink Think Tank has a group, Authors on Call of nine award-winning nonfiction authors and two consultants, one in literacy and one in children’s nonfiction literature. .We are pioneering a way to work with schools via interactive videoconferencing (ivc). Let me describe how a partnership with an elementary K-5 school with about 500 students would work. Please note that this is just an example that can be modified to fit your school:

* Your school would select one title from each author that fits into your scope and sequence in science, social studies and math. The authors can help with the selection. They can also show how the selected books fit into the scope and sequence of your language arts program.
* The authors are as follows:
Vicki Cobb (hands-on science, biography, physical science, chemistry, biology)
Penny Colman (history, women’s history, history of unusual things)
Trish Marx (geography, multicultural issues)
Jim Murphy(history, disasters)
Dorothy Hinshaw Patent (natural science,

This post was originally published on October 6, 2010 and received many comments. It is even more relevant today as next year, in NYS, 40% of a teacher's evaluation will depend on how his/her students perform on assessment tests where the readings are excerpts of our writings, although most teachers are not aware of this fact.

I ’m becoming a part of the movement to save education. I went to see “Waiting for Superman” two days after it opened. I go to webinars. I was invited to hear Geoffrey Canada speak at a McGraw-Hill function last week and I used my phone to take this picture and so you can see I was really there. What has become increasingly clear is that in spite of all the clamor about literacy and whether or not kids can read, there is no mention about the quality of what kids are reading. In an online #edchat (# refers to a group on Twitter) last week teachers were slamming textbooks right and left. Did you know each textbook costs $80+? That’s not only a strain on school budgets; it’s also a strain on kids’ backs! So teachers were talking about putting together their own reading materials for their classes from free open source materials, both print and digital. The underlying premise: one source of information is interchangeable with another.They are if you substitute online info for textbook info. They are both equally bad. I tweeted (peeped? piped up?) “I left teaching to write. No time to do both well.” Don’t think anyone heard me. I was not retweeted.

There is a consensus about what makes a great teacher—it takes mentoring, experience, constant professional development, passion, commitment, discipline, sacrifice and TIME. Guess what, folks—it takes the same thing to become a great writer. Our editors are our mentors, we write, write, write, we get feedback from our readers and critics. It’s tough but we stay with it despite no union, no safety net, no regular paycheck.(And, let me tell you, there is attrition in the ranks.) The qualities that make a great teacher are evident in their personalities, in their intense interactions with their students, in their deeds. What reaches their students is WHO they are as human beings—their humanity. Guess what folks—the same thing is true of us writers. We all have learned how to put who we are as human beings behind the words on the page. It’s called “voice.” Literature has voice. Can you feel how hard I’m hitting these keys right now? I want you to HEAR me. I want my words to shout not tweet.

The #edchat I participated in was my first. I was a little handicapped by my lack of experience with Twitter. Tweets flew by so fast I was breathless trying to read and type (and think) simultaneously. (So many tweets, so little time…..) I was amazed at the way some tweets got answered directly by others. (How’d they do that?). And that there were so few typos!!! Finally I wrote a tweet that seemed to resonate with the group: “Where is it written that every kid has to read the same book on a subject? Why can’t they read different books and discuss?” I used up all my 140 characters on that one but it got me noticed. That tweet was retweeted by quite a few and afterwards a lot of people tweeted me directly (it’s like an email but very short) to thank me and invite me back next week. (A major Twitterer, Shelly Terrell, with almost 9,000 followers sent me her

When Galileo discovered the moons of Jupiter in his telescope, he couldn’t wait to share the news with the world. So, in 1610 he hurriedly rushed The Starry Messenger, the story of his discovery, into print. Now, in those days they didn’t have talk shows, so, to promote his book, Galileo took his telescope to dinner parties and invited the guests to see Jupiter’s moons for themselves. Many refused to look claiming that the telescope was an instrument of the devil. They accused Galileo of trying to trick them, painting the moons of Jupiter on the end of the telescope. Galileo’s response was that if that were the case they would see the moons no matter where they looked when actually they could see them only if they looked where he told them to look. But the main objection was that there was nothing in the Bible about this phenomenon. Galileo’s famous response: “The Bible shows the way to go to heaven, not the way the heavens go.”

Galileo is considered the father of modern science, now a huge body of knowledge that has been accumulating incrementally throught the work of thousands of people. Each tiny bit of information can be challenged by asking, “How do you know?” And each contributing scientist can answer as Galileo did to the dinner party guests, “This is what I did. If you do what I did, then you’ll know what I know.” In other words, scientific information is verifiable, replicable human experience. Science has grown exponentially since Galileo. It is built on a huge body of data and its power shows up in technology. The principles that are used to make a light go on when you throw a switch were learned in the same meticulous way that we’ve come to understand how the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have risen over the past 100 years leading to ominous climate change or that Darwin was right, and living species are interconnected as “Islands in a sea of death.”

Yet there are many who cherry pick science—only believing its findings when they agree with them.

Documented proof doesn’t fare much better. Despite the recent publication of President Obama’s questioned-by-some birth certificate, there is still a percentage of the population that refuses to believe he was born in the USA.

We’ve spent a lot of time in this blog discussing the rigors with which we verify the accuracy of thematerial we write about for the nonfiction world. Personally, we can enjoy the satisfaction of knowing we are dealing with facts and we are careful to mention that when the facts are in dispute, that too is a fact. Yet, there are still those who are not convinced.

What’s going on here? Believe it or not, science has taken a look at so-called “motivated reasoning” where people rationalize evidence that is not in keeping with deeply held beliefs. Here are some of the findings:

• “a large number of psychological studies have shown that people respond to scientific or technical evidence in ways that justify their preexisting beliefs.”


• "people rejected the validity of a scientific source because its conclusion contradicted their deeply held views—and thus the relative risks inherent in each scenario”


• “head-on attempts to persu
  4 Comments on Just Cuz It's a Fact, Doesn't Mean They'll Believe It, last added: 5/5/2011
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  Christina Wilsdon said, on 5/4/2011 6:48:00 AM
  

  It's a cliche, but some things never change, do they? Great Galileo anecdotes. Always liked this one from John Adams's writings:
  
  "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

  Ella said, on 5/4/2011 8:25:00 AM
  

  Fantastic, insightful post. Thanks!

  David Schwartz said, on 5/4/2011 3:52:00 PM
  

  Great post, Vicki, and a great reminder to non-fiction authors (who tend to believe in evidence-based conclusions) that an abundance of facts supporting a viewpoint does not necessarily mean an abundance of agreement with the viewpoint. Look at what happened to Galileo: he was thrown in prison for proving that the Earth was not the center of the universe!

  Vicki Cobb said, on 5/4/2011 4:54:00 PM
  

  Thanks Christina, Ella and David for your comments.
  Today, President Obama declined to release the gory photos of a dead Osama bin Laden. I heard a pundit say that he'd seen the DNA evidence and didn't need a photo for more proof. For those who are skeptical about bin Laden's death, I'm sure Obama reasoned, a photo would not be irrefutable. And as the days go by, without directives to Al Quaeda from bin Laden, his non-believing followers will get the message. Our president has certainly learned his: you can publish the truth and those who remain unconvinced are out of your control.

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My first teaching job was seventh and eighth grade science. I was twenty-three years old, married, with a master’s degree in secondary school science and permanent NY State certification to teach high school biology, chemistry and physics. But I had had a hard time finding a job. In those days young married women were not considered a good investment by schools as they were likely to get pregnant and quit. And, because of my graduate degree, they had to start me at a higher pay scale than someone with just a BA. So I was grateful to get the job and prepared myself to face the students with the reputation of raging hormones.

The first eighth grade unit was on “Modern Atomic Theory.” (Do they still teach it?) Somewhere in my training echoed the phrase “Make it relevant.” So I walked into my first class armed with a Fabulous Factoid. After describing the nucleus of the atom with its protons and neutrons and its orbiting electrons the stage was set for the delivery of my FF. “Want to know what makes up most of an atom?” I asked my class rhetorically. “It’s mostly empty space. In fact, if you took out all the space of all the atoms in a fleet of battle ships (maybe 17 ships) and packed all those subatomic particles next to each other, you would have a mass the size of a basketball that weighed as much as the entire fleet!” I paused, satisfied that I had delivered my FF with sufficient drama. Silence greeted me. Then, at the back of the room, a boy slowly raised his hand. (I still remember his name). “Mrs. Cobb,” asked David incredulously, “how do they know that?” I was stunned. I didn’t know the answer. I figured I’d better not fake it. “Good question, David. I’ll find out,” I stammered.

Needless to say, the answer was not in the textbook (nor, for that matter was the FF). So I went to the library and found a children’s book called The Story of the Atom. (I don’t remember the author; there is a current book with the same title by Joy Hakim.) I noticed that the door to my classroom was closed and no one was watching me. So I taught the unit from this book and ignored the textbook. Each day I told a different story giving kids notes they could study from—How Henri Becquerel accidentally discovered invisible rays from a rock; rays that passed through opaque paper. How his friend, Marie Curie, measured the strength of these rays and discovered two more radioactive elements. I described Roentgen’s astonishment the first time he