Columnist, author David Brooks to headline UF College of Education's 100-year anniversary kickoff celebration
New York Times op-ed columnist and best-selling author David Brooks, a regular analyst and commentator on National Public Radio and PBS television’s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, will help the University of Florida College of Education launch its yearlong Centennial Celebration, serving as featured speaker for a lecture and panel discussion at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 24, at UF’s Emerson Alumni Hall.
The event is free and open to the public.
Brooks’ nationally syndicated columns and radio and television reports typically aim for humor, social commentary and the “lighter” side of the news. At his UF appearance, he will expound on some his recent Times columns in which he cited a growing education gap linked to race, poverty and gender differences. Following his talk, Brooks and a panel of educators from the College of Education and local public schools will discuss possible solutions to some of education’s most intractable problems.
The panel will include: Victor Lopez, principal of Miami High School; Leanetta McNealy, principal of Duval Elementary School in Gainesville; Bernard Oliver, professor of educational administration and director of the UF Alliance school-improvement program; Donald Pemberton, director of the UF Lastinger Center for Learning; Fran Vandiver, director of P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School (UF’s lab school); and Barbara Woodhouse, who occupies the UF David H. Levin chair in Family Law and directs the Center on Children and Families.
A reception and book-signing and sale with Brooks will follow the panel discussion, at 8 p.m. He has written two books: BoBos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There (published in 2000) was a New York Times best-seller; his most recent book, On Paradise Drive (2004) depicts suburban life in America. Attendees can bring their own copies of his books, or the UF Book Store will have copies for sale at the signing.
Emerson Alumni Hall is located on the north side of University Avenue, across the street from Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
Brooks’ speaking engagement kicks off a yearlong celebration commemorating the College of Education’s 100th anniversary of its founding. The Fien Lecture Series gets underway on Thursday, Jan. 26, featuring Robert Jimenez, professor of language, literacy and culture in Peabody College at Vanderbilt University. Jimenez will speak on “Literacies Within and Without Mexico.” His lecture will begin at 3 p.m. in the College of Education’s Terrace Room in Norman Hall.
Other college Centennial events planned throughout the year include additional Fien lectures, Back-to-College Weekend events Feb. 24, a Gator basketball game half-time event, a time capsule burial, the Scholarship of Engagement Banquet in April and other festivities.
The UF Normal School—the predecessor of the College of Education—held the university’s first education classes in 1906. Over the past century, UF education faculty have been pioneers in the community college and middle school movements, in desegregation and the modern school-counseling movement. The modern college currently ranks 15th among public education schools of the elite institutions of the Association of American Universities (AAU), with heightened emphasis on emerging technology, interdisciplinary research and advanced graduate studies to prepare tomorrow’s leaders in all education disciplines.
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Writer
Larry Lansford, llansford@coe.ufl.edu, (352) 392-0726, ext. 266
