Instead of the usual, insightful commentary, you get brief thoughts, and I get a phenomenally smaller list of bookmarked sites.
- Is Kasich school funding enough? - I never could figure out how to write about school funding. It's a huge problem but one that's all but impossible to solve. I don't know that I have more to say about it than that.
- Why you truly never leave high school - Heard this author on Q discussing this article. Great science about how our brains are radically changed during adolescence.
- What do you think of Ted Williams now? - Wonderfully written article Teddy Ballgame from 1986. It's long, but it's among the best Esquire articles I've read.
- Fracking's Future - I need to do more research about the dangers (and advantages) of fracking before I write anything from a position of knowledge. The process - not the research, the fracking itself - scares the holy crap out of me, though.
- King of the Cosmos - We should all read more about Neil deGrasse Tyson.
- Chemical curiosities: surprising science and dramatic demonstrations - It's an hour-long demo show of chemistry demos. I don't know that many folks want to watch that many demos, but I did.
- Cinematic faiths - Christopher Nolan's interview about the Batman trilogy is impressive.
- Letters of note: they sure are not violent - Love Vonnegut
- Wonderful Life with the Elements - Until I get off my butt to buy/read this book, I don't know whether I want to endorse it, but I am curious about it.
- After Hours - I like that I just got a dog named Clementine and this is sung to the tune of 'Clementine'.
- I wanted to write about frisbee golf and look at the discs I enjoy, paying special attention to the disc ratings...
- Innova's flight rating system
- Deep in the Game - tips on how to play better
- Skinny pumpkin and cream bread - Never got around to making this, so I didn't want to write about it.
- Internet Database of Periodic Tables - The periodic table is the most amazing discovery/creation in the history of chemistry as far as I'm concerned. Everybody's been improving upon it for decades.
- The Periodic Table of Periodic Tables - The lack of embeddability (sp?) of this neat collection dissuaded me from posting. (here's a larger version)
- A new way to cook pasta - I keep doing this the old way in spite of reading that this way is better.
- Right here waiting - It's a big article about Richard Marx and a writer's connection to him.
- Social networking policy holds school district staff to a 'higher standard' - Again, I didn't quite know what to write about this one. I don't like social networks for the most part, and I especially don't like them professionally.
- The exhaustion of the American teacher - It feels like pointing these things out would sound like whining, but they're all true.
- Lessons on school choice from Sweden - I don't like vouchers, but I don't know how to say that without emotion.
- 6980 Knoll Rd, 45237 - There's a Frank Lloyd Wright house for sale in Cincy.
- Richter Spielgrate - This playground equipment maker is really challenging the notion that children should never be allowed to get hurt.
3 comments:
That Ted Williams piece is pretty much the best writing ever. I could read that once a week.
The blog post on US Ed. problems form John Kuhn was interesting. I do wonder if he has his own kids.
I bring that up because I have a sister and a brother. Where I loved school and basically ruled at it my brother and sister LOATHED school. My sis was a bit more passive but she no doubt hated it. My brother was more of a hell raiser and was not shy about voicing his disregard. But we have the same parents. My sis is only 1 year younger and my bro was only 5 years.
And my parents were amazing, loving, supportive etc. As adults my sis and bro are doing GREAT and are parents themselves.
I think Kuhn goes a lot overboard on the parent blame. People are their own. The % hasn't changed in my class room for the last 13 years of teaching...33% don't wanna be there, 33% kinda wanna be there, 33% are solid.
Kinda like my family.
Glad you enjoyed the Ted piece. It's impressive.
I struggle to say anything about teaching/education. I do think we have a deeply flawed system. I don't want to blame teachers, but I recognize that what we're doing (delivering largely the same content to large groups of people at once) isn't an effective way of educating unless the students want to be there or unless there is some consequence in their lives if they choose to misbehave/act out/ignore.
I don't know that NCLB is the cure. I don't know that Common Core is the cure.
I don't know that Skype and Twitter and Facebook and Wordles and Edmodo and Prezis are the cure.
I don't really know what the cure is without solving every other societal ill that is contributing to the downfall of education - poverty, jobless/uneducated parents, broken nuclear family units, privileged upper class, angry/uninterested lower class...
It's too big to fix and too important to fail.
Yeah I had a jprofessor in college assign the Williams piece. Most people in my class didn't read it b/c it was "too long". bums!
It is way too big to fix and fail. Well said.
I predict that more options for families in regards to how/where formalized education comes to be delivered will be the ultimate solution.
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