Small breaths- January 28, 2005 From here via here:During my senior year at college, my friends provoked each other, half in earnest, half mocking, with the question: "So, what are you going to do for the rest of your life" The question's immensity made us laugh uncomfortably at our cloudy career paths. Now 33 years later, I realize that I missed the point completely - it's a trick question. There is no such thing as "the rest of your life." There is only now, and if you are going to accomplish anything,...http://www.brianmicklethwait.com/education/archives/2005/01/small_breaths.html Educate a woman and educate a family- January 27, 2005 The only thing I know about Rudy Manikan, and the only reference to him that I can find on the Internet, is that he was the guy (and I'm only guessing he was a guy) who said this:If you educate a man you educate a person, but if you educate a woman, you educate a family.At the top of google it said: Did you mean Ruby Manikan, and after that, only the first two links are about Rudy Manikan. All the rest of them seem to be about Rudy Someone and Someone Manikan both getting involved in the same...http://www.brianmicklethwait.com/education/archives/2005/01/educate_a_woman.html Grammar wars- January 27, 2005 I agree with this man, rather than this one. I've never taught writing, and if I did I might totally change my mind, but saying that grammar isn't an important part of teaching writing sounds to me like saying that the individual sounds of letters aren't important in teaching reading. And we all either do know what that last disastrous notion lead to, or we damn well should. Go here for some enlightenment if you don't know what I'm talking about.Writing is grammar. And while we're about it, if..http://www.brianmicklethwait.com/education/archives/2005/01/grammar_wars.html Paul Graham on taking charge early- January 26, 2005 My thanks to Michael Jennings for emailing me the link to this speech to some high school kids (which he never actually gave) by Paul Graham.I like, in particular, how the speech ends:… you don't have to wait to start. In fact, you don't have to wait to be an adult. There's no switch inside you that magically flips when you turn a certain age or graduate from some institution. You start being an adult when you decide to take responsibility for your life. You can do that at any age. This..http://www.brianmicklethwait.com/education/archives/2005/01/paul_graham_on_2.html The unintended consequences of selective price control- January 26, 2005 Oxford University is allowed to charge the full wack for foreigners, but is forbidden to charge what it likes to locals and the government won't make up enough of the difference. So, it wants more foreigners and fewer locals:Oxford University, under-funded by the Government by £95 million a year, is to cut the number of British undergraduates it admits and "vigorously" recruit more foreign students, who pay the full cost of their degrees. The one-to-one tutorial system - the...http://www.brianmicklethwait.com/education/archives/2005/01/the_unintended_1.html A provocative posting on Samizdata- January 25, 2005 On Jan 21st – last Friday in other words – David Carr did a posting about the electronic tagging of schoolchildren. He produced this quote …A school in Swansea is considering tagging its pupils because of a shortage of assistants who can supervise lunch breaks. The idea is for children at Lonlas Primary to wear the tags all day, with a buzzer sounding if they leave.… which he found here.The point I want to make here is simply that there are now a lot (as of now: 84) of.http://www.brianmicklethwait.com/education/archives/2005/01/a_provocative_p.html The education of the Aviator- January 25, 2005 Today they announced that The Aviator has been nominated for eleven Oscars.For some time now I've been meaning to do another of those celebrity educations postings, and today I got to wondering what kind of education Howard Hughes hadI found an answer, albeit a brief one, here:Education: Hughes attended private school in Boston, where he was better at golf than classwork. He was attending Thacher School in California when his mother died. In California, Hughes spent time with his uncle, Rupert,.http://www.brianmicklethwait.com/education/archives/2005/01/the_education_o_1.html Paying children to stay on at school- January 25, 2005 Tonight and tomorrow I want to attempt (although I promise nothing) some slightly more substantial blog writing, maybe for here, maybe for elsewhere. So I just want to fling up something here to enable me to forget here for the day.And the education news story from recent days that I have found most interesting just now has been this one:The Government is set to give a £100 bonus to thousands of teenagers throughout the UK for continuing in education. Under a scheme rewarding teenagers...http://www.brianmicklethwait.com/education/archives/2005/01/paying_children.html School bus spotted in London- January 24, 2005 In the USA the school bus, looking approximately like this …… is a part of the national mythology. It is always yellow.But I don't recall seeing any (specifically) school buses in the UK. Until today …Spotted in the Kings Road, approximately 4 pm this afternoon, travelling west.Maybe we have rather more school buses in the UK than I'm implying. But school buses in the USA are like our red pillar boxes or our black cabs, or perhaps more to the point like our red double...http://www.brianmicklethwait.com/education/archives/2005/01/school_bus_spot.html " you'll have to accept that your world view will be curtailed "- January 21, 2005 I've had another busy day today, but I did manage to find this depressing news from Germany:… A German school official has ordered seven families homeschooling their children in Northwest Germany to enroll their children in public schools immediately, or the children will be forcibly removed by police and taken to school. Any resistance on the part of the parents will result in the children being removed from their homes, according to a Home School Legal Defense Association report. The...http://www.brianmicklethwait.com/education/archives/2005/01/_youll_have_to.html |