It’s kind’ve funny how in some contexts I’m a shut-up-and-go radical and in others I’m a hold-your-horses conservative. In response to this article on the Nonprofiteer: If institutions of higher learning want to maintain their tax-favored status, they should abolish legacy preferences. If they don’t—if they go on practicing white people’s affirmative action—they deserve to [...]
From “Assessment Overview of One Laptop per Child Projects”, an evaluation of One Laptop Per Child deployments: “Figure 1 : The current global distribution of XO laptops across the world.” From the community created and curated http://olpcmap.net : This second map was launched at OLPC San Francisco Community Summit. Marina Zd collected some good pictures of [...]
Roy Alexander, creator of the 3-D Periodic Table, recently commented on my blog since I had posted previously about his unique construction. Below is from his “The Argument for 3-D Periodic Table” (emphasis original): The theory of multiple intelligences has grabbed the attention of many educators around the country, and hundreds of schools are currently [...]
I was pointed to Political Scientist Michael Parenti’s 7 categories of generalizations about the way the news media create anti-union messaging by this article analyzing the media’s portrayal of the Philadelphia public transit strike. I got really steamed about a month ago listening to a local interview/call-in show about Boston charter schools and the Teacher [...]
Only those who have power, for example, can define what is correct or incorrect. Only those who have power can decide what constitutes intellectualism. Once the intellectual parameters are set, those who want to be considered intellectuals must meet hte requirements of the profile dictated by the elite class. To be intellectual one must do [...]
A New York Times article on paying kids based on their standardized test scores: City of Angels dvd …a seventh-grade English class was asked one morning if there were too many standardized tests. Every hand in the room shot up to answer with a defiant yes. But at the same time, the students all agreed [...]
I’m taking Mathematical Models in Biology and we had an interesting problem in our last class. We were broken up into groups and asked to create a model around malaria infection. We received some information on mosquito behavior and lifecycles, infection rates and patterns, and effects. That was it. The primary tenet of mathematical modeling is [...]
One should never be too surprised by what they might find in a restroom. I was impressed though with what I learned from a sign hanging above a urinal at the National Zoo in Washington, DC. “Spray it, don’t say it! Urine spraying is ok–if you’re a lobster that is Lobsters don’t speak, but they do greet–by [...]
