Enemy of Entropy
Nifty! Know a girl aged 8 – 11?
Via the inestimable ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
ideageek: Teaching girls to program
“Kids learning to storyboard, brainstorm, critique, design, pitch ideas, psuedocode, actually code, and make toys do things.”
bouncyMiscellany
I lost track of who originally linked to what, so I can’t credit them properly. But thank you to whoever they all were, anyway!
Filed under “another reason I’m proud to be a homeschooler”: California court rules that private school can oust lesbian students. I do understand that it’s a private religious school, and that their denomination doesn’t approve of homosexuality. On the other hand, the girls’ parents chose to send them to that school, not the girls themselves. And demanding that everybody in the school be heterosexual makes every bit as much sense as demanding that they all be right-handed! (It also sounds like the school went WAY the hell overboard in interpreting the “evidence.”)
Can I get an “Amen”?! Ending Weight Bias: The Easiest Way to Tackle Obesity in America
This is news? Readers build vivid mental simulations of narrative situations, brain scans suggest
Not Good News: Mercury found in kids’ foods — and in pretty much anything else that contains HFCS. I’m confident of my ability to kick the soda habit, but totally avoiding HFCS pretty much means avoiding all processed foods. GAH!
This is so cool! Implants Tap the Thinking Brain
No surprise to me, at least: Watch out. The Internet will cut you
Reality check: Sorry, you don’t have a 200 IQ
Another no-brainer: Video Games May Hinder Relationships
soreTotD: Doris Lessing on Education
Doris Lessing, Introduction to The Golden Notebook
Ideally, what should be said to every child, repeatedly, throughout his or her school life is something like this:
“You are in the process of being indoctrinated. We have not yet evolved a system of education that is not a system of indoctrination. We are sorry, but it is the best we can do. What you are being taught here is an amalgam of current prejudice and the choices of this particular culture. The slightest look at history will show how impermanent these must be. You are being taught by people who have been able to accommodate themselves to a regime of thought laid down by their predecessors. It is a self-perpetuating system. Those of you who are more robust and individual than others will be encouraged to leave and find ways of educating yourself – educating your own judgements. Those that stay must remember, always, and all the time, that they are being moulded and patterned to fit into the narrow and particular needs of this particular society.”
Professional Educators say “Trauma is good for kids!”
That’s what their actions say, anyway.
They’d better be damned glad I didn’t have a kid in that school.
Edited to add:
I’m with Jon Carroll on this one.
The takeaway is: Don’t trust anyone. Grown-ups will lie to you and try to make you feel bad. The world sucks even worse than you thought it did. Guidance counselor Lori Tauber defended the exercise: “They were traumatized, but we wanted them to be traumatized. That’s how they get the message.”
These are professional educators, and they are comfortable with the following pedagogic theory: Trauma is good for kids. It’s an effective teaching tool. Why not teach American literature the same way? Harpoon a real whale and watch it die — “Moby-Dick” brought to life! They’ll remember that.
Maybe they’ll want to join Greenpeace too. Two lessons for the price of one dead whale! And then the “dead” whale could wake up and make a moving speech at assembly.
Are we that alienated from the adolescents in our midst? Do we think that their feelings don’t matter, that almost anything is justified in pursuit of making sure they get a Life Lesson? Are we that cruel? Apparently we are — a majority of the parents in Oceanside thought there was nothing wrong with this little experiment. Shake those kids up a little.
Fibrant Living: Chronic Illnesses & Education
I’m mostly posting a note here for ease of recordkeeping for Blog365, but I also know a fair number of people who suffer from migraines or other chronic illnesses and probably don’t read Fibrant Living. Today’s post is over there, and has a pointer to a good resource for anyone who has headaches.
