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Lawyer-Parents sue to get their family life back. Notice how careful they are not to criticize the teachers or school administration directly. Very diplomatic.
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A Long Island fifth-grader makes an eloquent case against too much homework which prompts a slew of snarky (and poorly written) comments from some bitter, soulless Daily News readers. (As well as some praise.)
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Are we thinking about homework for school children in the write context? Alfie Kohn speaks and writes on the subject of improving education through redesign.
links for 2009-11-20
November 20, 2009 · Leave a Comment
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links for 2009-11-11
November 11, 2009 · Leave a Comment
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"Researchers believe they can benefit from tales about the caped crusader, Superman and even Dennis the Menace in the same way they can from reading other types of literature, despite teachers and parents often being snooty about comics, experts say."
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"Heavier Americans are pushing back now with newfound vigor in the policy debate, lobbying legislators and trying to move public opinion to recognize their point of view: that thin does not necessarily equal fit, and that people can be healthy at any size."
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Zachary Stein's advice to other schools is to give the students things to do that would have a concrete payoff in the real world. Teens need relevance because their brains are geared to understanding systems.
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Atlantic Avenue Tunnel
November 5, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Everyone should check out the next tour of the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel introduced each tour by the man who discovered it, Bob Diamond. Bob recounts some of the history of the Brooklyn by explaining the tunnel’s function at that time it was built in 1844. We get a great picture of the landscape of Brooklyn at the time. We also get a glimpse of the way people conducted business, the enforcement of the law, and the social makeup of Brooklyn. The real star, as Bob makes clear, is the countless hours of research he conducted to piece together what life around the tunnel both at the time it was active and even after it had been hidden away. The structure became a fairly common source of folklore, especially if it was discussed in a newspaper article, and it was frequently viewed as a place where dark things happened – where shadowy criminals had their base of operations, and where foreign spies plotted against the citizens moving above them. Our guide managed to effortlessly weave this story, essentially the biography of a tunnel, and it is one of the most fascinating tales you ‘ll ever hear.
Bob tells this story so effortlessly that one feels they are being taken along as he does his research, gets discouraged by countless ‘experts’ at City agencies and the surrounding universities, and eventually finds the tunnel just as the Brooklyn Union Gas company guys are about to go home.
It is especially fun to listen for embellishments liberally sprinkled into some of his material – not deliberate misinformation, but just a few exaggerations to keep the lazy listeners on their toes.
The next tour is on Sunday, November 15. Make a reservation here.
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links for 2009-10-18
October 18, 2009 · Leave a Comment
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James Bamford reviews "The Secret Sentry: The Untold History of the National Security Agency" by Matthew M. Aid. The review opens with a description of the data archive facilities ("windowless cybertemples") currently under construction in Utah and Texas.
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Shepard Fairey's "long, often proud history of breaking rules" may have led him to believe that it would be no big deal to fib about which photograph he used to create his iconic HOPE poster for the Barack Obama campaign. In the end, he may have been a victim of his own, (and the President's) success.
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Four words: King Abdullah Economic City…
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Commemorate the great fires of London and Rome in style.
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Cyclists need to maintain momentum, and they need to make eye contact with pedestrians and motorists to know when to slow down. On a multi-vehicular roadways, traffic laws are not one-size-fits-all.
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The perils of acceptance
October 16, 2009 · Leave a Comment
The writers I know are constantly on the lookout for agents and publishers to print their stuff. I’ve often heard professional writers give advice that’s difficult for some to swallow; namely that authors should seek out ‘personalized rejections’ as opposed to what Ellis Weiner illustrates in this hilarious New Yorker piece.
[Link] Article: “Subject: Our Marketing Plan” by Ellis Weiner; New Yorker Magazine
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Tagged: Reading
Washington Heights’ beacon
September 14, 2009 · 1 Comment
A couple of months ago I got tickets to see Sonic Youth play at an old movie theater that had, for more than 25 years, been the Washington Heights headquarters to the famous Reverend Ike. The band chose to eat at a Dominican restaurant across the street – a good one as I understand, and it was probably the best business the place had done that whole year. It got me to thinking about how much the neighborhood (an area where I spent a huge part of my childhood) had changed since I’d moved away.
Last Saturday, I took an impromptu, misty 16 mile bike ride from Astoria, Queens through Manhattan and back again to do some more exploring.
Off the Harlem River Drive and still pretty rough to get to, is the just opened Swindler Cove Park, one of the achievements of Bette Midler’s ambitious New York Restoration Project.
Through Washington Heights and a rally for a City Council candidate, up through Fort Tryon Park and to what was for me, the highlight of the day: a visit to the Little Red Lighthouse. Amazing to think of how, as a child it seemed little more than an abandoned and unwanted piece of history. When I was small enough, I could actually climb into it and walk around (the small portal has since been sealed).
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links for 2009-06-09
June 9, 2009 · Leave a Comment
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After losing a battle over metering Internet usage by its companies, Time Warner plans to go ahead and do it anyway.
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Author Helen Epstein reviews 'Dreams from the Monster Factory: A Tale of Prison, Redemption and One Woman's Fight to Restore Justice to All' by Sunny Schwartz, with David Boodell. An argument for "restorative justice" is made and an examination of prison life and how it contributes to recidivism in the prison population.
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Anyone catch David Byrne in Prospect Park? He played a range of tunes, but I notice he favored a lot of stuff from 'Fear of Music', one of my favorite Talking Heads albums. Byrne art extends well past his songwriting. He's something of a social philosopher and, as evidenced by this article which appeared in the May 31st edition of the NY Time Book Review, he's passionate about the solutions to urban infrastructure through emphasizing bicycle transportation over cars.
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Who says guys don't read? 50 titles listed here range from timeless classics to contemporary thrillers.
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Crap [book] – by Erin Conley, Karen Macklin, and Jake Miller
June 1, 2009 · 1 Comment
Call No. 305.235 (Young Adult)
ISBN: 978-0979017353
Price: $8.95
Find it at your library [WorldCat]
I was thumbing through the shelves today and came upon this title, another great one for Zest Books. As usual, the intended audience is teenagers, but, as I’ve been feeling a bit down lately, the book couldn’t have revealed itself to me at a better time or in a better format. This pocket-sized volume would be great to put into your back pocket and whip out the moment someone starts to annoy you. Simple, pithy pearls of wisdom about dealing with all kinds of crap in one’s life are offset with the authors’ quirky humor. Readers will also appreciate the random insertions of facts about the actual “number 2″, a twist that helps put it all into perspective.
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Tagged: books
