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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.
Entries from November 2009
links for 2009-11-20
November 20, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Categories: del.icio.us
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.
Categories: del.icio.us
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.
Categories: Uncategorized
