Two points about self-esteem
From Martin Seligman’s Learned Optimism: Point 1: Self-esteem is a symptom, not a prerequisite or cause. “I believe that self-esteem is just a meter that reads out the state of the system. It is not an end in itself. When you are doing well in school or work, when you are doing well with the […]
Gossip
Really enjoyed Doubt. This parable definitely going to be reused with students. “A woman was gossiping with a friend about a man she hardly knew— I know none of you have ever done this—that night she had a dream. A great hand appeared over her and pointed down at her. She was immediately seized with […]
St Exupery and The Immensity of the Sea
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Negative Suggestion and the learning tightrope
Negative suggestion is pretty common. “Try not to fall off”, “Don’t push that button” are both examples. The problem is it seems to have pretty standard effects too. You fall off. You end up pushing that button. The suggestion to a person not to do something results in increasing the likelihood that the...
The problem of best practice in schools
[post_intro]The performance of a system depends on how the parts fit, not how they act taken separately. As a result, and to paraphrase Dave Gray, a best practice from one school, or from one teacher, can’t necessarily be applied successfully elsewhere. [/post_intro] Gray quotes systems expert Russell Ackoff‘s rather...
Jack Welch and Rates of Change
This, from Jack Welch, makes a lot of sense: “I’ve always believed that when the rate of change inside an institution becomes slower than the rate of change outside, the end is in sight. The only question is when.” Given how quickly things are changing outside schools, it makes me wonder how best to keep […]
The Difficulty with Artificial Divides
I find this table a little unsettling, and I think the reason why has to do with artificial divides. It’s part of what looks like an interesting presentation by Bonnie Stewart – and I know I am probably taking it out of context – but I’m going to assume the “academic” vs “networked” are...
21st Century Soup-Spilling
[post_intro]There’s a lot of talk about 21st century education. There are the skills that children need, the jobs that don’t exist yet, the access to learning anywhere and all the wonderful things the internet enables us to do. All of this is valuable, I think, but I wonder how much it is side-stepping the real […]
Douglas Adams & The Natural Order of Things
Like this from Douglas Adams [thanks Jose] …anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in […]
The Chaos by Charivarius
Dearest creature in creation, Study English pronunciation. I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse. I will keep you, Suzy, busy, Make your head with heat grow dizzy. Tear in eye, your dress will tear. So shall I! Oh hear my prayer. Just compare heart, beard, and heard, Dies […]