Notes

Notes

My name is Piers Young. I'm a teacher in London. This is where I keep my scribbles, dog-ears and thoughts in progress.

Speakeasy sign-language

Just stumbled across this great post: Hand Signals at the Stock Club. Sherman Billingsley, the owner, apparently had an array of hand-signals he would give to staff while talking to clients. LIFE caption: Closeup of Stork Club owner Sherman Billingsley w. hand to nose, one of his signals to nearby assistand which means “Not important...

Breadth is valuable

Reflecting on Cardinal Newman’s ideas on the role of the university, my predecessor as vice-chancellor, Professor Dame Alison Richard, observed: “The dichotomy between ‘useful’ and ‘not useful’ is itself increasingly ‘not useful’.” With an anthropologist’s view of the benefits of biodiversity, she made a powerful case...

Homework habits

Not sure what I think about this piece by Sarah Firisen at 3quarksdaily. She is talking about her daughter Anya By public school standards, Anya’s homework load is still light; if she doesn’t procrastinate too much, she can usually easily get it done in an hour a night, and there are still nights when she […]

To do what needs doing

Michael Ellsberg has a book out called The Education of Millionaires, which outlines the 7 key skills you need to know to become a millionaire like college drop-outs Zuckerberg or Gates. The argument, loosely, is: yes college can teach you many wonderful things but those things do not transfer easily to the real world. various […]