It seems to me that no children are truly educated until they understand where money comes from. Here's a great video which explains the…

http://thenextweb.com/apps/2012/03/15/ted-finally-releases-official-android-app-offers-1200-amazing-talks-free-of-charge/

http://www.documentarytube.com/  

Watch Full-Length Documentaries Online for Free. New Documentaries Added Daily, Hundreds to Choose From...

Art | Asia | Aviation | …

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education -- sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.

~ E. B. White

[found at http://grammar.about.com/od/yourwriting/a/advice.htm]

Luck is, in my estimation, the most important idea one can understand, not only about using language interestingly, but also…

Finite and Infinite Games is a book by religious scholar James P. Carse. Kevin Kelly has praised it for "alter[ing] my thinking about life, the universe,…

Last week I had a nightmare and woke up in cold sweat. I dreamt that I was forced to go back to high school and re-do my matriculation exams. I don’t think I would have been that frightened if I had dreamt of being sentenced to jail. And in a way, I feel I am partly there, doing my high school the second time around, due to my high identification with my daughter’s experience in high school.

If there’s something I regret, now that she is in 12th grade, about to finish it in 5 months…

I was just cruising through some old posts (trying to find my old RSS reader in fact. I never did.). But what I did notice is the change of pace of discourse. It would seem that the style of Fireside has not been taken up in the micro world of twitter, the emotionally-centred world of Facebook or the cool information-heavy world of Google+. I miss it.

We seem to have had time to converse, to explore issues widely and express ourselves expansively. The word counts of…

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/opinion/sunday/kristof-after-recess-change-the-world.html?_r=1

http://www.omnivoracious.com/2012/02/five-great-nonfiction-books-to-make-you-think-about-how-we-think.html

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/superintendent/bookclub.aspx : Dr. Starr held his second book club on Tuesday, January 31, featuring the book “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” by Daniel Pink. Dr. Starr led a panel discussion that included Mr. Pink. Hundreds of people joined the discuss in…

Noam Chomsky discusses the purpose of education, impact of technology, whether education should be perceived as a cost or an investment and the value of standardised assessment. Presented at the Learning Without Frontiers Conference - Jan 25th 2012- London (LWF…

http://petitepoubelle.com/2012/01/31/what-is-up-with-noises-the-science-and-mathematics-of-sound-frequency-and-pitch/

I was up in the east hills of Reno with my dogs and listening to a podcast of the BBC program "Analysis" that happened to be about something I had spoken of in my class last night.  Serendipity, perhaps but and interesting, maybe, discussion that may, perhaps be of value in our deliberations, a program about certainty.  I would say that I have not doubt that it would be of value, but I cannot say that with certainty.  Then again, it might really be something of a game changer in how…

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/08/marvells-classroom-3-0-initative-armada-smile-plug-computer-ces-2012/ to be used in conjunction with http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/08/olpcs-xo-3-0-tablet-hands-on/.

Vicki Davis will present a workshop entitled, “Flattening Classrooms, Expanding Minds” as part of the Bucks County Intermediate Unit #22 Speaker Series on Thursday January 12, 2011 at 3:00pm EST USA or Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 20:00:00 GMT […

(revised, 1/2/12)



Late last summer, I was returning from a walk across the alfalfa field with my pup.  Half a year old, she frolicked about with exuberance about everything.  She picked up a stick and raced through the grasses in long sprints, chin up, bursting with pride.  She pranced about, holding the stick in her mouth, darting in and teasing me to see I'd chase her to get that prize.



Then, as I watched her, something got ahold of me.



I noticed that the…

My youngest son, who is now in 4th grade, joined a Waldorf Education school this year, after 3 years of suffering in a regular school. We just received the first school's newsletter with updates and descriptions of the activity in the school and I wanted to share it.

But I should probably start with how we went through these first 3 months. My son started the year very skeptic. "There's no school that can fit me", he said. For a 9 year old to passionately hate the idea of…

I have not been very good (to myself) about putting out a blog on a regular basis, though that was my intention, for the sake of doing what is necessary to keep in touch with my own thoughts.  So, know that this blog is for me and you are invited to read it when you want and as you wish.

I wrote a note a few minutes in response to Kevin's blog on this site and it seemed to be an extension of many of the conversations I have these days, with myself, with commentators in the…

Compared to some other species we remain relatively helpless for a considerable period of time. With our large brains we do catch up and become powerfully intelligent and adaptable but the method of transmitting the knowledge we possess to our offspring takes time and intentional effort.  

Throughout history this teaching time has represented a bit of a liability to humans. Only after people began to gather in clans, villages, city…