This was written, of course, in January 2000. I don’t do New Years’. I especially didn’t do this New Years. Though the chance to join in worldwide celebration of an error in addition (our calendar is such that there wasn’t a year zero – 1 A.D. came right after 1 B.C., so actually we’ve just …
Category: education
Dec 23 2010
As if getting good grades…
Who among us has not heard the student in distress, claiming not to know ‘what the professor wants’? As if getting good grades is dependent on finding out each professor’s hidden idiosyncrasies – on figuring out how to please. This attitude has become very prevalent, and I’ve seen students paralysed by it. A professor will …
Nov 27 2010
The Absence of Imagination
We notice it when we say ‘Kids don’t know how to play anymore.’ Gone are the games of dress-up and make-believe. The more specific and recognizable the toy, the more popular; least favourite are the ambiguous toys, the ones with so many possibilities. Later, we observe and lament the fact that the students don’t know …
Mar 02 2010
The Freedom to Fail, the Right to Succeed
Call it what you will, ‘bell curving’ or ‘marks inflation’ or ‘social passing’, or even ‘maintaining a certain flexibility with regard to evaluation’, an A is not necessarily an A. True, the more students fail, the more apt they are to drop out, and the fewer students a school has, the less money it …
Jan 03 2010
Grade Ten History
Remember grade ten history? Okay, quick question: history of what? Of ideas? Of art? Of really stupid jokes? No! Of conflict! And mostly interpersonal conflict charading as intergroup conflict. That’s what grade ten history was all about. And grade eleven history and grade twelve history too. First, let’s call it what it is. And this …
fiction
