Human Growth & Learning
I remember one of my med school classmates, a woman who told us about how she knew when she was very young that she would be a doctor when she grew up. She had no doubt about that. “What I couldn’t figure out,” she explained, “was how I was going to become a man.” It … [Read more…]
Perhaps there is a good reason that fathers tell bad dad jokes…
A couple of the best teachers I ever had were not very good teachers. Let me explain. The first was a high school math teacher that I had for two years. One of my best friends was in her classes with me, let’s say his name was Picard. She would hand back our exams and … [Read more…]
I want to tell a nice story about myself, not to brag, but in the hope that others might do similar things. I try to head overseas every year or two, and so far my wife and I have been able to do that with our children. It requires some hard choices and some clear … [Read more…]
There was a man I knew for some years, and at one point I learned that when he was a boy, if he didn’t play well in his Pee Wee baseball games, his father would whip him. One of the coaches here at the University recruits a lot of international athletes, and at one point … [Read more…]
For the sake of conversation, let’s say the human brain is like an automobile, and there are three basic models: the Corvette, the Silverado, or the amphibious Max IV 6-wheeler ATV. You get to choose. The Corvette is the sexiest, the social elite; as a mind, it’s the equivalent of, say, Carrie Fisher, easily one of … [Read more…]
Our concepts of excellence in education, in intelligence, and in personal performance, are all designed around standardized test, even in the most rigorous curricula. Which is not a very good idea.
The football mentality in the political arena is not win-win, win-lose, but lose-lose; and when that problem affects education, we all lose.
Every child starts with a natural curiosity, but educational abuse destroys it. What if we re-designed education to preserve that curiosity above all else?
As humanity learns more at an ever-accelerating rate, fewer people will be left to look at each area of knowledge. And that means that the confidence in our knowledge will decline.