I have no interest in defending ineffective teachers, but we also have to talk honestly about what schools can and can’t do to help students. I don’t doubt that the effectiveness of a teacher is the single largest factor in determining a student’s success, but this is only in terms of the factors schools can actually control. If we include all the relevant factors, the data seems clear that socio-economic status dwarfs every other factor. Until policy-makers acknowledge this fact, educational policy will continue in its teacher-punitive path to the detriment of all.

The printed book is about to vanish at extraordinary speed … Books are about to vanish; reading is about to expand as a pastime; these are inescapable realities.

In practical and environmental terms, I think this is a good thing, but I worry about how easy it would be to lose our collective library should it all go digital. What backups and safeguards will we develop, and when?

No research says how much of what’s recalled at test time remains permanently in memory, nor to what practical use, if any, that information is later put, but that’s of no concern … Their interest in performance ends when the scores are posted.

The other theory isn’t very popular and, frankly, is just a lot harder.

Toronto After Dark Film Festival 5 year anniversary edition poster

I’d seen Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon a while ago, but had a chance to watch it again recently. I enjoyed this slasher satire for many of the same reasons I enjoyed the first Scream: both are meta-slasher films that use humor to deconstruct the genre while still serving as examples of that genre. However, while Scream is concerned mainly with conventions of procedure, watching Behind the Mask is like getting a crash-course in psychoanalytic criticism (a move that makes the title all-the-more appropriate).  Admittedly, it does little to escape that reading, as it ultimately becomes what it’s satirizing, but it’s still clever and fun.

4,500 Teach for America recruits placed in public schools this year after five weeks of summer preparation

If that sounds like progress to you, then I suspect your concern has more to do with budgets than with students.

Pupils show greater motivation, are better behaved and are more likely to be independent and strategic thinkers when teachers are not obsessed by grades.

If you said to me, you can either have your toes cut off or your whole library destroyed, with no chance of ever accessing those works again, I’d say “take my toes”–because I can more easily compensate for that loss. Of course, you could get into a grisly argument over how much of my biology I’d give up before I’d say, “OK, take the Goethe!”

He’s making the point that we have outsourced much of our intelligence. As the process continues, we will rely less and less on our “biological” intelligence. Interesting concept … assuming the tech doesn’t crash.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars on Goodreads

This is an excellent collection of fairy tales. The editors collect variations of the more popular tales and group them for comparison. The tales include Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, and many others. The work includes an insightful introductory essay, but each grouping of tales also provides an essay that discusses the significance of the tale and the similarities and differences among the variations.

Savvy publishers, [Visel] says, “should be establishing themselves as brands or curators.” And they “could be in the business of providing community to the readers: allowing readers to have conversations with authors or like-minded readers.

Books Have Many Futures

I also like Visel’s phrase: “there are futures of the book.”

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