Parents ‘n Schools

In Chip and Dan Heath’s bestseller “Made to Stick”, they talk about the “Curse of Knowledge”, or what happens to our human thinking after we know something and how hard it becomes to imagine what it was like not to know it. That knowledge has “cursed” us, and “it becomes difficult for us to share […]

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(GLO — February 2009 — One of the ways courts and the judicial system are valuable to society is that they become a repository for the results of prior conflict, or “precedents” of dispute resolution. One of the challenges for parents ‘n schools is that there is no third party register or agency by which […]

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A friend recently shared the contents of a message home from school, where his child’s teacher was appealing for help at home reminding students where homework assignments can be found online and reminding them to get that work done in a timely fashion.
Innocent enough.
But the reaction at home was… unwelcome.
Home is already a very busy […]

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I was delivering one of my kids late to their middle school recently (orthodontist appointment… why can’t they share the same buildings again, or be on the same block?…) and observed as he signed himself in that the sheet had a space for writing “Reasons for Being Late”. The first thing that struck me was […]

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Contrary to popular belief, law school doesn’t take that much time to attend. While scheduled over 3 years, generally speaking, your actual time-in-class is just one year. About 365 days, more or less. I know this, because I counted them.
No particular reason to count them. I just did. I was keeping a journal (as was […]

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In sitting down recently to explore the possibility of maybe, if fate allows, one day, perhaps, depending on the stars and their alignment, in some fashion… turn these writings into a book, I was led to ponder who such a book might be “written for”.
What I came up with was:
“The parent with some exposure to […]

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There’s a fun little magazine you can find on shelves called “Mental Floss”, and in its Jan-Feb ‘09 issue they answer “The Biggest Questions of 2009″. And one of the questions they have chosen is “Why don’t school buses have seat belts?”
Their answer, essentially, is:
- school buses don’t need them
- because a bus is so […]

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(GLO — February 2009 — In the middle of another season of minor hockey, I’m reminded again of my wonder at the “educational value” of criticizing and hollering at young children, and the different way young learners seem to be treated by adults once they put helmets and pads on. I’m left to wonder if […]

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I read where the University of Calgary is now offering a “Graduation Guarantee” in some of its faculties. It guarantees incoming students will be able to graduate within 4 years, or the University will pay the tuition for any courses needed to finish.
Commitments are involved on both the student’s and the university’s part. The student […]

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Two items caught my eye in the news last week.
One was the Alberta Education Minister advising of an upcoming review of the School Act and public consultation on what schooling delivery in our part of the world should look like going forward.
The other was Bill Gates’ presentation at this year’s TED Conference, available online at
http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_unplugged.html
or […]

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