Think-Thank-Thunk

Nobody has to remind you how busy you are. That you have a lot on your mind is a given. It’s common. It’s expected. It’s nuts. I get it. So do you.

I’m often so preoccupied on my drive to school that I forget there are two beautiful girls in the backseat–growing up.

I’ll never get this trip with them again. When we get to school, we all go our separate ways. Sometimes (luckily) I snap out of it and remember that this ride, this trip, this moment is unique and special, and VITALLY IMPORTANT.

I tune back in. I listen. I do what I can. And I’m thankful for this moment, because, you know–I only get one shot at it.

It’s a powerful thought. But this one next one will blow your mind. It’s a short story of Buckminster Fuller and his 4-year-old daughter. Read it. It will help you remember what’s really important.

I’ve been reading Gretchen Rubin for awhile now as well. She’s got some smart things to say about staying present. She calls it mindfulness, and she shares a thought provoking quiz you can take, and a touching slide show you can watch.

All powerful stuff.

Image credit

My buddies (disclosure: they have no idea I exist) over at Freakonomics Blog write today to ask for your help in doing a little gender-type research related to boy and girl toys. It’s generating some interesting discussion in the comments. This is what their asking:

1. With regard to toy choice, which comes closest to your experience:

• 1. McDonald’s didn’t ask any question about toy choice.
• 2. The toy-choice question didn’t mention the child’s gender (for example, “Do you want the Digisports or the Hello Kitty toy?”).
• 3. McDonald’s asked whether the Happy Meal was for a boy or a girl.
• 4. McDonald’s offered the choice of a boy’s toy or a girl’s toy.
• 5. Other?

2. If asked a toy-related question, how did you respond?
3. If not asked a toy question, was it because the employee saw or heard your child and just gave what he thought was the gender-appropriate toy?
4. What toy were you given?
5. Was your order placed at the counter or drive through?
6. When and where (city and state) did the transaction take place?

I’m not sure what value this data might have. But that’s what’s cool about those freaks over there. They ask questions that nobody else would think of and sometimes they learn some pretty cool things.

Of course, a more interesting study would be, given the choice, which toy would your child pick?

Never underestimate an idea. Nice story.

A great analogy

An interesting article relating data from a survey done at Careerbuilder.com

Are the kids born between 1982 and 2000 just plain dumb? That’s what Emory University professor Mark Bauerlein argues.

His point is that the explosion of social networking and technology has led to a generation obsessed with their social lives and ignoring intellectual pursuits.

Bauerlein, with his new book, The Dumbest Generation, kicks off a debate and interesting discussion here. Be sure to scroll down to the comment section.

You’d better believe it.

Of course this raises all kinds of concerns. But I like it. Not so much because of the reward (I actually very much dislike the extrinsic reward–can you say bribe?). Talk about throwing money at a problem.

But maybe this program will get people talking about the real challenges related to motivating students.

There’s an interesting discussion going on right now over at Freakonomics about whether or not grades in school are a good predictor of future success.

The discussion centers around these five premises:

1. The definition of success is elusive.
2. How do you measure the validity of grades?
3. Most middle schools and high schools put so much emphasis on homework versus actual understanding that they are measuring behavior and compliance far more than what has been learned.
4. Creativity and creative people tend to mess up metrics at each level.
5. Any research I could find was done at some university which tended to bias results using university metrics of success.

Its a good discussion with some smart participants. Some of it makes me bristle a bit, but I guess that’s healthy. I particularly enjoyed this quote:

If you look at those who have commonly advanced our thinking, our abilities, our technologies, and our economy (through business sense), many did poorly in schools, yet they persisted. The persistence may have been the critical element, and it would have perhaps been lost had they been encouraged more.

So does this mean we need more of those mediocre middle school and high school teachers acting as the forge to both create the worker bees we need, as well as the best [and most successful] by trying to destroy them?

A new brain study suggests that children under the age of 8 aren’t really able to learn from their mistakes. This Dutch study, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, illustrates that younger brains learn differently.

The brains of adults and 12- and 13-year-olds are more strongly activated by negative feedback, but the brains of eight- and nine-year-olds barely registered it and instead were triggered much more strongly by positive feedback.

Scientists conducting the study were surprised at the results. “We had expected that the brains of eight-year-olds would function in exactly the same way as the brains of twelve-year-olds, but maybe not quite so well. Children learn the whole time, so this new knowledge can have major consequences for people wanting to teach children: how can you best relay instructions to eight- and twelve-year-olds?”

I wrote about this type of thing once on my other blog.

And now it’s happened again? What’s the deal with some teachers and tape? You know, there are other, less potentially emotionally enraging and media exciting, ways to control a classroom.