Very interesting discussion going on over at The View from Harvard Business. The launch point is actually apost on B-School prof Andy McAfee’s blog about an experiment he ran in his classroom. On one day McAfee granted his class an exception to Harvard Business’ policy of not allowing the use of digital devices in class so they could Twitter as they wished. The prof didn’t like how that one turned out:

I want my students to concentrate on the discussion taking place in meatspace, not the ones in cyberspace. I want to be clear: I like twitter a lot and use it a fair bit myself (follow me at @amcafee if you like), but I don’t like it in a classroom when a live discussion is (supposed to be) taking place.

That quote was actually from the original post at McAfee’s blog. View from Harvard has its own coverage of the topic and the comment section is starting to warm up.

Personally, I won’t speak for other disciplines, but simply attending business school is more than an exercise in soaking up wisdom imparted by books and a professor standing in front of the classroom. In B-School you are actually participating in a form of on-the-job training. When you go to class, just as when you go to a meeting, there are expectations. You are expected to prepare ahead of time. You are expected to participate. You are expected to take the information that is imparted on board. And, you are expected to follow up on directives given. So, B-School is a great place to learn to manage internal and external distractions.

Since it is school however, profs and officials need to recognize that sometimes students must be given latitude to make and learn from their own mistakes, and sometimes it is better for those in authority to simply prescribe the right way to go. In this case, judging from what I’ve seen, children of all ages who use Twitter don’t have the capacity to keep this activity in its proper place, and therefore need help in deciding when to put it down.

Wow.  This is off the hook ridiculous.  In Japan, a school gave in to complaining parents and is putting on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with 25 Snow Whites!  Seems the parents didn’t think it fair that just one girl should be cast in the lead.  I guess the only surprising thing is that it didn’t happen in the U.S.  Well, as of late the Japanese have been more innovative than us.  I expect to read about this same thing happening at some middle school in Ohio next fall.

My favorite line in the story:

The problem is that nobody can decide whether this is a good thing or not.

Really.  You’re putting on Snow White and 24 other Snow Whites and you’re not sure if there’s a problem.  Granted, the quote referred to the bigger problem of a once respectful culture of parents suddenly turning militant in their harassment of teachers and schools who don’t herald little Yuki’s brilliance at every turn.  But this school play incident offers a small window into which we can look and see that this is ridiculous.

I’ve always held that you can’t shield a person forever from the fact that both success and failure are part of life, and that on a team not everyone can be the quarterback, and in the Symphony not everyone can play the melody, etc., etc.  It would seem that in school and in their early years children have the best opportunity to learn how to accept and deal with this reality before they are confronted with success and failure on a more significant level.

Recently the Chicago Boyz highlighted Ten grammar mistakes that make you look stupid (TechRepublic).  The moment I saw the title I quickly ran my mental list to five common errors that I needed to make sure were included.  By the time I’d browsed out there I had most of the list.  “There” instead of “their.”  “Should of” instead of “should have.”  All the classics are there.

The original post is actually dates back to 2006.  Not surprisingly it is as applicable today as it was then, if not more so.  I’m sure written communication that makes one look like a moron is a small price to pay if it enabled a few viewings of An Inconvenient Truth and other indoctrination activities.

Newt Gingrich has a great piece on the California judicial ruling barring non-degreed parents from home schooling their children.  As always, Newt gets to the heart of the matter and the more general assault on family values:

"Another Case of a Special Interest Using the Courts to Do What It Can’t at the Voting Booth."

This case really troubles me.  Granted the political landscape is now littered with egregious judicial decisions.  But this one is big because it involves a situation where the government is attempting to step in between family members in a home where nothing is broken.  Parents who home school are taking their own children’s education far more seriously than the government ever has.  They are signing on for years of extra sacrifice in order to provide their children with what is usually a superior education.  We may debate the particulars of home schooling but there is not denying that we should reward parents who are willing to so self-invest in their families.

(originally posted at MySpace)

OK, all you bandwagon-hopping US American intellectual elitist wannabes, like such as, everyone who is jumping on the “Miss South Carolina is so stupid” bandwagon.  Yes, fine, laugh and mock and feel good about yourself.

Thing is, head down to any mall and you’ll find 50 more guys and/or girls just like her.  We’re raising a generation of dolts that could tell you what Britney and Paris and Lindsay wore to the MTV Music Awards quicker than they could find Iraq on a map.  Because, after all  … any amount of time is quicker than NEVER!

Thank you government.  Thank you liberals.  Thanks to all of you, schools are advancing the cause of political correctness and partisan politics rather than educating their students.

When I first spotted this item at InstaPundit, all I caught was

“Movies such as Spiderman 2 and Speed generate excitement among audiences with their cool special effects. But they also defy the laws of physics, …”

So, I headed over to PhysOrg.com to give them what I thought was a much-deserved, “Duuuhhhh!”  Turns out the joke is on me.  What would seem or should seem to be obvious apparently isn’t for recent batches of TV-raised children arriving on college campuses.

“Common sense may indicate that people should know the stunts in movies are just make believe, but the professors say that’s not necessarily true.

Some people really do believe a bus traveling 70 mph can clear a 50-foot gap in a freeway, as depicted in the movie Speed.”

To me, the Speed example is the ultimate. (more…)