A musical treat for Passover and Easter

Dan's revenge

The same kid who moaned and groaned while hiking and backpacking all the way through scouts, ten years later can't wait to show his mother and me the peak of Camelback Mountain... 1.5 miles straight up. Nice views of Phoenix from here, but it may take weeks for our knees to recover. Karma!

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Interesting questions from Rabbi Mitelman

I just read an interesting article on Huffington Post by Rabbi Geoffrey Mitelman posing the propositiong that the question "Do You Believe In God?" is profoundly uninteresting. In Mitelman's view, those who ask the question generally believe that the answer is "yes," while for those of whom the question is asked the answer is generally "no" or "I don't know." The question itself, being closed ended, invites little dialog, and is often purposely provocative. The more interesting questions that Mitelman proposes we ask "How can we bring more kindness and justice into the world?" and "When have we felt moments of deep connection?" Interesting to ponder, and interesting to see what's left out. A link to the full article is here.

Rather bizarre photo movie

After all, who still shoots large format film?

Japan and US

From Mike Johnston at "The Online Photographer" blog...

"I worry about my own country; it seems natural at this time to think "what if." We are far less well prepared than Japan for such an event... Our government has been weakened by systematic antagonism from within, our economy made fragile by the irresponsible behavior of the greedy. Our response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was far less adequate than our response to Hurricane Andrew in 1992, and things aren't getting better: just days before the disaster in Japan, the newly elected majority in the House of Representatives passed a bill gutting the funding of, among many other things, California's tsunami early warning system—yet another irony in a dispiriting parade of ironies in America. Japan, with a far more homogenous population and greater political unity, arguably as much wealth, and far better preparation, is reeling terribly. How would we do?"

Could not be said any better.

Good Habits

With far too much attention given in popular media to teenagers making bad decisions, it was delightful to see our students beginning what I hope will be a lifelong habit of donating blood to the Red Cross. I first gave blood in college, around 1976 or so, and have been doing so ever since. It costs me nothing, as it's pretty nice to have an hour of uninterrupted reading time, and I imagine that someone, somewhere, is being helped by this act. Our kids were fantastic, as were the several teachers who set such a great example. I hope that they're all still giving in 35 years. I hope that I am as well!

Thomas Edison Plays Basketball (or could have)

Tough week, four basketball games in five days, ice skating, late nights, wild NonValentines Party going on here at Nora as I write this. Our team has had a tough season, but they keep playing hard and consistently display great sportsmanship. Courtney has done a great job keeping enthusiasm high even as three players went down to injury this week. Patrick's first aid kit has come in handy as well. Scott stepped in today to help Eric coach, and Mara, Chris, Norman, Hedy and many other teachers have made it to games this winter. Today is the birthday of Thomas Edison, who once said that "genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." Especially true for those who struggle in the face of daunting odds... Edison held over 1,200 patents when he died. He once said that he hadn't failed in 10,000 attempts to create an incandescent bulb, but had successfully found 10,000 ways that didn't work. Good things to think about in a time of adversity.

How to get your teenager's attention

If you like this graph, you'll love the "My Parents Joined Facebook" website. A sign of our times, alas, and as with so many things, can be used for good or ill.

Are things turning around?

Hopefully this means that our Great Recession is coming to an end. Conventional wisdom that employment is a lagging indicator, nonetheless the turnaround beginning with Obama's inauguration and the passing of the first stimulus would seem to be reflected in this chart. It will be nice when the highs soar as high as the lows of Dec08/Jan09 dip.

A Few Study Tips to Help With Semester Exams

Yes, you've heard this all before, but that's because it's TRUE! Good luck on semester exams next week... be like a boy scout and "Be Prepared."

1) Set aside scheduled time for yourself to study. Make this appointment something that can’t be changed or interrupted.

2) Take a (short) break every 20-30 minutes...get up, stretch, walk around...after 5 minutes get back to studying.

3) Set aside a space that is free from distractions (ie. TV, computer, stereo, kid brother, etc.).

4) Get plenty of sleep, eat healthy food, drink plenty of water.

5) Practice! Complete all review worksheets, re-take old exams and quizzes (where do you think your teachers are getting their questions from?), go back to Chapter Tests and Reviews. Just like learning a musical instrument or improving a sports skill, you must practice the skills you’ll need on the exams, particularly in math and science.

6) Ask Questions of your teachers, particularly during review days and during the Reading Period.

7) Create a Study Group with a few classmates to meet at lunch, after school, and during the Reading Period. Find a Study Buddy to review with at home or on the phone.

8) Take notes during teachers’ review periods...and ask questions when you don’t understand something.

9) Make flashcards to review foreign languages, unfamiliar science terms, and other unique vocabulary.

10) Ask your teachers what will be on the exam. They’re not trying to surprise you ... in fact, they want you to do well!

11) When reviewing English and Social Studies, visualize events and people that occur in your readings.

12) When a teacher permits the use of notes or notecards, make them and use them!!!

13) Re-write or type your old notes to separate what’s important from what isn’t. Write important events, people, facts, vocabulary on notecards. The physical act of writing the information is one way of reviewing it.

14) Review what’s on old tests and quizzes...your teachers are likely to recycle many of these questions.

15) Read your notes aloud into a recording device and put it on your I-Pod to listen to as you ride to school.

16) When you take the test, do the easy questions first, then go back and tackle the tough ones.

17) When writing on an essay question, take a few minutes to outline your thoughts before you begin writing sentences.

18) Read all questions carefully and thoroughly, to be sure you understand what’s being asked.

19) Go back and review the questions on the exam. Often, a question you answered on the last page will spark a better answer on the first page.

20) When you feel stressed, take some deep breaths, get a drink of water, use the restroom, and start again.

Happy New Year!

Jay Maisel, photographer

Happy Holidays

A bit melancholy during services tonight, as this was my mom's favorite time of year. Can't help but think of Ariana's family, and I'm missing my oldest son (happy in Arizona), but joy nonetheless with those I'm with. Another year with too little peace and too much war,but if we all do a little to make another person's life better then there's hope.

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Astronomers Find First Evidence Of Other Universes

Not from the National Enquirer or World News Weekly, but from MIT...

"Our cosmos was "bruised" in collisions with other universes. Now astronomers have found the first evidence of these impacts in the cosmic microwave background."

See the full article here.

Isn't science wonderful!

Sam Smith, '07

Sam Smith, '07, star of a couple of Nora School Photography Class videos, now appears in his own show here. Now studying at the Art Institute of Chicago, he goes by the name of Harvey Moon.

Gettysburg

Walked the Gettysburg battlefield this weekend, camping with some old friends. Yes, it was 14 degrees Friday night, but nonetheless good for my soul (if not my cough). On a quiet Saturday in December it's hard to imagine the scene 147 years ago when thousands fought and died on these fields. The nature of warfare was so different from today, yet young men and women still fight and die so that others may enjoy a better life. If only we civilians living comfortably behind the front lines were willing to make some type of sacrifice in their support. Instead, we fuss about our taxes and the price of gas.

Giving Thanks

From our pre-Thanksgiving alumni/student/faculty dinner today...

May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.

May all beings be free from sorrow and the causes of sorrow.

May all never be separated from the sacred happiness which is sorrowless.

May all live in equanimity, without attachment or aversion, believing in the equality of all that lives.

- Traditional Buddhist prayer

I hope that you and your family have a happy and restful Thanksgiving weekend.

The Mirror

Our Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Accreditation Team is here this week, looking at the self-study we've conducted over the past year and our plans for the next seven years. Looking at ourselves in the mirror has, as always, been invaluable in terms of analyzing our strengths and weaknesses and planning our work on the latter. The team will give us fresh eyes on the work that we do, and will hold up the mirror for us, and help us see ourselves more clearly. We're grateful for their time, thoughtfulness, and hard work.

Mr. Happy

No, not about the election, but about all the kids who made the honor roll this quarter. (I think I'll be focusing closer to home over the next two years.) Almost half our students had all A's and B's, and four of these had all A's. Running an analysis of homework completion vs. GPA for the first quarter, it's notable that of those who completed 90% of their homework (averaged across all classes) all had a GPA above 3.0. Of these, 17 of the 21 had GPA's above 3.5. Conversely, of those who did less than 80% of their homework, all had a GPA lower than 2.5. We're having nice lunches at Vicino Ristourante next door with the honor rollees and their advisors, all of whom worked very hard over the past two months to reach this academic accomplishment.

Dr. Doom

The convergence of today's Washington Post story on BMW's hiring practices with the book I'm currently reading, Robert Reich's Locked In The Cabinet, and an interview with Fareed Zakaria last night, has me feeling pretty blue this rainy Wednesday morning. The Post story describes how the demand for jobs in the US has folks, many of whom had once had salaried positions, lining up to earn $15 an hour at a BMW plant in South Carolina. This is half of what German BMW workers earn, making the US a low cost provider of labor to the automaker. What our corporations did in moving jobs overseas to low wage countries is now happening to us.

Robert Reich's memoir of his time as Secretary of Labor during the Clinton administration is eerily reminiscent of the issues we face today. As Labor Secretary from 1993-96, Reich pushed the administration to invest in education and training as one way of dealing with the increasing income disparity between the top 5% and the bottom 40% of wage earners. With NAFTA, outsourcing and globalization put those bottom 40% of earners in jeapordy of having no jobs at all, never mind minimum wage jobs. Reich's goals were frustrated by the takeover of Congress by the Gingrich forces in 1994 and Clinton's subsequent placing of deficit reduction as a higher priority than workforce investment. Fifteen years later the problem is, if anything, even worse. It's interesting to read Reich's frustration at being called a "socialist" for putting the interests of people ahead of the interests of corporations.

Finally, Zakaria made a comment last night that really resonated... that we may have finally found the genetic flaw in democracy, that it is incapable of putting long term interests ahead of immediate gratification. Certainly we have heard this since 1980, that we can have our cake and eat it too! Deficits and spending don't matter when it's corporations getting the breaks, but they do matter when Democrats are in control. The cycle seems to be swinging ever more quickly however, as our Attention Deficit society demands quick solutions to systemic problems, which can only be solved through means that society will not accept or have the patience to see through to completion. Is this what Rome was like at the end? Yup, it's a gloomy Wednesday morning all right!

Atget's Paris from the NY Times

Publish Post

Ariana Remembrance

The Nora School Community will hold a Remembrance of Ariana's friendship this Friday at 2:00 pm. Current students, parents, and members of the class of 2010 and their parents are all welcome to attend.

Ariana Kosok, '10

August 7, 1992 - September 18, 2010

A life well lived, but far too short, Ariana passed away yesterday of a blot clot that traveled to her heart. Ariana was a kind and caring member of the Nora community, frequently bringing cupcakes and other home-baked goods for her classmates. She was a gifted photographer and artist, seen here with her award at the Washington School of Photography High School exhibit last December. Please keep Karl and Emily in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.

Why Nora will always remain a non-profit school.

Only one motive... meeting the needs of the student. Does having investors and shareholders, expecting a return, skew things? Watch the video and decide for yourself!

When Ideas Have Sex

The payoff really comes at the end, when IQ comes up... some real food for thought as we think about educating those who'll be paying our Social Security in 2040!

Does the Internet make us stoopid?

Or do we accomplish this all by ourselves?

Eighteen-percent of our fellow Americans believe that President Obama is a Muslim according to a report from the Pew Research Center. Not that there would be anything wrong with a Muslim (or a Jew, or a Buddhist, or an atheist) being president, but Obama has publicly proclaimed his Christian faith repeatedly over the past several years. This 18% represents an increase in that belief over the past two years. We also know from the report that beliefs about Obama's religion track people's political assessment of him: 2/3 who think he's a Muslim disapprove of his presidency.

Lest we think stupidity is related to one's political beliefs or the crazy web sites one reads, the Gallup organization polled Americans and came up with the following:
-24% of Americans do not know the country from which America gained independence in 1776;
-18% believe that the sun revolves around the earth (maybe the same 18%?).

Ahhh, this is why we still need schools, with actual sane, smart adults talking with children about history, science, philosophy, thinking, and the evaluation of all the sources of our knowledge.

And why we need small schools in particular, where we have time to talk about these things without worrying about Annual Yearly Progress.

Remember Haiti

From photographer Ryan Booth on Scott Kelby's blog about his current trip in Haiti: "I say all of this only to remind us that in so many parts of the world tonight families will sleep on the ground without shelter. For many, clean water is a rarity at best. Many are hungry. Many are sick. The world is an impossibly beautiful place and photography is such a conduit to truly seeing that beauty. But the truth is that when you really start to see, and I mean really, really open your eyes to the world around you, you find dichotomy. Beauty and suffering seem to co-mingle. I only bring this up so that we may not forget the silent majority in this world that lack even the most basic of elements. Water. Food. Shelter." While Pakistan is in the news, and we've moved on from Haiti, it's important to remember that so many people in the world are suffering even as we deal with our brief (2-3 days) losses of power and suffer only traffic jams caused by flooding.

Dont Forget Haiti: Sidewalks from Ryan Booth on Vimeo.

Good news for those of us 'approaching' middle age...

A new book by science writer Barbara Strauch examines a number of studies that show our brains reaching their peak between our 40's and 60's. In The Secret Life of the Grown Up Brain, Strauch looks at the Seattle Longitudinal Study, among others, which followed 6,000 people since 1956 and tested them every 7 years. It found that the study participants did better on a variety of cognitive tasks in middle age than they did in their 20's, particularly in vocabulary, spatial skills, verbal memory, and solving problems. Alas, we did less well with math and perceptual reflexes.

Strauch is the health and medical science editor and a deputy science editor at The New York Times. She previously wrote about teenage brains in The Primal Teen: What the New Discoveries About the Teenage Brain Tell Us About Our Kids, another good read for parents.

Another Historical Note

Thirty-six year ago today (gulp) Richard Nixon resigned the Presidency. This was the theater that dominated my own high school years, and what we thought was the culmination of years of partisan bickering may have only been the precursor to today's gridlock in Washington. That notwithstanding, Richard Nixon has been a fascinating case in leadership for my generation. Even having achieved his lifelong goal of becoming president was not enough to fill the needs in his psyche, which raises the question, how do our own goals fulfill the needs in our own psyches? Whether material possessions, wealth, grade point averages, college acceptances, advanced degrees, titles, our childrens' success, do we recognize when our own strivings have become fulfilled, or destructive, as Richard Nixon's did? A fascinating character!

Hiroshima Anniversary

“Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.” -Pema Chodron

Sixty-five years ago today 140,000 people were killed in Hiroshima, Japan, a fact little noticed in today's news. Given the state of the world today, one must ask what we've learned as a species. We don't even have the attention span to acknowledge the anniversary of one of the central events of the 20th century.

Not everyone

I'm reminded after shopping for a new cell phone (now much more than a phone) that not everyone was reading books instead of Nooks... my wife was checking her email and surfing the web at the beach. I was just surfing the waves, which was much more relaxing!


Rock Harbor, Cape Cod, at sunset, July 18, 2010.

Keeping up

Just back from vacation on Cape Cod, visiting dad, kind of sad, but not so bad...
with a couple of rounds of golf (9-holes: 42, 51), and a few trips to the beach...
while walking the beach, noticed many folks reading... perhaps not a dying skill...
also noticed zero Kindles, zero Nooks, zero iPads...
it might have been 1965.

Here's Seagull Beach, South Yarmouth, last Friday, in a 1965 sort of way.

Later start times for high school improve conduct, grades and even save lives.

No news to us here at Nora, but a recent study published in the July issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine reports that giving adolescents an extra 30 minutes in the morning leads to more alertness, better moods, lower levels of tardiness and healthier eating (at least at breakfast). As part of the study, seven high schools in Minneapolis began classes at 8:40 am (like Nora) instead of at 7:15 am (like MCPS). The University of Minnesota study found that students at these seven schools got more sleep and missed fewer classes among other benefits. They even turned out to be safer drivers! For more on adolescents and sleep, visit the National Sleep Foundation summary.

100 Degrees the next two days... a cool reminder

Five short months ago!

Congratulations Class of 2010!

You worked hard to get to this day. You are survivors, having not only survived middle and high schools that were big, impersonal, and bureaucratic, but also having survived Nora, which is no easy task. There is often a misconception that being in a small school like Nora is easy, because the teachers know you, and work with you, and give you lots of chances, and all of that is true. But equally true is that going to a small school is hard, because the teachers know you, and work with you, and give you lots of chances. There’s nowhere to hide if you haven’t done the reading, your math homework always gets checked, and when it’s your turn to make a presentation there’s no one to hand it off to. Your parents hear if you missed the trip to the Corcoran and they know when you’re not doing your Pre-Calculus homework. Lorraine notices when you show up late to Physics and Patrick notices when you didn’t turn in your Chemistry lab. It’s tough to stand up to that amount of scrutiny, but you have. You survived not only the classrooms, but also the whitewater rafting of your sophomore year, the high ropes and goal setting of your junior retreat, and writing recommendations and sharing your life stories on the senior retreat. You finished your senior community service (late though it may have been for some of you) and you learned to balance two of the most precious gifts of adulthood: freedom and responsibility. The freedom part is easy, every teenager gets that. The responsibility part is a lot harder. Many adults have yet to figure it out, as witnessed by the various crises on Wall Street and in the Gulf of Mexico. Learning when to have fun and when to work, when to sleep in and when to get up, finding where the boundaries are, and which ones it was safe to cross, these are things that your parents and teachers have to juggle every day. You managed, if imperfectly, the four lessons with which we start every school year.
These same lessons will stand you in good stead as you move forward into your adult lives: Show Up On Time. Do Your Work. Care For Your Health. Treat People Respectfully. These fourteen words are perhaps the most important lesson you take from Nora, because you have to keep living them the rest of your life if you wish to be successful.
Business writer Seth Godin posits that “small is the new big,” and as graduates of one of the smallest schools in the country, you should understand that it’s a big accomplishment to graduate from a small school. While it’s a small accomplishment to find a clique of people you get along with in a big school, it’s a big accomplishment to get along, intimately, with people who annoy you and get on your nerves in a small school. It’s a small accomplishment to hide in the back of a big classroom and avoid the teacher’s radar and do the minimum necessary to get by, but it’s a big accomplishment to push through your resistance and actually do the work. You know that in Chris’s small classroom you’d better have done the reading so you can participate in the discussion. Taking this a bit further, keep in mind that while we all have our daily frustrations, by doing the small kindnesses to others we can, collectively, make a big difference in the world.
Good luck Class of 2010! Your small school made a big difference for you, and in any number of small ways you have made a big difference in your peers and teachers. Now take this out to the world!

Looking Back

With semester exams ending Friday, we've almost arrived at the end of the school year. Our students have done a fine job this year, and I am very proud of their accomplishments. On Tuesday the members of the Class of 2010 will receive their diplomas and head off to a variety of colleges and Americorps as they begin their adult lives. We wish them the best.

As I look back on the year, I am, as always, amazed at the breadth of activity that goes on here at Nora. Beyond the four quarters of academic classes, the eight days of community service, the soccer, basketball, volleyball, and softball games (the faculty remained undefeated), we had three poetry readings, four parent lectures, college night, the photography festival, the arts festival, the alumni Thanksgiving feast, assemblies on drugs, sexuality, and a host of other topics, the guacamole challenge, and the prom. We've gone rock climbing, camping, hiking, whitewater rafting, ice skating at the Archives, and bowling. We've climbed high ropes, walked the Billy Goat trail and braved the haunted forest. We've had trips to the Newseum, the visionary art museum, the Round House theater, the Portrait Gallery and National Gallery of Art, the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, and the Vietnam memorials. In addition to our breaks in December and April, we also survived Snowmageddon!

I'm continually amazed by what happens at this small school, where the external activities are matched only by the internal growth that our students experience during their time with us.

I offer a big "Thank You" to the dedicated Nora teachers for the caring, nurturing, and support you offer our students in their journey through adolescence. Have a great summer!

Fun and Danger

It's ironic that the sophomore class went whitewater rafting without incident (well, a bit of swimming) while after yesterday's softball game two students needed to see a doctor following an outfield collision! The teenage brain seeks excitement, which leads to many risky behaviors. We try to structure some of that thrill-seeking into activities like sports, but far too many kids have no outlets other than drugs, sex, and other, unsupervised, dangerous activities. Whitewater rafting and softball are no cures, but they are alternatives. I wish every kid in high school had the opportunities that our kids have to challenge themselves in ways that are healthy and (relatively) safe.

Budget cuts and tuition.

Prince George's County in Maryland is cutting hundreds of jobs, increasing class size, reducing transportation, and requiring unpaid furloughs. Times are tough, but for all the politicians' lip service to improving education, when it comes to raising taxes to pay for things, the will just isn't there.

I'm sympathetic, as, on a much smaller scale, our Board has to make similar decisions each year. The only way to improve "productivity" (getting more done with the same resources) is to increase class size, as education is a people intensive business. So do we increase class size, cut programs, or increase tuition to what it costs to operate our program? In an independent school, our reason for existing is our program, so while increasing tuition is never ideal, it sure beats cutting our program. Of course, our families have the choice to return to public school if they don't feel that what we're doing is of value. I imagine that the parents in Prince George's County will be looking for safe havens, which is good news for Queen Anne School, Bishop McNamara High School, and other private schools. Not so great for folks who can't afford them.

Graphic Representation of our Economy

Enough said!

Social media research

Just stumbled across an interesting lady, danah boyd (spelling is correct, you'll have to see her blog to understand). As we wrestle with kids and social media/web 2.0 it's nice to see some real research going into it's effects. Assignment books being so 20th century, if we put assignments on Google Calendar will kids check their text messages from us? Looking at her research and career also reminds me of why I had no desire to spend my life in academia (at least at that level). Hands on applications are better for many adults as well as adolescents (or perhaps adults who are still a bit adolescent?)!

Good news for photographers

Apropos of nothing, the National [U.S.] Park Service has announced that all 392 national parks will have free admission during National Park Week, April 17 to 25. A good week to head off to Great Falls or White Oak Canyon (in Shenandoah) to shoot waterfalls!

What teachers make

A thought about teaching as we begin spring break.

Thank goodness, it's finally passed!

For anyone who thinks that having health insurance isn't necessary, take a look at my healthy 18-year-old son's bill for an appendectomy. Even less pretty than his scars!

Perspective

We live around the little red dot labeled "Sol." This chart was created by Harvard academic Samuel Arbesman. But we should still do our homework, so that someday we can be as smart as Dr. Arbesman! Want more? Read his blog here.

A new useful tool for school!

Getting caught up on my online reading last weekend, I came across this David Pogue New York Times blog entry on Microsoft's Skydrive service. This is a free 25 GB server share somewhere in the "cloud" where one can store files. This is the perfect solution for Digital Art and Photography classes where large files are created. Rather than save work on a flash drive to bring home, students can save their work on their Skydrive. A related program, SDexplorer, allows one to treat the Skydrive just like a flash drive or a floppy disk, dragging and dropping files from the school or home computer to the Skydrive. A nifty, free, solution to a longtime problem. How nice!

What the...

In yesterday's Washington Post we learn that Virginia's Attorney General wants state universities to allow discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. "It is my advice that the law and public policy of the Commonwealth of Virginia prohibit a college or university from including 'sexual orientation,' 'gender identity,' 'gender expression,' or like classification as a protected class within its non-discrimination policy absent specific authorization from the General Assembly" says Ken Cuccinelli. Perhaps voters in Virginia deserve the same "information," and Cuccinelli and members of the State Assembly can outline their sexual practices prior to the next election so that everyone is fully informed!

Film

My photography class has been shooting Tri-X the past couple of weeks, getting their hands wet in the darkroom and learning to slowwww down the process of creating photographs. Though several years have gone by since I spent significant (any?) time in the darkroom, I still love the quiet, the smells, the anticipation, the pace, and the unique vision that is part of the experience. So as I wind down from what has been a tough week, I stumble across this, perhaps the best costume ever for a photographic subject. No, it's not Photoshopped. Just don't shoot it on Tri-X!

Because life is a multiple choice test.

There's an interesting article in last week's Washington Post about the Commonwealth of Virginia curtailing the use of portfolio assessments in lieu of the multiple choice Standards of Learning test. But what is the real issue? One quote gives a clue: "Portfolios can be valuable assessment tools within classrooms, but they are problematic for a large-scale accountability program, in which cost-effectiveness, consistency and validity are paramount, Wright said. Teachers spend many hours compiling portfolios, and local school systems are responsible for scoring the tests." The emphases are mine. Scoring the SOL multiple choice test takes seconds, and requires a machine rather than a teacher. So the implication is that the multiple choice test is more valid, because so much of life is like a multiple choice test (sarcasm mine). Cost effectiveness rates only a passing mention. Perhaps the Virginia legislature should have their effectiveness measured by a multiple choice assessment rather than by an evaluation of the body of their work. It might raise their scores.

Stuck. Twice.

So two weeks ago we were stuck in a hospital room in
Miami (see previous entry), and this week we're stuck at home. Our personal teenager, not allowed to do any heavy lifting, cannot help shovel the worst snowstorm in DC history. Does a picture truly speak a thousand words? What a difference two weeks makes!


More snowpics at my Flickr Snow Gallery.

The first forty years of parenting are always the hardest.

My wife and I, having shepherding two kids through visits to various colleges throughout the northeast (cold, damp, gray), finally have one who wants to go someplace interesting. His application filed, he now needs to audition at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. Great! we think, a long weekend trip to visit the school, audition, and see a part of the country we've not yet toured. What could be better than Miami in January? Our itinerary set, we're headed for "the U", South Beach, and the Everglades on our latest 2-1/2 day ADD tour. Jeff auditions at the college, and we have a nice dinner after walking around South Beach and dipping our toes in the ocean. Then...

... the phone rings at 10:45 pm, with our college sophomore daughter bringing news that she's broken down outside Gettysburg with a flat tire, a dead battery, no cell phone, no AAA card, and only her laptop with Skype with which to communicate. Then...

... Jeff is having cramps and pain in our hotel room. First we think it's gas, but after a couple of hours we realize that we need professional treatment, so off to the emergency room we go. Chris, meanwhile, has gotten our AAA number, and used Skype to get a tow truck to get her back to Carlisle, PA. After five hours in the emergency room, Jeff is diagnosed with acute appendicitis, which will require immediate surgery. Then...

... after the surgery, which took a bit longer than normal because his appendix was tucked up high, touching his liver, his temperature shoots up, as does his white blood cell count. No trip to the Everglades today! Then...

...we wait, day after day, for some information from a doctor. The surgeon drops by once each day sometime between 11 am to 11 pm, while the infectious disease doctor makes her visit between 9am and 2am! Communication is difficult, and there seems to be little sense of urgency. As one IV after another is hooked up, we have little knowledge of what progress is being made.
Finally, on Friday, a week after arriving, Jeff is released, and we can try to figure out how to get home before the snowstorm hits and has us diverted to Newark!

A few lessons here: hire good people so you don't have to be at work for the place to run well, be flexible, the DC area is blessed with great medical care compared to some other parts of the country, a good health insurance plan is critical (come on, Barak), and paradise isn't so great if you're spending it in a hospital room.

More bad electronic news

Our kids' brains are turning to mush! Well, not exactly, but from a story in The New York Times:

"The average young American now spends practically every waking minute — except for the time in school — using a smart phone, computer, television or other electronic device, according to a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation... And because so many of them are multitasking — say, surfing the Internet while listening to music — they pack on average nearly 11 hours of media content into that seven and a half hours.

"While most of the young people in the study got good grades, 47 percent of the heaviest media users — those who consumed at least 16 hours a day — had mostly C’s or lower, compared with 23 percent of those who typically consumed media three hours a day or less. The heaviest media users were also more likely than the lightest users to report that they were bored or sad, or that they got into trouble, did not get along well with their parents and were not happy at school.

"The report is based on a survey of more than 2,000 students in grades 3 to 12 that was conducted from October 2008 to May 2009.

"On average, young people spend about two hours a day consuming media on a mobile device, the study found. They spend almost another hour on “old” content like television or music delivered through newer pathways like the Web site Hulu or iTunes. Youths now spend more time listening to or watching media on their cellphones, or playing games, than talking on them."

We've got ours, too bad for you!

The election results in my home state of Massachusetts yesterday seem to bode ill for the passage of health care reform. Of course, Massachusetts went through this exercise half a decade ago, and all state residents are now covered by a plan similar to the one pending in Congress. If I seem to have a couple of dogs in this fight, I do. At the Nora School, our health plan costs have been going up 20% each year, necessitating benefit cuts on our teachers to maintain reasonable costs. My adult son, the genetic inheritor of a pre-existing condition (type 1 diabetes), cannot get health insurance unless he works for an employer who offers it. Or moves to Massachusetts.

In case there was any doubt that our future is electronic.

Here's a 13-minute video by Alex Roman created almost entirely in a computer. There are a few digital photos used as part of it (the Milwaukee Art Museum has those cool wings), but the music and almost all the architecture and creatures were created in a computer. One photographer referred to it as a "soak," and I'd agree. Watch it full screen with the TV off and the lights out!

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

Homework help

A couple of new websites have crossed my browser recently which may be of use to students and teachers. The New York City Library has set up a deep website with lots of resources and live help between 4:30pm and 6:30pm every day. It includes an interactive whiteboard where students can draw their geometry or algebra problems and get live help. My understanding is that the service is not limited to students in New York City.
A second site requires payment, but tutor.com promises immediate and live help in almost any subject. It might be just the thing at 10pm when that quadratic equation won't fall into place! The pricing is reasonable (I've paid 3x this amount for a live tutor), but the 24/7 aspect is what really sells it.
I'd love feedback from anyone who uses either of these sites.

A new generation gap

The New York Times described on Saturday a new generation gap, between people born in '80s, '90s, and Oughts. Those in their twenties spend more time talking on the phone and using email, while their younger siblings (our current students) spend more time texting, and instant messaging. The author describes young children referring to the Amazon Kindle as "daddys' book" and drawing a finger across a computer screen expecting a response like the iPhone. All of which points up the importance of us Digital Immigrants to remain curious and keep on learning. Though I'm still not ready to tweet!

Welcome 2010!

Happy New Year!

Sitting at home again, as we have done for many years... we'll make it to midnight only because we're waiting up for our youngest son!

I've often said that learning is important because the world is a fascinating place. As we hear over and over again about the 10 best this of the year and the ten worst that of the decade, NASA puts things in perspective.

The Hubble telescope provides us with this image of hundreds of thousands of stars moving about in the globular cluster M13, one of the brightest globular clusters in the northern sky. It can be found in the winter sky in the constellation Hercules, and can even be seen with the unaided eye under dark skies.

M13 is home to over 100,000 stars and is located at a distance of 25,000 light-years. In other words, the light in the picture left these stars in 22991 BCE! (For historical perspective, Abraham was ready to sacrifice Isaac in around 1800 BCE. Where will you be in 22991 CE?)

These stars are packed closely together in a ball approximately 150 light-years across, and they spend their entire lives whirling around in the cluster. Near the core, the density of stars is about a hundred times greater than the density in the neighborhood of our sun. These stars are so crowded that they can slam into each other and form a new star, called a "blue straggler." The brightest reddish stars in the cluster are ancient red giants. These aging stars have expanded to many times their original diameters and cooled. The blue-white stars are the hottest in the cluster.

M13 is one of nearly 150 known globular clusters surrounding our Milky Way galaxy. Globular clusters have some of the oldest stars in the universe. Scientists believe they formed before the disk of our Milky Way, so they are older than nearly all other stars in our galaxy including our own sun.

This image is a composite of archival Hubble data taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Acknowledgment: C. Bailyn (Yale University), W. Lewin (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), A. Sarajedini (University of Florida), and W. van Altena (Yale University)

Holiday Plagarism

or maybe not, as they cited their sources!

Happy Holidays

Only on the Internet, the most bizarre Nativity scenes... this egg timer is my favorite.

Hope you have a restful winter break... after digging out!

Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind

On Friday, November 20 at the Learning and the Brain Conference, Mara and I heard from Gary Small, MD, author of iBrain, who spoke about Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind.

For years we’ve been hearing about the differences between Digital Natives (under 25), who have good tech skills, and Digital Immigrants (their parents), who have weaker tech skills. Small has studied the neural networks of the two groups, and finds that the Digital Natives have much less development in those that control social interaction.

He spoke of the Natives’ relationship to technology is personal, and had us do an experiment exchanging cell phones while we monitored our emotions. For those of us who only turn on our phones when making a call it wasn’t too exciting, but when I replicated the experiment at a faculty meeting, the younger faculty clearly felt the anxiety of disconnection and potential loss of privacy.

No real news here, our brains are changing moment to moment, with neural circuits strengthening with use and weakening with disuse. Giving teachers everywhere hope, Small told us that young brains are missing empathy not because kids are naturally rude, or that societal civility is on the decline, but because that part of their brains has not yet developed.

By adolescence, 60% of connections are pruned, and in a Darwinian twist, between the ages of 8 and 18 is tech time. Our kids have been born with access to limitless information, 24 hour news and entertainment, but with less time for face to face interactions and thus are slowed in their development of empathy and complex reasoning skills.

With social networking (i.e. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter), they are aware all the time of what everyone is doing, which leaves little time for reflection. As they are constantly reacting to others, their individuality and creativity are stifled. One of my favorite phrases to hear at Nora from kids just sitting around is “I’m bored,” because it means they’re having to create something out of nothing, rather than thoughtlessly respond to external stimuli.

Technology develops the Dopamine pathways which are precursors to addiction. In a 2007 Harris poll, 8.5% of college students showed multiple signs of addiction, including escaping problems through playing games, lying about play length, sensitization to fighting stimuli. The inflamation of these neural pathways is a major reason for Alzheimer’s Disease.

In one of Dr. Small’s studies on these neural pathways, he studied the effect of gaming on face to face interactions. Digital immigrants were better able to rapidly identify emotions than digital natives, who were only able to identify happy faces faster than angry, unless the face displayed violent emotions.

The connection with ADHD is not certain. Does video gaming cause the brain to display symptoms of ADHD, or do people with ADHD gravitate to the fast-paced stimulation of video games? Studies are ongoing.

Next week's field trip to the Corcoran

Edward Burtynsky: Oil from Corcoran Gallery of Art on Vimeo.

Learning and the Brain

Mara and I are just back (at 11 pm last night) from the Learning and the Brain Conference at MIT, where we spent three solid days in workshops. We not only learned about cognitive overload, we experienced it! As I unpack my notes I'll have more to say, but three big take-aways for our practice as teachers, students, parents, and humans, are:
-our brains need quiet time, away from the noise and stimulation of our culture, in order to solidify memory and learning,
-sleep is critical to our ongoing brain development,
-the neural structure of our brains is changed by our cultural stimulation, for which the best antidote is reading (books, not screens),

I'll have more, but right now I have to dig out from three days of missed emails! But later today I promise myself that I'll take a two-minute meditation break.

Schroedinger's Cameraman

From Chicago Public Radio's "This American Life."

If you can't see this, the direct link is here.

3 Bombs

A fascinating op-ed in yesterday's NY Times by Thomas Friedman about the differences between our lives and our children's lives. He compares the nuclear threat from the Soviets that shadowed our (boomer) childhoods with the three threats that he now sees challenging his children's lives: the nuclear threat from terrorists, the economic threat from a government deeply in debt, and the environmental threat from global warming. The element that creates the most anxiety is not knowing exactly when any of these "bombs" will go off, and the fact that only the nuclear threat is being seriously addressed. There are a couple of nice quotes in the article. From environmentalist Rob Watson: "Mother Nature is just chemistry, biology, and physics... Mother nature always bats last, and she always bats a thousand." And from John Holdren: "We're driving in a car with bad brakes in a fog and heading for a cliff. We know for sure that cliff is out there. We just don't know exactly where it is. Prudence would suggest that we should start putting on the brakes."

One of Tom's most thought-provoking columns.

Scream Trumpet

Apropos of absolutely nothing, here's a video showing one person's ranking of the top 5 high-note movie trumpet solos. In a previous life, I had dreams of being the next Maynard Ferguson.

Whew! September's Over!

Over the past 19 years I've seen the first month of the school year become just as busy and hectic as the final month of the school year, and man, I'm sure glad it's over. We've had one all school hike, two class retreats (with another next week), an expulsion, the beginning of soccer season, assemblies on drugs, recycling, and community service, back-to-school night, an evening poetry reading, an evening college application workshop, and the blending of new students and teachers into a new community. All in all it's been great, quite positive (except for the expulsion), and the new folks are proving to be great additions to our community. Alas, it's still exhausting, in a way that seems more intense than it was in 1991. Perhaps it's having more students, or the general anxiety caused by (choose any 3) the economy, 9-11, health care, angry town halls, our children's future prospects, or any of the myriad of issues we carry with us each day. As the days turn cooler (how do you like living in San Francisco East) our pace will slow a bit, and hopefully allow us to become more reflective and think more deeply about how and why we go about the work we take on. Soon enough the pace will pick up, as we begin to budget and plan for the 2010-2011 school year!

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on Flow

One of the really good thinkers of the past couple of decades, his concept of "Flow" posits that people perform best when they have a high degree of skill and strong (but not unreasonable) challenges. Lots of implications for our teaching, and education in general.



If you're not familiar with the TED conferences, their videos and podcasts are well worth checking out at ted.com.

Convergence

What will the world be like in 20 years, when our students' children are starting school?

More Obama-this time, health care

I'm in a writing frenzy today! It usually takes me weeks to get worked up enough to write!

Lest the wingnuts drive us to think that healthcare is just fine in America, our small business is facing a 20% increase in premiums next year. Tuition went up 2%. You can do the math.

Our broker says that 20% is pretty good... one of our small school compatriots is seeing a 76% increase in their premiums.

Our faculty's average age did not change, nor did any of us have catastrophic illnesses.

My choices: increase the teacher's contribution, weaken the plan we offer, fire all the old teachers and replace them with young teachers.

And we're just one, small, business. Maybe that's why we get hit so hard, where are we going to go? Something needs to be done.

We Survived the Indoctrination!

I'm sure that all of our students' parents are pleased that, despite our president's attempts to indoctrinate us with his socialist message, the school is still standing. A few of my personal highlights are quoted below. My favorite quote with regard to the controversy came from the NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who called the protesters "stupid." Quite right!

"But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed. "

"And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it."

"...at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying."

"...the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

"That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

"These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

"No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in."

The latest from the Fringe

How unbelieveable is this... parents don't want their kids to listen to the President of the United States talk about the importance of education because they think he's "trying to indoctrinate their children with socialist ideas" according to the NY Times. I suppose it's no surprise in a country where 40% of the population believe in ghosts, and the value of science is undercut by the value placed on faith. (Personally, I'm comfortable with mystery, and the idea that while not everything can be explained, as time passes more and more can be.)

Oh well, we'll certainly allow our students to listen to the president during lunch on Tuesday, and hope that they take his message of hard work and accomplishment to heart. That, after all, is part of our mission as a school and as parents. And the further some folks move their kids to the fringe, the more room there is for our kids at the top!

We're Ready! Are You?

After a summer of painting and cleaning, and three full days of meetings, we're ready for the school year to finally begin! The place is just too quiet and empty without adolescent energy... remind me I said that come November!

Zero to One Hundred in one day

Well, maybe to 50 in one day... 100 will arrive with the students on the 31st!

After spending three weeks on Cape Cod with my 82 year old father, I'm back in the saddle here at The Nora School preparing for the new school year. Even after doing this for 18 years, I'm amazed at the amount of work that's needed to prepare the building, the faculty, and the families for the upcoming term.

Living life at the pace of an 82-year-old retiree on the Cape certainly is relaxing! Reading, an occasional trip to the beach or the golf course, having all afternoon to prepare dinner... life could hardly be more placid. Returning to school, needing to hire new teachers to manage our over enrollment, going to board meetings of other institutions, having the new bus painted and lettered, getting new lawn furniture, removing the rubble of summer cleanup, preparing for faculty in-service, and planning the creation of a new school community when students arrive, all takes a huge effort, and offers a stark contrast to reading Michael Connolly on the beach!

Perhaps this intensity is now compressed due to my desire to spend time free time with my father and give my sisters a break. Not having spent much time during the winter, spring, and summer breaks to manage the detritus of school life (such as digging out my office) means that when I am here the amount that needs to be done is fairly daunting.

Nonetheless, the world is an amazing place, full of surprises, and in a few days we'll again have the privilege of sharing all these wonders with young people. While my office will probably always be a bit of a mess, my hope is that it goes along with my curiosity and enthusiasm for learning and sharing.

Dad and his cousin Caroline at the Boston Pops concert in Hyannis.