DO NOT PRESS

—DO NOT PRESS If you’re one of my students, and you’ve got a lot of work to do, Do Not Click this link, and… Do Not Press the red dot! Similar:Surprise: Humanities Degrees Provide Great Return On InvestmentThe conventional wisdom is that humaniti…Academia35% of my site visitors right now are using mobile devicesThis year I…

Dear Abby…

DEAR ABBY: I have lived with my boyfriend for five years. “Brian” is a good man and a decent boyfriend. I get along well with his family and particularly his mom. Brian is sweet, sensitive and, for the most part, very laid-back. My problem is Brian’s temper. Although he has never physically abused me, when…

Emails 'pose threat to IQ'

The distractions of constant emails, text and phone messages are a greater threat to IQ and concentration than taking cannabis, according to a survey of befuddled volunteers. Doziness, lethargy and an increasing inability to focus reached “startling” levels in the trials by 1,100 people, who also demonstrated that emails in particular have an addictive, drug-like…

Life-Changing Experiences

I‘m very much in agreement with the reservations Joe Harris has expressed about the personal essay — the worry that grading, in some ways, becomes an evaluation of the self that the student represents on the page — but after reading the MetaFilter thread, one of my responses to the Personal Essay assignment has become…

An online chronicle of grief

Deni Rust, 34, of McCandless, continued her husband’s journal after his death, using the Web site he created to immortalize his writings, to establish a guest book where friends and family can share memories, and to post her thoughts as each day passes. A year later, Deni Rust still struggles to live with her grief.…

Exploding the Self-Esteem Myth

Vasconcellos argued that raising self-esteem in young people would reduce crime, teen pregnancy, drug abuse, school underachievement and pollution. At one point, he even expressed the hope that these efforts would one day help balance the state budget, a prospect predicated on the observation that people with high self-regard earn more than others and thus…

A Nation of Wimps

“She’s somewhat neurotic,” he confides, “but she is bright, organized and conscientious–the type who’d get to school to turn in a paper on time, even if she were dying of stomach flu.” He finally found the disability he was to make allowances for: difficulty with Gestalt thinking. The 13-year-old “couldn’t see the big picture.” That…

Why Nerds are Unpopular

Nerds serve two masters. They want to be popular, certainly, but they want even more to be smart. And popularity is not something you can do in your spare time, not in the fiercely competitive environment of an American secondary school. —Paul Graham —Why Nerds are Unpopular (Wired) This popular raced through the blogging community back…

Everyone Should Get an A

Does a bus-driver-training school rank its graduating drivers? No, it ensures that all attain the standard required of a bus-driver. Would you like to be treated by a C-grade doctor? No, everyone wants an A-grade doctor! So doctors and drivers are (I hope!) trained and trained and not let out until they are A-grade in…

Pupils scared by asteroid spoof

Pupils were left in tears after a teacher told them that an asteroid was about to hit Earth and kill them all. The spoof announcement was designed to teach 14-year-olds the importance of seizing the day but backfired after they became visibly frightened. —Pupils scared by asteroid spoof (BBC) I think I’ll quietly scratch this idea…