Category Archives: Education

A simple intervention reduces political polarization — by making people read political arguments in hard to decipher print fonts 0

Citation — to study Ivan Hernandez and Jesse Lee Preston, Disfluency disrupts the confirmation bias, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 49(1): 178-182 (January 2013) Citation — to press release Diana Yates, Difficult-to-read font reduces political polarity, study finds, University of Illinois (02 November 2012) Background — what is confirmation bias? From the abstract: One difficulty [...]

Beating a child damages his/her ability to reason, plan and delay gratification — research from West Africa 0

For those of us accustomed to the effects of violence, this may not be surprising The University of Toronto reported that: Children in a school that uses corporal punishment performed significantly worse in tasks involving “executive functioning” — psychological processes such as planning, abstract thinking, and delaying gratification — than those in a school relying [...]

Learning, doing, and hands ─ a better way for kids (and most everyone else) 0

Editor-in-chief of Make magazine knows a bit about education Mark Frauenfelder, editor-in-chief of Make magazine, wrote a short and persuasive article in The Atlantic about the value of hands-on education for kids (and pretty much everyone else). The ideal educational environment for kids, observes Peter Gray, a professor of psychology . . . is one [...]

Bob Herbert said yesterday what many Americans think ─ Why won’t African-Americans mobilize to do something constructive for their young men? 0

Embracing self-destructive behavior gets us nowhere, no matter what race or culture we are Bob Herbert, being African American, can write what is true, without immediately being silenced, ridiculed, or defamed by the ever-present monitors of American Political Correctness. Extracts from Mr. Herbert’s essay include: Parental neglect, racial discrimination and an orgy of self-destructive behavior [...]

U.S. has dropped to 12th place among developed nations in its proportion of college (associate or higher) degrees in the 25- to 34-year cohort ─ Columnist Bob Herbert’s level of exasperation with our decline (and its significance) matches mine 0

Sometimes, it is about being culturally stupider than drool Columnist Bob Herbert wrote about this topic last Friday: As incredible as it seems from the perspective of 2010, the report from the College Board tells us that “it is expected that the educational level of the younger generation of Americans will not approach their parents’ [...]

A voice for America’s lost heart 0

Bob Herbert ─ speaking directly with insight, eloquently with soul Bob Herbert (of the New York Times) consistently speaks for America’s lost heart.   Today, he wrote that: What a country. We’ll do whatever it takes to make sure the bankers keep living the high life and swilling that Champagne while at the same time we’re taking [...]

Lack of science appreciation and ability in United States hampers thinking outside science and technology 0

Scientific thinking model has applicability outside science and technology Exporting the scientific thinking process outside American science classrooms would benefit the United States beyond usual measures of scientific and technological global competitiveness. American education arguably fails to teach analytical thinking As a nation, we think poorly. Americans generally don’t know the rules of (or reasons for) [...]