Recently in Education Category
Students Say Holberton School Bootcamp Is Like 'Lord of the Flies' - Business Insider
I'm not shocked by this. Friends tell me that the Holberton grads they've dealt with have generally been eager but ill-prepared. Learning to code -- learning how the syntax of a computer language works, how to use the development tools, how to build a running program -- is important, but it's not the same as learning how to solve problems or how to design and integrate large software systems involving multiple engineers.
FIRST & LEGO Education Partnership Update
FIRST Robotics and LEGO are not renewing their long-time partnership, the FIRST Lego League competition, beyond the 2026-2027 season. This is bizarre and surprising. Here is LEGO's statement on the parting of ways: "LEGO® Education will launch a 2027-2028 season, and we look forward to bringing fun, inspiring and creative STEM learning and the important skills it develops to even more children in the future." The Brick Fan blog notes: "LEGO Education back in January announced that they will be releasing a new Computer Science & AI learning solution while the SPIKE Portfolio will be retired at the end of June."
"FLL used spike prime as its ecosystem, but Lego discontinued the commercial version years ago, and Lego education announced that they're discontinuing the education edition as well. Mindstorms as a brand has completely ceased to exist, which means FLL no longer has a way to get new control systems.
"The only motorized remote control programming system systems LEGO offers aren't able to run autonomously without an active connection to the brick, which breaks a bunch of FLL rules. They also suck compared to spike prime in terms of teach teaching kids to code and use sensors.
"Essentially, Lego moved on. The only people who were buying these kits were FLL teams, and that clearly just wasn't enough to justify the cost of manufacturing them."
Sometimes I like to refresh my memory about the classes I took in college and the professors who taught me.
Blame It on Mr. Rogers: Why Young Adults Feel So Entitled - WSJ
Jeffrey Zaslow, writing in 2007: "Fred Rogers, the late TV icon, told several generations of children that they were "special" just for being whoever they were. He meant well, and he was a sterling role model in many ways. But what often got lost in his self-esteem-building patter was the idea that being special comes from working hard and having high expectations for yourself.
"Now Mr. Rogers, like Dr. Spock before him, has been targeted for re-evaluation. And he's not the only one. As educators and researchers struggle to define the new parameters of parenting, circa 2007, some are revisiting the language of child ego-boosting. What are the downsides of telling kids they're special? Is it a mistake to have children call us by our first names? When we focus all conversations on our children's lives, are we denying them the insights found when adults talk about adult things?"
The Bible and the American Founders, by Daniel Dreisbach
Prof. Dreisbach's 2017 talk on the influence of the Bible on government in America's founding era bolsters the case for Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters's push to include the Bible in public education. American history can't be comprehended apart from the Bible.
"How did the Bible inform the founders' political and legal pursuits? I want to get a little bit more specific here. As I've already said, the founders held diverse views, including diverse theological views. Some doubted Christianity's transcendent claims. Some doubted the Bible's divine origins. But I'm going to suggest to you that many in this generation looked to the Scriptures for insights into things like human nature, civic virtue, social order, political authority, and other concepts essential to the establishment of a political society. Perhaps more important, there was broad agreement that the Bible was essential for nurturing the kind of civic virtues that give citizens the capacity for self-government. In various conventions and representative assemblies of the age as well as in pamphlets, political sermons, and private papers, founding figures appealed to the Bible for principles, precedents, models, normative standards, and cultural motifs, to define their community and to order their great political experiments. The Bible, some thought, offered guidance on how to select righteous leaders. They thought the Bible offered guidance on the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, including the right to resist a tyrannical government....
"I don't think you can understand the most basic, fundamental features of the American constitutional design -- and by that I have in mind things like limited government, separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism, rule of law, due process of law and representative government -- without understanding this biblical anthropology, this idea that man is a fallen creature, and where power is given, that power must be checked."
The Dark Side Of AI: Tracking The Decline Of Human Cognitive Skills
"Furthermore, educational experts argue that AI's increasing role in learning environments risks undermining the development of problem-solving abilities. Students are increasingly being taught to accept AI-generated answers without fully understanding the underlying processes or concepts. As AI becomes more ingrained in education, there is a concern that future generations may lack the capacity to engage in deeper intellectual exercises, relying on algorithms instead of their own analytical skills."
Phones Are Destroying Kids' Ability To Read Books
Jeremy S. Adams writes: "And yet we somehow expect these same kids who can't enjoy a simple bike or horse ride to sit down in a corner and spend hours reading a book. Keep in mind one of the most shocking yet revealing statistics in modern educational research: teens are more likely to read a novel at thirteen than they are at seventeen. As one of my best friends recently observed, 'My son used to be a voracious reader -- a couple books a week. And then we gave him a phone and the reading stopped.'... Which brings me to another demoralizing data point in the quickly degenerating mental state of American students. Two weeks ago, Pew Research released disturbing findings about American educators which found that 58 percent of high school instructors noted their students had "little to no interest" in learning. A whopping, though completely unsurprising, 72 percent say cellphone distraction is a major problem."
Search for tax exempt organizations | Internal Revenue Service
You don't need to pay a website for access to a charity's 990 filings and tax-exempt determinations. They're available for free on the IRS website.
Euclid's elements in color
Translated and published in 1847 by Oliver Byrne: The first six books of the elements of Euclid, in which coloured diagrams and symbols are used instead of letters for the greater ease of learners. High resolution scans on the Harvard Library website.
Once upon a time, encouraging patriotism and an appreciation for our country's blessings was considered a fundamental aim of public schools in America: "84 Freedom Awards Go To Tulsa: National winners of the 1967 Valley Forge Freedoms Foundation Awards were announced Wednesday with 81 awards going to Tulsa schools and educators and three to Tulsans who helped 'promote a better understanding of the American way of life.' Winners were selected by a 34-member panel of judges. Tulsa received the largest number of awards of any city in Oklahoma. Dr. Charles C. Mason, superintendent of schools left Wednesday for Valley Forge Penn. where he will receive the school awards Thursday -- George Washington's birthday. For the past 16 years Tulsa schools have received many of the awards in various categories.... Verl A. Teeter, 4020 S. Sandusky Ave., received a George Washington Honor Medal Award in the public address category for his speech on "Protecting and Preserving Our American Heritage," delivered before the Broken Arrow Rotary Club last fall. An identical award in the sermon category went to Rev. G. E. Gotoski, 5324 E. 46th St., for his sermon on 'A Christian Manifesto.'" Mason was the namesake of Tulsa's 10th and short-lived high school. Teeter was an educational consultant, former school superintendent, and prolific letter writer. Gotoski was pastor of Bethany Lutheran Church in Tulsa, a congregation of the American Lutheran Church, a merger of Norwegian, German, and Danish Lutheran denominations that would later be merged into the ELCA.
