From England

Two stories from England about how schools mess up kids, these are full of great quotes :-)

Sample quotes:

I offer these examples as proof of my point: as a method of delivering education, school is overrated. This was Bertrand Russell's view. "Men are born ignorant, not stupid," he wrote. "They are made stupid by education."

Robert Louis Stevenson was of the view that "full, vivid, instructive hours of truantry" were a better education than sitting in a classroom having information drummed into your mind by Gradgrinds intent on producing obedient wage slaves.

Idle parenting means happy children

Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 16/02/2008

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Cancel all clubs, ditch the after-school activities and leave those kids alone, urges Tom Hodgkinson

The idle parent: the less school, the better

Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 15/03/2008

Tom Hodgkinson says the idea that school is good for us doesn't bear examination

Comments

NBC anti-life?

I would boycott NBC, if I ever watched it that is. I actually never watch anything on the old line networks, NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX. Everything I watch is on the cable only stations... do they still broadcast over the air? Ah well, this story is about the fact that it seems NBC refused to air an ad put together by some Catholic outfit that features an embryo and all of the hardships it faced in early life ending up with the revelation that they were talking about Obama. Here is the ad , check it out and see how unoffensive it is. Like I said, if I watched them I'd quit now. :-/

Child Driven Education

Here is a Ted Talk with Sugata Mitra on Child Driven Education... very unschooling-like I think. :-) I've seen videos of him before, this is an update on his research on letting groups of kids learn on the internet, mostly without any supervision at all. Posted via email from The Angry Gnome

The Tea Parties

I didn't make our local Tea Party , but it pulled hundreds of people as well... Tea, anyone? from Father Hollywood by Father Hollywood Like hundreds of thousands of other Americans, the Hollywoods enjoyed a tea party this past Wednesday. "Tea party" (wink wink). Nothing subversive about sipping a little Darjeeling, eh wot? Nothing to see here, Miss Napolitano. Anyway, our local festivities were held at Veterans Memorial Boulevard in Metairie. There were literally thousands of people crammed into the neutral ground (though on that day, the ground was anything but...), as cars and trucks poured by the busy boulevard laing on their horns in support. Here are pictures. And like every such gathering in our environs, there was even a brass band and an improptu "second line" parade. It was a "party" after all. But it was a party with a serious reason. The crowds were so overwhelming that it was hard to hear the speakers, and unfortunately, we did have a fe...

The Peaceful Gnome

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