Thoughts on Education, Leadership, and Life from an Outsider
Greetings Starfighters,
I crossed an auspicious milestone this week. I’ve been using Readwise to collect highlights and notes from almost everything I read, whether a book, an ebook, a research article, or an online article. I get a recap daily of 10 different highlights to review.
Of course, I can review more, but that daily reminder is a nice way to remember things I’ve read and thought were important – heck, many blog posts and articles are inspired by those passages.
Marion Milner’s unique approach to self-discovery involved using her creative explorations in literature and art as a therapeutic project. Through her meta-diaries, she abandoned preconceived goals and embraced free writing to uncover hidden thoughts and dark instincts. Milner’s focus on creativity influenced her self-discovery and guided her therapeutic practice with patients like Simon, emphasizing the importance of creative expression for maintaining a sense of the future.
Since 1926, Milner had been writing diaries in which she recorded her impressions of life in ways that seem ordinary enough. She would, for example, note seeing “a little boy in a sailor suit dancing and skipping by himself on his way to look at the sea lions,” or reflect, “I realized how untrustworthy I am in personal relationships … always agreeing with the person present.” But in the thirties Milner turned her diaries, as a sort of raw material, into her first books, which were published as essayistic reflections about her diaries: A Life of One’s Own (1934) and An Experiment in Leisure (1937). In them she invented something new and a genre of her own: a diary about a diary, or what the critic Hugh Haughton has called a “meta-diary.” Contemporaries like W. H. Auden responded with enthusiasm.
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Pardon me as I date myself, but I have loved and always will love the Peanuts comic strips. The cartoons were staples of my childhood, and I have no plans to stop watching them anytime soon.
I love to see creators create, so this 20-minute video of Charles Schulz creating his famous characters is a delight.
If you need more inspiration, here’s a video of Chuck Jones demonstrating how to draw Bugs Bunny and other characters.
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Meta plans to make Quest VR headsets a key tool for classroom learning, offering students immersive educational experiences. The push for VR in education raises questions about the future of learning and student engagement. Despite concerns like cybersickness and limited accessibility, Meta sees VR technology as a promising avenue for transforming education.
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As my doctoral colleagues and I near the end of Year 2, we’re thinking more and more about writing our dissertations. While that process involves much research and planning, it also involves a whole heck of a lot of writing.
So, how do you write better? Here are three tips based on scientific evidence:
Of course, this isn’t an exhaustive list, and it doesn’t mention the most important part about becoming a good writer…
Writing. All. The. Time. The more you write, the better you’ll get. 2,000 words a day, according to Stephen King.
So, get to writing, my friends.
The Eclectic Educator is a free resource for everyone passionate about education and creativity. If you enjoy the content and want to support the newsletter, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support helps keep the insights and inspiration coming!
Stop worrying about what you think other people think of you and what you do. They don’t care. They’re too busy worrying about themselves.
Teachers and students, this is your call to get busy doing your own thing, and don’t worry about what anyone thinks.
The Eclectic Educator is a free resource for everyone passionate about education and creativity. If you enjoy the content and want to support the newsletter, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support helps keep the insights and inspiration coming!
Greetings starfighters,
With Spring Break this week, I’ve taken some time to practice being creative, even if that meant creativity in the form of some home improvement projects. I even put in a new lighting fixture and bathroom mirror and painted. Extremely productive.
However, as with all creative endeavors, something happens to screw things up. In my case, something’s going on with our dishwasher. Same old story, check some things off the list and add a few more. Our creative work follows the same pattern as we complete one task and then, invariably, find something else to work on or revise old work, whether in our personal or professional lives.
More in this week’s newsletter…
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Cory Doctorow’s “The Bezzle,” a prequel to the celebrated “Red Team Blues,” revisits the life of Marty Hench, a forensic accountant with a penchant for uncovering financial scams. Doctorow’s narrative takes us back to the dot-com boom and the 2008 financial crisis, exploring the concept of the ‘bezzle’—a term coined by JK Galbraith to describe the deceptive calm before an embezzlement is discovered. This novel is not just a journey through financial intrigue but also a study of contrasts and consequences, set against the backdrop of America’s burgeoning prison-industrial complex.
The novel starts with Marty and his friend Scott Warms, who finds himself rich but disillusioned after selling his tech company. Together, they uncover a Ponzi scheme on Catalina Island, initiating a chain of events that exposes the darker sides of wealth and the legal system. Doctorow masterfully interweaves these personal dramas with broader societal critiques, especially highlighting the ruthless privatization of American prisons by private equity firms, creating a ‘bezzle’ of far greater magnitude and moral bankruptcy.
Doctorow’s prowess lies in crafting a compelling thriller and his acute observations of the technological and financial landscapes. His attention to detail, from the quirks of the dot-com era to the insidious spread of neo-Nazi police gangs, roots the narrative in a reality that is both recognizable and reprehensible. The novel’s strength also lies in its characters, particularly Marty Hench, whose journey from a sharp-minded accountant to a more reflective, albeit chastened, individual offers a nuanced exploration of friendship, loyalty, and the cost of justice.
“The Bezzle” stands out for its incisive commentary on the intersections of crime, punishment, and capitalism. Through Marty’s eyes, Doctorow delves into the mechanics of white-collar crime, juxtaposing the frictionless lives of the wealthy against the grinding hardship of prisoners and their families. This narrative is about uncovering financial fraud and exposing the societal bezzles that allow injustices to thrive unnoticed.
Doctorow’s novel resonates with the gritty realities of America’s carceral state, mirroring the detailed world-building found in science fiction and fantasy to lay bare the truths of our own world. The comparison to historical works like Dickens’ “Little Dorrit” reinforces the timeless nature of these themes, emphasizing how past and present intertwine in the perpetuation of systemic greed and exploitation.
In “The Bezzle,” Doctorow does more than tell a story; he invites readers to question the very fabric of society, the nature of friendship, and the price of freedom. It’s a book that thrills, educates, and disturbs, offering a mirror to the moral complexities of our times. It’s a must-read, not just for its narrative drive but for its urgent, resonant message about the world we navigate—both in the financial markets and beyond.
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In this interview, Professor Rose Luckin, a pioneer in integrating artificial intelligence (AI) with education, shares insights on the ethical dimensions of AI deployment in education, emphasizing the importance of ethical AI and its potential to support learner-centered methodologies. She discusses the challenges and opportunities generative AI presents in assessment, learning, and teaching, highlighting the need for robust partnerships between educators and technology developers.
Professor Luckin stresses the importance of integrating AI into education with carefully crafted ethics and governance frameworks to maximize its potential benefits while mitigating risks. The paper discusses AI’s evolving role in education and the critical need for lifelong learning. It underscores the imperative of ongoing research and collaborative efforts to navigate AI’s significant dangers and opportunities in education.
Here’s another interview with Professor Luckin on AI and Education in the 21st Century:
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A new paper titled “Love and the Distance: The Role of Presence in Online Learning” explores the impact of online learning on teacher and student presence in the context of holistic education, which emphasizes love, care, and interconnectedness. The COVID-19 pandemic prompted a shift to online teaching and learning, raising concerns about maintaining this sense of presence in virtual classrooms.
The study involved interviews with four post-secondary educators, focusing on managing emotions and creating a positive online atmosphere. They emphasized the use of positive mental states and contemplative rituals to compensate for the lack of physical presence. Instead of redefining the concept of presence, educators utilized online tools to maintain traditional notions of presence, such as requiring visible cameras.
The findings highlight the importance of managing affective associations and building community cohesion to foster a sense of social presence in online environments. Challenges include balancing control with allowing personal agency, managing visibility and participation, and adapting to the lack of physical cues in online settings.
The paper concludes that further research is needed to understand how holistic educators’ exposure to online technologies may impact contemplative ideas of presence. It suggests that existing technologies must be adapted to incorporate elements of holistic education and extend the notion of presence to digital contexts.
The Eclectic Educator is a free resource for everyone passionate about education and creativity. If you enjoy the content and want to support the newsletter, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support helps keep the insights and inspiration coming!