What mysteries will Philae unlock?
This is the sort of feat that makes one gasp in awe and wonder. And this is the sort of bold exploration that all humankind is proud to be part of.
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Friday, November 7, 2014
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Teek Hai, Yaar!
The Slate, NYT and WaPo have one thing in common: a liking for eyebrow-raising, attention-grabbing, ominous-sounding headlines like this
This is a typical Slate article. Scary title, designed to garner clicks from all parents with pre-K, and younger, kids. A person unfamiliar with Slate's tactics will feel some alarm. Even if, by some Herculean effort, this person manages not to click on the link and find this article, just the tenor of those words strikes a cord somewhere deep within and manages to lead to a good amount of pessimism about the country's future, depression about the sad state of things, bleakness about how in the world one is supposed to get quality care for one's kids and a longing for a simpler life. Or the person clicks the link and reads the article. To find what?
The standard sentence about how native wisdom from some country (this time, it's Russia) is trumping the supposedly scientific pre-K education that is currently prevalent in the US.... it's-something-they-have-always-known-and-done-in-(whatever country)-and-we-ignoramuses-in-the US-are-just-now-finding-out-about-it kind of line. Then what is this great wisdom that parents have been depriving their kids of? See, you're supposed to talk to your kids! Not just baby-talk, but really, really talk, connect with them even! And every play must be purposeful! No sense in purposeless play! What is play after all if it doesn't have some deep hidden message inside it, just waiting to be discovered and devoured by the voracious preK subconscious mind?
Then, obligatory lines by some expert in some Ivy League university about how whatever the article is claiming is needed is just quite so difficult, needs retraining of an entire generation of (whatever... pre-K teachers in this case) across the whole continent and yet, is just urgent that it needs to be done right away for the immediate improvement of our kids and future society.
And final shocking statements demonstrating extreme cases of shocking ignorance in knowledge/diligence/skills/ intelligence/ playacting/ tree-climbing/fill in whatever you want. Children know their numbers but don't know what it means! Children can dig, but they can't stack! Children can spit but they can't dribble! Yaaarrggh! End of the world and the current generation! Whatever will they do?
(Slate homepage, November 6th 2014, noon)
This is a typical Slate article. Scary title, designed to garner clicks from all parents with pre-K, and younger, kids. A person unfamiliar with Slate's tactics will feel some alarm. Even if, by some Herculean effort, this person manages not to click on the link and find this article, just the tenor of those words strikes a cord somewhere deep within and manages to lead to a good amount of pessimism about the country's future, depression about the sad state of things, bleakness about how in the world one is supposed to get quality care for one's kids and a longing for a simpler life. Or the person clicks the link and reads the article. To find what?
The standard sentence about how native wisdom from some country (this time, it's Russia) is trumping the supposedly scientific pre-K education that is currently prevalent in the US.... it's-something-they-have-always-known-and-done-in-(whatever country)-and-we-ignoramuses-in-the US-are-just-now-finding-out-about-it kind of line. Then what is this great wisdom that parents have been depriving their kids of? See, you're supposed to talk to your kids! Not just baby-talk, but really, really talk, connect with them even! And every play must be purposeful! No sense in purposeless play! What is play after all if it doesn't have some deep hidden message inside it, just waiting to be discovered and devoured by the voracious preK subconscious mind?
Then, obligatory lines by some expert in some Ivy League university about how whatever the article is claiming is needed is just quite so difficult, needs retraining of an entire generation of (whatever... pre-K teachers in this case) across the whole continent and yet, is just urgent that it needs to be done right away for the immediate improvement of our kids and future society.
And final shocking statements demonstrating extreme cases of shocking ignorance in knowledge/diligence/skills/ intelligence/ playacting/ tree-climbing/fill in whatever you want. Children know their numbers but don't know what it means! Children can dig, but they can't stack! Children can spit but they can't dribble! Yaaarrggh! End of the world and the current generation! Whatever will they do?
I want to write this down so I will remember not to go down that rabbit hole (again): chillax, yaar! Seriously, your kid doesn't need purposeful play. He (and she) doesn't even need particularly any purpose. Walk him around and he'll find plenty of things to ask you about, to notice (and no, you don't have to take special pains to get him to notice accidentally-on-purpose-placed educational, purposeful articles) and to comment on. And just the conversation, with you being an involved and respectful participant, is plenty good to give him a head-start on anything he wants to do.
And I'm getting to be a firm believer in the sentiment that the less you worry about your kids, the better off they will be.
So ditch your native-Russian wisdom (okay, since when did we start looking to Russia for wisdom on child-rearing?) and don your native-(whatever country you belong to) common-sense.
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