Phantom Scribbler and Laid Off Dad had thoughtful comments on this article from the New York Times on how you should praise your children – how it is much more effective to praise a child for putting effort in, than for being intrinsically smart. I recently found a fuller article on the sameContinue Reading
John Howard had a column recently in the SMH about education. It was mostly a rant about the way education works these days – “Many of the fads and politically correct fashions that have found their way into our schools undermine the quality of education. Where Big Brother or a text messageContinue Reading
We’ve just registered Chatterboy for his first soccer season – he’ll be in the Under 6s. We thought long and hard about it, as we’re not sure he’s going to enjoy it at the beginning, but think it’s really important to learn a social sport that you can continue throughoutContinue Reading
There have been a couple of articles (probably because it is the silly season) recently about the unaffordability of pre-schools in NSW, compared with other Australian states. The vast majority of pre-schools in NSW cost about $30 a day, with most children going for the year before school, for twoContinue Reading
Today I’m reviewing one of the Quarterly Essays – The History Question; Who owns the past? by Inga Clendinnen. Quarterly Essays are 20,000 words published quarterly, with responses generally in the next issue. I’ve previously reviewed Clendinnen’s Dancing with Strangers, which is a detailed deconstruction and pieceing together of the historyContinue Reading
Lately, I’ve been finding out where the money that my son’s (state) school’s fundraising goes to. Last year, they spent $20,000 on consumables within the classrooms – folders, pencils, stickers, stamps etc. They spent $10,000 on library books, and $20,000 on building works. They’ve just got two new demountable classrooms,Continue Reading
As all the US bloggers I read have sent their children to kindergarten, I’ve been pondering on school starting ages in different countries. There is a surprising (to me) amount of variability. According to this research paper, in Europe, the standard school starting age varies from four (Northern Ireland) toContinue Reading
There’s been an interesting set of posts started by Elizabeth at Half Changed World about how people choose their childrens’ school. Jody at Raising Weg had a very thoughtful post about the choices she made for her children. So I thought I’d give it a go. My theory is that theContinue Reading
Terence Tao, a 31 year old Australian who is a maths professor at UCLA, has just won the Fields medal for mathematics. Its been described in all the articles I’ve read as the mathematics equivalent of the Nobel – not quite, from what I can see – just as rare (fourContinue Reading
There was an opinion piece on private education in the SMH in Spectrum on the weekend, which I can’t find online. Unfortunately, I’ve thrown out the paper, too, so you’ll just have to cope with my rantings informed by unreliable memory. The author starts by saying that private education inContinue Reading
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