For years, people have made the mistake in believing they can keep their mind sharp by merely doing crossword puzzles (although recently, Sudoku seems to have taken its place). True cognitive fitness, however, stems from immersing your mind in a wide variety of challenges and puzzle types. Here at Smartkit, we give you the chance to stimulate and exercise not just one- but many areas of your brain with our unique online daily puzzle progression!
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What we need today, for the sake of the survival of this planet, is long-term vision. Can governments whose very survival depends on immediate, extractive, short-term gain provide this? Could it be that democracy, the sacred answer to our short-term hopes and prayers, the protector of our individual freedoms and nurturer of our avaricious dreams, will turn out to be the endgame for the human race? Could it be that democracy is such a hit with modern humans precisely because it mirrors our greatest folly — our nearsightedness?
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The competition will run from October 1st 2009 to January 2nd 2010. Over the next few months you will be joining Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage as they endeavour to save the world’s first computing engines, the Difference Engine and the Analytic Engine from falling into the hands of arch criminials and enemies of the British Empire. You will also need to help them break the Byron Enigma.
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the first in a series on the educational systems of Singapore and Finland. Both countries are have highly regarded educational systems which have become the subject of much study in the world of education. Both countries have a comparable population size although they differ markedly in terms of land area. While both countries do display similarities, in my view, the differences are more obvious and interesting. I will start off by just sharing a simple comparison chart between the educational systems of both countries. I will proceed in forthcoming posts to discuss the two systems using this comparison chart as the basis of my discussion.
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The mistaken idea that reading is a skill—learn to crack the code, practice comprehension strategies and you can read anything—may be the single biggest factor holding back reading achievement in the country.
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The Royal Institution, one of the world's most eminent scientific bodies, will open a new centre to inspire children about the subject this week – led by a former teacher who spectacularly failed his A-levels.
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Sendak’s work has addressed problems as monumental for children as being in a rage at mother, relating to a depressed or emotionally unavailable mother, or coming to terms with a mother who cannot or will not recognise her child’s concerns or state of mind. He manages nonetheless to maintain the optimistic view that all of these troubles can be tamed, even if not fully overcome, through imagination. The ultimate magic of his work resides in his presentations of imagination, dream, fantasy and – ultimately – art itself as sources of resilience, of the strength to soldier on.
Sendak’s work .. is of particular interest to psychologists due to his strikingly unusual abilities to gain access to… fantasies that accompany childish rage states. It is this capacity, I believe, that contributes to the appeal of his work to children who are unable or unwilling to articulate these states, and to adults who have forgotten them or do not wish to know about them.
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Next month a massive, 640-page report on the future of primary schools will thud on to the desks of ministers and opposition politicians.
There has been nothing on this scale for over 40 years.
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The single biggest problem in American education is that no one agrees on why we educate. Faced with this lack of consensus, policy makers define good education as higher test scores. But higher test scores are not a definition of good education. Students can get higher scores in reading and mathematics yet remain completely ignorant of science, the arts, civics, history, literature and foreign languages.
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The Charter for Compassion will be unveiled to the world on November 12, 2009.
In late 2008, people of all nations, all faiths, all backgrounds, submitted their words to the Charter. In early 2009, the Council of Conscience sorted through and discussed the world's contributions to determine the final version of the Charter. The Charter is now complete.
The Charter does NOT assume:
* all religions are the same
* compassion is the only thing that matters in religion
* religious people have a monopoly on compassionThe Charter DOES affirm that:
* compassion is celebrated in all major religious, spiritual and ethical traditions
* the Golden Rule is our prime duty and cannot be limited to our own political, religious or ethnic group
* therefore, in our divided world, compassion can build common ground
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Leonardo introduced technology, Michelangelo added naturalism, Caravaggio brought in the beauty of the lower classes, Rembrandt introduced art images to the common home, Manet eliminated the mythological basis of art and reified "street" experience, Monet revolutionized the portrayal of light and Van Gogh did the same for color. Genius is the transformation of collective experience by one individual for the common good. It must be, by definition, the antithesis of evil, although evil may be one of its subjects. Postmodernism precludes genius because it assumes that artistic creation is a constant recycling of previous work, so that someone like David Foster Wallace could not be labeled a genius because modern Western culture denies the role. Postmodernism, indeed, adjudges genius as fundamentally reactionary, because the domination of culture by one individual denies the historical power of the collective.
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n a speech to the IAPS annual conference in Jersey, Mr Tranmer said: "It is fundamentally wrong that the government, or more accurately a collection of pseudo-educationalists and bureaucrats, dictate to us – to independent schools renowned for excellence – what we should be teaching.
"We have the experience, the knowledge and the understanding to determine an appropriate curriculum for our pupils and it was a sorry day indeed when we lost that professional freedom. I think we are looking at the thin edge of a wedge and for that reason I shall use whatever influence and opportunity I have during this year to campaign to reverse the imposition of the EYFS."
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Professor Varnhagen said: "If you want students to think very precisely and concisely and be able to express themselves, it might be interesting to have them create instant messages with ideas, maybe allow them opportunities to use more of this new dialect in brief reports or fun activities.
"Using a new type of language does require concentration and translating it to standard English does require concentration and attention. It's a little brain workout."
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The technological singularity is the theoretical future point which takes place during a period of accelerating change sometime after the creation of a superintelligence.
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Information and knowledge are absolutely fundamental to what education is all about . . . and it would be impossible for the information revolution to unfold and not have transformative implications for how children can be educated and how schools and teachers can more productively do their jobs. .
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