Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

Educators spend their days in rooms filled with young people. It can be a glorious existence, it can be a dreary existence. It is an existence dedicated to providing those young people with experiences that prepare them for an unknowable future.

"For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."
— Carl Sagan

Here is your regular reminder: If you think the answer is simple, then you misunderstand the problem.

Is it all organizations that hire for expertise then ignore the expertise they have internally or is it only education?

Science challenges conventional wisdom, but that does not mean it believes conspiracy theories.

Science is a way of thinking.

I saw a news story about the community where I had my first teaching job. I paid attention wondering if I'd see any one who may have been my student, thinking they might be parents of students. Afterwards I did the math and realized my first students would have grandchildren who are school aged.

One thing I miss from my classroom days I saying "prove it" and having students try to be reasonable and correct.

I taught middle school students for decades. The one advantage I had in dealing with them is few of them were content being whiners. They really wanted to start acting like adults.

Skilled and competent individuals can leave organizations in which a bully is in charge, thus weakening the organization, but the leader denies it.

In education, there is the assumption that standard tests measure meaningful learning. Because all of these break down under serious inquiry, leaders must take steps to compel compliance.

Two questions:

Who won the Nobel prize in medicine for the last 10 years and what discoveries led to the award?
Are people in your community affected by the discoveries made by Nobel winners?

Which should be in the curriculum?

One difference between natural intelligence (human or other) is they can manage unknown situations or novel circumstances.

"Empirical evidence" means that you (and others) actually observe it and agree on its interpretation.

"Curriculum is designed to reflect the knowledge of the society." I do not think the developers are keeping up with society.

Appropriate Proper Reasonable - 10: A Brief History of School Computing | RSS.com https://rss.com/podcasts/apr/1489721/

I asked AI for a confusing quote about science:

"The universe unfolds in a dance of imperceptible whispers, where causality waltzes with probability, and the observer becomes the choreographer of a reality both measured and mysterious."

Well done, AI.

"Success in school is vital for success in life." Is it? Is it really?

"Pushing youngsters to more participation and greater achievement leads to success in school and beyond." No, it doesn't.

"Children need constant supervision." Actually, they don't.