culture: October 2007 Archives

A provocative article that lays out much of my own viewpoints on the dumbing down of the American education system, and how it's churning out a lot of children completely unequipped with an understanding of basic concepts:

He cites studies, reports, hard data, from the appalling effects of television on child brain development (i.e.; any TV exposure before 6 years old and your kid's basic cognitive wiring and spatial perceptions are pretty much scrambled for life), to the fact that, because of all the insidious mandatory testing teachers are now forced to incorporate into the curriculum, of the 182 school days in a year, there are 110 when such testing is going on somewhere at Oakland High. As one of his colleagues put it, "It's like weighing a calf twice a day, but never feeding it."

But most of all, he simply observes his students, year to year, noting all the obvious evidence of teens' decreasing abilities when confronted with even the most basic intellectual tasks, from understanding simple history to working through moderately complex ideas to even (in a couple recent examples that particularly distressed him) being able to define the words "agriculture," or even "democracy." Not a single student could do it.

I'm amazed every day by how little incoming freshmen at the college I work for know - from basic scientific principles like the behaviour of forces, to how to write an analytical essay. It's ridiculous.

A wonderful documentary regarding accents across the British isles. This tickles the linguist inside of me - I've amazed people with my own rendition of a trip across Britain using the accents found there. Great for parties.

At around 3:20 you'll hear a wonderful sampling of the different accents found in Britain, but it's definitely worth watching the whole documentary. Via kottke.

I was reading kotaku in the last couple of days and found an entry by Brian Ashcraft detailing his experiences with Japanese burial customs in the death of his grandmother-in-law.

Shortly after, I stumbled upon this link detailing another more in-depth account of Japanese burial customs.

If you've ever wondered why it's taboo to eat with mismatched chopsticks, or love Japanese culture like I do, then they're quite an interesting read.