by Wes Carroll | Aug 24, 2020 | bespoke, Blog, college admissions, continuing education, distance learning, education advocacy, general update, SAT prep, teaching style, test prep, the value of education, Why should I care?
Today Seth Godin posted:
Education is the hustle for a credential. It exchanges compliance for certification. An institution can educate you.
Learning can’t be done to you. It is a choice and it requires active participation, not simple adherence to metrics.
Learning is the only place to find resilience, possibility and contribution, because learning is a lifelong skill that isn’t domain dependent.
Most of the learning moments in our lives are accidental or random. A situation presents itself and if we’re lucky, we learn something from it.
I agree that learning is where it’s at, which is why we’re introducing a few new offerings in the coming weeks. If you’re on our mailing list, you’ll see those shortly. (And if not, let me know, and I’ll be happy to add you.)
But I also think that if you can rack up an educational credential as part of the learning process, it’s worth going for it. And that’s why we also continue to help students prepare for standardized tests, math competitions, and classwork.
To sum up: It’s great if you join us because you want the STEM grades and the test scores. But once you’re here, it’s the learning that’ll really blow your doors off!
So… let’s get to it.
by Wes Carroll | Nov 13, 2008 | Blog, general update, Uncategorized
Gentle readers: It’s been a busy autumn.
* The math team is doing quite well; we have 44 points out of 60 on the CAML moving into the third round (yes, that’s very good, and yet we’re only just getting going)
* SAT prep is going well as always, but the new development is that our administrative staff is kicking in the afterburners, so it’s getting to be a smoother process for students and parents alike — thank goodness for administrative staff
* My private students are really flourishing this year. Highlights from this week alone: an eighth-grader working on really grokking the idea of proof by contradiction with incredible success, and a sixth-grader using modulus and congruence to show that there are no perfect squares in the infinite sequences 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, …
* Did I mention that the math team scored their first perfect score this week? I’m so proud of them.
Meanwhile, I’m having some trouble with some side-projects, not least of which trying to figure out how to decorate my apartment. Who knew that it could be so hard? I’d rather prove that the square root of seven is irrational, thanks. Ah, well.
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Sometime soon I’ll have time to comment on such things as the recent backlash against SAT prep in general. If only they knew that the proper objection is to the charlatans. (Sadly, that’s most of the market. Sigh.)