Thursday, October 17, 2013

Monday, September 30, 2013

Dear undergrads: Your degree was never intended to land you a job

Dear undergrads: Your degree was never intended to land you a job



from: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/new-graduates-have-skills-not-fields/article14558219/?service=print

A University of British Columbia student looks up to the crowd while waiting to receive her diploma during a graduation ceremony at the university in Vancouver, B.C., on Thursday May 24, 2012.
THE CANADIAN PRESS

Published Thursday, Sep. 26, 2013 08:00PM EDT
Last updated Friday, Sep. 27, 2013 11:45AM EDT
Dear Applicant: Thank you for your letter inquiring about positions in our economics department. At this time, we have no openings. However, I will keep your letter on file should an appropriate job become available.
At least, that’s what I am required to tell you. But here’s what I’d really like to say to you – and to every recent economics graduate who sends me the same letter.
First, I know it’s lousy for bachelor of arts grads looking for a job “in their field.” Twenty years ago, it was lousy for me too. It’s almost always lousy. In a way, it’s kind of supposed to be – a small rite of passage to welcome you into the working world. It’s sort of like being froshed.
But if I may, I would like to offer some advice.
Don’t be too fixated on landing a job “in your field.” The truth is, you don’t yet have a field. In university, you majored in economics, but that may or may not be your eventual field of professional work. The world is full of possibilities; limiting your search to an economist job is a terribly narrow way to start out.
You chose to study economics, which doesn’t necessarily imply that you’ll be an economist. Rather, it implies you have an aptitude for problem solving. You’re probably good at analyzing data. You can see different sides of an argument. And I’ll bet you’re excellent at finding solutions to problems. These are essential skills required in hundreds of rewarding (and lucrative) fields of professional employment.
Your ultimate field may actually be in sales for a biotech firm. It may be analyzing crime statistics for the city police. It may even be a rock star (just ask Mick Jagger). The world is full of “fields.”
What you’re facing is a common problem: BA graduates confuse their major area of study with what they expect to be their eventual careers. It doesn’t matter if it’s a degree in history, film studies, sociology, or comparative feminist literature.
You’ve successfully navigated your way through a four-year degree. Congratulations! That is no small accomplishment. But now you’re embarking on a totally different program of learning – one that will last the rest of your life. It’s called “What am I here for?”
That may sound all spiritual and existential, but don’t let it throw you off. It just means that your challenge from here on is to find what you’re good at, and keep getting better and better at it.
An apology, by the way, on behalf of society. We are sorry if we led you to believe that attending university would land you a good job. That’s not actually true. A polytechnic college will do this – and the job opportunities available right now are fantastic. A good option for you might be to continue post-university studies at a polytechnic.
But your university education, at least at the bachelor of arts level, was never intended to land you a job. It was intended to make you a more complete thinker. It was intended to teach you how to absorb complex information and make reasoned arguments. It was, quite simply, intended to teach you how to learn. Those are skills that you’ll use in any field of work.
Open your mind to all sorts of job possibilities. Don’t be too proud to start out in the service industry, or where you might get your fingernails dirty. Talk to as many people as you can about their career paths. Go live overseas for a year or two. But never, ever, allow yourself to think you’ve wasted your time in university if you don’t land a job as an economist.
Meanwhile, be encouraged and stay positive. And yes, I will keep your letter on file. But my guess is that when a position in my economics group eventually opens up, you’ll no longer be available.

Todd Hirsch is the Calgary-based chief economist of ATB Financial and author of The Boiling Frog Dilemma: Saving Canada from Economic Decline.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

"Rejoice, Simpsons Fans: You Can Go to Springfield"

Rejoice, Simpsons Fans: You Can Go to Springfield

From: http://entertainment.time.com/2013/08/27/rejoice-simpsons-fans-you-can-go-to-springfield/#ixzz2f0yCLEmA

TV fans can finally stroll through Homer's hometown


Welcome to Springfield, the town television fans have always dreamed of actually visiting. Now compacted into a 30,000-square-foot space in Universal Studios in Florida, the real-life replica of a famed made-up place gives us our first version of The Simpsons’ Springfield — even if it is technically in Orlando.
The new attraction had its official launch last week and expands on Universal’s previous Simpsons-themed offerings, like the Simpsons ride that has been available at Universal Studios locations for a few years now. It opened a fresh world for park visitors, offering a new outdoor ride, water-play area and a bevy of Simpsons-themed edible treats from the likes of Duff Brewery (where the beers do actually taste different from one another) or Krusty Burger — and don’t fret, there’s plenty more food in the new section too, including Luigi’s Pizza, The Frying Dutchman, Lisa’s Teahouse of Horror and more. Moe’s Tavern goes authentically The Simpsons, with the Love Tester machine and Isotopes pennants. As  USA Today reports, the red rotary phone in the bar even offers up prank calls from Bart Simpson.

Outside the culinary section, kids have a chance to jump on the spinning saucers of the new Kang & Kodos’ Twirl ‘n’ Hurl ride. As Universal describes it, aliens Kang and Kodos invite “foolish humans” on an “intergalactic spin designed to send your lunch into orbit.”
But please, for your fellow Simpsons fans’ sakes, don’t actually indulge in the Duff Beer and then hit the rides. We hope that “Twirl ‘n’ Hurl” thing isn’t intended to be taken literally.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

"Starting High School: Stress That Can Last"

April 24, 2013

Starting high school: Stress that can last

By CAROLINE ALPHONSO

Researchers recommend young people be taught coping strategies after study finds one in four experience anxiety issues

The transition from elementary school to high school is fraught with anxious moments: finding your classes in a bigger building, meeting new classmates and getting your locker opened on the first try. New research has found that the shift is highly stressful for about one in four students, and many more than that could use help coping.
Researchers at McGill University tracked 800 students over three years as they made the transition into high school (in Quebec, high school begins in Grade 7), and discovered those who are highly anxious engaged in "maladaptive" behaviours. About one in three of the stressed students reported overeating, others drank alcohol, smoked and did drugs, while a few said they hurt themselves on purpose.
Lead investigator Nancy Heath, a professor of human development and child psychology at McGill, said her preliminary results apply to students making the transition into high schools across Canada, usually in Grade 9, and speaks to the need to teach young people coping strategies when they're about to experience some kind of change. All of these students will face even bigger challenges with a competitive university admissions process, high tuition and an uncertain job market.
"When kids are saying, 'I'm highly stressed,' we need to take it seriously and start teaching them ways to start managing that stress," Prof. Heath said. "Otherwise, they're flailing around and some of them are engaging in really problematic behaviours."
The study involved students who began attending Montreal-area, English-language high schools three years ago. Prof. Heath said a growing body of research is showing that moving to a new school, usually larger with more academic and new social demands, is associated with significant stress.
Students in the study rated themselves on a 10-point scale, and were assessed repeatedly. The survey found that those who were highly stressed when they entered high school continued to be anxious into the following year. Some of that stress stemmed from conflict with families and friends, or academic anxiety. But Prof. Heath said students entering high school are also anxious because their peer group has been broken up.
About 80 per cent of the students surveyed had not been been taught any stress management techniques.
For those involved in the study, as a way to thank them for their participation, Prof. Heath and her graduate students now run an hour-long workshop in the schools teaching teenagers ways to manage their stress. Prof. Heath said other school boards have expressed an interest in running a similar workshop. Students are told about celebrities who have struggled with significant stress levels, so they know they're not alone. They learn how to relax each muscle group, for example, and are provided with websites to help them manage stress and mental-health problems.
Sierra Nadeau, who participated in the study and attended a workshop earlier this week, said she had panic attacks when she started high school.
"I was really scared. The night before, I did not sleep, which was pretty bad. I spent the whole night staying up worrying about it," said Ms. Nadeau, 14, and a Grade 9 student in Lachine, Que.
She wished the workshop had been offered earlier. "When I'm stressed out, I tend to just give up on things, and this would have helped," she said.
Elizabeth Dhuey, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Toronto who has studied school transitions, said researchers are still trying to understand why students have difficulty with the transition, whether it's the move itself, a new kind of school environment or the age when the change occurs. The effects of a difficult transition, however, can last for years. Learning techniques to manage stress, even if it's for an hour during the school day, could be beneficial over the long term, she said.
If they're anxious "they stay at this lower trajectory," Prof. Dhuey said. "So, when they're entering university, they're at a lower trajectory [as far as academic achievement] than people who didn't have a difficult transition."

Monday, August 12, 2013

The math is wrong... "Don't Mean to Burst Your Bubble"



"While waiting for a train, commuters can help themselves to square sheets of bubble wrap labelled with how long it would take to pop them. I love this idea. The world is a better place because of it. I hesitate to bring this up, but ... the math is wrong."
From: http://reflectionsinthewhy.wordpress.com/2012/12/08/dont-mean-to-burst-your-bubble/

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Folding a sheet of paper the size of a football field in half!

I am currently working on co-editing the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' Mathematics Teacher Media Clips column. The column keeps me in tune with mathematics. In the 2014-2015 calendar year, I have written a submission pertaining to folding a sheet of paper in half - how many times can this be done? Taking an 8.5"x11" sheet of paper, we can fold 7 times. The team in the following video "bust the 7 paper fold myth". Very cool!!!




Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Math is Hard - t-shirt (!)

Heard on CFRB 1010 radio this afternoon of the backlash as a result of a t-shirt for girls: Math is Hard. It's amazing that people will still be proud not to be good at math - yet how many people will be proud not to be literate. Glad the t-shirt has been removed. Mathematics is so important and we need high expectations for all students.

I found the following on the Internet: http://consumerist.com/2013/08/05/the-childrens-place-shirt-dont-worry-if-you-arent-good-at-math-theres-always-shopping/

The Children’s Place Shirt: Don’t Worry If You Aren’t Good At Math — There’s Always Shopping

We understand that there are plenty of demands on a little girl’s time, and that she can’t possibly be expected to excel at every subject in the school of life. But hey, according to The Children’s Place (henceforth to be referred to as TCP), it’s okay because her best subjects of Shopping, Music and Dancing are all covered. As for math? Nobody’s perfect, so don’t worry about checking off that subject.
We’ve seen these kinds of messages in the past, and it appears that TCP hasn’t learned the lesson other retailers have that marketing clothing to girls with the message that “math is hard” is a questionable move. Especially when compared to the messages communicated by TCP about boys activities: The boys are surfing, playing the drums, being an athlete and a rebel, while the girls are “all about glitter” and “born to wear diamonds.”
Also, to be a good shopper, math skills would, in fact, be very useful. Just sayin’.
Some of TCP’s customers aren’t pleased by the “Best Subjects” shirt, either, as noted on thestore’s Facebook page:
NOT cute, Children’s Place. This is not 1953. Stop making it fashionable for girls to be dumb. Parents are sick of this garbage.
I dropped by one of your stores over the weekend and was really disgusted by the sexist approach to girls’ clothing. It’s bad enough that so much of it is pink and purple, but the “best subjects” t-shirt is pretty terrible so is the “this princess is no drama queen” one. What, boys get to have aspirations to do things and girls are supposed to be materialistic wannabe princesses angling to catch a man before third grade? I have a son and haven’t paid much attention to your girl clothes before this, but I was hoping to purchase a gift. Not only did I leave empty-handed, but I won’t be returning.
I’m disgusted with the “my best subjects” shirt. I have always loved children’s place, the clothes, the backpacks; but I can not support a company financially that thinks a shirt like that is okay. As the mother of four daughters I want them to value education. Shame on you.
We’ve reached out to The Children’s Place for comment regarding customers’ concerns, and will update this post as soon as we hear anything back.

Sunday, June 30, 2013

"Snapshots of Days End for Teachers"

With the end of the school year, New York Times published an article with a slideshow of teachers - they look exhausted from the complexity of teaching - but they are satisfied and rewarded for the work they do.

The classrooms have fallen silent now.
But before we close the door on the school year, here are some photos of New York City teachers taken at a different but similar sort of ending – the end of the day.
They were taken this spring by a former teacher in the Boston and Los Angeles public school systems, Aliza Eliazarov, who has turned to photography and lives in Brooklyn.
“After school is a poignant time in a teacher’s day,” Ms. Eliazarov wrote. “It’s one of both reflection and preparation — exhaustion and relief, concern and contentment.”
Ms. Eliazarov said she made the pictures partly because she still felt the pull of her old job, and partly to bring attention to how hard most teachers work.
“Part of my frustration when I was a teacher was hearing how ‘Oh, you get out at 3 and you have summers off’,’” she said. “It’s not like that. The work is always, I feel, undervalued, and teachers aren’t often seen.”
Enjoy. And as you head off into summer break, don’t forget your teacher.

And here is the slideshow:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/26/snapshots-of-days-end-for-teachers/?smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Toronto Star article: "The University Myth of Good Employment"

Interesting article in today's Toronto Star. So competitive to keep marks high that learning is secondary. I can relate to this article - I went to university to be a teacher - and expected to land a teaching job when I graduated. Reality is attending 4 years of university and not be able to find a job is difficult to swallow - route these days seems to continue after a bachelor's degree to a master's degree. In my conversation with students, they have plans to enter master's and even doctoral studies. They realize a bachelor's degree may not land them the "dream" job.

From:
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2013/06/23/the_university_myth_of_good_employment.html

The university myth of good employment

The transition from school to work can be less stressful with more realistic expectations and more preparation.
The university myth of good employment
Dreamstime
Graduating from university should not be seen as a ticket to a good job, or even to a job.

Spring and summer bring equal measures of jubilation and despair to hundreds of thousands of university graduates across Canada. The joy comes from completing a post-secondary degree after years of study; the misery from discovering that there are no jobs.
Taxpayers blame politicians for wasting money on funding universities; politicians pressure universities to better prepare graduates for the labour market. Universities reply that their role is not to produce job-ready workers for employers, but rather to educate.
At the heart of the dilemma are expectations — on the part of students, parents, and citizens — that are wildly unrealistic. Graduating from university should not be seen as ticket to a good job, or even to a job. However, this is often how a degree is advertised to teenagers by high schools, universities, and family members.
Young people are taught — by parents, teachers and others — from a very early age that completing a post-secondary degree will mean financial security, a fulfilling and prestigious career and comfortable life. Not surprisingly, there is a sense of betrayal when, after graduation, job applications for those financially rewarding and secure jobs are rejected.
Many recent graduates believe that completing their university education is the one — and only — criteria demanded by prospective employers. This is not true. Employers look for individuals who have demonstrated passion (for a topic, cause or activity), who have contributed outside of the classroom, and who have a range of interpersonal and professional skills. Graduates unable to demonstrate that they have mastered some of these qualifications will not be offered jobs.
Furthermore, sometimes students come to believe that the process of learning is secondary to the goal of obtaining a degree. In other words, that passing a course and a program is sufficient to unlock the doors to employment. However, employers increasingly look only for those who have excelled in their studies, on the assumption that strong academic performance is positively correlated with high workplace performance.
Many recent graduates expect to land full-time, permanent and highly paying jobs with large private and public corporations. This is unrealistic. Those jobs are, and always have been, the domain of individuals with years of experience and a set of skills that a new graduate cannot hope to have.
Finally, the transition from school to work is almost always stressful, complex and fraught with uncertainty. Arguably today’s graduates are more fortunate than those in the past. At present, the unemployment rate for those aged 15 to 24 stands at 15 per cent, far below the 22 per cent faced by the baby-boomers graduating in the early 1980s.
What can be done to aid graduates in making successful transitions from school to work?
First, ensure that students and their families have realistic expectations. In particular, that a university degree, especially in the social sciences and humanities, is but one building block in preparing for employment.

 Moreover, that some — or even much — of what transpires on a university campus does not directly affect employment prospects. In other words, a university education is a wonderful opportunity to explore, learn and grow, but it may have little immediate impact in the labour market.
Second, students need to better understand that their academic performance is a determining factor in the judgments of potential employers. As such, students might be wise to limit the number of hours of part-time employment and make certain their programs of study are in areas for which they have aptitude and passion. Students can also more explicitly link their studies to future employment through internships, co-op placements, volunteer work, information interviews, and going to meet potential employers as part of conducting research for classroom assignments.
Third, students and graduates need to be more flexible in their search for employment. That ideal job with a well-known organization is not going to be offered to a recent graduate. Rather, the contract job in another city or even country, with the less than optimal hours of work, is within reach of many young graduates. After a decade or two of experience and further learning, that wonderful job may be within striking distance, but not at age 22 or 23.
Lastly, universities need to take steps to aid their students to enter the labour market. A course or seminar — perhaps mandatory during the last year of studies — on writing résumés, preparing for interviews, post-graduation options, labour market trends and related topics, would be of great benefit to students.
The transition from school to work is rarely easy or simple, but with more realistic expectations and more preparation, it can be a less stressful journey.
Thomas Klassen is a professor in the Department of Political Science at York University.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Ten of the Greatest Math Puzzles

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1284909/Ten-greatest-Maths-puzzles.html

"Everything I need to know, I learned in school music class"

From Toronto Star - Saturday, June 15, 2013

Everything I need to know, I learned in school music class

As the TDSB votes on major cuts to music education, the Star reconnects three successful musicians to their instructors to talk about music's impact.
Everything I need to know, I learned in school music class
Randy Risling / Toronto Star
Troy Sexton was a struggling student until he took up drums. He would later travel the world as part of Stomp, the percussive stage show.
Photos View gallery
  • Troy Sexton was a struggling student until he took up drums. He would later travel the world as part of Stomp, the percussive stage show.
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  • Soprano Mireille Asselin, left, with her former teacher Monica Whicher at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.

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  • Mackenzie Nguyen keeps his focus in the Grade 7 string class at John G. Althouse Middle School. zoom
Troy Sexton provides the soundtrack to his own life, a constant rhythm of beats that not only define him, they saved him.
Sexton — who spent almost a decade touring the world with Stomp, the percussive stage show — is an inked-up, energized example of how music can rescue a young student.
Struggling at Humber Valley Village Junior Middle School because of dyslexia, Sexton was introduced to drums by teacher Les Dobbin in Grade 6.
Boom. Or make that boom-boom. Sexton’s confidence exploded. School was no longer a daily, confusing stress test.
“In very many ways, (music) kept me going to school,” a 29-year-old Sexton recalls now. “It kept me interested in school and excited. Once I started to learn the language of music almost every other class I did related back to that language and I could think of ways to relate music to all of my other classes. I’d start reading music books and writing book reports on books about artists or musicians that I liked.”
Sexton says his enthusiasm spilled into all his subjects.
It’s an opportunity he fears that, if proposed cuts to music education by the Toronto District School Board are approved, some kids might miss.
In an effort to shave about $2 million from its $27-million budget shortfall, the board has tabled a plan to axe all 24 of its itinerant music instructors in staff development. Their job is to go from school to school, working with students in kindergarten through Grade 6, while also training teachers over a two-year period to instruct in recorder, vocal and Orff instruments.
It would also chop the classroom time of another 83 itinerants in the enrichment programs who instruct strings, band and steel pan for the older elementary grades.
School trustees are expected to vote on the proposed cuts on Wednesday.
The opportunity to make a case for music education recently brought Sexton to John G. Althouse Middle School — Dobbin’s stomping grounds now.
The Star connected three students who went on to make a life on the stage with an influential teacher from their school days. Each reunion became a mini-summit on the power of music.
That sextet, combined with voices from the local arts community, passionately argue that music shouldn’t be dismissed as a frill to be chopped when times are tough but instead should be broadened because of all the benefits it provides.
“Look at the decision making when one goes to play an instrument,” says Dobbin, noting that, at his school, everyone plays one. “All the things that happen when you to go to produce a note is pretty phenomenal.”
But beyond the mental stimulation, he says there are benefits to society.
“A very important aspect of music is the performances, the teamwork where you’re working with a large number of students together — it could be over 100 students working together towards one goal — and this is a life lesson you’re going to use in any profession you go into.”
Sexton went into music. In Grade 10, he was part of Dobbin’s Etobicoke Youth Band, which travelled to a performance in New York. There he saw Stomp — “I get goosebumps talking about it even now” — and vowed he would one day join the troupe. At 19, he made it after his second audition. He achieved his dream, he says, helped by the self-esteem that grew out of taking music in Grade 6.
“(I didn’t) have the confidence to express myself academically because I was always nervous that I was going to be wrong,” he recalls. “When I went to music class it was the opposite.”
“Not every student gets to go on to be a professional musician. But the confidence, the pride, the group work, the teamwork, listening to each other, learning how to tell a story with music, you learn in the music room.”
“There could be so many people who could have been brilliant at something but they were never exposed to it. How much talent have we lost because they weren’t exposed to something?”
Jon Gallant, bass player for Billy Talent
As an ambassador for Musicounts, a Canadian music charity, Jim Cuddy has seen behind the curtain of our academic music programs and has read proposals from schools looking for financial help.
“When you see the state of the music programs, even before these proposed cuts, with kids trying to play on instruments that are 25 years old, saxophones with three keys broken, no sheet music … it’s pathetic,” says the Blue Rodeo frontman.
Musicounts awards grants of $5,000 and $10,000 to schools to buy new instruments and sheet music. This year alone, it awarded $190,000 in what it calls Band-Aid grants to schools in the TDSB.
The TDSB “has been a great partner of ours, making sure there is access to music in schools,” says Allan Reid, the charity’s director. “So any time we hear of cuts to music programs in schools, it’s concerning.”
Across the province, however, music has been scaled back, according to the advocacy group People for Education. A report released by that group in April stated only 44 per cent of elementary schools in the province have a specialized music teacher. That compares to 49 per cent in 2012 and 58 per cent in 1998.
That erosion is something Cuddy finds distressing.
“I can’t even imagine going to a school that didn’t have music. Will kids have to go to other schools to get it? The more difficult they make it, the more they cut it out of their lives. And it’s a travesty,” he says.
“It’s hearing, it’s imagination, it’s all these developments that I think are so crucial to these kids. When you see the kids — and I’ve seen the results — playing the new instruments in junior strings or the rock band or the dance band, there is a look of satisfaction on their faces that I don’t imagine all of them can get from a successful math exam or doing well on a science lab.
“I think music should be considered of equal value to academics. It’s a way in which kids can advance and that’s what our schools should be for.”
While there have been suggestions that 150 schools — those facing 100-per-cent elimination of itinerant music teachers in Orff instruments, vocal and recorder — will lose their programs, the TDSB argues the impact of potential cuts has been exaggerated and music remains, says a spokesperson, “an integral part of the curriculum.
The TDSB has 437 teachers who have their Honour Specialist in music and another 214 that have additional qualifications in music. The challenge is in how those teachers are distributed across the board’s 447 elementary schools.
“Music is alive and well at the TDSB and will continue to be alive and well at the TDSB,” says spokeswoman Shari Schwartz-Maltz. “It’s just a different way of delivering music, an equitable distribution of musical education across the system.”
There is also a plan for an additional 10 half-day courses of training for teachers. They may be offered as summer training, for which teachers would pay $450 each, so more instructors can be qualified to teach music.
The itinerant teachers argue that there is no mechanism in the school staffing process to ensure those certified teachers are in schools currently taught by those itinerants, who are typically professional musicians. And without staffing assurances, schools could indeed lose their programs.
If students “haven’t had a chance to try it, like they do with math, like they do with science, like the do with French, they will not know when they get to secondary school what choices they could have made,” says David Spek, a longtime itinerant strings instructor and vocal advocate for the union.
In the enrichment programs — the board has 83 musical instructors that teach strings, band or steel pan — the staffing hours would be cut from about 1,266 to 948 per week. Spek estimates that could eliminate up to 30 teachers.
“You’re looking at the decimation of the whole program,” says Spek.
Reid of Musicounts, who attended a recent school trustees meeting to make a case for music, believes this debate isn’t about developing professional musicians but about keeping programs dynamic and fully available.
“This is simply about creating a far more well-rounded society,” he says. “One that has the benefits of music education which teaches you teamwork, it teaches you discipline and it’s proven to make you better at math. We also call it the great equalizer. For kids who aren’t necessarily athletic or maybe aren’t the most social, oftentimes music class is that place where they can excel.”
While the TDSB is looking at cutting back the money it budgets for music programs, the Ontario government recently pledged $45 million to the music industry over three years to nurture talent and promote music tourism in the province.
And, on Thursday, a coalition of local musicians, promoters, studio owners and recording executives got behind the lobby group Music Canada in an attempt to brand Toronto as a music city. With the slogan “4479 Toronto: Music meets world,” the group will try to make Toronto an international epicentre of music production, music tourism and performance.
“Music education demonstrably improves academic achievement, behaviour and attitude. Through music, kids learn how to have constructive relationships with other people, how focus counts, how application produces results, how to dream and most of all, how to feel true joy.”
— Canadian record producer Bob Ezrin, who worked with Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper and Kiss
.
Long before he was in Barenaked Ladies, Jim Creeggan was the tall, solemn kid on bass at the back of Trish Howells’ Grade 6 strings class.
“He was always serious about his playing,” Howells recalls of those classes at east Scarborough’s Charlottetown Junior Public School. “If there were antics in the classroom, I would look at the back and Jim would just kind of shaking his head.”
“He was always the steady guy saying, ‘I don’t know what’s going on here, but I’m not liking this.’ ”
Creeggan laughs at the long-forgotten memory of his 11-year-old self.
“I was the guy saying, ‘C’mon guys, let’s play “When the Saints Go Marching In” one more time and get it right.’ Maybe that’s my role in Barenaked Ladies as well. ‘C’mon guys, let’s get down to it.’ ”
Creeggan, now 43, hadn’t seen Howells for more than three decades but at a reunion one recent morning at the bassist’s Toronto studio, they spoke easily and passionately about how exposure to music at a young age turns out well-rounded citizens with increased brain power no matter what career path they select.
“It really is applied academics. When you play a musical instrument, the spacing, the patterns, it’s all math,” says Creeggan.
Howells says for some students, the music room is the only place they get to shine in a school environment and that studies have shown music instruction helps all students, including those with learning challenges, process information.
“Their reading increases as does their ability to comprehend because music is full of patterns, as is language and mathematics,” she says.
Creeggan worries that as music instruction erodes in the schools, it will further widen the educational gap between those students who can afford private lessons and those who can’t. The playing of music in this country could become an elitist pursuit.
“You’ll have kids that can afford private lessons outside of school, play music and enjoy it. But the kids that go to that school and can’t afford that will have no connection to it. That happens on-going, especially in rural areas where (the numbers of) music teachers are declining fast.”
For Creeggan, it just isn’t just lip service.
He’s part of a group that has refurbished ukuleles at nearby Givins/Shaw Jr. Public School and helped purchase new ones. He’s also donated a small bass like the one he used to play.
Creeggan volunteers at the school and he recalled one telling exchange with a boy who showed no interest at all on first meeting.
“He wasn’t into anything … not into school at all,” recounts Creeggan. “I went back a week later and I said, ‘Do you play sports?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I’m a goalie.’ I was like, ‘Okay, let’s play a little game here. Let’s pretend with this ukulele, I’m the forward on the other team and I’m going to take a shot on you. If you can repeat what I play on this ukulele, then you’ve saved the goal.’ So I played a little melody and he had to play back what I played. (There was) a spark in him I hadn’t seen in a long time.”
Creeggan says he has since seen that same boy in the band program.
“Some people look at music education as an add-on or a hobby. I think we have to change that mentality a little bit and make it a career option, because it is a career option.”
—Ian D’Sa, guitarist for Billy Talent
It only seems as if Mireille Asselin was born to become one of this country’s top young sopranos. Classical music was a constant on the radio at her childhood home in Saint John, N.B. She eventually flourished at a French arts school in Ottawa, followed by a BA in music from The Royal Conservatory’s Glenn Gould School, then a master’s in opera at Yale University. A recent graduate of the Canadian Opera Company’s prestigious Ensemble Studio program, performances at Carnegie and her upcoming opportunity to cover a leading role at the Metropolitan Opera only confirm an impressive career arc.
“But it was in school that I really got the bug,” says the 29-year-old. “It was through choir that I discovered a love of singing. Then I took piano lessons on the side, then I took voice lessons. It just sort of snowballed from there.”
Those roots, and how they formed a basis for a blossoming career, have made Asselin a fervent supporter of children’s music education, something that was clearly evident when she recently sat down with former teacher Monica Whicher, a faculty member at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory.
In today’s economy, Asselin believes the creativity fostered through music will become almost essential for people who have to generate their own opportunities for employment.
“I think creative education in schools encourages the creative development of a child’s brain and encourages them to think outside the box and feel they can create and be non-traditional and have that be a positive thing, a kind of entrepreneurship in a way,” she says.
“(That is) really critical in today’s society in the way that you need to create work for yourself and just be open-minded.”
Asselin sees a two-pronged benefit for children who are exposed to music. The student develops self-control through hours of methodical preparation and then expresses that study in a creative manner.
“The more time you put into it, the greater the satisfaction when you get to the end of it. I think that’s a crucial lesson to learn in anything that you do. If you’re studying for the bar, you need to know how to be alone in a room for hours on end, memorizing and honing the particular skills that you’ve chosen to hone.”
Asselin feels that music is “an integral part of our society that I think we take for granted.”
“You look at the city of Toronto,” she says. “And the reason it is considered this vibrant city is because you’ve got a vibrant arts scene. People all over the world seek out neighbourhoods and cities that are artistic and have a lot of creative energy.”
Whicher picks up on the theme that music is the lifeblood of modern society and wonders why it becomes vulnerable when budgets become an issue.
Music education “always comes up as the thing that is not necessary,” she says. “What’s not necessary about creativity? What’s not necessary about open-mindedness and very specific skill building? What’s not necessary about working as a team in an orchestra or a choir? What’s not necessary about following a leader who is an expert in his or her field?
“Singing is great for you physically; playing an instrument, likewise. It keeps brains nimble. It keeps bodies nimble. It gives you something to do at a very young or a very old age. I think it’s imperative that people understand that. It’s part of our fabric. It’s not a frill. It’s not a frill.”

Sunday, June 2, 2013

TED talks - tribute to teachers

From CFRB 1010 host, John Moore:
"I'm a big fan of TED Talks and recently they hosted an entire session dedicated to education. I loved what I heard so I put together this montage using clips from some of the speeches and set it to music performed by John Legend who hosted the event."

Link: http://www.newstalk1010.com/shows/johnmoore/home.aspx?BlogID=1002327

--

Link to the TED talks focused on Education:  http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ted-talks-education/ 

Saturday, May 18, 2013

from Clifford Pickover

When I was a mathematics teacher, I enjoyed reading Clifford Pickover's books. Really gets at showing the beauty of mathematics through patterns. I subscribe to his tweets on Twitter. Here are some:

  •  "Dammit I'm Mad" spelled backwards is "Dammit I'm Mad." A palindrome!

  • Leaving a tip:


  • Mother's Day this year, May 12, 2013, is a Pythagorean Triple:  5^2 + 12^2 = 13^2

  • Fibonacci Cabinet:

  • Consider a pizza with radius z and thickness a. Then, its volume is "pizza" (or pi*z*z*a)

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

hippopotenuse


The longest side in a right triangle is a "hippopotenuse"??

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=605449246133828&set=a.135500019795422.24581.135498639795560&type=1&theater
From: http://edgalaxy.com/education-quotes/

101 Excellent Educational Quotes

Sometimes you just need something really smart to say to inspire and motivate yourself and those around you.   And, if you are like me, those times don’t come around every moment of the day.
Luckily there are people who have had flashes of brilliance throughout history when talking about the concept of education, teaching and learning and someone even smarter wrote it down.
These quotes will make your students and staff mates think you are a deep and intellectual thinker and hopefully inspire them to get the best out of them too.
We have compiled 101 educational quotes based on Inspiration and Motivation, Teaching, Learning and Education.
Use them wisely, and above all else if you know of any others or have any pearls of wisdom of your own please  email them through to us.

Inspiration and Motivation
These quotes will help inspire you to do more, learn more effectively, provoke thought and help those around you to achieve.
Abraham Lincoln:  The Best way to predict your Future is to create it.
Claus Moser: Education costs money, but then so does ignorance.
Abigail Adams  learning is not attained by chance; it must be sought for with ardour and diligence.
Unknown:  Never be afraid to try something new.  Remember amateurs built the ark, but professionals built the Titanic.
Victor Hugo: He, who opens a school door, closes a prison.
Unknown: The Hunter who chases two rabbits will catch neither.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they are capable of becoming.
Helen Keller: Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope and confidence.
Ernest Dimnet  Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves.
Jean Jacques Rosseau: We should not teach children the sciences but give them a taste for them.
Abraham Maslow: If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
Dr. David M. Burns: Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism.
Bill Vaughan: People learn something every day, and a lot of times it’s that what they learned the day before was wrong.
Edward Everett  Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.
Erich Fromm: Why should society feel responsible only for the education of children, and not for the education of all adults of every age?
Vilfredo Pareto: Give me a fruitful error any time, full of seeds, bursting with its own corrections. You can keep your sterile truth for yourself.
Jacob Bronowski: It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.
Martin H. Fischer: All the world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind.
Mary Kay Ash: Don’t limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, you can achieve.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery: Each man must look to himself to teach him the meaning of life. It is not something discovered. It is something molded.
Margaret Mead: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.
Learning
Chinese Proverb: Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.
B. F. Skinner  Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.
Abigail Adams: Learning is not attained by chance; it must be sought for with ardour and attended to with diligence.
Leonardo Da Vinci: Learning never exhausts the mind.
The learning process is different for each individual. Hear these great thinkers muse on what learning means to them in these inspirational quotes.
Anthony J. D'Angelo Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.
Frances Willard: No matter how he may think himself accomplished, when he sets out to learn a new language, science or the bicycle, he has entered a new realm as truly as if he were a child newly born into the world.
Annie Dillard:I would like to learn, or remember, how to live.
Plutarch: The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be ignited.
Aeschylus  I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning to sail my ship.
B.B.King: The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.
Heinrich Heine  If the Romans had been obliged to learn Latin, they would never have found time to conquer the world.
George Iles: Whoever ceases to be a student has never been a student.
Anthony J. D'AngeloThe only real failure in life is one not learned from.
Euripides: Whoso neglects learning in his youth, loses the past and is dead for the future.
Walt Disney  I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.
Confucius: Learning without thought is a labor lost, thought without learning is perilous.
Denis Waitley: All of the top achievers I know are life-long learners. Looking for new skills, insights, and ideas. If they’re not learning, they’re not growing and not moving toward excellence.
Greek Proverb: All things good to know are difficult to learn.
Lloyd Alexander: We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself.
Henry Ford: Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.: Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.
Ray LeBlond: You learn something every day if you pay attention.
Thomas Huxley: Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every conceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.: There are many things which we can afford to forget which it is yet well to learn.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.: Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.
H.G. Wells: You have learned something. That always feels at first as if you had lost something.
Thomas Szasz: Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one’s self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily.
Bill Vaughan: People learn something every day, and a lot of times it’s that what they learned the day before was wrong.
" Always do what you are afraid to do." - Ralph Waldo
"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young." - Henry Ford
"A turtle makes progress when it sticks its neck out" - Anon
" Believe in yourself, be strong, never give up no matter what the circumstances are. You are a champion and will overcome the dreaded obstacles. Champions take failure as a learning opportunity, so take in all you can, and run with it. Be your best and don't ever ever give up." - Brad Gerrard
"Cherish your visions and your dreams, as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements" - Napoleon Hill
"Did you know that the Chinese symbol for 'crisis' includes a symbol which means 'opportunity'? - Jane Revell & Susan Norman
"Don’t learn to do, but learn in doing. Let your falls not be on a prepared ground, but let them be bona fide falls in the rough and tumble of the world" - Samuel Butler (1835–1902)
"Every artist was at first an amateur." - Ralph W. Emerson
"I hear, and I forget.  I see, and I remember. I do, and I understand." - Chinese Proverb
"If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got" - NLP adage
"If you find yourself saying 'But I can't speak English...', try adding the word '...yet' - Jane Revell & Susan Norman
"If what you're doing isn't working, try something else!" - NLP adage
"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." - Derek Bok
"If you know what you want, you are more likely to get it" - NLP adage
"It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and made things happen." - Elinor Smith
"It's not just about looking and copying, it's about feeling too" - Paul Cezanne
"It's ok to try things out, to ask questions, to feel unsure, to let your mind wander, to daydream, to ask for help, to experiment, to take time out, not to know, to practise, to ask for help again - and again, to make mistakes, to check your understanding" - Jane Revell & Susan Norman
"Learning is never done without errors and defeat." - Vladimir Lenin
"Nothing we ever imagined is beyond our powers, only beyond our present self-knowledge" - Theodore Roszak
"One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he could not do." - Henry Ford
"One must have strategies to execute dreams." - Azim Premji, CEO Wipro Ind
"One must learn by doing the thing; for though you think you know it, you have no certainty, until you try." - Sophocles
"People learn more quickly by doing something or seeing something done." - Gilbert Highet
"Success comes in cans, failure in can'ts." -  Unknown
"The important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle." - Pierre de Coubertin
"Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself." - Chinese Proverb
"Too much credit is given to the end result. The true lesson is in the struggle that takes place between the dream and reality. That struggle is a thing called life!" - Garth Brooks
"The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work." - Aristotle
" The only dreams impossible to reach are the ones you never pursue." - Michael Deckman
" There two types of people; the can do and the can't.  Which are you?" - George R. Cabrera
"Whenever you feel like saying 'Yes, but....`, try saying instead 'Yes, and....'" - Jane Revell & Susan Norman
"Whether you think you can, or think you can't...you're right!" - Henry Ford
"Worry is misuse of the imagination" - Mary Crowley
"You haven't failed, until you stop trying" - Unknown
"You've got to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch onto the affirmative, don't mess with Mr In-between" - Popular song     

Teaching
These quotes are ideal for motivating teachers to keep offering students their best day after day.
Henry Brooks Adams: A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.
A. Bartlett Giamatti  A liberal education is at the heart of a civil society, and at the heart of a liberal education is the act of teaching.
Nikos Kazantzakis: Ideal teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross, then having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create bridges of their own.
Gail Godwin  Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theatre.
Richard Bach: Learning is finding out what we already know. Doing is demonstrating that you know it. Teaching is reminding others that they know just as well as you. You are all learners, doers, and teachers.
John W. Gardner  Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: A teacher who can arouse a feeling for one single good action, for one single good poem, accomplishes more than he who fills our memory with rows and rows of natural objects, classified with name and form.
Edith Ann, [Lily Tomlin]  I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.
Frank Smith: Thought flows in terms of stories — stories about events, stories about people, and stories about intentions and achievements. The best teachers are the best storytellers. We learn in the form of stories.
(Louis) Hector Berlioz  Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils
Marva Collins: Once children learn how to learn, nothing is going to narrow their mind. The essence of teaching is to make learning contagious, to have one idea spark another.
R. Verdi  Good teachers are those who know how little they know. Bad teachers are those who think they know more than they don't know.
Horace Mann: A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron.
Vernon Law Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward.
Carol Buchner: They may forget what you said but they will never forget how you made them feel.
Chinese Proverb   Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself."
Buddhist Proverb: If a seed of a lettuce will not grow, we do not blame the lettuce. Instead, the fault lies with us for not having nourished the seed properly.
Josef Albers: Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers.
Confucius: Every truth has four corners: as a teacher I give you one corner, and it is for you to find the other three.
Kahlil Gibran: The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.
Henry B. Adams: A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.
Mark Twain: Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
Plato: Do not train children to learning by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.
Eliphas Levi: A good teacher must be able to put himself in the place of those who find learning hard.
Maria Montessori: The greatest sign of a success for a teacher…is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist."
Rachel Carson: If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, the excitement, and the mystery of the world we live in.
Albert Einstein: It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.
Benjamin Franklin: Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.
"Awaken people's curiosity. It is enough to open minds, do not overload them. Put there just a spark." - Anatole France
"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." - Henry Brooks Adams
"A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary." - Thomas Carruthers
" A teacher who is attempting to teach, without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn, is hammering on a cold iron." - Horace Mann (1796-1859)
"Education costs money, but then so does ignorance." - Sir Claus Moser
"Education...is a painful, continual and difficult work to be done in kindness, by watching, by warning,... by praise, but above all -- by example." - John Ruskin
"Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one." - Malcolm Forbes
"Education should turn out the pupil with something he knows well and something he can do well." - Alfred North Whitehead
"Getting things done is not always what is most important. There is value in allowing others to learn, even if the task is not accomplished as quickly, efficiently or effectively." - R.D. Clyde
"Give me a fish and I eat for a day.  Teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime." - Chinese Proverb
"Good teachers are those who know how little they know. Bad teachers are those who think they know more than they don't know." - R. Verdi
"Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers." -  Josef Albers
"I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think." - Socrates
"If the child is not learning the way you are teaching, then you must teach in the way the child learns" - Rita Dunn
"If what you're doing isn't working, try something else!" - NLP adage
"I may have said the same thing before... but my explanation, I am sure, will always be different." - Oscar Wilde
"I put the relation of a fine teacher to a student just below the relation of a mother to a son." - Thomas Wolfe
"It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot, irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it." - J. Bronowski, The Ascent of Man
"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." - Albert Einstein
"Learning is finding out what you already know.  Doing is demonstrating that you know it.  Teaching is reminding others that they know it just as well as you.  You are all learners, doers, teachers" - Richard Bach
"Men learn while they teach." - Lucius A. Seneca
"No matter how good teaching may be, each student must take the responsibility for his own education." - John Carolus S. J.
"People's behavior makes sense if you think about it in terms of their goals, needs, and motives." - Thomas Mann
"Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its values only to its scarcity." - Samuel Johnson
"Spoonfeeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon" - E. M. Forster
"Teachers should guide without dictating, and participate without dominating." - C.B. Neblette
"Teach your children by what you are, not just by what you say" - Jane Revell & Susan Norman
"The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn." - Cicero
"The basic idea behind teaching is to teach people what they need to know." - Carl Rogers
"The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself." - Edward Bulwer-Lytton
"The job of an educator is to teach students to see the vitality in themselves." - Joseph Campbell
"The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited." - Plutarch
"There are no difficult students - just students who don't want to do it your way" - Jane Revell & Susan Norman
" The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind." - Kahlil Gibran
"To define is to destroy, to suggest is to create." - Stephane Mallarme
"To me the sole hope of human salvation lies in teaching." - George Bernard Shaw
"To teach is to learn twice." - Joseph Joubert
"Try to present at least three options.  One is no choice at all.  Two creates a dilemma.  With three you begin to have real choice and flexibility" - Jane Revell & Susan Norman
"We think too much about effective methods of teaching and not enough about effective methods of learning." - John Carolus S. J.
"What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child." - George Bernard Shaw
"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn." - John Cotton Dana
"You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself." - Galielo Galilei
"You can't direct the wind but you can adjust the sails." - Anonymous
Education
Horace Mann:A human being is not attaining his full heights until he is educated.
Tyron Edwards: The great end of education is to discipline rather than to furnish the mind; to train it to the use of its own powers rather than to fill it with the accumulation of others.
Nicholas M. Butler:America is the best half-educated country in the world.
John F. Kennedy: Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength of the nation.
Frederick The Great  An educated people can be easily governed.
Malcolm S. Forbes: Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
Thomas Jefferson: Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of both mind and body will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.
Will Durant  Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
Aristotle: Education is the best provision for old age.
George Washington Carver   Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.
Abraham Lincoln: Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people may be engaged in.
Robert M. Hutchins The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.
Helen Keller: Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding-line, and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass or sounding line, and no way of knowing how near the harbour was. "Light! Give me light!" was the wordless cry of my soul, and the light of love shone on me in that very hour.
Sydney J. Harris  The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.
Jim Rohn: If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn’t need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around.
William Butler Yeats  Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
Henry Peter Brougham: Education makes a people easy to lead but difficult to drive: easy to govern, but impossible to enslave.
T.S. Eliot: It is in fact a part of the function of education to help us escape, not from our own time — for we are bound by that — but from the intellectual and emotional limitations of our time.
William Haley: Education would be much more effective if its purpose was to ensure that by the time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they do not know and be imbued with a lifelong desire to know it.
Will Durant: Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.
Robert Frost: Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
George Washington Carver: Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.
B. F. Skinner: Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.
Aristotle: The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
Sydney J. Harris: The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.
Franklin D. Roosevelt: The school is the last expenditure upon which America should be willing to economize.
G.K. Chesterton: Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.
Ernest Dimnet: Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves.