Recent Posts - page 107

  • An evening in Jamaica Plain

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    Barbara and I spent a few hours yesterday evening in Jamaica Plain. First we walked to the Axiom Gallery, which is hosting an intriguing Math and Art exhibit through April 27 right next to the Green Street T station (confusingly… Read More ›

  • Gun, with Occasional Music

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    Take one part Raymond Chandler and two parts Philip K. Dick. Or maybe it’s two parts Dashiell Hammett and one part Aldous Huxley. Let’s try all four. Then add three parts of George Orwell. Mix them all together, and you… Read More ›

  • N is a Number

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    I mentioned two days ago that I was going to watch N is a Number: A Portrait of Paul Erdős, a documentary that had been enthusiastically recommended to me by my former student, Kelly Mathislife. She writes that N is… Read More ›

  • Heroes

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    As I was reading Paul Graham’s essay, “Some Heroes,” it struck me that I’ve never liked being asked who my heroes are. In his second and fourth paragraphs, Graham reflects on the question itself: I’m not claiming this is a… Read More ›

  • 21

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    Two and a half years ago I wrote a brief negative review of Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions, by Ben Mezrich. I suggested that the account seemed to be… Read More ›

  • Math is hard, let’s go shopping, says Barbie (and others)

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    Remember the big kerfuffle in 1992 when Mattel released a Teen Talk Barbie that said “Math is hard, let’s go shopping”? (Actually, if you look it up, you’ll find some references that quote it that way, and others that quote… Read More ›

  • The Big Nap

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    On February 26, I wrote a mildly positive review of Nursery Crimes, by Ayelet Waldman. Because another novel in this series, The Big Nap, appeared to be more interesting, I decided (without great enthusiasm) to give it a read. I… Read More ›

  • Career Day

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    Today was a very successful Career Day at Weston High School. I highly recommend the concept to other high schools — if you have a dedicated, highly organized team of people to take care of all the logistics. People who… Read More ›

  • Which is more important, sports or academics? And what about the arts?

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    Every school will tell you that academics are more important than sports. After all, it is a school. Even the most sports-minded principal will ban an athlete from playing football if his grades are too low, but no one would… Read More ›

  • Crazy Chinese words?

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    Don McLeroy, chairman of the Texas State Board of Education, certainly understands cultural sensitivity with his global perspective: “What good does it do to put a Chinese story in an English book?” he said. “You learn all these Chinese words,… Read More ›

  • How to create a blog

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    In one of those typical synchronicities, two of my students have just asked me how they can create their own blogs — a Weston sophomore yesterday, and a Saturday Course fifth-grader today. The Weston student suggested that I should post… Read More ›

  • What's the matter with math today?

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    What’s the matter with math education today? No, it’s not that kids don’t know the basics, despite what some people say. And it’s not that teachers are teaching “fuzzy math,” despite what some people say. Paul Lockhart has the correct… Read More ›

  • “You’ll enjoy the same success and happiness…”

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    Novelist Elinor Lipman wrote an excellent essay in the Boston Globe the day before yesterday, entitled “If I ruled the admissions universe.” I would like all high school juniors to read it. I just wish I could agree with it…. Read More ›

  • MCASitis

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    Today was the first day of disruptive MCAS testing. One of my sections of college-prep Algebra II was wiped out, the other was barely affected. There will be a repeat performance on Thursday. Somehow this is supposed to improve education,… Read More ›

  • Wellness Day

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    Today was Wellness Day at Weston High School — a day off for the students, and a day of professional development workshops for the teachers. “Professional development”: what thoughts does that phrase conjure up? FWIW, let’s see what Wikipedia has… Read More ›

  • Which comes first, the movie or the book?

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    In yesterday’s post, I recommended watching the movie of Mozart and the Whale before reading the book. And then I got to thinking about whether this was the natural order: after all, in most cases a movie is written after… Read More ›

  • Mozart and the Whale: The book

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    On February 20 I reviewed Mozart and the Whale: An Asperger’s Love Story. After seeing and enjoying this fascinating movie, I decided to read the autobiography on which it was based. (Can I still call it an autobiography when it… Read More ›

  • Goodbye, Arthur C. Clarke.

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    Another of the great ones is gone. Scientist, science fiction writer, and visionary Arthur C. Clarke died the day before yesterday at age 90. He is best known for the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, on which the eternally rewatchable… Read More ›

  • Eye of the Beholder

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    I recently listened to the audiobook of Eye of the Beholder, by David Ellis. This work is a hybrid of two genres: the thriller and the police procedural. It’s definitely a page-turner — well, I can’t use that metaphor for… Read More ›

  • Countless

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    I guess Kalmbach didn’t have 100 fingers: