Finances. If you’ve ever struggled with your tax return, wondered how interest rates could stay so low, or tried to explain why raising taxes on employers is actually not conducive to job creation…. We need solid math education now more than ever. We are no longer an agrarian nation yet we teach math like …
How great! Barbie is officially geeking out. The Wall Street Journal reports that Computer Scientist won the popular vote for What career would you like Barbie (sadly, WSJ changed paywall access, buggars) to have next. The vote ultimately split between the under tweens and the adults. Adults pushed for Computer Scientist and the little girls …
New article on the overview of color as a nonverbal influence.
Everyday you are bombarded with millions of images. Some perceived others not consciously perceived. Advertisers want our attention. As we get more and more images, our conscious brains – the part we think we control – ignore even more.
So now we ignore more than we see.
But if a tree falls in a forest and hits a mime, does anyone cry?*
So let’s go for a drive. If you’ve ever had the opportunity to cross the US by car . . . say from Chapel Hill, NC to Berkeley, CA, or Boston, MA to Berkeley, CA or Atlanta, GA to San Diego, CA, you have seen that there are many choices to make along the way. …
Did you know . . . The fusiform facial area is a special area within the brain that processes facial images. This is apart from the processing of other spatial objects. The neurons literally light up in a different pattern depending on whether we are looking at a human face or a non-human object. It …
Confession: as a teacher I have challenges with the different levels of students who cycle through my classroom. I am not unbiased, and yes, I take my students’ performance personally. But this is as it has been and should be…. Some students are bright, but it’s not just the ability level of the student it …
Lionel Tiger shares the history of monkeys and medal in his latest Op-Ed piece for the Wall Street Journal. He posits that there is a biological need for humans to have games such as the Olympics
Like our primate cousins, competition is in our blood.
Is this just more justification for what my less athletically-inclined friends call ‘testosterone-fueled’ children’s games?
Or is there a verifiable, quantifiable biological need?
It’s a common refrain both from the mouths of males and females. Yet, what evidence do we have to support this? A former boyfriend even presented a LONG diatribe about the actual genetic reasons women are bad at math . . . but there’s just one problem. Namely, me. Or Jill. Or Heidi. Or …
The gadflies at Fordham are stirring the pot again. Mike Petrilli takes issue with a recent statement from Kevin Welner, “(Tracking student progress) is a destructive practice that has the undeniable effect of lowering expectations and opportunities for students who have already fallen behind.” As far as Mr. Welner is concerned the debate is 
closed….
Now they’re eating their own! Mike Smith at Change.org skewers Bill Gates’ plan to provide $200 Million annually to schools willing to take on his ideas for reform. Apparently the idea of basing teacher pay on student test score performance is untenable. What I keep circling back to is this, if we are not to …
The Wall Street Journal recently published a special section on Education. What inspired me was the opener. If an educated work force is the nation’s human capital, business is seeing a lot of subprime these days. It’s a snarky little comment, but it hit entirely too close to home. Even if your school’s graduation rate …
If you knew that the color you were wearing could influence the outcome of a game/deal/date, would you change what you are wearing? What’s Color got to do with it? Are TEAL uniforms (San Jose Sharks) killing any chance for a cup? This week we look at uniform color. Does it surprise you that teams …
In professional sports momentum swings can be attributed to teams and players going on hot or cold streaks. Does the 2005 Miami Heat come back if the Dallas Mavericks win the 3rd game? Do the 2009 Redwings win the Stanley Cup if they win game 3 instead of game 5? These swings have been the …
When you spend your time in Sales person mode, time is even more valuable. You may have a set amount of time that the potential client is willing to spend with you. Or you have X number of appointments to make before the day is over. And if your business is predominantly face-to-face, you really …
Lisa McLellan, a regular reader and commenter, mentioned the movie Lorenzo’s oil after the post on building talent. Since I had no idea what she was talking about, I wiki’ed it. In a short moment I appreciated the profound difference between needing to lug my notebook (which was a yellow pad and pen, not some …
Talent is one of those things we talk about all the time, but very rarely define. How often do you refer to someone doing something incredible: Tiger Woods, Tom Brady, Michael Phelps, Dara Torres, Usain Bolt as a Natural Talent? Since that often feels a bit like a cop-out, let’s dive in to the science …
Rewriting the No Child Left Behind Law is in process. If you have children in school this may be important to you. If you are childless, it may seem unimportant. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Whether or not you have children, if you plan to be living in 20 years, how our children …