Curios of the week #23

Clippings, endnotes and other ephemera

Image via AI and not a scene from 2:22 A Ghost Story

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Last weekend saw me visit the theatre in Melbourne to see 2:22 A Ghost Story. We did the whole deal — a funky urban hotel and a pre-dinner menu at a fancy restaurant. I had the steak special and was presented with the largest steak knife I have seen.

2:22 A Ghost Story is excellent and surprisingly scary at times. If you have the chance, I recommend going to see it. Apparently, the stars are famous in Australia but obviously, I had never heard of any of them. Regardless, they did a good job of pretending to be someone else for a few hours and should be commended for their efforts.

This week’s curios include an undiplomatic blog post, inquiry learning, research on how socio-economic status relates to outcomes and much more.

Good intentions of the week

There are plenty of parents and other adults who assume they could do a better job of running schools than teachers. In fact, they must think we are an unusually reactionary bunch given that school, and the way it is organised, has not changed much since the early 20th century.

You and I know there is a reason for that, but they don’t. They don’t know about the difference between biologically primary and secondary knowledge and so they wonder why learning to read and write requires us to sit students down in rows. Why, they must wonder, can children not learn to read and write the way they learning to speak and listen?

Perhaps this is why architects are so keen to ‘disrupt’ schools by removing all the walls?

Most of the time, if inexpert musings lead to any discernable product at all, it is a well-meaning if ultimately unhelpful letter to the principal. But imagine if you had an absolute truckload of money. In that case, you could found a school of your own and let your imagination run riot.

Meet LeBron James. He is a famous American sportsman of some kind and, in America, sport pays well. With very much the best of intentions, he founded a school for disadvantaged kids.

It is not working, sadly. None of the Grade 8 students have passed the state-mandated arithmetic test in three years.

This leads to two main conclusions. Firstly, good intentions are not enough. Good intentions can lead to ironic outcomes unless coupled with a wealth of relevant expertise and founded on the best available evidence. Secondly, if it wasn’t for those state mandated tests, we wouldn’t know the extent of the problem and we would probably still be evaluating the school solely on the intentions of its founder.