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Writing, Ringing and Texting
The latest micromanagement trial balloon from Queen’s Park has lots of parents and teachers pretty annoyed. The Prem has suggested that cell phones be used in Ontario classrooms in an educational context. Yah Right. Teachers have enough trouble keeping kids focused and this may pose too much of a temptation for kids who already have a 30 second Sesame Street attention span.
Literacy skills are bad enough and this will not help. The counter-argument from QP is that at one time slide-rules and calculators were not permitted in the classroom either. It’s not like you could be absolutely distracted by a slide-rule. What did they think kids would do? Calculate square roots to distraction? And what concerned education reformer hasn’t rued the day that calculators became de rigueur in grade three. But I digress.
Just when I think things are getting totally out of hand, I come across this beacon of hope that the art of writing is not yet dead. Malkin has often written, both in this blog and our SQE newsletter, about the importance of inculcating good handwriting skills. So when I saw this article about postcrossing, I was interested in learning more.
Postcrossing has over 200,000 people in 209 countries who mail postcards to total strangers. To date, the number of postcards sent has passed the five million. As the lead in to the article says: “In an increasingly online world, thousands of people are connecting through their real-life mailboxes.”
“While most people sign up for Postcrossing as a hobby, Magalhaes said a number of people use Postcrossing for education. ‘In schools, teachers — or parents in homeschooling — are using Postcrossing in creative ways as a teaching tool. Postcards coming from far away make kids interested in geography, English and even other cultures and societies. Its randomness helps in learning about places that might not be so common in textbooks too,’ he explains.”
For more information on Postcrossing www.postcrossing.com
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On a personal note: If readers were wondering about Malkin’s absence from this blog, she will be returning in a week from her travels to Scandinavia. She did stop off in Finland but said she was NOT investigating their famous school system. Wonder why? I may take a very short break as my eldest is getting married this weekend! Not to worry I’ve prepared some entries in advance and John Bachmann, our VP will pitch in as well.
Finland: Would You Want To Live There?
I think the achievements attributed to Finnish Socialism are way overblown? One must ask, at what price?
First, are the people happy? For the longest time Finland was the suicide capital of the world. The depression rate was very high.
“Finland’s dire reputation as a nation of suicides dates back to the 25-year period from 1965 to 1990 when Finland experienced an economic and urban boom. During that period, the suicide rate tripled. By 1991, Finland was the world leader in teen suicides and among the top three in overall suicides alongside New Zealand and Iceland”
http://www.finlandforthought.net/2007/09/19/finland-no-longer-suicide-capital-of-the-world/
Due to massive spending in mental health treatment and extreme measures through legislation on compulsory and coercive psychiatry and institutional treatment, it is no longer the suicide capital of the world.
However, do read this report from Finland to show that things are not so rosy: The Bankrupt Finnish Welfare State http://mises.org/daily/4655
Consider the consequence of most people going in for a free university degree:
“Unemployment among educated people has become a chronic problem. The other side of the coin is that Finland has long had an acute shortage of people with trade skills: carpenters, plumbers, mechanics, and so on — people who can actually provide a valuable service. The shortage has, predictably, driven up prices and prolonged delivery.”
Sure, I’d like to see some visitors go to Finland and get the scoop on their education successes . But, I’d also like a report on their quality of life and economic costs, as well as the seeming erosion of what we might consider freedoms. Maybe next time Malkin goes over there she can take a delegation with her to check out first hand some of these questions.