There And Back Again: A Coster Tale
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Pictures
  • PC Namibia
  • Egypt Archives

Students again!

7/4/2014

0 Comments

 
It's so nice to be a student again! Although we've had a lot of life lessons and cultural lessons over the last few years, we haven't really had any academic lessons. The great thing about classes is that they require you to read and think about materials you otherwise might never pick up. Here's a sampling of things we've read (individually) and discussed (together) in the last couple of weeks:

  • Dylan read Savage Inequalities, by Jonathan Kozol, for his education class. It takes a very pessimistic outlook on education in America, noting especially the policy of paying for public schools through property taxes which leads to already advantaged neighborhoods having the best funded schools. This system is notoriously difficult to change because of course no one wants to give up any of the money coming into their school or pay extra money that would go to some other unrelated school. Hm. 


  • Christiy read Purple Hibsiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, for an Africa focused summer reading assignment. Adichie, a Nigerian, has written several award-winning novels set in both Nigeria and America. Purple Hibiscus tells the story of a young girl raised in an abusive home who learns to open up when she goes to stay with her aunt and cousins. The backdrop is a politically unstable and repressive Nigeria, which eventually forces the girl's aunt to immigrate to America. Beautifully written.

  • Dylan read "A Mathematician's Lament," by Paul Lockhart, for a math class. This article laments that modern culture has turned math into a series of uninteresting formulas to memorize rather than the art it should be. He compares the loss to what it would be like if we required everyone to take music classes not to learn to play but to learn all the notations and rules without sound. Click here to link to the article. I read just the first five pages and found it really interesting.

  • Christiy read "Making it in America," by Adam Davidson, for an economics class. Did you know that in the past decade manufacturing output in the United States has actually gone up by one third and yet, at the same time, employment in manufacturing has gone down by a third? Davidson explains that the level of technical ability required to work in a factory has drastically changed. Gone are the days when you could be hired to do a simple push-button job and then rise up through the company. There are some simple jobs left, but to jump from there to the next level, you probably need a degree in computer science. As Davidson says, this is good news for anyone in America with a degree. Not so much for everyone else.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Christiy & Dylan were born in the States, grew up overseas, met at Wheaton College, married in 2009, and are currently exploring the world together!

    Archives

    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.