friday educational thoughts from glaeser

Sometimes Harvard has good ideas.

Like these.

I think the educational system in the United States would be largely improved by these four factors:

1) High Teacher Quality
2) High Quality of School Leadership
3) High Expectations for Students
4) A Way for those High Quality Teachers to Not Work 100 hours a week, maybe just 60.


I don't really know how the last one works yet, I haven't figured it out. I'm not teaching right now in large part because I don't see it as sustainable. It's simply not possible for me to work 80 hours a week consistently, and as the system is set up right now, I think this is what good teaching requires, especially in places where students are coming in behind their peers. And I have to believe that there are ways to make this possible, that we could live in a place where our teachers don't have to spend every waking moment thinking about their classroom. But it will take hard work, not just on the part of teachers.

Also, I think Michelle Rhee is awesome, and doing amazing work.

why you should all run immediately to theo chocolates

um, I have given theo chocolates rave reviews to everyone i know, and i keep giving it as gifts, and I decided any future chocolate purchases I make will be from there, for a multitude of reasons, including:

1) it's damn good chocolate
2) they KNOW the farmers who are selling them cocoa beans and are doing their best to ensure good chocolate without slave trade or poor working conditions for people
3) they are here in Seattle, and every dollar supporting local economy is helpful, peeps.
4) did I mention how it's really good chocolate?

April pointed this out yesterday, and I immediately forwarded it to my bro. I mean, why do brain and DNA research if you can do chocolate research? for real?

Go take a tour at theo and you'll be converted, I swear.

if I were Abigail Adams

I would have gone to Paris sooner to see my husband.


Other than that, she was pretty amazing, as is Laura Linney's portrayal of her in HBO' s recent John Adams.

When visiting the White House, under construction by slaves, she comments: "This is built on the backs of slaves. What good can come of it?"

The whole series is pretty phenomenal if you're interested in the time period at all, and doesn't flinch from how messy it was for the men trying to revolt against King George.

It didn't delve deeply into the issue of slavery, although there were a few places it's mentioned - Jefferson and Sally Hemmings, for example. The series doesn't address the issue of Native Americans at all, and I wondered how intentional that was. I wonder if Thomas Jefferson and John Adams thought of Natives at all.

Alexander Hamilton is portrayed as a greedy slimeball by Rufus Sewall, who in a side note, I've only seen as greedy slimeball characters. Is he doing this on purpose or typecast? Hamilton's insistence that how a country gets credit is by getting into debt reminded me of P.J.'s rant against the system we've set up in the U.S., that in order to have credit, you must have debt. Adams doesn't like the idea either, and the compromises he is willing to make are always portrayed as a way to benefit the common good of the United States.

And lastly, for much of his Presidency, Adams is trying to keep peace with France while his advisors are clamoring for him to worry about the citizens of French heritage being spies.

We have not come so very far, I think.

i miss the sonics

Much has been written about the loss and leaving of our sonics, in better prose than mine.

Suffice to say, I grew up going to games with my dad, and I miss them. The Thunder? What kind of name is that? Also, if you google "seattle supersonics" the first thing that comes up is the new OKC Thunder page. Which makes me want to vomit and cry.

Brent Barry wrote a poem he shared with Sports Illustrated about the loss.

Here's what I love, peeps - poetry, like love, covers over a multitude of sins. A former Sonics player so grieved he wrote a poem? And someone published it? You might argue about its qualitiy, but this is what I love about poetry -there is space to share our stories, our sadness and our loss, in ways that other people relate to or not. It's the best form of community-building I know. Other than sharing food, of course. But seriously, have potlucks and poetry parties, and the world would be a better place.

here's what you missed at coffeehouse this weekend

it was great. the soup was the best, as were najee's political opinions. one day I'm voting for him for president.