Notes From The Learning Center
December 2014
Season's Readings (Secret Santa)
- Find a book: It could be something old that you've had around the house or something you pick up at Goodwill or Half-Price Books (the idea is not to spend money, but to be thoughtful).
- Pick your target: a friend, colleague, family member, or someone else.
- Write an anonymous note: Let the person know why you chose this book for them. Why anonymous? Why not.
- Sneak the book to the target: Put it in their mailbox or on their desk or whatever.
Tweet: If you receive a book tweet about it to the @whslearningctr Twitter account with the hash tag #secretsantabook.
Top Titles for Students in November
- The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
- The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
- Four: A Divergent Collection by Veronica Roth
- Looking for Alaska by John Green
- Allegiant by Veronica Roth
- Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin
- Ashfall by Mike Mullin
- The Batboy by Mike Lupica
- Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare
- Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
Wisdom: The Chief Element of Happiness (apologies to Sophocles)
The speech summarizes one side of the debate over the purpose of education. McCullough contends that the purpose is not ticking off items on a bucket list to get some reward at the end. In fact, there is no reward. Rather, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is the wisdom that we (hopefully) gain through searching or the happiness that wisdom brings us.
Sometimes it feels that the universe is pointing you in a direction as it did to me this morning when Mr. Oestreich stopped by my desk to show me the video of a guy who calls himself Slomo, a doctor who left his practice after an illness so that he could skate up and down the boulevard in San Diego. Not a conventional guy, but he further illustrates the point that sometimes we allow expectations to cloud our sense of purpose in the world. This a-ha moment sounded the chord again that the purpose of education is not always to get to the "A." What it is about is creating the best possible you. For some of us that might be skating up and down a boulevard and for others it might be becoming a doctor.
The competing point of view says the role of education is not simply to inspire, but it is to prepare a workforce. One does this through building new layers each year onto the scaffold that is put in place previously, eventually resulting in a person ready for the next level - be it work or further education.
I'm eager to see where the AP Seminar students go with their research on these kinds of questions. And, as always, if you are interested in getting students access to the fabulous resource of J-Stor, talk to me, I will be happy to get you off and running. If you need further testimonials about how useful this resource is, I'm sure Mrs. Knight and Mrs. Yoder would be happy to talk with you.