Day 227 - The Perceived Value of Education

May 20, 2011

I gave my students a typical math assignment on Wednesday.  Students had 30 minutes in class, an extra hour and a half after school due to early dismissal and all day Thursday to finish their homework.  
Only 25 out of 60 students completed their homework.  
How can I help them if they won't help themselves?  
I am depressed and discouraged.

I come home to see Oprah interviewing Tererai Trent.

(Yes, I watch Oprah.  She's amazing.)

Tererai stops at nothing to get an education, but I have students that can't get off Facebook long enough to complete their homework.

And then Oprah has a surprise for Tererai.  

This is why Oprah is awesome.  

Oprah actually helps people.

I will be watching all three of her finales.

The rest of my afternoon involved creating Jon Moxon in Madden, 

being drafted by the Raiders (who took him with the 100th pick?!?!  Slap in the face!!), 

hoisting the team on my back, and bringing them a 13-0 record.

You're Welcome, Oakland.

(Yes, I was playing on Rookie difficulty.  I wanted to focus on my podcasts.)

While this is going on, I have to do something more... worthwhile.  
I burned through a ton of Radiolab episodes.  

It's a podcast.  

It's free.  

If you don't listen to Radiolab, start now.

 More info on this experiment can be found here. 

Radiolab is hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, neither of whom is a scientist.  So the show is two very entertaining and jovial guys talking about science with scientists, but looking at it from very fresh and interesting angles.  I really liked this episode on "Falling", including stories about falling in a black hole, falling over Niagara Falls, and a heartbreaking story about falling in and out of love.