Though Edison became rich and famous for his phonograph and his filament for the electric light bulb, some of his less heralded inventions were arguably as influential on the course of modern life. One of those was a new use for a compressed carbon “button,” which he discovered in 1877 could be placed inside the … Read more
In the great 1980s movie “The Blues Brothers,” there’s a scene where John Belushi goes to visit Dan Aykroyd in his apartment in Chicago for the very first time. It’s a cramped, tiny space and it’s just three feet away from the train tracks. As John sits on Dan’s bed, a train goes rushing by, … Read more
Forgetting everything you hear in classes or meetings? Your overstuffed notepad might be the culprit. Most of us take notes because we think doing so will help us remember what we’re learning. According to psychologists at Mount St. Vincent University in New York, our brains have a different view: “Hey, he’s writing this down, so no need to warehouse … Read more
Well this is a really extraordinary honor for me. I spend most of my time in jails, in prisons, on death row. I spend most of my time in very low-income communities in the projects and places where there’s a great deal of hopelessness. And being here at TED and seeing the stimulation, hearing it, has been very, very energizing to me. And … Read more
Let us now turn to children of two and a half and three years old, who touch everything, but especially those objects which they evidently prefer, the most simple objects, as, for example, a square block of paper, a square inkstand, or a round, shiny bell. All things which “are not meant for them.” Then … Read more
Who has not seen a child riding upon and whipping his father’s walking-stick, as if he were mounted upon a real horse? There we have a proof of “imagination” in the child! What pleasure it gives to children to construct a splendid coach with chairs and armchairs; and while some recline inside, looking out with … Read more
Suppose that we should find ourselves among a race of giants, with legs immensely long and bodies enormously large in comparison with ours, and also with powers of rapid movement infinitely greater than ours, people extraordinarily agile and intelligent compared with ourselves. We should want to go into their houses; the steps would be each … Read more
Age mixing is Sudbury Valley’s secret weapon. I never could make heads or tails of age segregation. People don’t live their lives in the real world separated by age, year by year. Kids don’t all have the same Interests or abilities at a particular age. Anyway, we soon found out how children mix when they … Read more
We have to be careful with words. It’s a miracle they ever mean the same thing to any two people. Often, they don’t. Words like “love,” “peace.” “trust,” “democracy” — everyone brings to these words a lifetime of experiences, a world view, and we know how rarely we have these in common with anyone else. … Read more
Every thinking educator has grappled with the basic questions that have dogged the profession from earliest times: What is the best way to teach, or to learn? What subjects should children learn? How responsible are children? How much of a say should they have in what they do? How should schools be run in a … Read more
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