Teaching

Article: Experiment on teacher pay
Source: Marginal Revolution

Performance-based pay has long been heralded as the solution to the poor quality of education that permeates US-based primary education schools.  These educational institutions – elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools – significantly lack quality when compared to other similar schools in other countries.  Standardized exams prove this.  The question, then, is: how can we improve those primary education institutions?

The model, it’s often argued, is to copy the strategy that US-based institutions of higher education follow, since these institutions are better than any other in the world.  Professors of higher education (colleges, universities, trade schools, etc.) get paid better than teachers at primary education institutions.  Simple.  The article by Marginal Revolution (above) proves that incentive-based teaching works, at least in their sample size (India).

But, it’s not really that simple.  While student performance may have increased in the study done in India, what about the general trajectory of the teaching profession?  That’s the other side of the equation, isn’t it?

Teaching was once considered an art of passion.  Teachers were required to have a passion for teaching, a love for knowledge, and an addiction to spreading that knowledge to the coming generations.  Will incentive-based pay transform a profession of passion into a profession void of passion?  Or, is incentive-based pay the correct solution to turning around the downward spiral of the quality of education in US primary schools?

Math, or marketing?

Here’s a math problem that we all can relate to, courtesy of Seth Godin.

Let’s say you are the Gasoline Czar, and your goal is to reduce gasoline consumption.

And let’s say there are only two kinds of cars in the world. Half of them are Suburbans that get 10 miles per gallon and half are Priuses that get 50 miles per gallon.

If we assume that all cars drive the same number of miles, which would be a better investment:

Option 1: Put new tires on all the Suburbans so that their mileage improves to 13 miles per gallon.

Option 2: Rewire all the Priuses so they get 100 miles per gallon (doubling their average!)

Half the challenge is doing the math.

The second half (and more important part when looking to introduce change in society) is explaining the results in clear and simple language, so people understand why.

Answer: here’s a video on how to figure out the answer

So what, you ask? Why did I ask you to do this math problem?

I guarantee you that all the marketing in the world hasn’t convinced you of the importance of ensuring your tires are in good condition and fully inflated.  However, this simple brain teaser hammered the point home to you.  We now believe it because someone has shown us the same fact in a creative, eye-opening way.

Cost of brain teaser: $0.00
Cost of marketing the need to maintain tires: millions of dollars

We’re all experts in something.  What if we used our knowledge to explain macro problems in a creative way that people can relate with?

The power of posterity

Source: NYTimes.com
Author: David Brooks

An interesting (some may say ridiculous) question:
What would happen if a freak solar event sterilized the people on the half of the earth that happened to be facing the sun?

While this is entirely hypothetical and bordering sci-fi, the discussion that follows is a rather interesting take on what subconsciously drives society and many of our actions.  I don’t really have any comments one way or another; just thought it was an interesting take on things.

Click here to read the article in its entirety.

The insignificance of our lifespans

Article Link: Scientists spot oldest ever object in universe
Source: CNN.com

Wait, I don’t mean to say that our lives are insignificant.  However, when you account for how old the Universe really is, our lifespans are so miniscule that we round off to a big fat 0.

Last week, scientists detected a gamma ray burst (fancy language for the rays of energy coming from the explosion of a star) that dates back 13 billion years.  Yes, that’s 13 BILLION years!

When we put our lives, our actions, our goals, and our existence into perspective,  we don’t matter all that much to the history of the Universe.  So, just relax when you come across challenges and hurdles.  It’s just a speck in the ocean of history.

Here’s the article, for those interested in the science behind this discovery.

Is your Inbox your job?

Article Link: Read the article
Source: Seth Godin, author

Technology has allowed us to set up systems that create a constant queue of to-do items.  Many of us use our email inboxes as a to-do list.  Technology is great at oversimplify these things so we can quickly take action on something.  However, it’s our responsibility to ensure we don’t succumb to the trap of viewing our job as simply responding to items in this queue. It takes serious effort and awareness to not fall into this trap.

You’re being paid for your creativity, ingenuity, solutions to problems, ideas about growth, management of people, etc. — not for your ability to just attend to a queue. The email culture we  live in requires us to  be conscious of this phenomenon, or risk succumbing to it.

What did MLK stand for?

Service. Human rights. Dignity.

Why not celebrate MLK Day as a National Day of Service, asks Seth Godin.

Here’s his article on the topic,  and some ideas that you can implement.

#10 is just brilliant!

A balanced mind

Article Link: Thinking about Obama
Source: David Brooks, columnist for NY Times

Maintaining a balanced mind in times of joy and sorrow, success and failure, etc., is advocated by many of the world’s philosophies.  We seldom see it practiced in real life except for a handful of colleagues or family members who either seem “balanced” by nature or make an honest attempt to be.

Regardless of which way you voted, there are lessons to be learned from the political theater we’ve witnessed for the past two years. Both candidates have great qualities.

McCain = passion, service to country, and a great citizen
Obama = calm, collective, and clear-minded

This article is an attempt to highlight just one quality of one of the candidates.

Sure, at the end of the day, we can conclude that it’s all politics and perhaps staged.  But for someone to be on a national stage for more than 2 years and maintain a sense of balance is no easy task.  In itself, the last two years have been the longest job interview any presidential applicant can ask for.

The positive effects of expressing gratitude

Article Link: http://www.fastcompany.com/node/1007055/print
Source: Fast Company Magazine

A new book out called The How of Happiness describes 12 scientifically proven ways to make yourself happier. The very first on the list: expressing gratitude to others!

Who would have thought that our own happiness is so intermingled with the happiness we impart to others? We all know human beings are social animals. But I think we’re social and extremely interdependent animals, regardless of how independent we convince ourselves we are.

In first grade, my teacher told me to do to others how you’d like them to do with you.  Science is now proving this proverb to be true.

(There’s a business idea in this article, for those entrepreneurs among us.)

Michael Phelps’ diet and workout routine

Article 1: Michael Phelps’ diet (and why it might kill most people)
Article 2: Michael Phelps’ workout routine (this might kill you too!)
Source: Various blogs

Being the best is all about commitment and willingness to pay the price for it. Eating 12,000 calories and training 6 hours every day — that’s both remarkable and a testament to the word “dedication”. They should just put a picture of Phelps next to the word “dedication” in the dictionary; no definition or interpretation required.

For those who missed all the talk during the Olympics broadcast about this guy’s diet and workout routine, I’ve provided some links that talk about those two.

Back to his diet — I’m not sure eating 12,000 calories every day is very natural for our bodies. In fact, I know it isn’t. I’m sure there’s a price to pay (health-wise) in the long run, even if his doctors claim it’s safe.

11/20/2008 Update: Michael Phelps clarified on a television show (60 Minutes) that the 12,000 figure is inaccurate.  He only eats about 10,000 calories.

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In honor of Labor Day and the various labor unions and workers, here’s a post from last year:
http://youreflect.wordpress.com/2007/09/05/what-hard-work-means-today/

Changing others…

Download Article: Changing Others
Source: DailyOM.com

We all do it. It’s second nature in many (if not all) of us. We try to disperse our knowledge and experiences to others with the intention of sharing. However, somewhere along this path, the intention changes. The change may not be intentional. But gradually, we tend to “share experiences” less and aim to “change others” more.

Often times, we justify this transformation by saying it’s for the other’s development. Often times, it’s to simply inflate our own sense of being and confidence, as if we need to reassure ourselves that we’re headed down the right path. Regardless, it almost always happens at someone else’s expense.

This DailyOM article provides a fresh look at the concept. It forces us to ask where we draw the line? How do we share our experiences without automatically expecting to bring about change in others? We can perhaps draw the line if we’re conscious about preventing ourselves from changing others. But how do we make “un-expectational sharing of experiences” second nature?