odDRABAs and enDRABAs

Limiting Your Child’s Fire Time: A Guide for Concerned Paleolithic Parents By Rachel Klein / February 7, 2018 According to the most recent cave drawings, children nowadays are using fire more than ever before. And it’s no wonder: fire has many wonderful applications,...

Editor’s Note:  When hot takes in the popular press usually have a headline that poses a saucy question, the answer very often will be NO - but it sure does catch the eye, doesn't it? In 1958, economist John Kenneth Galbraith coined the term “conventional wisdom” to...

Do traditional schools need dramatic changes to improve the learning experience?  YES! Do students need better opportunities for learning in the school context?  YES! In light of recent announcements from Queen’s Park, are we on the right track?  NO. While TDSB kids...

In their report of their study of Canadian Jews, Robert Brym and Rhonda Lenton found that Canadian Jews are doing much better than their counterparts to the south in every category of “assimilation indicators.”   However, they expressed some concern about “young...

Dr. Bill Robinson has been running a series of think pieces at eJewishphilanthropy, exploring “Big Ideas” in Jewish education.  This week’s hot take is the kabbalistic concept of tikkun olam.   I don’t want to reproduce the title here because it’s way too long, or get...

Imagine a sealed box with a cat and a small tube with potentially radioactive material inside.  If the material is indeed radioactive, the tube is shattered, releasing the poison.  According to one take on this situation, the cat is simultaneously alive AND dead, but...

Rabbi Harry Pell is the Associate Head of School at Schechter Westchester.  In his piece in yesterday’s eJewishPhilanthropy, he reminisced about a particularly hot take offered by his high school Talmud teacher. His Talmud teacher argued that of all the major...

This piece from Education Elements lays out the seven common models used by educators.  ADRABA is designed from the ground up to maximize learning with Models #5, #6 and #7.  At ADRABA, students will take at least one online course in addition to their face-to-face...

At first, the clinical psychologist looked askance at the school counsellor’s seemingly childish prop.  But then she thought again… Sitting right there was an elegant model of the neurology of the distressed teenager. Early in adolescence, the brain gets remodeled to...

Even though the platform keeps me updated on people’s birthdays, it seems that every week brings a new revelation about Facebook mischief.  Society-corroding mischief!  (And it’s not like Facebook contributes to public discourse.  No one was ever convinced of anything...

Limiting Your Child’s Fire Time: A Guide for Concerned Paleolithic Parents By Rachel Klein / February 7, 2018 According to the most recent cave drawings, children nowadays are using fire more than ever before. And it’s no wonder: fire has many wonderful applications, such as cooking meat, warming the home, and warding off wild animals in the night. We adult Homo erectus, with our enlarged brains and experience of pre-fire days, can moderate our use, but our children—some of whom never lived...

Editor’s Note:  When hot takes in the popular press usually have a headline that poses a saucy question, the answer very often will be NO - but it sure does catch the eye, doesn't it? In 1958, economist John Kenneth Galbraith coined the term “conventional wisdom” to describe commonplace beliefs which people consider to be acceptable and comfortable.  It’s this last part of the definition that’s essential because once an idea has become comfortable in your head, it is much harder to dislodge -...

Do traditional schools need dramatic changes to improve the learning experience?  YES! Do students need better opportunities for learning in the school context?  YES! In light of recent announcements from Queen’s Park, are we on the right track?  NO. While TDSB kids were on March Break, the Ford government announced its plan for sweeping changes to Ontario schools.   Though most folks were bemused by the cellphone ban, and bemoaned the increase in class sizes, there was also a buzz about...

In their report of their study of Canadian Jews, Robert Brym and Rhonda Lenton found that Canadian Jews are doing much better than their counterparts to the south in every category of “assimilation indicators.”   However, they expressed some concern about “young adults” among whom “the religious basis of Jewishness seems to be weakening.”   But one can justifiably wonder: Is this really a cause for concern?  …Especially when Brym and Lenton also reported that young adults are just as committed...

Dr. Bill Robinson has been running a series of think pieces at eJewishphilanthropy, exploring “Big Ideas” in Jewish education.  This week’s hot take is the kabbalistic concept of tikkun olam.   I don’t want to reproduce the title here because it’s way too long, or get into how tikkun olam, a seemingly benign concept, became a stalking horse for pundits. Instead, I want to address the notion that humans have to continue the work of creation is, essentially, an educational concept.  Rabbi...

Imagine a sealed box with a cat and a small tube with potentially radioactive material inside.  If the material is indeed radioactive, the tube is shattered, releasing the poison.  According to one take on this situation, the cat is simultaneously alive AND dead, but if you look inside the box, you’ll clearly see that the cat is either alive OR dead.  Which is it? This thought experiment is known as “Schrodinger’s cat,” and it is often used while describing moments in time during a complicated...

Rabbi Harry Pell is the Associate Head of School at Schechter Westchester.  In his piece in yesterday’s eJewishPhilanthropy, he reminisced about a particularly hot take offered by his high school Talmud teacher. His Talmud teacher argued that of all the major movements in Judaism, Conservative Judaism was an “experiment.”  He went on to explain.  Cloistered, traditional Judaism survives because they are closed off from the world.  Assimilationist Judaism, he argued, will eventually disappear. ...

This piece from Education Elements lays out the seven common models used by educators.  ADRABA is designed from the ground up to maximize learning with Models #5, #6 and #7.  At ADRABA, students will take at least one online course in addition to their face-to-face (F2F) classes.  Students will also complete much of their coursework through an online portal, but attend F2F sessions with a master-teacher.  Our program does not require daily school attendance.  And students will move on fluid...

At first, the clinical psychologist looked askance at the school counsellor’s seemingly childish prop.  But then she thought again… Sitting right there was an elegant model of the neurology of the distressed teenager. Early in adolescence, the brain gets remodeled to become more powerful and efficient, with this upgrade retracing the order of the original in utero development. The primitive regions, which are just above the back of the neck and house the emotion centers, are upgraded first —...

Even though the platform keeps me updated on people’s birthdays, it seems that every week brings a new revelation about Facebook mischief.  Society-corroding mischief!  (And it’s not like Facebook contributes to public discourse.  No one was ever convinced of anything because of a rancorous thread.)  And after reading Shoshana Zuboff’s  The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power, it only confirmed for me that Facebook, sadly, is not alone… ...