social skills | lullaby pit

Democracy & Elitism 2: performance elitism vs privilege elitism, and why the difference matters

Posted on 2009.12.02 by winterSmith 84 comments

Part two in a series. “Elite” hasn’t always been an epithet. In fact, if we consider what the dictionary has to say about it, it still signifies something potentially worthy. Potentially. For instance: e·lit·ism or é·lit·ism (-ltzm, -l-) n. 1. The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived

Educating the 21st Century cyberstudent…or not?

Posted on 2008.12.10 by winterSmith 14 comments

Don Tapscott has some radical new ideas about education. Here’s a sampling (as related by ReadWriteWeb): “…the age of learning through the memorization of facts and figures is coming to an end. Instead, students should be taught to think creatively and better understand the knowledge that’s available online.” “…Google, Wikipedia, and other online libraries means that rote memorization is no