Math Geek Mom: Summer School
By Rosemarie Emanuele June 10, 2010 9:23 pm
In the center of Boston is the Boston Common, where there are several small statues of the ducklings made famous by the book “Make Way for Ducklings”. Long before I became a parent, I bought a painting from a local Boston artist that depicted the statues of the ducklings from that children's book. In a decision of radical faith in the future, and one that involved finding a few extra dollars that I, as a graduate student, didn’t really have at the time, I bought it and decided that if I was ever to have a child, I would hang it in their room. I know that someday my daughter will outgrow it, but for now, it hangs above her desk in her room. I hope to visit the Boston Commons with her some day and show her the original statues that depict the characters from the book which she, of course, has a copy of. If such a visit takes place some year, it will be after my summer school class has ended for the summer.
I know of many people who claim that that just don’t teach summer school. The pay is often not great, and it takes away from time that might be spent on research and course development. However, someone must teach summer classes, which reminds me of the question of the “tragedy of the commons.” Like the farmers who all brought their cows to
iPhone 4: Don't Want, Will Buy
By Joshua Kim June 10, 2010 9:37 pm3 Reasons Why I Don't Want an iPhone 4:
1. Design: I love my Pantech Breeze, a phone that CNET
describes as "ideal for the elderly as well as those with vision problems" (neither category that I've yet to enter). Seriously, I like a small clamshell phone that only does calling, with an occasional text message to my 12 or 13 year old.
2. Attention: I am learning enough about the limits of my rational brain (please read Dan Ariely's amazing new book
The Upside of Irrationality) to know that I'll be distracted by an iPhone. My kids will be trying to talk to me, and I'll be engrossed in FaceTime or playing
