Entries Written By Tim
in Education
Top 50 Reasons Educators Remain Educators
Inspired by the Top 50 Reasons Professional Athletes Remain Wealthy. Push back on these, or add your own. They recognize the difficulty of their position–that they must work both within and against an oppressive system–and refuse to take this out on students. They take care of themselves first, or, if they choose not to, they …
in Brazil
Driving in São Paulo
The first gate I pass each day separates my neighborhood from those who live outside it, some of whom are indeed desperate. It’s one of those solid metal sliding jobs, corrugated and painted brown, and it rides creakily along a track and comes to rest like the unhinged jaw of some futuristic genetically modified urban …
in Brazil
In Search of Brazilian Futebol
On the beach in Brazil, as you’d probably expect, everyone kicking around a soccer ball is very good. Small groups assemble on the sand, employing all manner of footjabs and curtsies to keep the ball aloft, laughing and enjoying the glory of casual athletic expression in the tropical sunshine. Along with g-string bikinis, male speedos, …
in Brazil
In Search of The Real Samba
Her skirt billows in a gentle breeze, and she fixes her gaze forward and upward, aglow with expectant ease. She handles her own luggage, insists on elegant travel clothing, and comes from a time everyone pretends to remember. Is she picking up the suitcase, or setting it down? Is this the end of her journey, …
Greek to Me: Learning Math by Experience
I’ve spent some time this week with our Math teachers, who’re studying how to deploy a problem-based learning curriculum. It ended up not being too bad, since Math teachers tend to consider themselves a bit rogue and exceptional, which makes for a good atmosphere, I find. For the layperson, maybe a way to explain what …
in Brazil
Let Me Tell You About the Work Booklet Office
He looks at the paper; he picks it up and shuffles it underneath another piece of paper. He looks at his screen; he blinks his eyes slowly, he types one letter, looks back at the paper, types a different letter with the same finger, looks back at the paper, looks at his screen, looks to …
in Brazil
Learning Portuguese is No Big Problem
As far as Portuguese language acquisition goes, I confess that I currently understand almost zero spoken Portuguese and can rarely make myself understood. I’ve assessed my current level of competence thoroughly with Uber drivers, restaurant professionals, and bureaucrats throughout São Paulo. During my most recent Uber ride, I told the driver “Eu preciso practicar portuguese,” …
in Brazil
Order and Progress: Education Spending in Brazil
I’ve been wondering about the extent to which Brazil, as a country and as a people, values public education. In my casual reading, I’ve come across suggestions that wealthy Brazilians are unenthusiastic about public education and therefore send their children to private schools and use their influence to minimize public funding. I’ve also encountered the …
in Education
Big Mistakes: A Stock Picker’s Education
Big Mistakes, a book about costly blunders committed by Wall Street investors, makes this much clear: for author Michael Batnick, school was a terrible place to go for an education. Batnick does deliver on the subtitle’s promise: “The Best Investors and Their Worst Investments,” with details on the worst trades by, for example, Benjamin Graham, …
in Brazil
Foray into Brazilian Literature: Machado de Assis’s Mordant Ironica
Machado de Assis’s the central figure of Brazilian literature, he wrote most of his work between 1870 and 1908, and in 2018 Liveright published a swollen (960 pages!) new English translation of his collected stories. For a taste of this work, consider two stories that depict characters of a certain type serving as their own …
Treating Classes Like Gatherings, Part Three: Ending Well(If you haven’t read part one, on establishing purpose, or part two, on facilitating well, I’d [keep reading...]
Treating Classes Like Gatherings, Part Two: Teaching With Generous Authority(If you haven’t read part one, about establishing purpose, consider starting there.) After [keep reading...]
Why Teachers Should Consider Their Classes “Gatherings”Priya Parker’s The Art of Gathering, a book that, as the subtitle suggests, takes up the subject of [keep reading...]