Before you have kids, if you are anything like me, you have this idea that you won’t let them get sucked into consuming various television shows, junk food, brand names and etc. Then reality hits as your 2 year old points at an ad in the supermarket carpark and says, “Dere’s Wiggles, Mummy!” Children are [...]
February 26, 2009 – 9:09 am
British psychiatrist Theordore Dalrymple (aka Anthony Daniels) both annoys and interests me in equal measure. On the one hand, he’s a resolute defender of personal betterment: as documented in Life at the Bottom, he was willing to put his career on the line so that welfare recipients could gain an education — up to and [...]
February 25, 2009 – 9:08 am
University Challenge, it’s fair to say, is knitted into British culture in all sorts of odd and interesting ways. The only other parallels I can think of for cultural influence and longevity are shows like Blue Peter and Dr Who. The headline for this post, for example, is instantly recognizable to pretty much anyone over here. [...]
February 14, 2009 – 12:32 am
One of the things I’ve always strived for when I write is clarity. Most of the time in my writing career, I’ve been successful in achieving this clarity, and people haven’t had to come back to me with queries like ‘what does this mean?’ and ‘please explain’. Other faults – my disagreeable politics, my abysmal taste, [...]
January 3, 2009 – 4:55 am
Or, the use of hygiene as a proxy for moral worth. Last week, a man died when — so it appears — two paramadics failed to render appropriate assistance. The legal phrase is ‘wilfully neglecting to perform duty in a public office’. The circumstances aren’t clear, but reading between the lines (among other things) one [...]
December 7, 2008 – 9:02 pm
Once again, the endlessly tedious arguments about academic bias in humanities departments at universities are to the fore, with a Senate Report on same just released. Mark over at Larvatus Prodeo has an interesting discussion going, which I recommend. Some of the lefties (but not any of the LP posters) are doing themselves no favours [...]
November 29, 2008 – 3:20 pm
Sonny sits by his window and thinks to himself How it’s strange that some rooms are like cages. Sonny’s yearbook from high school Is down from the shelf – And he idly thumbs through the pages. Some have died. Some have fled from themselves. Or struggled from here to get there. – Paul Simon, The [...]
September 18, 2008 – 6:00 pm
The mother of a very gifted child is suing the Queensland Government for failing to enrol her 9 year old daughter in Year 8 at a Queensland public school. There is no minimum age for enrollment in high school, but the Queensland Government cited fears over the girl’s social development as a reason for refusing [...]
September 17, 2008 – 12:29 pm
I’ve written before on student evaluations, with a bit of a giggle about some of the answers I get. As I have said, my worry has always been that the kinds of questions asked are too vague, and the responses don’t really reflect, well…anything: There is also a “multiple choice” part of the questionnaire that [...]
September 12, 2008 – 6:44 pm
Recently, a discussion about manners has developed in the comments thread of SL’s latest post on Sarah Palin. And so my interest was sparked by a post on The Age’s Essential Baby blog with regard to modern children and their lack of manners. Apparently, the Australian Scholarships Group and the National Excellence in Teaching Awards organization [...]
