three things make a post

[moominmolly]

Sugru! Moldable silicone putty. Fix things, or make them awesomer. This stuff is pretty fantastic. I used it last night for the first time and have already gotten a couple of compliments, and all I did was pad the bottom of a ceramic coffee mug to de-clonk it.

We're happier when busy but our instinct is for idleness. I've been thinking about this article and research for days now, and examining my own (very powerful) instinct for idleness. Why do I have it, when I clearly get so much joy out of productivity and creation?

The Case for $320,000 Kindergarten Teachers. Basically - early education matters a great deal, later in life. Given that I'll have a kindergartener in a month (!), this is also on my mind.

To follow up on my value/valueless post from yesterday, I value the fact that I have an extremely insightful and awesome management team on my side at my job. And I value all of the amazing contributions you guys commented with. It brightened a really difficult day, for me, so: thanks.

Comments

[ectropy.livejournal.com]

So, sugru's back in stock again? First time I saw it, it was "Coming Soon", and the next time (two months later) it was "Sold Out". I suppose I should get some before it disappears again. :)

[arachne8x.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you had such a crap day yesterday. *hugs*

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

Wow, sugru sounds great! Where'd you find out about it?

[cutieperson]

ah, as ectropy said, i am surprised it can be bought! i need to get some so my crock pot can have handles again.

[dcart.livejournal.com]

So we are both Fraggles and Doozers?

[vespid-interest.livejournal.com]

The Kindergarten article doesn't say if the teachers are responsible for the kid's success or if the kids just manifest their intelligence or upbringing even at that early age. For instance some kids know how to read before starting Kindergarten, or are used to learning constantly, etc. I'd expect those kids to do better in life even with an average Kindergarten teacher.

[vespid-interest.livejournal.com]

Also: "futile business" is the model Farmville is built on I think. This is something I will really think about!

And Sugru looks awesome.

[signsoflife.livejournal.com]

The article may not say so explicitly, but the associated graphic is of the correlation of the performance of *other* children in the class to adult outcomes. There are a number of analyses shown in the lecture slides which also show the correlations of teacher experience to adult outcomes.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

The article is referencing a study that randomly assigned students to kindergarten teachers, though. (Random assignment is not the norm, which is part of why this stuff is so hard to study.)

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking a lot about that idleness article too. My first thought was "really? people just sit there and are bored for 15 minutes?" because I almost always have something I'm working on in my head. (Possibly this is why I needed to work so hard to get *more* idleness in my days!) But I can also think of genres of times when I do make the lazy choice without any reason other than inertia and it doesn't usually really serve me.

Things I wonder about: is the lazy choice appealing because I'm too often overwhelmed? Is this why resolutions like "take the stairs" are helpful?

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

1) You figure out anything on that last sentence of your idleness paragraph, you tell me.

2) I kept resisting reading this story because most media writing on education only annoys me and doesn't tell me anything new-to-me (with double annoyance points if it comes from the NYT), but I saw this SO many places I broke down and read it. And you know what's fascinating to me? The metric the original study had for quality of kindergarten teaching was standardized tests on academic content...and the places the longitudinal studies are observing success are in things like adult earnings (and a lot of other adult outcomes that are nice to have, but don't necessarily pertain to academic skills at all). And there is SO much sturm und drang in the education debate about whether standardized tests measure anything meaningful at all, and how they can't measure creativity or all these personal traits, and yet -- we somehow have this correlate. And we have it even though the academic gains -- the ones measured by standardized tests -- disappear over the course of K-12 schooling if kids do not continue to have quality teachers.

I mean, WTF is up with that?! What are the correlates here? And why have the journalists and bloggers I've seen this from, some of whom have actual extensive social science and psychometrics experience, not dig into that? Because I would love to see that one theorized.

(Also, of course, the headline is stupid, but whatever. A newspaper making trite use of math? Wake me up when something surprising happens.)