3 Questions for Education and a fellow critic of Waiting for Superman

Sam Chaltain beat me to criticizing Waiting For Superman for it's ridiculous presentation of learning and teaching. In this TEDx Talk he goes into his three questions for education:

Resonant Excitation in the Reed Pool

Here's the underwater perspective on this participatory demonstration of resonant excitation organized by Reed Alumni Brad Wright for Reed College Centennial Reunion last week:


I was jumping in and out of the pool in the demonstration the day before shooting this. There was a film crew shooting the above water scene the day I was jumping in and out, so if you see that footage somewhere online let me know so I can embed it below. [Update: I've been contacted by the crew shooting above water and contributed my raw footage, so hopefully we'll get to see a nice presentation of the whole thing.]

Sexual Anatomy is Complicated and Politically Important

Here's a very interesting TED Talk about the complexities of sexual identity and anatomy and how those complexities show up in the political realm:

Waiting For Superman- Education Movie Reviews Pilot Episode

Here's the pilot episode of Education Movie Reviews on my Teach-Kids-Attitude-1st.com site.

Explaining Unconscious Thought

Here's a lecture by Anthony Greenwald about his research into unconscious cognition.

Believing What We Want and Trusting in Self-Discipline

Doug Muder is one of my favorite UU writers and his latest perspective on the accusation/confession that UU's can believe whatever we want is right on:

For years, people have been telling me that Unitarian Universalists can believe whatever we want. And I find that notion intriguing, because for as long as I can remember, I have wanted to believe that I can fly.

I want to believe a lot of things about myself. I want to believe that I don't really need to sleep. I want to believe that if the plan depends on me being in two places at the same time, I can do that.

I want to believe things about the world, too. Those problems that you hear so much about -- climate change, poverty, war -- I want to believe that they're not really that bad. I want to believe that it will all be OK. And most of all, I want to believe that none of it is my fault, so no one has a right to expect me to do anything about it.

That's what I want to believe.

I'm sure there are many things that you want to believe too. ... (click on the link below to read the rest of this post)

Doug's Blog is Free And Responsible Search

The point is that we UU's trust in each other's self-discipline and the consistent impinging of reality on our beliefs to provide correctives.

Fun to Imagine with Richard Feynman

Here's a link to the BBC Archive of talks with famous physicist Richard Feynman.

Synopsis

Richard Feynman, one of America's most renowned physicists, sits down in an armchair at his Californian home to explain the physics that underpins the world around us. In this first episode, he explores the beauty of the way atoms interact with each other and reveals why fires feel hot.

About Feynman:

Feynman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 (jointly with Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomonaga). He received the prize for his work on quantum electrodynamics, a theory that describes the interaction between light and matter.