Episode #19 – Judging a Newspaper By Its Cover With Dan Nicholls
I met Dan Nichols when he was working at Squareflo a long time ago, we have a lot in common and think the same about a lot of things so we’ve been great friends ever since. Dan has since moved to the fine offices of Oh! Media (a division of Phoenix Group Advertising), a website design and development company in Regina, Saskatchewan.
I met Jordan McFarlen in High School, we won a city championship on the same volleyball team. We still play volleyball together on, arguably the best beach volleyball team in the city, the Volley Lama’s.
Jordan has always been very smart and just a really a fun guy to be around. Now all grown up, he’s one of the most progressive teachers in the Regina Public School system. He’s a great guy and an inspiring teacher, I think he’s going to do something amazing in this world.
You’ll enjoy what he has to say.
How Is a Bad Radio Station Like Our Public-School System? (A Freakonomics Podcast Encore)The Freakonomics Radio Podcast is one of my favorites by far (subscribe here on iTunes). The show’s about Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner exploring the “hidden side of everything”. Along the same lines of their two wildly popular books, Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics (I highly recommend reading both).
If we forced kids to play boring video games all through school and into University they probably would hate video games when they graduate.
If we forced kids to play boring sports all through school and into University they probably would hate sports when they graduate.
How can we expect kids students to love reading when we’ve forced them to read boring textbooks all their lives?
Want to have an opinion on a topic? Easy, read a few books on said topic, you’ll have plenty of material for your next cocktail party. Don’t like reading? Buy an audio book on iTunes. Don’t like books? Read blogs. Don’t like reading blogs? Listen to Podcasts. Don’t like Podcasts? Watch as many videos on Ted.com as you possibly can.
True education is not institutionalized learning, that’s the bare minimum of education (school).
Though I love my Alma Mater I don’t think it was the robust academia that molded my mind, it was everything outside the classroom. The people you meet, the events you put on through student groups and the conferences you attend. Academics, grades and going to class are just the tip of the iceberg if you really want to learn. It’s not a secret either, it’s actually very simple, get involved, do as much as you can, meet as many people as you can. Take Mark Twain’s advice to heart:
“I never let school get in the way of my education.”
