Tear down the little red walls ...
Buy the book!
Marginal Revolution University
Posted by Steve Roney Wednesday, October 3, 2012 at 3:08 PM Labels: distance education, online education, tertiary education
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Only in Canada? Pity!
Sites to be Seen
Search This Blog
Labels
- academic freedom (1)
- academics (2)
- accents (1)
- action research (1)
- admissions (1)
- advanced (15)
- animation (1)
- assessment (1)
- AWL (1)
- bibliographies (1)
- Bosco (1)
- charts and graphs (1)
- China (1)
- class discipline (3)
- classroom management (3)
- classroom observation (1)
- clothing vocabulary (2)
- cloze (1)
- colleges (2)
- computers (1)
- Confucianism (1)
- constructivism (1)
- conversation (2)
- corpus linguistics (1)
- critical theory (1)
- cross-cultural issues (1)
- cultural literacy (5)
- curiousities (1)
- curriculum (3)
- debate (1)
- describing people (1)
- directions (1)
- discussion (1)
- distance education (10)
- drill (3)
- EAP (6)
- ed schools (1)
- education bubble (2)
- education cost (1)
- educational philisophy (1)
- educational philosophy (17)
- educational policy (1)
- educational psychology (3)
- Educational technology (6)
- EFL (1)
- el-hi (11)
- elementary (1)
- emotions (1)
- English (1)
- ESL (1)
- ESP IT (2)
- etymology (1)
- evaluation (3)
- examinations (1)
- explication (1)
- fairy tales (1)
- finance (1)
- future (2)
- games (4)
- gapfill (1)
- grammar (4)
- Great Books (1)
- Grimace Project (1)
- Harry (1)
- higher education (4)
- history (4)
- history of education (4)
- homeschooling (5)
- humanities (8)
- idioms (1)
- instructional video (1)
- interactive fiction (3)
- intermediate (5)
- international Englishes (1)
- iPad (1)
- judgement (1)
- karaoke (1)
- L1 (1)
- learning objects (5)
- lectures (1)
- lecturing (3)
- listening (18)
- literature (1)
- materials (1)
- materials development (1)
- media (1)
- Megan (1)
- Megan Markle (1)
- memorization (2)
- Michelle Rhee (1)
- mnemonics (4)
- multimedia (3)
- Multiple Intelligences (1)
- music (1)
- myths (1)
- online education (2)
- Ontario (1)
- our truth (1)
- parliamentary procedure (1)
- PD (1)
- philosophy of education (1)
- plagiarism (1)
- Plato (1)
- play (1)
- poetry (1)
- pop culture (1)
- postmodernism (1)
- presentations (2)
- primary (1)
- printables (2)
- private schools (1)
- proctoring (1)
- pronunciation (6)
- public schools (3)
- quizzes (1)
- reading (22)
- reading comprehension (3)
- research (1)
- royal family (1)
- school choice (2)
- school rankings (1)
- science (1)
- secondary (1)
- seminar (1)
- song (1)
- speaking (9)
- spelling (9)
- standardized testing (1)
- STEM (1)
- structure (1)
- student evaluation (1)
- study tools (1)
- tablet (1)
- teacher evaluation (6)
- teacher tools (5)
- teacher training (9)
- teachers (1)
- teachers' colleges (1)
- teachers' unions (1)
- teaching philosophy (1)
- tertiary education (11)
- text (1)
- textbooks (2)
- theory (1)
- tips and techniques (3)
- training (8)
- translation (1)
- universities (3)
- verbs (1)
- videos (3)
- visual data (1)
- vocabulary (42)
- vouchers (1)
- writing (17)
The Perp
Meta
What is a Burning Schoolhouse?
Apparently, those who did not grow up in Canada, perhaps even only Eastern Canada, may not know of Burning Schoolhouses. In Canada, every Victoria Day and Dominion Day (24 May and July 1) concludes with a fireworks display in the twilight. And every fireworks display concludes with a Burning Schoolhouse, a distinctive firework, pictured above.
It's nothing spectacular to see: just a clear white flare, followed by flames slowly licking through the windows of a blackening schoolhouse. The joy is in the symbolism of the thing, helped in older days by the fact that almost every single schoolhouse in Canada was built, in similar style, of red brick.
Bad luck, though, if the schoolhouse does not completely burn, to the ground, to salted cinders. To prevent this horror, custom is also to jam the little red cardboard perdition with any duds from the previous pyrotechnical display, in hopes of making something truly spectacular and bloodthirsty happen.
Freedom! School's out! Glory, glory, hallelujah! No more pencils! No more books!
But this primitive Canadian ritual seems symbolic in another way. Humans, like all God's critters, are born to learn; it is of our essence. Learning is fun; all play is learning. Everyone loves to learn; even if it's just how to manage a yo-yo.
And yet, almost every kid hates school.
These two facts, taken together, suggest we can do better.
Tear down the little red walls!
Amazon Associate
This page is an Amazon Associate. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Thank you for your patronage.
0 comments:
Post a Comment