overheard in providence

A brief educational retrospective:
1999: Eric graduates Stuyvesant Highschool and begins attending Brown University. At the time, he foolishly assumes that his affiliation with Brown will be limited to a mere four years.
2003: Eric graduates from Brown University with an Bachelor of Science in Applied Math/CS. In a shrewd attempt to avoid joining the workforce, or [...]

Last Saturday, moments after I had posted a condemnation of math education, Jessica read me an unexpectedly relevant blurb from New York Magazine. Julia Stiles, it seems, has long felt unsatisfied with her public elementary school education, and earlier this year she decided to voice her concerns to NYC School Chancellor Joel Klein.
During the Atlantic’s [...]

By way of Scott Aaronson, I recently read a surprisingly inspired essay on the dysfunctional state of math education. Paul Lockhart, the essay’s author, is a serious mathematician. He has a PhD in mathematics, is a former MSRI fellow and a former Brown professor. Since 2000, however, he has chosen to teach math at Saint [...]

A few days ago my friend Matt flagged this n + 1 essay on Adderall use among Ivy League college students. In December, I attended a discussion with Randy Cohen (author of The Ethicist), and of the dozen or so questions submitted by attendees, four had to do with Adderall. After reading the n + [...]