27 JUL 2018 by ideonexus
Children are Smarter Than Adults
This precocity of childhood may be said to characterise all the known races of man, and to be even more marked the more primitive the race. On this point, ‘It is an interesting fact,’ says Havelock Ellis (183, p. 177), ‘and perhaps of some significance, that among primitive races in all parts of the world, the children, at an early age, are very precocious in intelligence.’ And again, ‘ It seems that, the lower the race, the more marked is this precocity, and its arrest at puberty. ... 1 
notes
notes08 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Positive Bias in the 2-4-6 Task
The boy's expression grew more intense. "This is a game based on a famous experiment called the 2-4-6 task, and this is how it works. I have a rule - known to me, but not to you - which fits some triplets of three numbers, but not others. 2-4-6 is one example of a triplet which fits the rule. In fact... let me write down the rule, just so you know it's a fixed rule, and fold it up and give it to you. Please don't look, since I infer from earlier that you can read upside-down."
The boy said ...
2 A game to demonstrate we jump to conclusions and seek to confirm our biases.
21 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
If You Really Want to Know, You Go to Science
[I]magine you want to know the sex of your unborn child. There are several approaches. You could, for example, do what the late film star ... Cary Grant did before he was an actor: In a carnival or fair or consulting room, you suspend a watch or a plumb bob above the abdomen of the expectant mother; if it swings left-right it's a boy, and if it swings forward-back it's a girl. The method works one time in two. Of course he was out of there before the baby was born, so he never heard from cust...Sagan uses the example of a watch swinging over an expectant mother's belly to determine the sex of a fetus.
11 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Love of Learning is the Most Important Lesson
The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught, as that every child should have the opportunity of teaching itself. What does it matter if the pupil know a little more or a little less? A boy who leaves school knowing much, but hating his lessons, will soon have forgotten all he ever learned; while another who had acquired a thirst for knowledge, even if he had learned little, would soon teach himself more than the first ever knew. Folksonomies: education
Folksonomies: education
1 notes
notesA pupil who does well, but hates learning, will lose all they have learned.
29 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
Science Fiction Inspires
Not only is science fiction an idea of tremendous import, but it is to be an important factor in making the world a better place to live in, through educating the public to the possibilities of science and the influence of science on life which, even today, are not appreciated byu the man on the street. ... If every man, woman, boy and girl, could be induced to read science fiction right along, there would certainly be a great resulting benefit to the community, in that the educational standa...Folksonomies: science fiction
Folksonomies: science fiction
Quote from Hugo Gernsback.
10 AUG 2011 by ideonexus
How the Church Cuts
“But they were cutting-” Lyra couldn’t bring herself to say it; the words choked in her mouth. “You know what they were doing! Why did the Church let them do anything like that?”
“There was a precedent. Something like it had happened before. Do you know what the word castration means? It means removing the sexual organs of a boy so that he never develops the characteristics of a man. A castrate keeps his high treble voice all his life, which is why the Church allowed it: so usefu... 1 notes
notesIn the fictional universe, the Church cuts children from their souls, but in our own history they have castrated boys to preserve their ability to sing in the choir.
02 MAR 2011 by ideonexus
A Useful Metaphor for Maintaining Momentum
"My boy is having his problems being a serious student," I told Eddie.
"Well, your studying is very important," Eddie said, while the boy sat smiling a smile that said: an old person his about to hand out some Wisdom. Could this please be over fast? "You know, a jet plane burns its greatest energy taking off; but once it reaches its cruising altitude, it burs less fuel. Just like studying. If you're constantly taking off and landing, you're going to burn more fuel as opposed to taking off an...
1 The metaphor of a plane burning its most fuel when it takes off, and using less to maintain its soaring altitude works for studying, exercise, eating well, and a host of other good behaviors in life.
03 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
The Perspectives Game
I got a kick, when I was a boy, [out] of my father telling me things, so I tried to tell my son things that were interesting about the world. When he was very small we used to rock him to bed, you know, and tell him stories, and I'd make up a story about little people that were about so high [who] would walk along and they would go on picnics and so on and they lived in the ventilator; and they'd go through these woods which had great big long tall blue things like trees, but without leaves a...A game Feynman played with his father, describing a fantastic scene, and the object of the game was to figure out where it was taking place and from what perspective.
