The Games Pupils Play
By Owen Edwards
10/19/09
There comes a time in every parent's life -- and in most teachers' lives, too -- when we discover that those we are raising and teaching are better at certain things than we are.
Can Electronic Reading Devices Replace Classroom Texts?
By Owen Edwards
9/25/09And now a few words about the book, that ancient medium we've all encountered, with ink on paper pages, a front and back cover, and pleasure, or knowledge, or provocation, or even a certain necessary tedium stored within.
The Thrill of Accidental Learning -- and Teaching
By Owen Edwards
9/2/09An excellent essay by Damon Darlin some Sundays back in the New York Times, "Serendipity: Lost in the Digital Deluge," got me thinking -- not for the first time -- about the joys of accidental learning.
The Art and Craft of Language
By Owen Edwards
8/4/09Not long ago, while reading an article about political life in the time of England's King Henry VIII that quoted various letters and documents, I was struck once again by the free-form inconsistency of English spelling in those days.
Defanging the F Grade
By Owen Edwards
7/21/09In Nathaniel Hawthorne's great American novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne's letter was, of course, an accusatory A. Damning for her, but I'd have been very happy had I received more of those when I was in secondary school.
Is Cursive Writing Cursed with Extinction?
By Owen Edwards
7/5/09With the fear that I might be labeled an Andy Rooney wannabe, cranky about things I can't do anything about, I am hesitant to mention the twinge of sadness I felt at the news recently that public schools have, for the most part, officially abandoned the teaching of cursive handwriting.
