Month: September 2020

A Different Way Of Thinking About The Purpose Of Education

Too often schools are tasked not simply with caring for their students but with repairing an entire social order. Schools can do so much we do not ask of them, like developing solidarity, fostering political responsibility, and ensuring a love of learning for its own sake. Yet the one thing we are most insistent they accomplish, the ensuring of “equal opportunity,” is something even the best school is simply not capable of achieving. – Hedgehog Review

Two California Theatres Lay Off Their Artistic Directors. Now What?

The decisions suggest that the theater world will likely continue to feel the effects of the pandemic long after artists and audiences are again allowed to gather. Eliminating a position, as opposed to merely furloughing or laying off, adds another obstacle to theaters reopening and rebounding. Either a hiring committee must decide to re-create a leadership position and rehire, or a theater must rebuild after the pandemic while deprived of a leader. – San Francisco Chronicle

Why Do Some Technologies Transform Our World And Others Don’t

Although the private sector brought electricity to the big cities—New York, Chicago, St. Louis—the federal government’s Rural Electrification Administration brought electricity to much of America, helping to make radio, electric appliances, television and telecommunications part of everyone’s daily lives. A good deal of private investment created these technologies, but the transformations that they wrought were enabled by the “hidden hand” of government, and citizens often experienced their value in unanticipated ways. – Scientific American

Is Punctuation Finished?

Enter the international Apostrophe Protection Society, with its attempts to call out misuse and spread good practice. But November 2019 saw the announcement of the society’s demise, and owing not only to the highly respectable age of its founder John Richards (96): it would close, the society said, because of the ‘ignorance and laziness present in modern times’. – Aeon

‘What The Country Needs Now Is A Really Good Four-Letter Word’

Wilfred McClay: “I hear you, gentle reader, saying that surely I must be kidding. We need more profanity? Aren’t we already being inundated with it? … And that’s exactly the problem. Our curse currency has become grossly inflated and devalued. … When what once was salty loses its savor, it becomes worthy only to be trampled underfoot.” – The Hedgehog Review

The Prejudice Against Those With Less Education

Building a politics around the idea that a college degree is a precondition for dignified work and social esteem has a corrosive effect on democratic life. It devalues the contributions of those without a diploma, fuels prejudice against less-educated members of society, effectively excludes most working people from elective government and provokes political backlash. – The New York Times

Good Improv Performers Adapt To Almost Anything On The Spot. How Are They Adapting To COVID?

“An art form and industry built on ‘Yes, and …’ face a world of ‘no,’ ‘maybe,’ and ‘who knows.’ … Whether it’s reshaping content to fit a new medium, staring down the possibility of permanent closures, or facing their own reckoning with a legacy of racial and cultural exclusion, improv and comedy theatres are learning just how important it is to be able to listen and adjust.” – American Theatre