LAMED

they have good schools over there in Finland

2011-09-25T10:16:00.003+03:00

A teacher is considered an honorable profession, resources are spread evenly throughout the school system, good teachers are given lots of leeway to do what needs to get done to help students, and even underclass and immigrant students are learning. Why can't everybody else seem to do that?

Strictly Kosher Reading

2011-08-14T11:40:00.004+03:00

I'm happy to report that my new book, Strictly Kosher Reading: Popular Literature and Condition of Contemporary Orthodoxy has just appeared. You can read the table of contents and preface here, as well as more about the book on a new blog that I set up that includes the blurb, advanced praise, and God willing eventually the reviews that will appear. If you want a copy, I should be able to arrange one at a significant discount.

Surprising?

2010-10-31T08:27:00.002+02:00

Kids in religious private schools more racist, violent, and dishonest than public school counterparts? More here.

Overcontrol

2010-10-03T11:00:00.000+02:00

Consequences of the overcontrolling parent...

Stella's Stunners

2010-09-28T00:00:00.000+02:00

Cool and off-beat math and logic puzzles all in one site.

One Neurotic Neighborhood

2010-09-26T00:00:00.000+02:00

Teachers are an okay bunch, I guess, and I like most of my colleagues, but I am not sure that I could imagine living in a neighborhood populated entirely by teachers. The built in neuroses that come with the job would only be magnified.

Community College

2010-09-21T00:00:00.000+02:00

Community colleges are designed to provide some measure of higher education to anybody, a kind of last chance for higher education even for those who did not succeed in high school. The Obama administration has invested a great deal in community colleges, to help reach America's weakest populations. Well, following the law of unintended consequences, it seems that too many weakest students are attending, so community colleges are going to start raising admissions standards. Doesn't that defeat the purpose? (Check out of the vitriol in the comments, not all of its coherent.)

Robotic learning

2010-09-19T00:00:00.003+02:00

Robots do as good a job of teaching language to young kids as human teachers. Kind of makes you feel obsolete, no?

While We Are on The Topic...

2010-09-16T00:00:00.003+02:00

...of bashing colleges, check out this series of books that offer a bundle of critical perspectives on the contemporary university experience.

Party School

2010-09-14T00:00:00.001+02:00

I was never onento join the "secular college destroys Judaism" bandwagon, but it is hard not to criticize when one sees books like The Five Year Party (reviewed here by WSJ).

To Recall or Not to Recall?

2010-09-12T00:00:00.003+03:00

When graduating students confessed to all kinds of inappropriate shenanigans on their yearbook pages (drinking, sex, drugs), do you recall the yearbook and censor it, or do you let the yearbook reflect high-school life as it really is? This article takes the first approach, but the comments take the latter one.

Will They Ever Leave

2010-09-09T00:00:00.002+03:00

Twentysomethings: they are still kids, can't hold a job, move constantly, live at their parents' houses for long stretches of time, don't get married, and, basically, don't grow up. Portrait of today's emerging adults.

At That Price, I Would Teach Kindergarten

2010-09-07T00:00:00.001+03:00

$320,000 salary for a kindergarten teacher. The odd part, is that the New York Times makes it seem perfectly reasonable (though nobody is actually earning that salary).

Unwrapping the Gifted

2010-09-05T00:00:00.000+03:00

A thought-provoking blog by Education Week on effectively teaching gifted students. (If you think that teaching very bright kids is easier than teaching intellectually weak kids, you are very very wrong.)

Grading Teachers

2010-09-02T09:00:00.000+03:00

Inevitably, with "back to school" we read about new efforts to grade teachers.
Guess who's not in favor?
NYT reports...

Star Wars and Bloom's taxonomy

2010-09-02T00:00:00.000+03:00

YouTube does it again. This time, how to teach

Bloom's taxonomy using clips from the movie, Star Wars. (I am not sure that it totally holds together, but it is a cute idea.)

Edutainment in the Churches

2010-08-31T00:00:00.000+03:00

We have made much a recently about the "edutainment" phenomenon. Seems like it is hitting the churches as well (and if it has hit the churches, it will certainly hit the synagogues shortly).

The Easiest Way to Raise Test Scores

2010-08-29T00:00:00.003+03:00

... Is to make the tests easier and lower standards. It seems to have worked for the State of New York, which gave students a standardized test in which random guessing would produce a passing grade.

Bias in Standardized Testing

2010-08-27T08:22:00.002+03:00

Studies continually find that standardized tests favor middle class white students. In a new development, The Onion reports that standardized tests show similar bias against students who just don't give a... (warning, vulgar language but very, very funny).

Good News for the Humanities

2010-08-26T00:00:00.001+03:00

I recently had a longtalk with a close friend, a medical professional. He commented on how little he uses the cell biology and organic chemistry he studied, and more importantly, he wondered about his own children, some of whom were interested in medicine, but were struggling with science. Turns out, it is possible to get accepted into medical school with a humanities background.

At War With Our Students

2010-08-22T00:00:00.002+03:00

Hard to think of a harsher critique of Israel's school system. Hasn't been the experience my kids have had, but that may not be representative.

Can Day Schools Still Grow?

2010-08-19T00:00:00.002+03:00

JESNA thinks that they can, and offer guidance for helping your own school expand.

A history of the "D"

2010-08-17T00:00:00.005+03:00

Why do students get "letter grades," and what happened to the "E"? Slate provides way more information than you ever wanted on this absolutely essential educational issue.

Israel's Core Curriculum

2010-08-15T00:00:00.000+03:00

A new proposed law will withdraw funding from schools -- mostly Haredi ones -- that do not teach Israel's core curriculum, particularly math and English. According to this story (Hebrew), they had better hurry up, because fewer and fewer Israeli kids receive a basic secular education in school.

2010-08-12T13:48:00.000+03:00

Today, Rosh Hodesh Elul, we began reciting LeDavid Hashem Ori (Tehillim 27) which we will say twice a day until Hoshanah Rabbah. It's important that we understand, and teach, what it means. Our friend Rabbi Mark Smilowitz points out the importance of getting the translations right (and the value of Da'at Mikra in helping with that)...

Consider, for example, the twelfth verse of chapter 27 of Tehillim, the Psalm that we recite during the month of Elul. The Psalmist prays for deliverance from eidei sheker veyfayah hamas. A common translation: "False witnesses and those who breathe violence" [Artscroll Siddur] is awkward and obscure. Furthermore, this translation assumes the root of veyfayah is n.p.h., which is unlikely because the dropped nun would have been replaced by a daggesh in the yod. More likely is that the root is y.p.h, which appears nowhere else in Tanakh. Amos Hakham, who wrote the Da'at Mikra commentray on Tehillim, points out that this latter root is common in Ugaritic documents where it refers to witnesses or accusers. Thus he translates the verse as "false witnesses and malicious accusers," maintaining the poetic style and coherence. This is a particularly important example because we recite this Psalm as part of our liturgy, and it is important that our students (and we ourselves) understand what we are saying.

From: Ten Da'at XIII (December 2001), pp. 42-43.

Postmodern Cheating

2010-08-12T00:00:00.000+03:00

Cheating in the information age! Many students don't even realize that there is something wrong with submitting a paper that has been largely cut and pasted from the Internet.

How Many Religious...

2010-08-10T00:00:00.000+03:00

Jews are there in Israel? How many secular ones? New information from Israel's Central Bureau of statistics are in (article in Hebrew).

Does technology make us dumber?

2010-08-08T00:00:00.001+03:00

That's the conventional wisdom: this is your mind; this is your mind on Twitter.... Well, Steven Pinker says that the conventional wisdom is dead wrong.

Can computers take over?

2010-08-05T00:00:00.000+03:00

Amazon.com has a unique way of using computer technology to understand me, what I want, what I need, and what they could sell me. Sounds like a school has tried something similar. The computer learns the student, how she or he learns, what motivates them, and what kind of practices will motivate them. Then, the computer gives them personalized assignments. I wouldn't want to do away with human teachers entirely -- nor does the school -- but it's an intriguing idea.

Frum Fiction Goes Mainstream

2010-08-03T00:00:00.003+03:00

Have Orthodox women writers finally finally hit the mainstream? Jewish Action thinks that they have.

Big, Bad, Bagrut

2010-08-01T00:00:00.002+03:00

I'm not a big fan of Israel's bagrut matriculation exam, but at least one person thinks less of them than I do. Perhaps he overstates the extent to which they are a politicized farce in which the wealthy and sly manipulate the system to get high grades without actually learning much of anything. (Warning: Hebrew!)

Finland

2010-07-29T00:00:00.000+03:00

Okay, so Finland has a great school system, with qualified teachers, cutting edge classrooms, equal opportunities, individualized attention, etc. But that only begs the question of what policy makers have to do in order to bring to a struggling school system to that level.

Brands of the Faith

2010-07-27T00:00:00.000+03:00

Just came across this blog, related to this book, that traces the relationship between marketing and religion. For better or worse the two are totally inseparable today.

The new economics curriculum

2010-07-25T00:00:00.000+03:00

When I was in high school, they tried fruitlessly to teach me macroeconomics. I didn't understand a word. Today, someone at least is teaching more practical things: how to balance a budget, how to keep track of expenses, how to use credit cards effectively, how to plan for a financial future. Strikes me as a vast improvement.

Braille Bee

2010-07-22T00:00:00.002+03:00

Not your typical spelling bee: blind elementary school kids square off in a contest of braille reading.

Cyberbullying

2010-07-20T00:00:00.000+03:00

On the one hand, cyberbullying is getting worse and worse, even as it seems to get more and more banal. (Sorry about overdoing it on the New York Times this week)

Education and the NBA

2010-07-18T00:00:00.000+03:00

The kid may or may not be good enoughto play in the NBA, but how in God's name did he complete high school having taken only two of 16 core courses. I get the distinct impression that our sports-obsessed culture has gone a bit crazy.

Jerusalem's Streets

2010-07-15T09:17:00.001+03:00

Anybody who has ever walked through the streets of Jerusalem knows the nostalgic feeling of identifying the great heroes of Jewish civilization who have been memorialized with street names. Well, it seems that fewer and fewer Israelis know who these people are. The Jewish Review of Books reflects.

If you thought education is expensive...

2010-07-15T00:00:00.002+03:00

try ignorance. Well, it turns out that the cost of education is 15 million dollars ( or, at least, that is the unsustainable an irreplicable cost of turning around one of the United States's worst schools.)

Childrearing: not for the light of heart

2010-07-13T00:00:00.003+03:00

Having children may or may not make you a happier, but it certainly makes you easier and more harried. Upon reading this New York Magazine article, one busy mother told me "Basically, let alcohol carry you along until you can fall back on nostalgia."

Boys who don't like to read

2010-07-11T00:00:00.000+03:00

Here are some book-recommendations for boys who don't like to read.

Can the Teacher!

2010-07-08T00:00:00.005+03:00

In both Israel and the United States, it is incredibly difficult to fire bad teachers, unless they do something criminal or grossly incompetent. Labor unions are that powerful, for better or worse. Slate explains.

Binging!

2010-07-06T00:00:00.004+03:00

Yes, it happens in the best Jewish schools too: underage drinking. New York Times' readers chime in on their own underage drinking experiences.

Duh! Department

2010-07-04T00:00:00.000+03:00

Someone presumably garnered a research grant to demonstrate correlation between actually showing up to class and higher grades. Now that that is a settled...

More on edutainment

2010-06-30T08:27:00.001+03:00

I suppose Israel yeshiva programs are not the only ones suffering from this problem. Stanley Fish reports. Follow-up here.

Affluenza, Religion, Television

2010-06-29T00:00:00.001+03:00

Without more television you watch, the more materialistic you are likely to be, even among the devoutly religious. The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture reports.

Complacency

2010-06-27T00:00:00.002+03:00

I don't have any other way of explaining it. Americans claim that math and science education is critical for a young person's prospects for the future; studies also show American students falling behind other countries in math and science education; yet, American parents think that their kids' science and math education is adequate. I'm not quite sure how that is supposed to work.

Selfish reasons to have kids

2010-06-22T23:59:00.000+03:00

WSJ reports on why having kids makes you happy, or at least not unhappy.

Religion and Media

2010-06-22T00:00:00.000+03:00

Any Israeli religious Zionist circles in the past decade or so, the question of religious integration into Israeli media and culture has received quite a bit of emphasis. One lightning rod for disputes about those issues involves the television series Srugim about a series of thirty-something Jerusalem religious singles. It's a good program, and the Jewish Review of Books captures some of the tensions in this review.

To Klan or Not to Klan

2010-06-20T00:00:00.002+03:00

An award-winning history teacher got into deep hot water when her students, dressed as Klansmen as part of a history project, walked through the school hallway. On the one hand, Klansmen school seems like a bad idea, on the other hand, you cannot teach a sanitized history very effectively.

Neither lettuce nor tomato

2010-06-17T00:00:00.000+03:00

I still can't believe that this is true. A kindergarten teacher confiscated a two-year old's sandwich because it was deemed not adequately healthy.

I'm So Glad It Didn't Work

2010-06-15T00:00:00.001+03:00

Some have adopted the foolhardy and obnoxious practice of bribing students into getting good grades by paying them. Well, at least according to one study, it didn't work!

Books Matter, A Lot

2010-06-13T00:00:00.003+03:00

I know that correlation is not the same as causation, but it seems that the more books a family owns, the more education for kids who will complete (and, any scientific evidence that calls on me to buy more books is okay with me).

Supply and Demand

2010-06-10T00:00:00.002+03:00

Since raising the issue of employer -employee relations in one-here programs in Israel, ATID has paid greater and greater attention to the way in which supply and demand effects the ways in which teachers are compensated. The conventional wisdom says that for every teacher in a one-year program, there are dozens of equally talented people waiting to take the job (something that may or may not be true). It seems we are not the only ones struggling with that problem.

Not the Duh! Department

2010-06-08T23:59:00.000+03:00

The conventional wisdom is that people cannot really multitask, that we can do only one thing at a time. According to this study, if we are motivated enough we can assign two tasks, one to each hemisphere of the brain.

Self-Promotion Department

2010-06-07T20:47:00.001+03:00

The new issue of the Torah U-Madda Journal is now up online which includes (among many other interesting-looking things -- haven't read it yet) a back and forth between me and Meir Soloveichik about Rabbi Soloveitchik's attitude toward religion and public life.

Don't go to college

2010-06-06T00:00:00.002+03:00

At least, don't go to college if you have low odds of finishing. More and more stakeholders are calling for reasonable alternatives to college for the bottom half of the class who still want to reasonable jobs.

Financial Education

2010-06-03T00:00:00.002+03:00

With all the talk about the financial crunch and the tuition crisis, we might lose track of the fact that many Jewish kids don't grow up with great financial worries. The NY Times discusses how to teach them financial responsibility.

The Hot Topic

2010-06-01T00:00:00.005+03:00

Little has gotten more attention in the past few weeks in the educational blogosphere than the blistering critique of teacher unions and their stifling effect on schools, that appeared in the New York Times Magazine. Here in Israel, my impression is that the labor unions among the teachers have even more of a stranglehold, and it does little good for education. But, see this equally blistering response.

The JFS case

2010-05-30T00:00:00.004+03:00

Much you eat

has been spilled and much Jewish educators attention has been focused on the famous (infamous) case in which the Supreme Court of the UK -- citing racial discrimination -- required London's Jewish Free School to accept a student whose mother had converted non-halakhicly. This piece in the Jewish Review of Books does a more cogent job of unpacking the legal issue than any other discussion I have yet to see.

High School Is Not Hollywood

2010-05-27T00:00:00.000+03:00

Stand and Deliver, that inspiring movie, a true story about the master teacher who turns around a group of underachieving poor kids. A real feel-good movie! Turns out they played fast and loose with the facts. It's a much harder to educate than just personal charisma.

Great scores, bad students

2010-05-25T00:00:00.001+03:00

Why you can get great scores on standardized tests and still be a lousy student and unaccomplished adult.

Pay close attention

2010-05-23T00:00:00.000+03:00

If I had to boil down the conclusions of the Hessie (High School Survey of Student Engagement) it would be this: to promote student engagement, take students seriously, listen to them carefully, and to respond honestly.

Why bother listening in class...

2010-05-20T00:00:00.000+03:00

... When you can twitter and Facebook and check e-mails and check if your team is winning and update your blog. Why more and more professors are banning laptops in the classroom.

Children's books

2010-05-18T00:00:00.000+03:00

The New York Times special issue on children's books.

More on play

2010-05-16T15:37:00.001+03:00

We've touched on the importance of play before here, and this new book (at least according to a review) seems to back it up: play is a key to learning and development.

Tefillat HaShelah

2010-05-13T11:30:00.000+03:00

Today, Erev Rosh Chodesh Sivan, is appointed as a particularly appropriate and effective date to pray for one's children (maybe also talmidim?) - that they should be good and upright, that they have everything they need for a fruitful, joyous life.
To download the special prayer composed by the Shelah HaKadosh, click here...

Hate grading papers?

2010-05-13T00:00:00.000+03:00

You can always pay someone in India to do it!

How to Write a High-School Term Paper

2010-05-11T00:00:00.000+03:00

I've always thought that there is something absurd about the high school term paper, but I never quite realized how absurd...

Grade inflation

2010-05-09T00:00:00.002+03:00

Grade inflation on a national level is a known phenomenon. Less well known: rates are higher in private colleges, likely because private schools need to keep students happier in order to attract applicants in the future. Sound familiar?

Not as prestigious but a lot cheaper

2010-05-06T00:00:00.001+03:00

The rise in enrollment in community colleges continues, and it's not hard to figure out why: they are cheap.

Glossary

2010-05-04T00:00:00.002+03:00

The ASCD (the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) offers this online glossary of educational lingo.

Parents can't win

2010-05-02T00:00:00.000+03:00

I was encouraged to see this New York Times summary of research that shows that parents are spending more time with their kids (not to mention getting divorced at lower rates than in past decades). But then I read some of the comments, with people explaining that this is not good news because it reflects overparenting and not giving children adequate independent time. Perhaps there is just a certain fixed measure of parental anxiety free-floating in the air. What ever we do, we will berate ourselves for not doing the opposite.

Economics of Edutainment

2010-04-29T18:54:00.001+03:00

The audio from our very succesful erev iyyun from last night is now up online. Please listen!

RCA

2010-04-29T00:00:00.002+03:00

Most of the attention has gone to the RCA's resolution on female clergy, they also issued a statement about one-year programs in Israel. Frankly, I'm not sure what it adds beyond the obvious -- that parents should be involved, that Israel advisors in high school should have realistic expectations of students and the available programs, that yeshivas and seminaries should provide individual attention and supervision for students. But, such is the nature of consensus resolutions.

Edutainment Erev Iyyun - Tonight!

2010-04-28T08:22:00.004+03:00

Discussion Evening on

"The Economics of Edutainment"

Professionalism & Pedagogy in 'One-Year' Israel Programs with

Mrs. Mali Brofsky, R. Yamin Goldsmith, R. Dani Goldstein, R. Alex Israel

Wednesday, April 28, 20107:30 PM

Hosted by the Israel Center22 Keren HaYesod Street, Jerusalem

CLICK HERE TOREAD THE ESSAYS

ATID recently published two short essays entitled "The Economics of Edutainment," asking hard questions about a declining educational atmosphere in yeshivot and seminaries which educate Diaspora students in Israel, and pointing a finger at a lack of economic professionalism and poor treatment of staff in at least some schools. Many respondents thanked ATID for saying what others feared to say, while others suggested that lamenting problems did little to solve them.

Please join us for an evening of discussion on "The Economics of Edutainment." Four panelists, all experienced educators or administrators in one-year programs for men and women, will raise differing perspectives on the changing landscape of our educational institutions, after which we will make the first steps in convening smaller working groups to help propose solutions to the problems we decry.

PROGRAM

7:30 PMGreetings and Introduction:Rabbi Jeffrey SaksDirector, ATID

Panel Discussion Dr. Yoel Finkelman , Moderator, Director of Projects and Research, ATID

Audience Discussion andConcluding ResponseRabbi Chaim BrovenderPresident, ATID RSVP to ATID02-567-1719 02-567-1719 or office@atid.org

The Jewish Educator's Book Club

2010-04-26T18:23:00.002+03:00

Another in ATID's ongoing series of podcast discussions of the books of interest to Jewish educators. This time, Christian Smith's book, Souls in Transition, based on the National Study of Youth and Religion's examination of the religious lives of "emerging adults."

No Jewish Narnia

2010-04-25T00:00:00.002+03:00

I'm not much of anything in the fantasy, fiction, but I have so many friends who are. I always chalked it up to a matter of taste, but perhaps there is much more to it than that! Why is there no Jewish Narnia?

Atid Forum

2010-04-22T00:00:00.004+03:00

Following up our short essays on "the economics of edutainment," we are planning an evening of public discussion of the topic. We would love to see you there!

The Wikipedia of educational videos!

2010-04-20T12:00:00.000+03:00

Free educational videos on any number of topics.

Outsourcing

2010-04-18T00:00:00.002+03:00

Here is one way to deal with parenting stress, Onion style.

It Takes Guts...

2010-04-15T12:00:00.001+03:00

To put videos of your classroom online so that others can analyze what you do well or poorly and learn from your experience.

Bad advice

2010-04-13T00:00:00.003+03:00

High school students don't always get the best advice about if, when, and where to go to college, and what to major in. We had blogged about the first of Public Agenda's reports here; now the second report, on pre-college guidance, has appeared.

Lemov's taxonomy

2010-04-11T00:00:00.000+03:00

If the NY Times is to be believed, effective teaching is not about funding, not about merit pay, not about federal initiatives, and not even about a teacher's inborn abilities. It is about Lemov's taxonomy: several dozen learnable techniques to keep kids focused.

Religion dispatches

2010-04-08T00:00:00.000+03:00

I just came across this useful website that summarizes and evaluates important religious news in America. Looks like a useful resource.

ATID Jewish Educators' Book Club

2010-04-06T09:58:00.004+03:00

A new installment of atid's Jewish educators' book club podcasts: this time, I speak to with Cheryl Berman, author of Reasonable Doubts, a fascinating new book that combines Jewish philosophy, general philosophy, a poignant memoir, and a discussion of how faithful people can work through and gain from ongoing spiritual and religious crises.

How to cure senioritis?

2010-04-04T00:00:00.000+03:00

Skip the whole senior year.

What if School Staff Meetings were Voluntary?

2010-04-01T00:00:00.000+03:00

If staff meetings were voluntary, frankly, I would just go home, but I'm not a very dedicated teacher.

Rich Jews

2010-03-30T12:00:00.000+03:00

Yup, it's still true. Jews seem to be the wealthiest religious group in America (with Hindus as a close second). Proves the old adage: American Jews earn like Episcopalians but vote like Southern Baptists.

Make Tanakh Come Alive

2010-03-28T20:14:00.001+03:00

An experiential an experiential, hands-on center for the study of Tanakh in a school in Efrat. The Israeli press reports (Hebrew).

Stanley Fish on Religion in Public Debate

2010-03-25T00:00:00.000+02:00

Fish's columns in the NYTimes are, to my mind, a mixed bag, but this one strikes me as clear and well argued. We cannot really secularize debates about public policy, because all normative decisions about the best way to act rely on more than just science and facts.

Jewish Review of Books

2010-03-23T08:31:00.002+02:00

The topics, diverse; the writing, clear; the range, refreshing; and the issues, important. The new, Jewish Review of Books.

The rise and the rise of Yiddish

2010-03-21T12:00:00.001+02:00

How is a Yiddish doing it, on and off campus? Seems like it is doing quite well!

Jewish Day Schools From Several Different Angles

2010-03-18T00:00:00.000+02:00

Following up this short essay on a tough choice to send kids to a Jewish day school, the forward published a series of pieces on related topics. The conventional wisdom is most certainly true: a more diverse group of people are sending their children to a more diverse group of Jewish day schools for a diverse set of reasons. See here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Better Grades on Standardized Tests

2010-03-16T00:00:00.000+02:00

Here is one way to get better grades on your SATs - take the test together with fewer people. According to this research, the bigger the field of competition, the less likely a person used to feel that effort will propel them to the top. Taking standardized tests with a small group of people tends to increase scores. Yet another reason to keep Shabbat and take these tests on Sunday!

College: still important, still too expensive

2010-03-14T00:00:00.000+02:00

The trend continues. Americans believe that a college education is more and more necessary for success, but I also believe that it is economically increasingly out of reach. At least that is what comes out of this Public Agenda survey. The study also finds that Americans think that colleges are being run too much as businesses, with an eye toward profitability rather than maximizing education for as many students as possible. It seems that one year programs in Israel are not the only ones struggling with the economic tale wagging the educational dog.

Stand-Up Educational Philosophy

2010-03-11T00:00:00.000+02:00

Sir Ken Robinson, a stand-up educational philosopher. I'm not in complete agreement with his approach, but it's certainly entertaining.

The Science of Play

2010-03-09T00:00:00.002+02:00

Human beings play, and so do animals. It's critical for neurological and psychological self-development, and it's importance should not be underestimated. One organization is trying to gather all the data and turn "playology" into a legitimate and well-respected science.

We're Not Self-Centered, Media-Saturated, and We Have No Time!

2010-03-07T00:00:00.001+02:00

I have heard the complaint that college students are self-absorbed, technology addicted, have too much time on their hands for petty pursuits, and are not concerned with the greater good unless it benefits them in some way directly. Well, somebody is sure that that is not the case, and they may well be right. It does seem ironic to combat that by offering said college students a cash prize for making a short video telling their own personal story to be posted on YouTube. Am I missing something?

Wikimusar

2010-03-04T16:36:00.001+02:00

Not exactly Nevardok, but perhaps a post-modern alternative: the online musar va'ad. Focused on ex-yeshiva guys who want to keep the flame alive. (Update: it's been moved to here)