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Last friday, I was invited to speak to the third graders at an Alexandria, VA elementary school. It was career day and they wanted me to talk about my work. There was a bus driver, a few policemen, a scientist (a fellow I work with, actually), and me. I was to talk about the advantages of a career in the sciences and engineering.
I forgot how hyper they can get, but I also forgot how much fun it can be to talk to kids that young. My youngest is 2 years older than these kids - teetering at the precipice between proto-humanity and humanity.
In retrospect this might have been a perfect opportunity for me to talk about a word a day - not necessarily the site, so much as the concept. If the opportunity arises again, I'll be sure to find some way to work it in. If the students are a little older, I'll even mention the URL.
k
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear FF: there is a problem with "A word a day". At that rate, a twenty year old would have a vocabulary less than
7300 words. To be able to function today I believe ten
words a day would be minimum.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Just an aside: I'm surprised that schools hold Career Days for third-graders! I think they should bring in super-heroes and pilots and ballerinas. Let children be children for a few more years.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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There has been a deplorable delay in using salesmanship
to help kids understand what's in it for them to study hard.
The advertisers can get them to buy all kinds of junk.
Why not use similar expertise to sell kids on education?
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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That is a good point Dr Bill, but what age are we talking about here? I could never work out the Grade system. Is Third Grade 7 to 8 year olds?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Rule of thumb. Add five to the grade number to get age.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Thanks. Does that carry right on up through the schools so that 12th Grade would be 17 year olds?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Bill,
People acquire words in different ways - through contact with friends, television, family. Also through reading, school, and general study. I think the value of a word a day is to learn a word with which one might not otherwise come into contact. No sense in learning simple words as those are words with which the children should already have come into contact.
This was an urban school, btw. I think they were trying to get kids thinking about their opportunities - not selling them on one thing or another. This school is in Alexandria, very close to D.C. I can well suppose they might share some of the same problems that D.C. has. I just checked their SOL scores - their school is failing. This despite the fact that they have 65 teachers and only 347 students (from their web page).
I think they're desperate to do something to inspire the kids.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I think they're desperate to do something to inspire the kids.
Imbedded in AnnaS' point with "Let children be children for a few more years. is allowing for more inspiration by discovery which then develops within the child a desire to learn and explore which leads to more inspration by discovery which...
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