Comments for Papyrus News

Comment on Enrolling my Kids in Japanese Kindergarten/Daycare (Hoikuen) by Mark Warschauer

Mark Warschauer — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:25:45 +0000

We submitted our income tax form from the US and they accepted that. However, we both had visiting scholar positions lined up in Japan and got letters from our Japanese universities indicating our time commitment for research, etc. Without two working spouses, I’m not sure if it’s possible to qualify for a hoikuen, though a yochien might presumably be possible.

Comment on Enrolling my Kids in Japanese Kindergarten/Daycare (Hoikuen) by LittleJapanMama

LittleJapanMama — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:14:01 +0000

Thank-you so much for this post! Just what I was looking for!
I have a question. I called a kuyakusho to ask about this, and they told me that I need an income tax return and a certificate of witholding tax from the previous year, *from Japan!*. However, we have been living in Australia until we move to Japan. Does this mean that we cannot apply for childcare for the first year? Or is a tax return etc from Australia ok? In this article it seems that you were able to enroll in childcare pretty much immediately after moving to Japan. My husband is Japanese and I’ll be on a spouse visa.

Comment on About that Silicon Valley Waldorf School by John

John — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:41:07 +0000

I think these silicone valley execs know something the rest of us don’t. I.E, kids don’t need technology in education until they are older. I think it has little to do with the elite nature of the school, but rather a pronounced rejection of computer technology in the learning environment. I don’t think it’s about being in an ‘elite creative environment’ either. My son goes to a public Waldorf charter school. He’s in a large class (no 9 to 1 ratio here) and he learns and reads voraciously (just finished 7 Harry Potters in 3rd grade). I don’t know about private waldorf schools but our school ‘allows’ tv watching, computers and the like on the weekends, and my son eats that up too. He loves star wars and video games when we allow him. I would just take issue with the concept that we need computer technology in the classroom in order for kids to learn. My personal experience has shown the contrary.

Comment on How to Write a Statement of Purpose for a Ph.D. Program by kamal

kamal — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 15:59:04 +0000

thanks Mark, really helpful…

Comment on What Happened to “Hole-in-the-Wall”? by John Handy

John Handy — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:39:24 +0000

Only a racist mind that did not believe that 14 year old Indian slum dwellers were not as intelligent as 2 year old Euro/Americans could have loved the experiment called “Hole in the Wall”.

Just think what it did: It just placed a screen with a keyboard or touch screen in front of some slum children who had no access to anything in life. They did something with it as they would do with anything and someone went to make a career out of it, tried to found a business and EVERYONE who was pressured to buy the idea in India is so upset with it but that was the power of NIIT and their networking that they could push it down the throats of several junior bureaucrats and get several experiments started.

I remember someone who chastised a European or American film maker who came to make a film on Hole in the Wall and when he said that, the guy was told to get his brain checked.

In fact its one of the dumbest ideas promoted by a nice guy who looks quite agreeable and I hear that even a man like Negroponte was taken up by it because it could have aided his cause.

But take off your charmed glasses and just begin to think about it. What a dumb idea and what a mileage good networking and public relations could give it?

Comment on About that Silicon Valley Waldorf School by Mark Warschauer

Mark Warschauer — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:37:59 +0000

Thanks for your comments, Stephen. They reaffirm one of my main points, which is that the main issue is creativity. I noted with interest that George Lucas also sends his children to Waldorf. Lucas is obviously not against technology in schools; the organization he founded and directs, Edutopia, is probably one of the strongest proponents of technology in schools in the country. The goal is, as you say, to foster imagination, creativity, and understanding, with the appropriate tools at the appropriate time.

Comment on About that Silicon Valley Waldorf School by stephen

stephen — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:30:06 +0000

As a Waldorf parent, I would like to shed a little light on Waldorf education and dispel a few myths. First of all, most Waldorf schools encompass families from a broad range of socio-economic levels. Most Waldorf schools have a well funded tuition assistance program for struggling or single-parent households. Second, there are several (over 30 and growing) publicly funded charter schools across the country that are adopting some or all of the ‘waldorf method’. This includes the main lesson block system, teachers staying with the same class from 1-8th grades, use of art and music in the curriculum, and encouragement of parent volunteerism. Third, it’s not just about the rejection or introduction of technology. It is much more about the belief that a child needs to be a child, to create an environment for the young pre-schooler and lower grade student that fosters imagination, creativity and understanding of his or her physical world, to introduce ‘age appropriate’ learning as a child progresses through the grades and to incorporate the community as much as possible. To not only teach to the mind, but to incorporate ‘the head, the heart, the hand’. Waldorf has never been about elitism or pretentious college prep learning.

Comment on Has the $200 Educational Laptop Arrived? by Dan Maas, Ed.D.

Dan Maas, Ed.D. — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:03:05 +0000

We are evaluating the X101 in Littleton as well. We quite agree that the hard drive space is of little concern the differences in processor are marginal (perhaps only differentiating the model between elementary and secondary applications). But the real key is the battery life. When the original ASUS EeePC was introduced, the 3-4 hour battery life was the biggest obstacle we faced. We certainly could make it work with lunch-time charging habits, but we anticipated that over the life of the device, that battery life would degrade significantly. To be truly useful for a student in a 1:1 laptop class, battery life needs to sustain for several hours at the minimum. So if the X101 comes with a 6-cell battery, it will definitely find a place in our fleet.

Comment on How to Write a Statement of Purpose for a Ph.D. Program by varuniiml

varuniiml — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 10:23:43 +0000

Thanks Mark…

Comment on What were Steve Jobs’ test scores? A response to the NY Times by Julia Lupton (@juliaLupton)

Julia Lupton (@juliaLupton) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 15:15:29 +0000

I think the other thing that was important in Ritchel’s article was the emphasis on teacher training, teacher quality, and class size as factors in learning. Technocrats at university as well as primary and secondary school levels would like to diminish the human factor as much as possible, by putting money into equipment instead of instructors. But if Johny is shooting every tank, and not just the ones with the right numbers in them, then he isn’t learning anything. I remember the “learning stations” of my own middle school years: a box of color-coded cards for self-directed learning with no teacher in the room. Very little happened in those settings. Any of us who uses social media and multimedia in our classrooms knows that using technology effectively means more work for the teacher, not less. This fact needs to be acknowledged in budgets, implementation, and policy discussions as we move forward in a world in which yes, everyone who wants to earn a living and have a say will need to be on line.