Monthly Archives: October 2013

I <3 books

The Guardian: Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming. “A lecture explaining why using our imaginations, and providing for others to use theirs, is an obligation for all citizens.”

“Fiction has two uses. Firstly, it’s a gateway drug to reading. The drive to know what happens next, to want to turn the page, the need to keep going, even if it’s hard, because someone’s in trouble and you have to know how it’s all going to end… that’s a very real drive. And it forces you to learn new words, to think new thoughts, to keep going. To discover that reading per se is pleasurable. Once you learn that, you’re on the road to reading everything. […] [W]ords are more important than they ever were: we navigate the world with words, and as the world slips onto the web, we need to follow, to communicate and to comprehend what we are reading. People who cannot understand each other cannot exchange ideas, cannot communicate, and translation programs only go so far. […]

And the second thing fiction does is to build empathy. When you watch TV or see a film, you are looking at things happening to other people. Prose fiction is something you build up from 26 letters and a handful of punctuation marks, and you, and you alone, using your imagination, create a world and people it and look out through other eyes. You get to feel things, visit places and worlds you would never otherwise know. You learn that everyone else out there is a me, as well. You’re being someone else, and when you return to your own world, you’re going to be slightly changed.”

Link via MetaFilter.

New York Times Magazine

Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science? “Hint: The answer has more to do with ‘The Big Bang Theory’ than with longstanding theories about men’s so-called natural aptitude.” By Eileen Pollack.

And Then Steve Said, ‘Let There Be an iPhone’ “An age of darkness ended with a searing light, which shook the earth, and the great device was rendered unto thee.” By Fred Vogelstein.

Die so genannten Bildungsexperten

Aus der Zeit:

Bildung: Die Stunde der Propheten. “Bestsellerautoren verkünden die Schulrevolution, allen voran der “Hirnforscher” Gerald Hüther. Mit Wissenschaft hat das alles nicht viel zu tun.” Von Martin Spiewak.

Und schon etwas älter, aber trotzdem relevant:

TV-Premiere: Precht macht dumm. “Sonntagnacht trat der Bestsellerautor Richard David Precht erstmals mit eigener Sendung auf. Statt Philosophie war jedoch ein Sermon zu hören, frei jeglicher Kontroverse.” Von Maximilian Probst.

Die Pilotsendung habe ich letztes Jahr in der ZDF-Mediathek zum Teil angeschaut, ganz habe ich es nicht geschafft, weil mich der Inhalt zu sehr aufgeregt hat. Komisch, dass es nie studierte, ausgebildete und berufserfahrene Lehrer sind, die mit einer wunderbaren Heilungs- oder Revolutionsidee für die deutschen Schulen auftrumpfen. Das müssen immer “richtige” Experten machen, weil wir Lehrer ja offenbar keine Ahnung haben. </Sarkasmus>