Sir Ken Robinson on the trouble with education

Empathy as a source of wisdom

I’ve long believed that the best way to understand yourself is to observe other people, and the best way to understand other people is to look inside yourself.   We human beings are not all that different from each other.

This new RSA Animate video by a philosopher named Roman Krznanc is about the power of empathy – the ability to imagine yourself in someone else’s place – as a means of self-understanding and as a means of understanding the world.

Click on RSA Animate for more videos.  All the RSA Animate videos are well worth watching, except the one featuring Slavoj Zizek.

What keeps people honest (or not)

In this RSA Animate presentation, Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational, tells what experimental psychology shows about what keeps people honest.  Few people are completely honest, few people are completely dishonest, most people rationalize being slightly dishonest.  But when people remind themselves of their moral code, such as by reading the Ten Commandments, they become more honest.  This works for atheists as well as believers.

One interesting finding was the effect of confession, as in the Catholic church.  Ariely found that once people deviate from their moral code, the easier it becomes to deviate from it more and more.  Confession brings you back to the initial state of moral purity.

Click on RSA Animate for more like this.

Click on Dan Ariely Home Page for more from the author of Predictably Irrational.

Hat tip to The Dish.

Being and time

[Hat tip to The Daily Dish.]

Click on RSA Animate for other illustrated video lectures.

Divergent thinking and educational paradigms

My friend Bill Elwell found this interesting.

So do I.  On the other hand, consider Weiler’s Law