🎁 Just read *The Pie, The Penny & The Pyramid* by @GaryHouston — the graduation gift I wish I got at 18. 🍰 Pie = Priorities 🪙 Penny = Paycheck 🔺 Pyramid = Purpose Real talk for teens entering the workforce. Buy it. Gift it. Change a life. 📚 amzn.to/3XYZ123 #Adulting #GradGift

While we read Greek authors such as Homer, Sophocles, and Plato, the goal isn't to treat their works as distant scholarly objects but to help students perceive the broad contours of Western civilization. Two orienting themes help: • Reason, individuality, and virtue in Greek literature • Monotheism, obedience to the law, and piety in the Judeo-Christian tradition These themes can serve as lifelong organizing principles, both for one’s personal life and for understanding the tradition we inhabit. With more advanced study in high school and beyond, students should trace the long arc of Western civilization: the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, Romanticism, and Modernity. These should not be mere topics in a history book but lived experiences, achieved by engaging with authors who articulate foundational ideas.

Student outcomes began dropping around 2012, and I’ve seen many blame the Common Core. My retort has been consistent: More likely, it was the Ed Tech. I’m pleased to see @JonHaidt echoing the theory in his latest. (Link below) More on my thesis: The CCSS arrived in K-12 at the same time as tablet technology began fueling a drive toward 1:1 student-device ratios. I think we all know which shift captured more energy and educator time and imagination. As one indicator: the @ISTEofficial conference has been the largest US educator conference, by far, over the last decade. I could go on about the number of organizations that sprung up in praise of tech-enabled learning, including the federal Office of Ed Tech. It’s fair to ask: What did we get for all that investment? And is Ed Tech one of the distractors from the goals of the newer, higher, not-perfect-but-broadly-better standards?

A thread with deep meaning 🧵:

I asked Grok .. about Vaclav Smil and his thoughts on AI.. worth the look x.com/i/grok/share/0nm5pV5h1…