Andreas Schleicher on Research on Education

We also see that that parental involvement isn't about having an academic degree as a parent or spending hours of time on homework. It's really the interest parents show for the education of their children. For example, when parents regularly ask their children, you know, "How was school today? What did go wrong?" We can see those kids actually having a significantly higher performance at school than kids -- even kids from wealthy neighborhoods where parents do not show that level of engagement.

So if you have children, or nieces and nephews, ask them, for example: How was school today? What did you learn? How did you do on your test? What did you see on your field trip? How were the other kids in the class?

Salil Shetty on the Right to Education

From an Amnesty International perspective I would say the biggest dream that we would have for education is to actually make the right to education a reality for every single child and adult in the world.

We mustn't think of education, though, as exclusively the sort of education we Westerners have come to know. The education that people from different cultures, communities or villages need may be something unique - that is, in terms of content, language, platform, forum and delivery.

Irina Bokova on Education as Means to an End

I do believe in the first place that education is one of the best investments in order to achieve sustainability in any development but particularly girls. Because in many parts of the world girls are a synonym with poverty in the rural areas. Girls are the marginalized communities in the communities. There are still a lot of stereotypes and because poverty has sometimes a women's face.

Bokova also suggests that education ought to be based on values, or, as in The Core Algorithm, it must have an end in mind.

Bill Clinton on Essence of Meta-Learning

The most important thing I learned is that it's important to keep on learning.

Meta-learning - learning how to learn, learning something about learning - is a crucial skill, value and habit to nurture.

Fundamental Contradiction of Tanning

Gotham Glow Owner and CEO Tamar Vezirian discusses spray tanning for the Oscars:  I'm like a tanning ninja!

In some segments of society, those with dark skin, or at least darker than usual skin, are often targets of discrimination.  Yet, in other segments, people go to such lengths to get a tan - via sunbathing or Vezirian's spray tanning.  Darker skin somehow looks fit and healthy, maybe glamorous and wealthy as well.

Go figure.

To understand people, we must acknowledge these fundamental contradictions and account for them in our explanations of how they think, feel and behave.  It is part of what I call The Human Algorithm.

Social Reality of Michael Sam

Michael Sam

Sam and his teammates at the University of Missouri showed with their 12-2 season that gay players not only aren’t a problem, they can be vital contributors and role models. It’s allowing intolerant behavior like throwing around gay slurs that truly “chemically imbalances” a team.

It’s funny how these anonymous executives paint the picture of NFL teams as so fragile that the addition of one openly gay player could throw the whole organization into chaos. Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Riley Cooper was videotaped saying the N-word last offseason, and went on to be a key cog in the team’s surprise NFC East division championship. The Miami Dolphins were embroiled in a hazing scandal between linemen Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin. The team managed to come one victory from the playoffs. The New England Patriots lost tight end Aaron Herndandez to a MURDER TRIAL and still made AFC Championship Game. Locker room distractions are overblown. If the Eagles and Dolphins could survive despite those scandals, teams shouldn’t have any problem rallying around a positive story like Michael Sam’s.

Reference: Hey NFL, Your Anti-Gay Hypocrisy Is Showing.

Forbes posted this article on their Google+ page, and writer Brian Solomon offers well-argued comebacks to clear prejudice among NFL personnel about Michael Sam.  But commentary among us `plussers, including mine (italicized below), was moving in a different direction:

Can he play the game? Yes. Can he perform the duties required of him on and off the field? Yes. Do his attractions matter to anyone? No. What's the problem?

Am I already tired of hearing about it? YES 

Chris as a football player and person I believe you're right. Pretty soon I'm gonna have to come out and say I'm straight. Hope that works out for him.

It's the story sportswriters have been itching for since Jason Collins broke. People are people. Can we just enjoy the game without WWE-like story lines all of the time. I thought the XFL folded in the 90s?

I very much agree with you. But in our social reality, our sexual preferences do matter. I'm not just referring to anti-gay sentiments. Rather, there is such history of prejudice and discrimination that we must bring certain issues to national awareness and government policy, in order to defuse, manage, and resolve them.

A caller to ESPN 1000 radio said he was frustrated, and felt Michael Sam's openness should not even be a worthwhile topic for sports talk. He's a football player, so let's just talk football. Personally that's what I'm interested in. But, again, like it or not, being "an openly, proud gay man" is an issue.

It's only an issue because the media makes it one. Just like when they use the racist card. 

The media does stir things up, and even shape people's opinions. But it probably works vice versa, too. That is, people also influence what the media covers. If people want to talk about something, then media will give them a place to talk about it. 

*

The Theory of Algorithms is about taking reality as it is and things as they are.  What I refer to as our social reality is part and parcel of another integral section in my conceptual framework:  The Human Algorithm.  People are people, and they are the way they are.  

In Michael Sam's situation, I encourage us to seek first to understand others - the way they are - before we push to be heard and understood (rf. Stephen Covey).

Theory of Algorithms - Video Narration

Here is my video narration of the five articles introducing Theory of Algorithms (click on video title to read the corresponding article):

Lecture 1 - A Beautiful Matter

Lecture 2 - Every Problem has a Solution

Lecture 3 - From Split-Brain, to Meta-Brain

Lecture 4 - The Tripartite Model

Lecture 5 - Theory of Everything

© 2013 by Ron Villejo, PhD