I loaded up my Instapaper reading list on my phone, and then burned through all of it within a day or two on vacation. Oops, maybe I should load more next time.

• The Diseases of Affluence
  I liked this article about how the Western world’s efficiency, mostly in terms of food, has changed culture around the world.
• The Danger of Cosmic Genius
  I read this on my phone, then later I realized I had the same article in print with me. Oops. Anyways, it is a story about how a smart guy like Freeman Dyson could be so wrong about global warming. Or is he? Who knows.
• The Myth of Charter Schools
  There has been focus on charter schools being the saviour of American public education, but this reporter does a little bit of digging and finds how statistics and perception have been skewed by reports and documentaries to support this “fact”.
• How TV Superchef Jamie Oliver’s ‘Food Revolution’ Flunked Out
  Yep, reality TV is not reality. While Jamie Oliver put on a series showing how he could fix American school’s food program, it turns out that his approach is unsustainable and doesn’t work! The existing system was doing better with the meager resources that it had.
• Modern Parenting
  A lament on over protecting children in this day and age.
• Alberto Salazar and the New York City Marathon
  The story of how former world-class runner Alberto Salazar is applying technology to train marathon runners.
• Why Making Dinner is a Good Idea
  This article puts forth the hypothesis that making dinner will actually help solve obesity because you will value what you are eating more; just as how you value IKEA furniture more.
• What Makes A Great Teacher
  The answer is not in the millions of dollars that school systems have spent in trying to find the result, but it could be in new data from Teach for America.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: instapaper, schoolsystem, usa