The Left-Handed Advantage

/ Dave Eberwein / 8 Comments

Being a southpaw, I loved writing this particular post. I had a smile on my face the entire time, so be warned — I’m riding a wave of superiority at the moment.

As great as left-handed people are — we have suffered in silence for a very long time. While we make up about 10% of the general population the world has been constructed for ‘righties’. We have had a rough ride:

I despised these desks in university
  • Scissors — Just try using your left hand. Go ahead and try — I dare you;
  • Door knobs — made to turn to the right which is physiologically easier for righties;
  • Automobile manual transmission gear shifts — unless you’re in England, Australia or a small number of other places;
  • 3-Ring Binders — impossible for lefties to write on the right side of the rings where most lined paper is designed because our wrist is actually hooked when we write;
  • Ball-point pens — don’t work well for lefties because we push the pen rather than pull it;
  • Computer keyboard number pad — always on the right side;
  • University theatre desks (see above) – arrgh!
  • Can openers – arrgh again!
Continue reading →
Pages: 1 2

We’re Doing Some Great Things in Public Education

/ Dave Eberwein / 2 Comments

I speak and write a LOT about the need for change in public education — necessary change because we haven’t yet met every child’s potential. That might be an unreachable target, but it doesn’t mean we should give up trying to be better than we are today.

I’m not naive to the notion that my desire for change might leave a perception of ‘doom and gloom’ about public education — that we aren’t doing anything correct at the moment.

And that’s simply not true.

I am proud of many things that we are currently doing in our schools, primarily due to the efforts from our teachers and administrators — true innovators in our system.

Pages: 1 2

Change Can Be Difficult in Education – Well, We Need to Get Over That!

/ Dave Eberwein / 2 Comments

Full disclosure … I like predictability.

Predictability doesn’t equal Innovation

I like knowing that certain things have order and certain outcomes will occur. My science training conditioned me to make order out of disorder — to put things into virtual ‘buckets’ of similarities. I am conditioned to align characteristics and form inter-relationships between things.   Once something is in a bucket I prefer that it stays there and doesn’t move.

Predictability brings me comfort.

Predictability = Security

Pages: 1 2