No. 21: Taking a long break, colleges face the downside of hybrid learning, and mindlessness in school falls flat
Small breaks bring incremental changes. Take a long break to change your life.
First, some numbers:
300 - New independent bookstores have opened in the US in the past two years.
5% - The US has reached the critical EV tipping point of 5% of new car sales. Trend history points to 25% EV new car sales by 2025 - two years ahead of forecasts.
9.1% - US inflation rate jumps 1.3% from May.
The value of taking a pause
We’re often reminded to take breaks during our day. The suggestions include standing up from our chairs, a workout or walk, or maybe even a nap.
We hear less of the value of taking longer breaks. Harrison Ford walked away from acting before his big break. Steve Jobs studied as a monk before starting Apple.
And for students, that could mean taking a gap year or a semester off from college.
In Praise of Giving Up
At age 30, Harrison Ford was a failed actor.
He’d discovered his interest in acting late, only taking one class during his senior year of college. When he graduated in 1964, he went to Los Angeles to try to make it, but languished in mediocre roles for years.
Between 1964 and 1970, Ford had minor parts in a few TV series and the occasional voice acting gig. But his career wasn’t progressing, so he put it on hold, and got into carpentry instead.
That divergence ended up changing his life.
Read further at Infinite Play
Student engagement falls, and colleges wonder: ‘Are we part of the problem?’
TL;DR: Fewer students are showing up to class and turning in work on time. Is it ongoing COVID stress and illness-related, or part of the challenges to remote and hybrid learning?
Some of this perceived disengagement undoubtedly is a symptom of the ongoing health crisis, which exposed many students to new degrees of illness, stress and competing responsibilities in their personal lives.
“What we are hearing is students are personally overwhelmed, emotionally overwhelmed—and facing financial hardship, technology issues and difficulties with child care that are preventing them from logging on,” says Tim Renick, founding executive director of the National Institute for Student Success at Georgia State University.
But declining student participation may also stem from the challenges inherent to remote and hybrid learning.
It’s often said that online courses offer students increased flexibility—supposedly a positive quality. Yet another way of putting it might be to say that online courses shift the burden of creating structure off of institutions and instructors and onto students themselves.
Read further at EdSurge
School mindfulness lessons don't work for teenagers
Giving teenagers mindfulness lessons at school to boost wellbeing is largely a waste of time, a major UK study has found.
The technique, which encourages people to meditate and live in the moment, was no better than what schools were already doing for mental health.
Many pupils were not that interested in using the method, calling it "boring".
Hundreds of teachers and thousands of pupils at 85 different secondary schools took part in the experiment.
Read more at BBC
Till next time…
Plan on the plan not going according to plan. - Morgan Housel, The Psychology of Money
Jobs image credit: Adioma