I was a history major in college, and we memorized dates and people. But kids don’t do that anymore. They organize all the information into themes. We punted on textbooks and capitulated to AP study guides that teach to the test.

The last chapter of AP history is globalization. (Note to overachievers: this topic falls under the theme nationalism vs global identity.) The book says globalization is old: “Humans have always engaged in cultural exchange, dissemination of knowledge and the trade of goods and services.” What makes our Internet Age different is how fast the exchange happens.

And the question is, how to keep track of it.

I am always thinking about how to keep track of information because I have all sorts of links that I keep for blog posts.

For example, here’s a link to a patent Amazon just received. It’s for human cages. The human sits in a cage and a robot carries the human around giving the human orders to follow.

The key to having a great internal system for sorting information is to not care. I have too many emotions about the information I read – fear of losing a link slows me down.

I see my child getting overwhelmed with the amount of information they’re dealing with for test taking in college. I wanted them to spend their childhood reading fun, interesting stuff, curled up on the sofa with hot chocolate in their hand and the dog in their lap. Instead they suffocated under flashcards for physics and calculus graphs.

I want to teach them how to sort information quickly, but instead I’m writing this post, trying to find a faster system for myself, and all I can think about is that maybe instead of organizing links I should organize pictures. Maybe all blog posts should have two pictures so that I don’t lose the good ones.

It’s difficult to enforce rules for kids because the more rules I choose to enforce the more work I make for myself. This is true with a six-year-old or sixteen-year-old. Read more

When the CDC placed a moratorium on evictions, 18% of renters had fallen behind during COVID and could be evicted. The CDC warned that we were on the edge of a homelessness crisis. Today that number is 14%. Yet the moratorium could expire this month, and renegade landlords are already pursuing evictions. Read more

Right now schools have no idea how to teach online and kids will go to school irregularly this fall. It will take 20 years for school districts to dig themselves out of the Covid crisis and start thinking about what is actually important to teach. Meanwhile, the US history curriculum is already so outdated that it’s offensive. Read more