Borland Educational News and Views

Tuesday, March 01, 2022

Atlas Obscura

I came across this book in an all-night gas station convenience store, of all places. With coffee in hand, a few minutes to spare, and the purchase of a birthday present on my to-do list, I read a few pages and was entranced. I picked up one for the birthday girl (our adult daughter), then ordered an extra copy for me.

For anyone who's adventurous and likes travel, Atlas Obscura is a great read, an awesome reference book, and a truly unique trip planning guide. The book lives up to its name, directing adventurers to obscure, fascinating, odd-ball destinations at home and abroad.

From amazon's description of the first edition:

"It's time to get off the beaten path. Inspiring equal parts wonder and wanderlust, Atlas Obscura celebrates over 700 of the strangest and most curious places in the world.

"... the dazzling glowworm caves in New Zealand, or a baobob tree in South Africa that's so large it has a pub inside where 15 people can drink comfortably. Architectural marvels, including the M.C. Escher-like stepwells in India. Mind-boggling events, like the Baby Jumping Festival in Spain, where men dressed as devils literally vault over rows of squirming infants. Not to mention the Great Stalacpipe Organ in Virginia, Turkmenistan's 40-year hole of fire called the Gates of Hell, a graveyard for decommissioned ships on the coast of Bangladesh, eccentric bone museums in Italy, or a weather-forecasting invention that was powered by leeches, still on display in Devon, England.

"Created by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras and Ella Morton, ATLAS OBSCURA revels in the weird, the unexpected, the overlooked, the hidden and the mysterious. Every page expands our sense of how strange and marvelous the world really is. And with its compelling descriptions, hundreds of photographs, surprising charts, maps for every region of the world, it is a book to enter anywhere, and will be as appealing to the armchair traveler as the die-hard adventurer.

"Anyone can be a tourist. ATLAS OBSCURA is for the explorer."

Buy the second edition here (100 more destinations, and more).

Check out the official website here.

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Contact Chris

borlandeducational.com

Tuesday, February 01, 2022

Freerice

At freerice.com students of all ages can learn everything from basic arithmetic to art history, world geography, anatomy, and English grammar and vocabulary, while earning grains of rice to donate to the United Nations' World Food Program (WPF).

"Rice" is used as a metaphor for donations generated by users of the site that sponsors then fulfill. Each correct answer stores 10 grains of virtual rice for donation to the WFP. Sponsors then give the monetary equivalent of all rice collected to the WPF to fund its charitable work around the globe.

From the site:

"The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. We are the world’s largest humanitarian organization, delivering life-saving food assistance in emergencies and working with vulnerable communities to improve nutrition and build resilience."
Freerice is a great way to learn while helping others in need throughout the world. The site generates billions of "rice grains" each year, a total of 224 billion to date! Caring students get smarter while making the world a better place in a concrete way."

For anyone who loves learning, it's hard to imagine a better way to have fun.

FAQ here.

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Contact Chris

borlandeducational.com

Saturday, January 01, 2022

When Adult Children Send Parents on Vacation

One of the joys of parenthood is when you travel halfway around the world on premium plane tickets bought for you by your now adult daughter who paid for them with spare money she’s earned after going through the American high school and college meat grinders and coming out the other side with a senior job working for a top 10 tech company along with a wonderful husband and beautiful baby girl and close family members in five countries on four continents.

Enough said.

But I’ll say more.

There are moments when one realizes it’s worth it. To struggle and worry and win and lose and strive and push and crawl in the dark without a “how to” manual or the slightest assurance of success for years and years to bring to your child something that you, yourself, never had. What I always needed, but never received, was the reliable backup, love, and guidance that only a father can provide. But I did give that to our daughter. Together with the font of light and love and fine example of womanhood provided by her mother, it seems to have worked well.

The parenting my wife and I gave our daughter was far from anything resembling perfect. But it was good enough. And that’s good enough, apparently.

No one knows the future, and that's fine. No pressure. The point is that I was able to discharge my duty as a dad. And it feels good to know that.

[Girl in the picture not our actual daughter.]

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Contact Chris

borlandeducational.com

Wednesday, December 01, 2021

Coaching v. Tutoring

Academic Coaching is a specialty in the field of private practice education.

How has academic coaching evolved? What's the difference between ordinary tutoring and professional academic coaching? When is it wise to hire an expert, despite the higher cost?

The purpose of this article is to clarify the distinction between ordinary tutoring and academic coaching and help answer these salient questions.

Historically, private tutoring was the way most education happened, the primary means by which critical knowledge and skills were passed from one generation to the next.

Whether the subject matter is hunting mammoths, learning Latin, sewing a dress, playing piano, passing the bar exam, or mastering basic algebra, nothing beats one-on-one private instruction with an engaging, expert private teacher. Indeed, it's been said that the best possible educational setting is "yourself, Aristotle, and a log."

[Continue reading here.]

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Contact Chris

borlandeducational.com

Monday, November 01, 2021

The Most Fun You Can Have With $100

Micro-financing makes seed capital available to poor people who want to start their own business but simply cannot afford to get the started.

The opportunity to rely on themselves, to think realistically of a day when poverty will be a thing of the past for themselves, their families, and possibly their communities, as well, is an enormous blessing for all concerned.

None of this happens easily, of course. Much hard work and dogged determination will be required to make these micro-businesses into growing, thriving, profitable success stories.

But most of these dreams do, in fact, come true.

As the business owners get to work, and start seeing their labors bear fruit, beliefs in scarcity and the inevitability of poverty start evaporating. These outcomes would be impossible without the initial loan of seed capital by small-scale venture capitalists like you and me.

That's where micro-lending site Kiva comes in.
Kiva brings together low-income would-be business owners in 70+ countries with small-scale funders to help make dreams real.

As a Kiva member, you deposit a fixed sum (say, $100) into your Kiva account, and then lend it out to one or more applicants applying for financial seed money to start their businesses. Would-be business owners post info about their themselves and their business aspirations to make it easy for funders to decided where to loan their money (country, type of business, picture of themselves, etc.).

Once the money you've loaned is repaid, it returns to your account, so you can lend it out again ... and again ... and again and again and again! Kiva boasts a 96% repayment rate (!), so your original investment of x dollars can easily have the impact of 5x or 10x or more!

Becoming an active Kiva lender is certainly one of the best ways to spend $100 and a half our every few months (and one of the most fun.)

Kiva is given the highest rating (for stars, 90%) by Charity Navigator:

Check out Kiva for yourself.

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Contact Chris

borlandeducational.com