Borland Educational News and Views

Sunday, May 01, 2022

The Lazy Man’s Guide to Enlightenment

Never was a book's title more descriptive.

This dense little book by author Thaddeus Golas is short and very sweet. Takes only an hour to read, but can be re-read again and again, newly each time. By the end of it you'll have no excuse to to remain endarkended.

Talking about enlightenment is like a dog chasing its tail, eating your own mouth, seeing your own eyeballs without a mirror. It's impossible, a futile effort. Paradox and Confusion are the guards protecting the Jewel within the temple. Enlightenment lies outside the realm of words and concepts.

The author acknowledges early on his own reluctance to write the book in the first place, explaining it's really just a personal journal of sorts, written to remind himself of key points and lessons he's learned.

"He who talks about the Truth doesn't know it; he who knows the Truth doesn't talk about it."

Nevertheless, here it is, in less than 100 pages.

End your quest, and realize that you're already (always have been, and always will be) enlightened. Experience (or re-experience) the "Me Decade" of the 1970s and the Human Potential Movement in all its glory.

Read, learn, lighten-up.

The book is out of print and getting expensive. Buy the book here on amazon.

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Contact Chris

borlandeducational.com

Friday, April 01, 2022

PreK-12 Curricula

Public and private schools vary greatly in quality, and parents ought to take responsibility for ensuring each child is learning what he or she needs to learn at every stage.

There's a vast ocean of teaching guides and materials available online. Few parents are professional teachers or education experts, and those without such training or experience will find it difficult to separate wheat from chaff. Those looking to monitor the education of their children or who want to teach or tutor their children at home will need help in their efforts.

For such parents, having access to a reliable curriculum guide is essential. Two that I've found useful are the ones found at IXL and World Book.

The IXL platform is used in schools all over the nation, and a paid IXL account may be worth the investment for your family, given the breadth and depth of their PreK-12 course offerings, excellent learning materials, and sterling reputation.

The Core Knowledge Foundation, headed by E. D. Hirsch, author of the acclaimed Core Knowledge book series, provides free curriculum materials for grades 1-8. I'm a big fan of Core Knowledge Books, and recommend them highly. Based on the excellence of these publications, I'm confident the curriculum materials prepared by the Core Knowledge Foundation will be of similar quality. Interested parents can check them out here.

An excellent resource for teaching young children to read is the phonics-based Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I used this book to teach my own daughter (eager learner) to read at age four. Each lesson takes about 20 minutes to complete, and can be broken up into two parts for kids without lengthy attention spans. The method of instruction is so simple that any parent with a good high school education can implement it easily.

Nowadays, it's quite important to carefully monitor what's taught (and how it's taught) in school. Gone are the days when parents can safely take these things for granted.

Fortunately, there's a lot parents can do to ensure their children actually receive a high quality education.

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Contact Chris

borlandeducational.com

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