Category: Education

Second Life Offers Virtual Abled and Disabled Experiences

Some would scoff at the idea of living with an alternate identity in a virtual world, as in the popular Sims games, or the widely-played “massively-multiplayer online role-playing games” (MMORPG). However, since it was introduced in 2003, the online virtual world called Second Life has completely transformed self-expression. Because of its user-friendliness and a multitude …

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What Happened to Our History?

U.S. Students Peform Poorly in American History Exam What were the major battles during the Revolutionary War? Who was Ulysses S. Grant? What did Abraham Lincoln do that was so important? These, and a myriad of other questions, were given to a representative sample of 7,000 fourth graders, 11,800 eighth graders, and 12,400 twelfth graders …

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The Right to Die

In my previous post I talked about the conflict between a women’s rights to choose abortion, and the ethical danger of normalizing the practice of abortion in order to eradicate disability. Medical professionals and parents-to-be may argue that, due to environmental barriers, cultural stigmas, or the lack of available medical options, the quality of life …

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Be Aware. Be Kind. Save Lives.

I started this past Monday afternoon just like any other. I headed to the library to study for my upcoming midterm, put my stuff down at my favorite study spot, and, in spite of my best intentions, opened espn.com on my laptop. In the midst of a sea of headlines persecuting LeBron James for failing …

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Nurture Changing Nature – Power and Responsibility

I was so happy at 2:30 PM on Monday afternoon. I had stayed up until 3 AM the night before watching pointless youtube videos and had been exhausted all morning. The lab for my Molecular Biology course is scheduled to get out at 4 PM on Mondays, but today’s lab was short. I had completed …

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People Comprehension Part III

Last week, I talked about some possible exercises that could be administered in elementary schools that would allow children to develop people comprehension skills. While I certainly think it’s extremely important to begin learning and practicing these skills at a young age, I think it’s perhaps even more important to continue developing these skills as …

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Small Changes, Big Differences

Bicycles Changing Education for Girls For many people, social change is synonymous with completely altering or overhauling the rules of society. There is usually a belief that the lifestyle or principles of an entire group of people are the catalysts to an issue affecting the area. In other words, the reason why a faction of …

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People Comprehension Part II

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about the importance of teaching children people comprehension skills so people can better understand each other, despite differing opinions. Personally, I think this should be part of the curriculum in elementary and middle schools, since equipping children with these skills can enable them to become more open-minded …

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Counterintuitive, but Affordable

Since my previous post in which I brought to light Robert Bach and Peter Kocher’s proposal of eliminating tuition costs for med school students, I have had various interesting conversations with people about potential pros and cons of this plan. On the most part, people agreed with me that such a change to our medical …

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Hello, Hola, Bonjour, Ciao

The Importance of Learning Languages in Schools Languages are some of the most important cultural and social building blocks of humanity. They can be barriers when people cannot understand one another or they can be connectors that bring people together. As countries become more globalized, knowing a second language has become almost essential for young …

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