Micah has questions
about ereaders and
the value of studying Shakespeare.
Micah has opinions
about math education
Stephen Harper
minimum wage
immigrant involvement in government
and politicized school districts that don’t put kids first.
Micah is young
but he is the future;
his critical thoughts
will shape a new nation.
.
.
.
Sitting above the UBC Rose Garden today watching the ocean traffic, and reading while I waited for the art gallery to open, I met this thoughtful young man, and enjoyed an hour of conversation with him. Don’t you just love those brief connections with intelligent, inquiring minds?
Shawn L. Bird 
All the Micahs of the world should be seen, heard and brought into the process of change.
Indeed.
I definitely enjoy talking to young people with some smarts and something on their minds.
As long as he doesn’t believe Shakespeare should be filed in a cellar and e-readers should feature comic strips!
The initial query was whether ereaders work with graphics (like textbooks) I didn’t recommend it, and explained why. He didn’t understand why we teach Shakespeare as the be-all and end-all and I spouted the basics: early English nationalism, language development, universal themes, ‘cultural education in the classics,’ etc. He was irritated with that, but mollified when I pointed out that Shakespeare’s just Engish. That doesn’t mean there isn’t aren’t equivalent authors in many other cultures that play the same role, and that knowing the works of those authors would be valuable for cultural understanding. Say Cervantes, Rumi, Petrarca…