- Powerful video about the effects of bullying (very moving – a must watch) (thanks @ClintClark)
- Lovely NYT article “Investments in education may be misdirected” – citing James Heckman (who I hero worship) “The angry, worried debate over how to improve the nation’s mediocre education — pitting the teachers’ unions and the advocates of more money for public schools against the champions of school vouchers and standardized tests — is missing the most important part: infants and toddlers.” (thanks @JohanFourie)
- Insanely talented kids playing the Violin/Cello – see here. I was very moved by watching this – humans are awesome (from Chris Blattman)
- Nice infographic about Christianity around the world (thanks @DariusMeadon)
- What Americans keep ignoring about Finland’s school success
- Tyler Cowen writes a wonderful NYT article about Economics “A profession with an egalitarian core“, I include one quote of his on emigration: “There is an overriding moral issue. Imagine that it is your professional duty to report a cost-benefit analysis of liberalizing immigration policy. You wouldn’t dream of producing a study that counted “men only” or “whites only,” at least not without specific, clearly stated reasons for dividing the data.So why report cost-benefit results only for United States citizens or residents, as is sometimes done in analyses of both international trade and migration? The nation-state is a good practical institution, but it does not provide the final moral delineation of which people count and which do not. So commentators on trade and immigration should stress the cosmopolitan perspective, knowing that the practical imperatives of the nation-state will not be underrepresented in the ensuing debate:”
- UNESCO guide “Practical tips for teaching multigrade classes“
- After a relaxing weekend with the cool cats from Cape Town I was reminded about a couple interesting websites I’d forgotten about for a while – number27.org (think computer scientist meets fine artist), vine (like 6 second video for Twitter – not sure if this is a fad or the shiz), Kiva.org (only the easiest way to lend small amounts of money to people on the other side of the globe!)
Nic Spaull 
Hi Nic
Did you see the article about bullying in the Huisgenoot of September 2012. (When the teacher start bullying) I’m in such a position now and still await answers from the WCOD.
Hi Anneline
I wasn’t aware of the Huisgenoot article. You may be interested in the new (2013) TIMSS report (available here: http://timss.bc.edu/timss2011/international-results-mathematics.html) They show international comparable statistics on bullying across about 50 countries. Just search the full report for bullying.
I hope your situation gets the attention it needs,
Nic