Being a student and a teacher always thrills me. What is education and how do we actually examine our teaching method, students, even taking it to a bigger picture, our education system?

CS Lewis wrote to Dr. Warfield Firor about grading Scholarship Examinations at the end of the term:

…But there is something about this endless examining, quite apart from the labour, which bothers me. It sets me wondering about the whole system under which you, as well as we, now live. Behind all these closely written sheets which I have to read every year, even behind the worst of them, lie hours of hard, long work. Even the bad candidates are doing their best and have been trained up to this ever since they went to school. And naturally enough: for in the Democracies now, as formerly in China under the mandarin system, success in competitive examinations is the only moyen de parvenir*, the road from elementary school to the better schools, and thence to college, and thence to the professions. (You still have a flourishing alternative route to desirable jobs through business which is largely disappearing with us: but it is at least equally competitive).

This of course is what Democratic education means – give them all an equal start and let the winners show their form. Hence Equality of Opportunity in practice means ruthless competition during those very years which, I can’t help feeling, nature meant to be free and frolicsome. Can it be good, from the age of 10 to the age of 23, to be always preparing for an exam, and always knowing that your whole worldly future depends on it: and not only knowing it, but perpetually reminded of it by your parents and masters? Is this the way to breed a nation of people in psychological, moral, and spiritual health? (N.B. boys are now taught to regard Ambition as a virtue. I think we shall find that up to the XVIIIth Century, and back into Pagan times, all moralists regarded it as a vice and dealt with it accordingly). From:  C.S. Lewis, Letter to Warfield M. Firor Dec 3 1950, The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis: Volume III (2007)

Being perfect is not about that scoreboard out there. It’s not about winning. It’s about you and your relationship with yourself, your family and your friends. Being perfect is about being able to look your friends in the eye and know that you didnt let them down because you told them the truth. And that truth is you did everything you could. There wasnt one more thing you could’ve done. Can you live in that moment as best you can, with clear eyes, and love in your heart, with joy in your heart? If you can do that gentleman – you’re perfect!

Coach Gary Gaines Friday Night Lights 2004

The clip says all what I think :)

Now, why are we here?

New research finds that attractive people in the business world or academia may be at a disadvantage when they’re evaluated by a member of the same sex.

Good-looking people have it easier than the rest of us. Considerable research has come to that conclusion, including a 2009 study that found that personal attractiveness enhances one’s income prospects.

But a newly published paper points out an exception to that rule. An attractive person appears to be at a disadvantage in certain academic or workplace situations: specifically, if he or she is being evaluated by a member of the same sex.

“Although physical attractiveness should have little to do with the way people evaluate scholarship applicants and job candidates, we found that both were affected by their level of physical attractiveness,” writes psychologist Maria Agthe of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. In the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, she contends this bias is “rooted partly in the social threats and opportunities afforded by attractive people.”

In other words, while our conscious minds are considering an applicant’s skills and background, our unconscious minds are sizing him or her up as a romantic competitor. (It’s never too early to contemplate the next company party.)

In a paper titled “Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Beautiful,” Agthe and her co-authors, Matthias Spörrle (Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich) and Jon K. Maner (Florida State University), describe two experiments. In the first, 2,639 students were asked to imagine serving on a scholarship selection committee. They were asked to choose among a group of finalists, using detailed information on their grades and extracurricular activities, as well as a photo.

The images were “extensively pre-tested by an independent sample of 40 students” to determine attractiveness. Participants were asked to rank the three finalists in the order in which they would award the scholarship.

“When men judged women, the most attractive target received the first rank in 49.9 percent of the cases,” Agthe reported. “The least attractive person was chosen only 16.5 percent of the time. A similar pattern was found for female participants: The most attractive man was ranked first 42.5 percent of the time. This pro-attractiveness bias was not found for same-sex selections.”

by Tom Jacobs

http://www.miller-mccune.com/business-economics/qualified-but-just-too-handsome-18377/