609. Measuring

When it began to get dark, Misha started to look for Nadyezhda. But by then, they were pretty far from that log, and besides, they all had to be home by dark. Misha was pretty upset. He told the other children, and though some got concerned looks on their faces, most were silent as Fyodor…

In strictly behavioristic language, a punishment is an event that decreases the frequency of a behavior, and a reward is an event that increases the frequency. I’m not a strict behaviorist – far from it – but I do like the simplicity and practicality of those definitions. They explain a lot about why certain things…

I’ve always loved taking tests. They’re much easier than real life, for me, because there are right and wrong answers. If you get right answers, people think you must have something going for you. What they don’t know is that what I have going for me is quite simply that I love taking tests. I’ve…

As a teacher, I came to school almost every day with a discussion topic in mind. The topics were similar to the topics of many of these articles, and as with these articles, it took me very little time to decide what to discuss. Not many topics were lead balloons; children had something to say…

Young children spend time in school learning what it’s like in other parts of the world. I’m glad they do; I think the world will be safer and more pleasant if people know more about each other. And since children often operate best on a concrete level, and deal better with simplicity than complexity, teachers…

The word “innocent” comes from the Latin word “nocere” – “to harm.” It does not come from words having anything to do with either knowledge or intention. So if we decided to go strictly by the word’s root, we would call a person “innocent” if the person did not do any harm, regardless of whether…