Education today, Clades

I was reading the Education section of the NYTimes the other week and two things struck me, hard!

The first was about the pressure that high schoolers and even younger kids feel about getting into the "right college" and doing all the right things. I guess it's one of those "Gee, when I was a kid, we never had..." sort of moments because, I swear, even in fairly competitive northern New Jersey we didn't stress out THAT much about getting into the right college. Apparently everyone also preps for the SATs nowadays, whereas we used to make fun of the kids who studied hard for the SAT (a little light reviewing of vocabulary lists was ok though).

Then there was the article about parents starting their kids late in school, so that they'd be developmentally and intellectually ahead of the other kids in their grade. Sounds kind of unhealthy, if not a little sick, to me. But then again, I don't seem to be a very driven parent.

I read a little article the other day (was it on Salon?) that made me feel better. It was in reference to a book about how consumers who don't obsess about making the "perfect" purchase, but rather accept a "good-enough" selection, in today's world of overabundant consumer choices might be happier (or at least less stressed). Then the (column) author says that with your kids, maybe "good enough" isn't acceptable; after all, we all say we want "the best" for our children. However, do parents who spend so much time seeking out "the best" for their kids, end up actually spending less time with their kids? Well,I thought the author made a good point, though maybe I'm just happy to feel less guilty since I try to fall on the "good enough" side of things with Maia. I figure that, after all, I turned out ok, right?

Anyway, the second thing that struck me in the Education section was from an article about online learning, particularly for graduate studies. Many people who don't think it's "as good" as face to face learning claim that you can't have the same kind of (and, by implilcation, equally satisfying) interaction . Well, it's certainly true that the interaction is not the same, but anyone who's every participated in an online class knows that the interaction is very intense, very close, though differently "flavored". I think it's obvious that the people saying this have never been involved in an online class in any way.

All right, running out of time but I did want to mention one other book I read, Clade, by Mark Budz. My first time reading him, and it was pretty pleasurable. The story wasn't much, and I'm not sure I really understood what happened in the end, but the description of near-future post-ecocaust Earth was really fantastic.

So, after most of the enrivonment is destroyed, genengineered flora and fauna (umbrella palms to deal with the uv, etc.) now populate most of the earth. However, humans have also been genegineered to survive, and people modify themselves so that they can fit into their restricted environments. Moreover, all the divisions of class, culture, ethnicity, have been codified into biochemical signatures. Now, if you go into a group/area where you don't belong (you're not "claded"), you smell and taste bad things, feel sick, etc. It certainly makes security easier (if you haven't been claded for that expensive condo, you get hives as soon as you step into the lobby)!

Also, the two protagonists, who are lower-class (clade?) people trying to get by, move on up in the world, are very well drawn, feel authentic. Too bad the plot's a bit of a shambles. Anyway, it's always fun to read near-future stories and I think this one handles the combination of familiar and strange very well; I'll read more by this author for sure.