Hiding in plain sight for over 40 years...

I love it when a word surprises me.  Some old word I've gotten used to just ups and throws me a little surprise party: "Look at me anew -I've had this clue hidden in me all along."  The last time I remember this happening was with my thought that December should be the 10th month ('dec'!)

This morning I read that that the word quarantine comes from holding ships suspected of carrying the plague from docking for 40 days back in the middle ages.  I've used this word by entire life and I've known that the french word for 40 (quarante) as well but never made the connection simply because in english we pronounce it "kworanteen" and in french it is "kharante".  Of course, the reason they picked 40 back then is because the Bible has plenty of examples of 40 days being the go-to number for trials and probation.

I could feel dumb, but instead I feel delighted.  Thanks for the coming-out party, my old friend 'quarantine'!

Cart before the Horse?

Soft skills, soft skills, soft skills!  This is all I hear these days in education circles.  This never has resonated for me; better to learn the physics first than to talk about it first.  Sure, sure - get 'em to do both is best - but I'm a believer in learning the foundational stuff first.  Today, I feel like I had an additional insight into the drumbeat of "people skills", "collaboration skills", and "they can just look up information on the web nowadays so stop teaching them those facts and basics".  Here's the insight:  High profile business leaders, when faced with 100 applicants that have the requisite skills, notice that those with good people skills rise to the top and are the best future managers.  But it's easy for them to forget that all of these elite applicants already have the quantitative reasoning skills needed to get the work done.  Here's exhibit A from today's New York Times:

Michael Bloomberg is being interviewed to give advice to today's business student for future success.   After saying "what's important in education is how to deal with people...In the end, it's people skills you need.  A lot of the facts you memorized are immaterial." (there it is, the drumbeat of 'stop teaching facts'!), he then goes on to explain how getting fired turned out to be lucky because he used his severance package and "my electrical engineering degree to begin my own information technology company...".  See - that electrical engineering degree is just background noise - he's assuming it in the mix.  But kids reading his advice will miss that part and think "Bloomberg says business degree + people skills = success".

Of course I agree that people skills are important in real life and not emphasized in school.  But are schools really the place you want kids to learn all their people skills and leave those electrical engineering skills to be picked up somewhere else?

First the horse then the cart can be pulled.  Sure you need both, but a pretty cart ain't going nowhere on its own.