Essays

Adapting Traditional Education to Meet Future Challenges

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Reading Time: 9 minutes In the 20th century, the school as a factory metaphor appeared. Our schools are, in a sense, factories, in which the raw products (children) are to be shaped and fashioned into products to meet the various demands of life. The specifications for manufacturing come from the demands of twentieth-century civilization, and it is the business of the school to build its pupils according to the specifications laid down. Ellwood Patterson Cubberley The school as a factory metaphor worked for the past century, as education mainly was linear: …

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A Small Collection of Feminist Perspectives

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Reading Time: 11 minutes This article is a curated collection of quotes from various perspectives regarding women’s discrimination and the resilience of those who have tried to dismantle systemic biases. This compilation is highly personal, and I hope the following voices will resonate with you, too. Historical Underrepresentation The French philosopher Gilles Ménage, from the XVII-th century, found references to sixty-five women philosophers in ancient texts and works by the fathers of the Church. However, modern philosophy encyclopedias, apart from Hypatia (a renowned mathematician, philosopher, and astronomer who lived in Alexandria, …

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Understanding How the Brain Constructs Our Perception of Reality

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Reading Time: 6 minutes As Professor Alexandru Babeș explains, the human brain contains nearly 100 billion neurons (a number comparable to all the stars in our galaxy) and at least as many glial cells that play an essential role in brain function. On average, each neuron connects with (and receives information from) about 10,000 other neurons, resulting in approximately 10 to the power of 15 synapses (as the contacts between two neurons are called), that is, a quadrillion synapse. Our brain is an incredibly complicated mechanism, so Emily Dickinson’s poem, …

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Tracing the Reach of Storytelling

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Reading Time: 8 minutes In every story told, there lies meaning-making and believe-making. We catch imagery in words and worlds because we alter or construct our reality, shaping how we perceive and interact with everything around us. Storytelling began with simple forms. In his study of narrative development, Arthur Ransome identified two primary types in the dawn of storytelling: the ‘Warning Example’ and the ‘Embroidered Exploit.’  But in the beginning storytelling was not an affair of pen and ink. It began with the Warning Examples naturally told by …

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The Cultural Phenomenon of Jólabókaflóð, Iceland’s Book Flood

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Reading Time: 8 minutes ‘Twas the night before Christmas, in each Icelandic home,   When families gathered, not a soul felt alone; Kleinur and laufabrauð were arranged with great care, As the magic of Christmas filled the crisp evening air. The children were nestled all snug with a book in their hands,   Sailing through sagas and tales from faraway lands; And mamma with her mystery, and I with my book,   Had just settled our brains in our cozy nook. During the Christmas festive season, the Icelandic word Jólabókaflóð makes the rounds …

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How Did English Achieve Its Worldwide Reach? (part 2)

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Reading Time: 9 minutes The English language’s global dominance is no accident. It can be traced back through a three-stage process: the initial spread of English by the British Empire, its proliferation through the two World Wars, and its reach through the soft power of the Internet age. The British Empire, often referred to as “the empire on which the sun never sets”, reached North America, India, Australia, Africa, and Asia. English became the colonies’ official language of administration, justice, business, and education. Proficiency in English was a …

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How Did English Achieve Its Worldwide Reach? (part 1)

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Reading Time: 4 minutes I first became interested in the topic of my thesis [the spread of the English language] while on holidays in Crete; there a guide jokingly told us that if the capital of the island would be destroyed and unearthed a thousand years later, future archaeologists would probably conclude that the inhabitants spoke English because all the shop-signs are in that language. Daniel Spichtinger – The Spread of English and its Appropriation Learning English presents a considerable challenge due to its linguistic irregularities. From spelling and …

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Exaptation, Nature’s Way to Bridge Past and Future

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Reading Time: 7 minutes Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic. Frank Herbert – Dune  Exaptation, a term coined by palaeontologists Stephen Jay Gould and Elisabeth Vrba, refers to repurposing a trait during evolution. Initially serving one specific function, a trait can be co-opted for a different purpose. Charles Darwin was the first to propose that a trait’s function can evolve and change over time. This idea was initially referred to as “preadaptation”. However, because …

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