education

Do you suffer from the education curse?

There’s a phenomenon I’ve long observed affecting the ability of people to write clearly and effectively. Economists and psychologists have referred to the phenomenon as the “curse of knowledge.” In simple terms, it’s what happens when we fail to recognize others don’t know what we do. When we try to communicate with them, we use … Read more

Innovation demands education

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Some companies are constantly focused upon staying at the forefront of their industries. But when you take on the mantle of “innovator,” you also assume the responsibility of an educator. That’s because when you stake out new territory, it’s new to everyone else, too. The advantages and superiority of your new approach may be obvious … Read more

MISTAKES, MISHAPS & EDUCATIONAL SILLINESS

One of the most commonly misused word pairs is flare/flair, but it was distressing to see the Indianapolis Star make that mistake in a recent headline. The item was a brief review of a restaurant that serves Latin American cuisine, and the headline read “Brunch with Latin flare”. I assume they meant that the food … Read more

FOOLS ABOUT SCHOOLS

We’ll continue our ongoing series of typos, wrong words, misspellings, and other goofs with a look at three embarrassing mistakes by media professionals who were covering education issues. There’s a particular sense of unease when mistakes creep into education coverage (or, for that matter, when materials created by schools contain mistakes).

Eagle-eyed typo spotter Steve Gutermuth shared one from the Johnson County Daily Journal. The January 19 headline for an online story on local results of Indiana’s school evaluation system read “After grades drop, school puts pencil to pape.” We’ll assume that will improve its grad.

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SUCCESS STORY: TURNING AMATEURS INTO INVESTORS

How do you make everyday working people feel confident enough about investing that they’re willing to put more of their hard-earned dollars into your mutual funds?

General American Insurance knew that companies have two reasons to encourage 401(k) plan participation: financially secure employees are happy employees, and larger employee contributions mean managers can park a bigger share of their own earnings in the company’s plan.

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