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Jonas Koblin Biography

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“INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, n. A program primarily designed for the local elite to showcase their status, signal significance, and sense new networking opportunities. Expatriates, diplomats, and the second languages typically taught by traveling teachers are secondary.”

“HOMESCHOOLING, n. The education of children at any place other than a school—usually by parents, tutors, or a mix of both. Where homeschooling is legal, it follows the public curriculum and tends to grow in correlation with parents’ dissatisfaction with the alternatives. Where it’s illegal, all children are forced to go to school, regardless of affinity, bullies, or circumstances—unless of course there is a pandemic and the adults freak out. See HOMESCHOOLING in the Guide to Alternative Education.”

“SCHEMA, n. A mental template students use to process and categorize new information based on previous experiences. They do so by either assimilation or accommodation. For example, a child might have a schema for a dog that includes features like “four-legged” and “furry.” If the child encounters a cat for the first time, they might initially assimilate it into the “dog” schema. However, when her dad tries to hang a painting on the wall, and she then notices that the dog looks up to his master in full admiration while the cat observes the two in arrogance—realizing that the image is far from being hung straight—the child accommodates this new information by creating a new schema for "cat.”

“BOARDING SCHOOLS, n. Schools based on the idea that it’s good for children as young as six or seven to be institutionalized and raised by strangers. “How I hated this school...what a life of anxiety,” Churchill wrote about his experience at Eton. See ETON COLLEGE.”

“INCLUSION, n. The controversial practice of including children with special needs in classes with the general student population. Some argue for full inclusion, while others maintain that separate programs are superior. Extremists on both sides miss the obvious: children with special needs have special needs—what’s good for them always depends.”

“BOOTLEGGERS AND BAPTISTS, n. A phenomenon in economics in which two groups with seemingly opposing interests join forces to support something that benefits them both. In private, profit-oriented schools, the effect emerges when principals and paying parents work in teams to tell tough teachers to re-grade poorly performing pupils.”