Headline, June01, 2014

''' ABCs......​. TO..... Ph.Ds AND : O' OH! '''

THE INDIAN DOMINATION of spelling bees may be hard to explain  -but it's just so easy and so beautiful to enjoy.

''I REMEMBER,'' cites the author, ''at the age of 2, trying to read my local newspaper of record  -London's Times-  every morning-

While the toddlers around me were doing more practical things. I don't think the impetus came from my parents:

''India may be known for its Tigers and its mothers, but rarely in the same sentence''.

The government in New Delhi has never been compelled, as the one in Seoul was in 2011, to impose a curfew to prevents from sending their kids to endless after school training, night after night.

Perhaps the spelling domination has now become just a self-perpetuating pattern, the way a few major league baseball players from the small Dominican Republic city of San Pedro de Macoris have led to dozens in every generation.

Besides spelling is no guarantee of moral or emotional or even intellectual success.

ABCs don't always lead to Ph.Ds.

And in terms of impressive knowledge, learning a dictionary by heart doesn't begin to touch the range required even in a game of Jeopardy. Knowing how to cross your  t's  bears:

No relation to knowing how how to mind your  p's and  q's.

But there are many worse things a 13 year old may be doing than learning how to spell  ericeticolous and kaumographer   -and most 13 year olds are doing them.

Given India's record in the Olympics, even Japan, has claimed at times it needs to take educational cues from India.

Of course, when a  13  year-old Arvind, from Bayside Hills, N.Y.. spelled a yiddish word for a small dumpling correctly, one is moved   -almost- to learn the spelling of trichocercous.''

And on the same hand,......North Korean University has just awarded its first degrees:

Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, North Korea's first privately financed university, awarded its first degrees last week to  44  master's students in such disciplines as:

Electrical and Computer engineering, international finance and management, agriculture and life sciences. The university's first intake of undergraduates will graduate this fall.

Most graduates will teach in North Korean universities or work as government advisers and administrators. Norma Nichols, the university's director of international academic affairs, said.

Founded and financed by evangelical Christian groups, mainly from South Korea and the United States, the University opened in 2010.

It has  500 students, selected by the government. Classes are conducted in English.

And Indonesia is experimenting with an online learning program in an attempt to reduce the number of children dropping out of education.

Five schools   in Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan and West Nusa Tenggra  -will take part in an  ''open high school''  pilot program, set to begin in July this year.

Students who are not accepted in public schools can enroll, and the Ministry of Education offers incentives such as scholarships and Internet-equipped tablet computers.

An estimated one million to  three million Indonesian students aged 12 to 18 drop out of school every year  

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of  North Korea. See Ya all on !WOW!  -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

'''For Superstars'''

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless