Filed under: Education, Elementary Education, Parents, Private School, Students
image credit: jesse newman for TIME
Here’s another entry for my List of Reasons Why I’m Justifiably Pissed About the Lack Of Time Machines: the Blue Man Group started an elementary school. And if you know anything about elementary school, then you’ll be up on the pertinent info regarding age restrictions for enrolled students. I was eligible in, like, 1980 to attend the Blue School’s kindergarten. So you see why I need a damn time machine.
The school itself sounds amazing, and I really want a do-over so I can attend. But possibly more wonderful than the school is the reason for starting it up in the first place. The founding members of the Blue Man Group– Matt Goldman, Phil Stanton, Chris Wink—started their oddball performance group as “sort of a support group for people whose creativity had been all but squeezed out of them by education,” says Wink. “At one point, we asked, What if there was a school you didn’t have to recover from, that didn’t make you question the idea of being creative?”
image credit: NY Post
The Blue Man philosophy plus the Blue Man Group bank accounts added to the appearance of Blue Man Progeny equaled the formation of The Blue School. It’s a private school in Manhattan, so it’s not cheap. But it’s imaginative, has a good soul, AND it’s an accredited school. I’m happy and am thinking good thoughts for the kiddos who get to go. I hope they understand there will be nary a sympathetic ear should they ever bitch about their elementary education.
Further Reading and Viewing:
NY Post: Blue Man School
Time Magazine’s Video of The Blue School
The New Yorker: Cool for School
Posted by Alexa Harrington
Actually what you want is an inverse time machine. A time machine is like an automobile; it keeps what is inside fixed but changes its exterior position. A time machine keeps the time position of its contents fixed but changes its external time position.
An inverse time machine keeps its external position fixed but changes the position in time of its contents. So what you want is an inverse time machine that runs in reverse.
If I recall my general relativity rightly there is such a thing. A particular type of black hole has the radial coordinate become timelike inside the event horizon so you can in principle make time run backwards. There are, of course, other engineering difficulties.
The shul idea is intriguing and enthralling, especially the nondamaging part. It sounds quite similar to some of what Clausewitz wrote about in his memoirs of his work on education. Seems rather a better place for a nerd than the public shuls.
Comment by Simple Country Physicistt 01.01.09 @ 6:39 am@SCP: Well that sounds easy enough–I just need to find myself one of those black hole whozits, right? It might be wise of me to read the warning label first, as I’ll need all of my physical being to remain intact after the trip, and I need the future me and her life (mate and offspring) to not be altered. If the physicists and engineers have figured out how to make my ride back to 1980 and back a smooth one, then sign me up! Otherwise, I’m going to have to call “Tech-Phobic Pansy!” and wuss out.
P.S. I’m not familiar with Clausewitz in reference to education, but I’ll check him out.
–Alexa
Comment by alexa 01.01.09 @ 3:37 pm