Thoughts from a reflective educator.
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Wired Magazine recently reported an interesting story about a study suggesting that massive changes in the size of a species could taker as long as 24 million generations to occur. This process is very slow, and part of the reason it takes so long is that there is no one directing the evolution of the species; it happens as a result of a series of incremental (and sometimes contradictory) selective adaptations of the species to its environment.
I hate being interrupted in the middle of a good learning session with my students. It has happened hundreds of times in my career because of an archaic device we use in schools known as a clock. The clock itself isn't evil, but the way we use it in schools has serious ramifications on how our students learn.