Late March: Articles of Interest

Sunday, 27 March 2011

Greetings Upper School Parents:

I hope the first week of Spring Break finds you healthy, well rested, and ready for the actual coming of Spring! Since recent weather has felt more like the return of winter, here is a fresh set of “Articles of Interest” to warm your intellect and contemplation as we enter the second week of Spring Break and welcome the promise of April.

This Sunday’s New York Times cover article Poisoned Web: A Girl’s Nude Photo & Altered Lives, Jan Hoffman reiterates many of the topics and concerns we discussed at the internet safety and awareness program back in the fall. When high-tech flirting turns explicit, repercussions can have serious and lasting implications.

In February’s Anniversary Issue of The New Yorker magazine, Malcolm Gladwell sets his sights on the foibles of the college ranking system. His article The Order of Things: What College Rankings Really Tells Us presents an intriguing, Gladwell-esque analysis of what data is used (and how it is weighted) in determining the annual U.S. News ranking of colleges.

And in further college-related reading, in the current edition of The Atlantic magazine, Caitlin Flanagan’s article, The Ivy Delusion, presents a number of topical issues affirming the importance of “fit and match” in the college selection process.

The current edition of Fast Company offers a comprehensive article on Google’s CEO Larry Page, including the challenges ahead in the increasingly competitive internet landscape.

And from the ‘stranger than fiction’ section, two recent articles from the New York Times address the recent antics of Charlie Sheen and why audiences (and the media) simply cannot look away: When Your Life Becomes a Verb (from 4 March), and Sheen-ology (from 6 March).

Happy reading and with sincere regards,

Sam Wagner
Head of Upper School