Sara Aridi, Isaac Aronow, Erica Ayisi, Sarah Bahr, Elise Baron, Annemarie Conte, Natoria Carey, Karen Chesley, Nancy Coleman, Kathy Curto, Dana Davis, Anna Diamond, Shannon Doyne, Mary DuBard, Jeremy Engle, Ruby Epler, Nina Feinberg, Vivian Giang, Caroline Gilpin, Michael Gonchar, Emma Grillo, Annissa Hambouz, Isabel Hui, Jeremy Hyler, Leissa Jackmauh, Shira Katz, Varya Kluev, Yana Krasnitskaya, Rachel Lederer, Katy Lukens, Kathleen Massara, Lindsey Mercer, Sue Mermelstein, Kristen Milburn, John Otis, Fran Pado, Kim Pallozzi, Olivia Parker, Ken Paul, Natalie Proulx, Tom Rademacher, Abby Reisner, Steven Rocker, Alexandra Rodriguez, Lauren Rosenfield, Dan Saltzstein, Katherine Schulten, Juliette Seive, Rachel Sherman, Lara Sorokanich, Ana Sosa, Sydney Stein, Melissa Su, Mathilde Tanon, Alexandra Ten, Tanya Wadhwani, Kimberly Wiedmeyer, Ana Paola Wong, Elisa Zonana
The thing that is so precious about life is the fact that it’s not forever — you get an unpredictable amount of time to make a difference on this earth before you cross over. I, like many others, would rather live a short and fulfilling life than a long and boring one. There is beauty in knowing that you could fall into a pothole or get hit by a car at any moment, every second turns into an opportunity, a gift to keep going. I used to absolutely hate the idea of my candle burning out, but as Greek philosopher Epicurus argues, “Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not?” Is death not just as important to a life as birth? To me, really living is making your flame burn as bright as possible, so that people can feel your fire years after the wax is melted. We really don’t know when we’re going to go, but we do know that we’re here right now. The opportunity, the potential to make change is what being alive means.
While the idea of living forever sounds appealing at first, I would not want to. Sure, you would get more time to explore every corner of the earth and learn all the things your heart desires, but the beauty of life lives in one thing: the small moments. Getting home after practice and having that nice shower, your favorite song coming up on shuffle, seeing your dog after a long day of school. Having such a short time on earth is what makes the little things so special. At some point these things will become so monotonous that living loses its spark, which is why I would not want to live forever.
I wouldn’t want to live forever but I would personally want to live long enough to see the year 2100 and see my grandkids. I personally think that living forever would be more of a curse than something to want because you would see all your loved ones die and I just feel that it would just be depressing to see.
Living forever might seem cool but when you think of it deeper, it changes your mind. If you lived forever, you would watch all your friends and family members and even pets pass away. You would watch so many problems happen like wars, deaths, natural disasters and a lot more. You would also watch the world end. What I mean by that is, when the sun explodes or something crazy happens that ends Earth, you would just be floating out in space with your own thoughts forever. That is why I wouldn’t want to live forever.
3. Below the response box, there is an option to click on “Email me when my comment is published.” This sends the link to your response which you can share with your teacher.
4. After you have posted, read what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting a comment. Use the “Reply” button to address that student directly.
On Wednesday, Feb. 26, teachers from our collaborator, the American Statistical Association, will facilitate this discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time.
5. By Friday morning, Feb. 28, we will reveal more information about the graph, including a free link to the article that includes this graph, at the bottom of this post. We encourage you to post additional comments based on the article, possibly using statistical terms defined in the Stat Nuggets.
Reveal
We’ll post more information here by the morning of Friday, Feb. 28. Stay tuned!
• Learn more about the notice and wonder teaching strategy from this 5-minute video and how and why other teachers are using this strategy from our on-demand webinar.
• Sign up for our free weekly Learning Network newsletter so you never miss a graph. Graphs are always released by the Friday before the Wednesday live moderation to give teachers time to plan ahead.
• Go to the American Statistical Association K-12 website, which includes teacher statistics resources, Census in the Schools student-generated data, professional development opportunities, and more.
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
1. After looking closely at the image above (or at the full-size image), think about these three questions:
2. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say.)
3. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.
Each Monday, our collaborator, Visual Thinking Strategies, will facilitate a discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time by paraphrasing comments and linking to responses to help students’ understanding go deeper. You might use their responses as models for your own.
4. On Thursday afternoons, we will reveal at the bottom of this post more information about the photo. How does reading the caption and learning its back story help you see the image differently?
The Reveal
We’ll post more information here by the morning of Friday, Feb. 28. Stay tuned!
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email transcripts@nytimes.com with any questions. name is Annie Nichol, and I’m a writer and an advocate for survivor-centered justice and healing in public policy. If you were aware of the news in the 1990s, chances are, you remember the name of my sister, Polly Klaas. I was six when a stranger broke into our house and abducted Polly from our bedroom. She was 12.
And over the next two months, there was a nationwide search for her. The story around her kidnapping became a national spectacle. News crews were camped out on our doorstep for weeks on end. And her name was just constantly in the headlines and being mentioned on news programs every night. Tragically, the investigation ended with the discovery of her death. Her killer was caught and convicted, but that was really only the beginning of the sensationalism.
As I got older, I started realizing there were strange ways people were telling my sister’s story, in ways that made her kind of unrecognizable to me. And what I want people to understand about true crime is that this isn’t a benign form of entertainment. We all know people who consume true crime. There are plenty of people that I love and respect who do. But I think not enough people are aware of what it’s like for victims and survivors to have their stories exploited and commodified for entertainment.
Polly’s kidnapping coincided with this trend of true crime becoming an increasingly prominent part of mainstream media.
There are just countless books, docuseries.
— that recount in very graphic detail the worst things that have ever happened to real people. And given how much true crime is driven by this insatiable demand for it, it’s important that we reckon with the harm that it causes.
And I’m acutely aware of how the media’s obsessions with high profile cases are often used to justify the expansion of mass incarceration and how they can contribute to these broader injustices in our criminal legal system, which is certainly the greatest harm of all.
It was difficult for me to feel a sense of justice in the decades after Polly’s death. Even though her case was solved and the person responsible for her death had been convicted, I grew up watching politicians weaponize my sister’s innocence and use her death to pass Three Strikes laws, which have dramatically worsened our crisis of mass incarceration over the past three decades.
And to me, it felt like, as true crime became more of a mainstream obsession, our legal system actually became more reactionary and more fixated on punishment and fundamentally less just.
And this is why we can’t talk about true crime without thinking about the collateral consequences on our legal system because one of the consequences of sensationalizing these high profile cases is that the public perception of national crime rates actually become dramatically inflated, when crime rates have actually been in decline for decades. We end up with these punitive policies that are created to address a distorted perception of a problem, rather than the empirical reality of how harm happens.
There have been numerous true crime productions and books about Polly over the years, but I’ve never once been asked for my consent from the people making these projects, who go on to profit off of our trauma. But in the past few years, a few have reached out to ask me for my memories. And aside from how manipulative those messages invariably were, they would often offer up details about the case that I had tried to avoid in service of my own healing.
And recently, I remember just how angry and helpless I felt, just lying awake at night, trying to calm my nervous system and just wishing I could find some way to explain to these people that my memories of Polly are all that I have left of her that haven’t been exploited for public consumption. It honestly stunned me that they would have the audacity to ask for something so private and precious.
To truly dismantle cycles of harm, we need to amplify survivor stories on their own terms. And we need to embrace the solutions that they’re pioneering in their own communities. I work with a survivor-led organization called Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice, and they advocate for policy change and safety solutions, like establishing trauma recovery centers in the most vulnerable communities and reentry services, which are all an essential part of public safety.
Through this work, I’ve learned that listening to survivors shouldn’t feel like watching a Marvel movie. It shouldn’t be an adrenaline-fueled experience that makes your heart race. When you’re truly listening to survivors with care, your heart should be slowing down. I believe that is the only way that new dimensions of justice and healing can become imaginable for us.
Do you ever experience sudden bursts of intense emotions — like joy, sadness, anger or anxiety — that can sometimes feel overwhelming or difficult to manage?
Do you wish you could deal with your feelings better?
Emotions are a fundamental part of what make us human. They can be overwhelming, complicated or quiet — but we experience at least one emotion 90 percent of the time, according to a 2015 study that examined the emotional lives of more than 11,000 people.
This finding doesn’t shock Ethan Kross, the director of the Emotion and Self-Control Laboratory at the University of Michigan, who has been studying the science of emotion for over two decades.
What did surprise him, however, were results from another study, which found that about 40 percent of participants believed that you can’t control your emotions.
“I was really floored,” Dr. Kross said. “If you don’t even think it is possible to manage your emotions, why would you ever try to do it?”
He contends that emotions, even negative ones, are information, and that we can often find ways to make them work for us. It’s not possible to control every part of our emotional lives, said Dr. Kross (who admits that he sometimes still feels fear before he has to speak publicly). But people who are good at managing their feelings, he said, are less lonely, live longer, maintain more fulfilling romantic relationships and are more satisfied with their lives.
Ms. Dunn shares some lessons from Ethan Kross’s book “Shift: Managing Your Emotions — So They Don’t Manage You” to help navigate the emotional curveballs that life throws at us every day. Here are excerpts from the first two:
You don’t always have to ‘process’ your emotions.
The prevailing wisdom in therapy and on social media is that we should face negative emotions head on — and that if we don’t, they will fester inside of us, Dr. Kross writes.
There’s no doubt that coping with stressful situations through chronic avoidance is harmful and can lead to more psychological distress, he said. But the trouble with the “avoidance is toxic” argument is that it assumes that all avoidance is bad, he explained.
Sometimes, it’s best not to choose between approaching or avoiding, but to shift between the two intentionally, he said. Avoidance can allow the intensity of a negative experience to diminish, and it can provide distance that helps us see the experience from a broader perspective, he explained.
How can you figure out whether to avoid or to confront your feelings? Dr. Kross suggested asking yourself, “Is what I’m doing making me feel better about the problem in front of me? Is this issue still a concern after I take some time away from it?”
Talk to yourself in the second person.
When we use the word “you,” it is almost exclusively to refer to other people, Dr. Kross said. But when you use it on yourself, it’s a tactic known as distanced self-talk, which can be a powerful way to regulate negative emotions.
In a 2017 study, Dr. Kross and his colleagues found that people who used distanced self-talk to regulate their feelings showed signs of feeling better within seconds.
So instead of saying “I’m stressed out,” which may cause your heart to race, tell yourself “you’re stressed out,” he said. This casts you in the role of “someone else,” and may help you feel more compassion and empathy.
Do you have big feelings? If so, describe a recent time when you experienced powerful and intense emotions. What did it feel like — mentally and physically? How did you feel afterward? Do you think that those strong emotions had a positive or negative affect on you or on those around you?
What role do your emotions play in your life? Do you think that they are ever a problem or issue? If so, how?
Do you wish that you could control or manage your feelings and emotions better? Why or why not? What strategies have you used to navigate them? Have any of those strategies been successful?
What do you think about the strategies presented in the article, like talking to yourself in the second person or recognizing that your senses are an emotional superpower? Which, if any, do you think you might try to use in your own life?
Dr. Kross says that people who are good at managing their feelings are less lonely, live longer, maintain more fulfilling romantic relationships and are more satisfied with their lives. Does that resonate with your own experiences? What benefits have you seen in your own life when you manage your emotions in a healthy way?
What did you learn about emotions from the article? Were you surprised that a study from 2007 found that about 40 percent of participants believed that people can’t control their feelings? What more would you like to learn about the emotional life of humans — or about your own?
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
What do you think this illustration is communicating? How does it relate to or comment on society or current events? Can you relate to it personally? What is your opinion of its message?
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
The word peripatetic has appeared in 42 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on July 23 in “‘Time Bandits’ Review: A Flatter Adventure” by Mike Hale:
As it follows the peripatetic adventures of the bandits — from visits to the Maya empire and plague-ravaged medieval Europe to battles with dinosaurs and demons to confrontations with Pure Evil and the Supreme Being, the Mutt-and-Jeff deities of the “Time Bandits” universe — the show is unfailingly clever, visually interesting and at least mildly amusing.
Daily Word Challenge
Can you correctly use the word peripatetic in a sentence?
Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.
If you want a better idea of how peripatetic can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com. You can also visit this guide to learn how to use IPA symbols to show how different words are pronounced.
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Not knowing impacts buyers and vendors when discussing an LMS, LXP, and other platforms
Many are too long, but okay, a lot are.
Some request specific information that any vendor would have to spend an inordinate amount of time on.
Then the prospect (you) places a timeframe when the RFP has to be returned, ignoring the fact that by having an extensive RFP and many questions that are not honestly relevant to what you want OR are so vague, a vendor says, “yes” to everything.
Depending on your vernacular, it would be unreasonable for any vendor to spend more than a week on an RFP or RFI.
I wouldn’t do it regardless of who you are—the simple fact is that the vendor is not guaranteed to win the deal or provide you with a demo.
Nor is there any awareness from the vendor if you have already selected someone or are forced to by a higher-up—perhaps your conglomerate friends.
Section 2
Should the potential client provide any insight beyond what they present?
I say no, but with caveats.
When a vendor receives a lengthy RFI/RFP, I consider long to be anything past 10 pages.
I say this because you should have seen the demo already and asked extensive questions, with requested follow-up, before deciding whether to use RFP or RFI—depending on your vernacular for the type.
Thus, seeking additional insight with that RFP – the term I prefer – zeros in on more specifics.
That said, many people nowadays, okay, even in the past, blast away an RFP without seeing the system first.
This is how you get the 50-page, 200-page RFPs—as a vendor and then as the potential buyer spending all this time.
Who has that much time?
You can get your AI agent or use ChatGPT, but that would be a huge mistake.
In the meantime, a vendor is placed into a situation nobody should be in.
Complete or not.
This gets back to the “What you don’t know.”
I mentioned caveats in this situation.
It would behoove you to decide whether you want to waste your time and the vendor’s time if you have zero interest in seeing the system.
I never understood why people base their whole decision-making process on sites such as G2, whereas there are comments from others who may or may not have used the system.
Plenty of us – including myself, receive these “We will give you an Amazon gift card for X” if you leave comments.
I get them from Trust Radius all the time.
Another site with comments.
You shouldn’t buy anything, let alone inquire about a system like purchasing something from Amazon.
When I present my awards, I aim to say, “Check out these systems for further analysis.”
If you see a potential fit, then move forward.
The potential fit isn’t just talking to the vendor; it is seeing a system demo.
Not the other way around.
I recommend this same strategy when you use FindAnLMS (my platform) with the awards or any other insight.
You can skip FAL, read my analysis, and contact the vendor in this manner.
The time point is where I am going here.
Section 3
The Salesperson – how much do they know about the system?
This is the biggest misnomer in the industry, and so many vendors have no idea it’s happening.
However, some vendors are aware of this and are okay with it. Here is how it works – and surprise, it slides under what you don’t know.
You assume that the salesperson knows the system’s ins and outs—sans technical questions—because you think they have seen the entire system and asked questions to the product team, their head of sales, or someone in the company.
Fun fact – many do not.
When I say many, I am referencing the majority.
It is baffling how someone talks about the system in initial discussions if you ask but then lacks the information when you push deeper into the conversation.
If you are buying a house, the salesperson should know the ins and outs of the house.
Ditto on you taking your car to a mechanic.
A salesperson should be the initial expert here because you rely on them to present factual and accurate information.
This information will tell you whether to move forward and see the demo.
If not, you toss this system aside and look elsewhere.
How many times when you are viewing the demonstration, there is another person driving the system—i.e., showing you the system, following through on everything you ask, and knowing the system in detail?
If they do not know, they ask and tell you they will get back to you, which falls under the salesperson.
I can state the response rate for your inquiries that they do not know, and well follow-up is unacceptable.
I digress.
So someone is driving it. The term is often solutions consultant; however, a vendor will also refer to them in other terms.
The salesperson is on the call as well, I guess, seeing the demo and then answering any questions about X or Y.
Especially when it is the “I will follow up.”
I have been on calls where it is evident that the salesperson is doing something else rather than paying close attention to what you are asking.
This person, the salesperson, is your point of contact here.
The person who will impact you moving forward or not.
Is that what you want?
Section 4
The use case and getting back to the RFP will be huge factors.
I will bring back the RFP because the person completing the RFP isn’t always the salesperson.
I bet you didn’t know that.
Some vendors have another person who completes the RFP.
This person, you would assume, is more of an expert than the salesperson.
The vendor receives a lot of RFPs and they lack the time (remember above), so they have another person or multiple people handle it.
Many vendors see the same questions and then take a cut-and-paste approach.
Time here.
Let me ask you a question: What if the product management folks know more than the salesperson because new capabilities are being rolled out in short order or coming in, say, the next couple of quarters?
Do you believe the salesperson is aware of that?
The majority are not.
It is a silo game.
The same applies to the use case you present.
The more detailed you go – something I have written about and would happily send you an example to save you time.
A lack of details leads to a tornado of misinformation.
The vendor should have multiple people review that use case.
Yet, so many do not.
And that is a failure on their part.
You are unaware of this, or perhaps you never thought about it.
The team approach should be
Salesperson – the more they know about the use case, the better it is for everyone
Someone on the product team should know what is coming now and in the future because your use case may involve seeking items not yet available but in the pipeline.
A technical expert from the vendor. Many people ask technical questions about the systems they need to connect to the platform because it currently does not.
A support person—Many use cases fail to provide this as it relates to the impact of the current situation. If users are switching from another system or are new, they genuinely need to understand the process and mechanisms of a support department.
A review team – Pick an expert from the company to review all this information and make sure it is 100% accurate based on the use case you provided
Realize that your decision-making will be based on that use case.
The vendors themselves are pushing to show that the use case aligns with what they can offer.
The demonstration should be intertwined with that use case, something a vendor should do instead of following a script or proceeding first as if it were a list.
Never tell a vendor your budget.
They all want to know if your use case, follow-up questions, and demonstration will drive how they present to try to land you. Yes, in the use case, present the number of people you want in the system and whether you are going to roll it out to a few people and then move on.
Still, you are pigeonholing yourself into a box by providing the budget.
Section 5
The Price Game
Vendors go two ways about this: firstly, when it comes to the price they present to you.
It is either the assumption that you will further negotiate or the “discount” is a load of baloney because the price is a street price, which they never sell the system for.
I’m sure you have seen online ads or visited a site that offers a 25% discount on the retail price.
No, it isn’t.
Because that retail price point is magic beans, where the magic isn’t accurate – it’s just beans. . Now, consider that when a vendor says the system’s price is usually ABC, they give you a CDE discount.
They never pay attention to selling you the system at ABC unless they are just slimeballs, in which case, yeah, they will do it.
Then, other vendors go high, knowing or assuming that your procurement flows will negotiate or select a vendor at a lower price point.
Yet, they fail to recognize that you have procurement, but you are still the final decision maker.
Equally, there are companies where the decision maker isn’t the person who says they are the decision maker because, behind the scenes, there is a power struggle.
I’ve seen this with IT, who thinks the system is just another system like an ERP, and therefore, they should control it.
Plus, I have seen it where the shadow person has the CEO’s ear, and thus, even if you are running the department, that decision goes elsewhere.
The vendor is unaware of this.
This is especially true around you being the actual decision marker, regardless of IT, or you won’t have the power struggle or have procurement make the decision.
The procurement game is tricky because you may have the final say thus going high backfires.
As a vendor, you ask if the person you are talking to is the final decision-maker.
It can fail and irks the person.
Some people say they are the person who will make the final decision.
The vendor now knows.
Section 6
Pay Upfront, and we are buddies!
Don’t go into the active user angle.
It’s garbage.
Vendors either follow the long-time method of bundled pricing or go with range pricing.
Overwhelmingly, the vendors will require you to pay upfront.
Therefore, how do they know how many active users will be using the system?
I can count on my hands three times over to name vendors who invoice each month, and thus active implies – one is Eurekos.
I can count the number of vendors who will offset the cost with a semi-refund, but it goes into the second year as if you are dealing with a telecom.
It’s a shell game.
The idea that every vendor, and therefore the salesperson making this offer, should provide detailed pricing explanations is that they are psychic.
If they are, how come they haven’t won the lottery?
They are not knowledgeable about the active users when you pay upfront.
Too many people believe in focusing on the active user pitch, ignoring the final price they pay.
Did you know that?
Section 7
AI and your system to be or already your partner
Bottom Line
Knowing is crucial today.
A vendor should know what it is selling, how its salespeople are actually presenting it, and ensure that the salesperson is constantly being trained on the system.
For vendors who push the whole assessment piece in their systems or clients who want an assessment component in the platform, I often wonder why they do not test their salespeople on their knowledge of the system and its functionality.
Wouldn’t it be great to see their scores and ratings?
You can view all the salespeople at the company, read about their strengths and areas for improvement, see what content they are taking on product knowledge, and get a score.
Maybe Billy is outstanding in understanding the potential client’s needs and how to present them in a demo.
His score is 4.6
On the other hand, while polite, Steve never has the product team review the information you have presented. Instead, he relies on his gut to determine what is in the system.
Score? 3.5
The downside?
Steve works in your region, so you are stuck with him.
That would be a fantastic way to get to the truth.
At the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show this week, over 2,500 canine contestants tried to measure up to a set of exacting breed standards and competed for the coveted best in show award. Did you watch?
What do you think of the winner, Monty, a dignified giant schnauzer, who beat out a whippet, a Skye terrier and the fan-favorite German shepherd for top honors?
Have you ever thought about entering your own pet into a similar competition? Why or why not? If so, which talents, abilities or skills — such as agility, obedience or adorability — would you want to showcase?
How would you feel if your pet won? What about if they didn’t?
Tell us in the comments, and then look at these behind the scenes photos to learn more about what it takes to compete for best in show at Westminster.
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
