In the Loop: August
It's the most wonderful time of the year! It's not just for youngsters anymore—old school, new school, we all love Back to School! Does learning ever really end? There are a lot of really smart people who think that there might be something to continued learning:
· "Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself."—John Dewey (the democracy and education guy)
· "Once you stop learning, you start dying."—Albert Einstein (the e=mc2 guy)
· "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose."—Dr. Seuss (the zizzer-zazzer-zuzz guy)
See? Inspiring stuff, right? So this back-to-school season could be an excellent opportunity to learn some new stuff and also get a cool new lunchbox and some brand new kicks. Here’s some ideas to get you started: learn to skateboard; take a cooking class; find out if you’re good at coding; brush up on language skills; take a creative writing class with a famous author; renew your CPR certification; take an exercise class (we’re hearing great things about hula hoop classes). If classes aren’t your jam, take a field trip! Culinary crawl? Historic walking tour? Art museum? Yes, please. Although we also fully support anyone who just wants to smoke pot under the bleachers.
Editing Q&A: How to Format a Reference List
Formatting a reference list can be a Herculean task. Many authors work hard to mimic the appearance of other reference lists, often by manually adding carriage returns and tabs or spaces to give the illusion of a hanging indent. Unfortunately, some of these interventions create problems down the road, even if they look okay in the Word document. A better way to format a reference list (with a hanging indent) is to use the formatting features embedded in Word. Here's how:
1. Select the text where you want to apply your formatting.
2. Find the Format tab in the toolbar.
3. Select Paragraph.
4. From the Special dropdown menu, select Hanging. (Be sure the indent is set to 0.5".)
5. For good measure, check the other settings at this time: Left and Right indentation set to 0"; Spacing Before and After set to 0 pt; Line Spacing set to double.
6. Double check there is no extra carriage return/line space between reference list entries. The double space is sufficient. There should be no double/multiple spaces (i.e., space bar) in any reference.
Here is a very handy (very short) video that will walk you through the process. (The example is for APA format, but the same steps apply for a hanging indent in any style.)
Telling tales out of school.
What's the Diff?
There are a lot of sneaky words out there—those that sound awfully similar to others, but with a different meaning. Here’s the dish on some of those commonly swapped-by-accident words.
Principal (adj.; n.): As an adjective, principal means most important (e.g., principal investigator), main, or primary. As a noun, principal means a person who has controlling authority (e.g., school principal) or leading performer (e.g., principal in a ballet).
Principle (n.): A principle is a fundamental truth or doctrine upon which systems of beliefs and morals are formed, an underlying motivating quality, a rule, or a tenet (e.g., principle of gravity).
Cool Guides
Stuff We Like
If teens suffer so much in school (bullying, conformity, social oppression), why do we force them to go? Rebecca Solnit makes the case for abolishing high school.
Back to school means back to business as Fridays for Future climate strikes resume around the world. Keep it up, kids.
No such thing as a free lunch as Congress declines to renew school meal waivers.
So fresh! Are you ever too old for looking back-to-school cool? (Yes.)
Not all superheroes wear capes, and not all school workers are teachers. Do you know anything about cafeteria workers?
Here is the definitive list of the 33 best Schoolhouse Rock songs by Bob Dorough. Which one is your favorite?
This cartoon explains the many, many subtle ways that colleges and universities discriminate against poor students.
Do you support in-person school or virtual learning? Wrong!
Smashing! When art meets physics, everyone learns.
If you find yourself in certain school environments, it might be helpful to know how many beers are in a keg.
From economics to sex education, Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal outlines what we should have learned in senior year. (Also check out some of his handy grammar guides.)
Those smarty-pants at Merriam-Webster review the best apps for learning a new language.
Bus, sweet bus. This couple lives in a refurbished school bus and plans to visit every state.
Back-to-school styles for literally any age. It’s a relief to know that “coastal grandmother” is a rising trend.
Pay It Forward
Meet Becky Beaulieu!
Becky Beaulieu, PhD, is what museum professionals affectionally call a museum nerd. She has been working in museums since the age of sixteen, doing everything from managing family programs as a teen to her current work as a museum director.
A few years ago, Becky saw a need in the museum field for financial resources geared specifically toward those with exhibitions, collections, and nonprofit administration on the brain. Since many in the museum field have limited financial fluency at best—and recoil violently at the idea of budgets at worst—Becky decided to tackle the topic in her publications Financial Fundamentals for Historic House Museums and the new Endowment Essentials for Museums. Read on to hear about Becky’s trajectory from math malcontent to financial futurist.
If you want to know a heck of a lot about the nitty gritty of running a small museum, then go get your hands on your own copy of Endowment Essentials for Museums or Financial Fundamentals for Historic House Museums.
Click over to the blog to learn about how Becky went all the way from captain of the "I Hate Math" Club* to head cheerleader for the Mathletes. (*That's hyperbole; there's probably no such club.)
