CRANKY PROFESSOR MICHAEL TINKLER reveals the dirty little secret of public — and private — school: Most of the time there is wasted. You spend about 30 minutes a day actually learning stuff, and the rest “engaged in learning activities — which means “not learning stuff.”

The best teacher I ever had was Mrs. Priscilla Dunn, who taught me second grade at the Louis Agassiz Elementary School in Cambridge. She let me spend most of a month reading through the whole set of Childcraft encyclopedias, instead of doing busywork at my desk. A few of the more officious second-grade girls were offended, but it was time well spent.

UPDATE: In a weird example of synchronicity, anonyblogger Godless Capitalist points out that the Cambridge school board just voted yesterday to change the name of Agassiz elementary to the Maria Baldwin School, after the first African-American to head it. Stephen Jay Gould’s characterization of Agassiz as racist was repeatedly invoked.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Jason Strauss sends this link to a Harvard Crimson story. My favorite quote: “‘I don’t think we were taking someone else’s name off so much as changing the name,’ said Cambridge Mayor Michael A. Sullivan.”