¶ When we peer into China’s mid-term future, we’re usually pessimistic, and nothing augurs worse, in our view, than the current dynasty’s inability to address the size of Beijing, which really ought to be a very small city or, even better, an urban version of Colonial Williamsburg showcasing the Forbidden City. Like several other world cities — Los Angeles, Petersburg, and Mexico City (Denver also comes to mind) — Beijing is situated in an environment that cannot support large human populations. Problems of water supply and/or air pollution intractably ensue, and in Beijing’s case both are quite bad. Edward Wong’s story about plans to transfer very large amounts of water to the capital from elsewhere in China points ultimately to an official fecklessness that does not bode well for the future of the Chinese Communist Party. ¶ The Calhoun School, over on the other side of Central Park, has a history of embracing progressive ideas about education. The school year there is currently divided into five terms, and instead of 45-minute classes there are 2 hour 10 minute blocks. Quoth senior Robert Ronan: “There are some classes that lend themselves more easily to 2-hour-and-15-minute classes and teachers that can do that, but I sort of feel like a lot of the classes are the same, just stretched.”

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
This entry was posted on Thursday, June 2nd, 2011 at 10:30 am.