SE CHRONICLE 684

T IME TO READ

19 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

TIME TO READ

John Adedoyin, OSE and Governor Freakonomics by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner Why are CEOs paid so much? Why do most drug dealers live at home with their mothers? Why are estate agents not really bothered about how much they sell your house for? Is sumo wrestling fixed? And why your first name is one the most important predictors of future success. Freakonomics is subtitled: ‘the hidden side of everything’ and sets out to prove that even the most frivolous and whimsical of questions, when tackled seriously, can provoke serious thought about the world we live in. Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner, journalist and economist respectively, have set out to do just that. You don’t need to be an economist to follow their approach as the book is written in an easy-to-read, non-technical style and is entertaining in much the same way that you don’t need to be a detective to enjoy a whodunnit. All that is needed is an understanding of motives and incentives which the authors reveal through logic and data. Why is the cartoon character Garfield deliberately not funny? Answer: because rather counterintuitively, being funny is not always the most profitable strategy for a cartoon. The most interesting chapters are about parenting. How important are parents? The answer is ‘very’, but in several non-obvious ways. For example, they prove that your given first name is more important than the school you attended. While it matters that a child has access to books at home, it is irrelevant whether he or she was regularly read to by their parents, or whether they were taken to museums and art galleries. Counterintuitive? But provable. Frivolous questions asked in a serious way can provide surprising answers. A fun book for curious minds.

The famous MINI Plant in Oxford’s Cowley

a junior academic who is simultaneously engaged in researching a doctoral dissertation on the same poet. Or a graduate with expertise in the US system teaching a Chemistry class and assisting our pupils in their US university applications. Other schools would find it hard to manage such a system, but we are fortunate. Junior Research Fellows here in Oxford can be at lectures or labs at 9am and be at St Edward’s to teach by the mid-morning break. Several of our teaching staff already teach in the University and the St Edward’s Fellows programme is an exciting way to expose more and more of our students to the work of university academics in the early part of their careers. Finally, all pupils will find that they are travelling into Oxford far more frequently to learn about their subject in the halls, laboratories and museums of the city. The School already has a burgeoning partnership with the Pitt-Rivers Museum, who help us to deliver the IB Theory of Knowledge course and who will be presenting to the IB Annual Conference in the Hague next month, alongside our own Anna Fielding and Paula Diaz-Rogado. Unlike many other university cities, Oxford

and its environs contain significant industrial zones and, more recently, have become a hub for physical and life sciences. We plan to visit all of these areas and facilities. From the middle of this term onwards, pupils will begin to travel out into the city as a regular part of their work. They will hear lectures, visit museums, see production lines in operation and be able to quiz experts on their subjects. Evidence proves that learning becomes much easier if the subject matter can be brought to life. In Oxford we are tremendously lucky to have such a rich and invigorating array of businesses, universities and research institutions on our doorstep and we intend to make full use of their proximity in the coming years. The Covid pandemic dramatically curtailed the ability of schools like ours to welcome visitors and to get out of the classroom to engage in further learning. As the world reopens, St Edward’s is fortunate to find itself situated in one of the greatest, perhaps the greatest university city on Earth. In the next months and years we will make the very most of this good fortune and ensure that we explore the city and that we welcome its academics as never before.