The kids in this village wear dirty, ragged clothes. They sleep beside cows and sheep in huts made of sticks and mud. They have no school. Yet they all can chant the English alphabet, and some can make words.

    The key to their success: 20 tablet computers(平板电脑) dropped off in their Ethiopian village in February by a U.S. group called One Laptop Per Child.

    The goal is to find out whether kids using today's new technology can teach themselves to read in places where no schools or teachers exist. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers analyzing the project data say they're already amazed. “What I think has already happened is that the kids have already learned more than they would have in one year of kindergarten,” said Matt Keller, who runs the Ethiopia program.

    The fastest learner—and the first to turn on one of the tablets—is 8-year-old Kelbesa Negusse. The device's camera was disabled to save memory, yet within weeks Kelbesa had figured out its workings and made the camera work. He called himself a lion, a marker of accomplishment in Ethiopia.

With his tablet, Kelbasa rearranged the letters HSROE into one of the many English animal names he knows. Then he spelled words on his own. “Seven months ago he didn't know any English. That's unbelievable,” said Keller.

The project aims to get kids to a stage called “deep reading,” where they can read to learn. It won't be in Amharic, Ethiopia's first language, but in English, which is widely seen as the ticket to higher paying jobs.

    Do you still remember your favorite poem from high school or some other important periods in your life？Why is it that decades later it still stands out in your mind？Probably the main reason is that some aspect of that poem resonates (引起共鸣) with you. In the same way, you too as a school leader can touch the hearts of your teachers and students.

    Poetry allows us to experience strong spiritual connections to things around us and to the past. The power that poetry has displayed over time and across cultures actually satisfies this common need of the human heart and soul.

    As one of the oldest art forms, poetry has successfully connected various parts of humanity (人性) from one generation to another. Referring to poetry, Hillyer makes a simple yet meaningful statement, “With this key mankind unlocked his heart.”

    School leaders can find and make use of the value of poetry for themselves, their students and their teachers. Beyond the simple use of poetry, techniques of poetry such as repetitions can be used to take advantage of the power of language to transform communication, create meaning and a culture of care and attention.

    Since schools are mainly about people and relationships, school leaders, like poets, are required to inspire and encourage the human heart. The use of poetry—or even of some techniques of poetry—in school leadership not only helps to improve communication, but also serves to meet the human need for inspiration.

    According to new research from the University of Cambridge in England, sheep are able to recognize human faces from photographs.

    The farm animals, who are social and have large brains, were previously known to be able to recognize one another, as well as familiar humans. However, their ability to recognize human faces from photos alone is novel.

    The recent study, the results of which were published in the journal Royal Society; Open Science, show the woolly creatures could be trained to recognize still images of human faces, including those of former President Barack Obama and actress Emma Watson.

    Initially, the sheep were trained to approach certain images by being given food rewards. Later, they were able to recognize the images for which they had been rewarded. The sheep could even recognize images of faces shown at an angle, though their ability to do so declined by about 15 percent—the same rate at which a human's ability to perform the same task declines.

    “Anyone who has spent time working with sheep will know that they are intelligent and individual animals who are able to recognize their handlers.” said Professor Jenny Morton, who led the Cambridge study. “We've shown with our study that sheep have advanced face-recognition abilities, close to those of humans and monkeys.”

    Recognizing faces is one of the most important social skills for human beings, and some disorders of the brain, including Huntington's disease, affect this ability.

    “Sheep are long-lived and have brains that are similar in size and complexity to those of some monkeys. That means they can be useful models to help us understand disorders of the brain, such as Huntington's disease that develop over a long time and affect cognitive (认识的) abilities. Our study gives us another way to monitor how these abilities change.” Morton said.

    Mom was a teacher most of her life. When she wasn't in the classroom, she was educating her children or grandchildren; correcting our grammar; starting us on collections of butterflies, flowers or rocks; or inspiring a discussion on her most recent “Book of the Month Club” topic. Mom made learning fun.

    It was sad for my three brothers and me to see her suffering in her later years. At eighty- five, she suffered a stroke and she went steadily downhill after that.

    Two days before she died, my brothers and I met at her nursing home and took her for a short ride in a wheelchair. While we waited for the staff to lift her limp body back into bed, Mom fell asleep. Not wanting to wake her, we moved to the far end of the room and spoke softly.

    After several minutes our conversation was interrupted by a muffled sound coming from across the room. We stopped talking and looked at Mom. Her eyes were closed, but she was clearly trying to communicate with us. We went to her side.

    “Whirr,” she said weakly.

    “Where?” I asked. “Mom, is there something you want?” “Whirr,” she repeated a bit stronger. My brothers and I looked at each other and shook our heads sadly.

    Mom opened her eyes, sighed, and with all the energy she could gather said, “Not ...was. Say were!”

    We suddenly realized that Mom was correcting Brother Jim's last sentence. “if it was up to me…”

    Jim leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Thanks, Mom,” he whispered. We smiled at each other and once again shook our heads.

    At 88, my grandmother Vera has dementia and barely recognizes me. But I'm determined to help her age with dignity and grace in her home for as long as she can.

    Since 2015, I've been a manager at Honor, a technology company that uses a website and an app to pair professional caregivers (we call them Care Pros) with loved ones who need a hand. I want to make sure we are offering all our clients (客户), including my grandmother, a service that is affordable, with people who are reliable, diverse and skilled. On Sundays. Amy, my grandmother's most-loved Honor professional caregiver, comes over to get her dressed for church. She loves the time she spends with Amy. That's the best gift I can give her and the best gift I can give myself. Care giving can exhaust a family emotionally and physically. At Honor, we're trying to create something that makes it easier for women to be moms, daughters, and sisters all at once. That's why this company was built.

    What sets Honor apart from other care giving services is that we're equally focused on treating the Care Pros well. We pay higher-than-average rates and they can get health benefits and sick leave. Most of our Care Pros are women, and a lot of them arc single mothers. The technology behind our app allows Care Pros to set parameters (参数) based on when, where, and how much they want to work so they can control their schedules. The company also allows continuity of care. Each Care Pro notes in the caregivers' app how the client is feeling or what should happen on the following shift. That way, the client's family can stay up to date on their loved one's health.

    When I was working with my team at Honor, I wanted to create opportunities for people who looked like me. I'm proud to say that there are single moms and other women without traditional educational training who lead teams here. The makeup of this company proves that people with diverse backgrounds can be part of a successful tech company. This has to be a model for the future.

    I'm confident it will happen.