Thank you teachers and staff for an incredible school year! pic.twitter.com/qR4lm1a4iV
— Forest Hills Public Schools (@ForestHillsPS) June 5, 2025
“He who does not speak foreign languages — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Here’s a rough breakdown of the top languages on the web: English: 55.4% – Russian: 6.6% – Japanese: 5.4% – Spanish: 5.2% – Chinese: 4.6% One of the most contentious aspects of best practice discovery and promulgation in any domain, and no less so in educational settlements, is an agreed-upon vocabulary and shared understanding. As we explain elsewhere in this history, when a counter-party disagrees with you, he simply switches out the vocabulary — i.e. changes definitions or adds or subtracts from the traditional meanings of things. So we approach this topic several times a year to confirm our bearing on the meaning of things. We observe National Poetry Month in the United States and Canada every year with an inquiry into changes in the (meaning of) definitions at the foundation of best practice literature; frequently the subject of sporty debate among experts writing codes and standards for the built environment of education communities. In the United Kingdom, National Poetry Month is celebrated in October, and it is known as “National Poetry Day” which has been observed since 1994. It is an initiative of the Forward Arts Foundation, which aims to encourage people to read, write and perform poetry. Other countries also have their own poetry celebrations, such as World Poetry Day, which is observed annually on March 21 by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) to promote the reading, writing, and teaching of poetry worldwide. In past years we used a Tamil mnemonic because Tamil is the oldest surviving language and remains the spoken language of 80-odd million people of South Asia. Alas, use of Tamil confounds our Wordpress content management system so in 2024 we began coding this topic in American English https://standardsmichigan.com/%e0%ae%ae%e0%af%8a%e0%ae%b4%e0%ae%bf-2/ Latin Phrases You Should Know. pic.twitter.com/Erq61gVW29 — Learn Latin (@latinedisce) May 5, 2024![]()
Language
knows nothing about his own.“
The academic calendar of Anglosphere educational settlements subtly shapes life of the mind, generally; and family life, specifically. Its rhythm is rooted in the cathedral schools and monastic learning communities of medieval Europe between the 1100s and 1400s. Universities were not originally organized around modern “semesters.” Instead, the year followed the Christian liturgical calendar, agricultural seasons, daylight availability, and travel conditions.
The classic English university calendar evolved into three major terms: Michaelmas in autumn, associated with arrival and beginnings; Hilary or Lent in winter, associated with discipline and study; and Trinity or Easter in spring, associated with examinations, outdoor rituals, music, rowing, gardens, and celebration.
Modern commencement traditions across the Anglosphere are descendants of medieval spring degree ceremonies. Academic gowns, hoods, processions, Latin phrases, formal dining, chapel music, and public recognition all preserve traces of the university as a scholarly guild and religious-civic community.
Before railways, electric lighting, and central heating, universities had to adapt to muddy roads, short winter days, limited candles, cold buildings, and agricultural obligations. Spring therefore became the natural season of culmination, reunion, athletic competition, courtship, and ceremony.
The medieval university was not merely a school but an educational settlement — a self-governing town of scholars, libraries, chapels, kitchens, workshops, residences, and dining halls. That settlement pattern survives in residential colleges, quadrangles, tutorial systems, common rooms, chapel choirs, and formal meals.
Anglosphere campuses retain this ancient emotional rhythm: autumn seriousness, winter inwardness, and spring release. That continuity helps explain why colleges and universities still feel culturally distinct from ordinary commercial society. (Relata: Gulliver Visits the Great Academy of Lagado)

We’re “organized” but not too organized; like the bookseller who knows where every book can be found.
at a conference where you don’t have to present
— Peyman Milanfar (@docmilanfar) April 4, 2025
#AcademicChatter #AcademicTwitter
Academics be like 👇 pic.twitter.com/6cpVEw3PVS
— Reviewer 2 (@GrumpyReviewer2) April 2, 2024








