The head master, who attended school in England says that American schools no longer focus on character – despite the fact that the country was founded on the belief than anyone who worked hard and kept trying, despite failure could become a success. He explains:

People who have an easy time of things, who get 800s on their SAT’s, I worry that those people get feedback that everything they’re doing is great. And I think as a result, we are actually setting them up for long-term failure. When that person suddenly has to face up to a difficult moment, then I think they’re screwed, to be honest. I don’t think they’ve grown the capacities to be able to handle that.

As a result, Randolph tries to encourage his teachers to instill values like grit, character and gratitude into students rather than just drilling them to perform well on tests. He even has meetings with parents, urging them to let their children fail on occasion so they can learn how to turn that disappointment into a life lesson that will improve their character and future success.

The New York Times has a fascinating profile on Randolph and his philosophy for improving student’s lives. It also features these excellent anamorphic tape illusions that were used to illustrate Randolph’s measure of character throughout the article.

The pieces were completed by the Doyle Partners advertising company and they are just as cool as the profile on a head master who is redefining success in school.

For a little perspective, here are the images from other angles where you can’t read them as easily.

While we’re in the Moon illusion atmosphere (or even better – lack of it), Xavier Kreiss sent me another related one. This is what Xavier wrote: “It’s been a long time since I last contacted you! Your blog is as fascinating as it always was. This evening I was looking at some French blog, when I saw this photo of a plane going behind the moon. Of course, the illusion is due to the fact that the vapor trail, which is white, can’t be seen when it goes past the moon, which is also white – so you get the impression that the vapor is behind it. I thought it might amuse you!”

Could this plane really have passed behind the Moon?

But let’s get back to illusions for now… I found this one on The Instructables. There you can find some instructions how to DIY this illusion yourself. Basically, it involves four different shades of blue that border each other. When viewed from left to right, the shades go from lightest to darkest. The illusion comes into play when an object is placed along the borders of each successive shade. Something strange occurs with our perception of the obvious difference in shades – neighboring shades appear to be precisely the same! Jump inside this article, to see the original pattern.

Now remove those pesky pencils away from the bluish pattern. How many colors do you see? I can assure you that both patterns are exactly the same! There is a video on YouTube called “Shady Optical Illusion” that shows you the effect in reverse. Be sure to check it out!