2024’s Words of the Year
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me.” Well, as we all know, they actually can and often do, while some simply get used so much they rise to the title Words of the Year, reflecting the times we live and/or how language evolves. In 2024,...
Guest Blog ~ The Art of Parenting: Sculpting Your Family
  Parenting is like sculpting; each decision, each conversation shapes the story of your family’s life together. Open discussions where ideas are heard, considered, and appreciated can sculpt and refine healthy relationships. Family Meetings Create Togetherness...
Going, Going, Ongoing: Our Disappearing Public School Students
 Amy Rock, Campus Safety's Executive Editor, and Education Week's Mark Lieberman report that, between 2013 and 2019, public school enrollment rose right there along with the rest of the U.S. population—until the pandemic took a sledgehammer to the numbers. In the...
Family Discussion: How to Lead Your Children with Purpose
Don’t Wonder How to Start Family Discussions. Find Out Here. Guest Blog by Jean Tracy, founder of kidsdiscuss.com Parents are like gardeners nurturing a young plant, ensuring it grows strong and healthy. Conversations at home are like sunlight and water—vital for your...
From Opportunity Gaps and “Strained Schools” to Billions in Federal Education Spending and Unfinished Learning
 1. An American Educational Research Association study that followed 814 low-, middle-, and high-income children for 26 years found that, most high-income children experience 6 or more “opportunities” between birth and high school. However, 66% of those from...
Wonder of Wonders: The Human Brain
  Wonder of Wonders: The Human Brain "You can not believe in magic all you want. But that’s a lot like holding your breath for your whole life because you don’t believe in air.” ~ from Story People’s Kai Skye In the recent “All Learning, No Questioning: How Schools...
School-Wise by the Numbers from Our Disconnected Kids to AI’s Role in Teaching
Pennsylvania public libraries and high schoolers in 750 schools have been sent copies of 1/6: A Graphic Novel that asks: “What would have happened if the January 6, 2021 insurrection had been successful?” The stated goal: “To convey the risks facing American democracy...
Guest Post by Jean Tracy: The Power of Family Talks: Growing Closer Together
  Powerful Tools for Parents, KidsDiscuss.com Imagine your family as a team, working together toward a common goal. The key to any successful team is communication. Family talks are the practice sessions that help everyone play their part well. You’re the leader of...
It’s All in the Numbers from Civic Illiteracy & Reading Deficiencies to AI “Hallucinations”
1. In a recent ACTA poll of more than 3,000 college grads, just 15% of them think America is the greatest country on Earth, while about 50% think hard work doesn’t guarantee success. PLUS: ** Only 31% knew that James Madison was the Father of the Constitution. **...
Marijuana: A Readily Available, Rather Risky, Government Money-Maker
  Legalized recreational marijuana jumped from zero to 24 states and D.C., with more sure to follow. The big holdout: the federal government--at least for now. After all, pot's one helluva money-maker, adding $20 billion to state coffers since markets first opened...
12 School-Wise Updates from Grading Policies and Title IX to Dress Codes and the ’24 Election
According to proponents and Joe Feldman, author of Grading for Equity, the following do NOT measure mastery of content and should NOT COUNT towards a student’s grade: Homework Classroom participation Student behavior Ability to meet deadlines Attendance On the other...
A Parent’s New School Year Readiness Guide
 Dear Parents, Ready or not, it’s upon us… Retailers got started way back on July 4 with early back-to-school sales, and many took full advantage, while others are still getting the job done, shopping, filling bookbags, and readying everything for day one of the...
Classroom Behavior: Ongoing and Extreme
It's not quite August, but back-to-school shopping is already in high gear; many teachers are getting ready, too--and worrying about what will be facing them once back in the classroom. Uppermost in their minds, ongoing and escalating disruptive student behavior... **...
Promote Community to Combat Chronic Absenteeism, Not Bribes
 These ongoing unsettled times keep impacting our collective well-being and taking a big toll on many of our kids, too. After long-endured remote instruction, masking, and isolation, the “new normal” arrived. Up now: “norm erosion” to explain what’s behind the 14...
Briefly and Lest We Forget: How July 4th Came to be America’s Independence Day
  *** “If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.” ~ Thomas Jefferson *** “Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people.” ~ John Adams *** “And so, my fellow Americans:...
Chronic Absenteeism: A Schooling Crisis
Education seems to matter more than ever, now taking center-stage--and not just about money matters. No; take for instance, the page one, above-the-fold USA Today June 12, bold-faced headline that read, “Classroom Scourge: Chronic Absenteeism.”  Spot on… Since 2018,...
William Shakespeare + Sir Edward Elgar = The Graduation March
The Chorus: “Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free, How shall we extol thee, who are born of thee? Wider still and wider shall thy bonds be set. God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet. God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet.” Lyrics by poet,...
America’s Schools 2024: Troubling Money Issues, Test Scores, and Teacher Shortages
  The national debt is closing in on $35 trillion--up $8 trillion in just the last three years. Now add in the annual interest on those trillions, a whopping $659 billion just last year. However, none of that has slowed the government’s ongoing spending spree, which,...
School-Wise News Short Takes
On the horizon: Linguistic Fingerprinting “to determine whether a text has been written by a specific person based on an analysis of their previous writings,” writes Ed Surge’s Jeffrey Young. (Akin to fingerprinting except related to the way we write.) As of February...
Grade Inflation = Low Expectations & Unintended Consequences
  Grades, oh, my God, grades, the bane of my schooling years, as I followed along in the wake of my smart, “A” student, big sister and never measured up. What's more, my middle school principal got to know me much too well because, not only did my grades disappoint,...
