The Post-Pandemic Changing Face of America’s Schools, Everything from Struggling Students and Charters to Dress Codes and Cuts in Gifted Education
Education has been a news centerpiece for some time now, including our struggling students, school choice, dress codes, and the words we use, too. Here, a sampling of recent school-wise headlines: **** “The Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative Seeks to Rid...
Dr. Leonard Sax and The Damage Caused by Kindergarten As The New First Grade
In my day, only a handful of us kids attended nursery school, as pre-school was known back in the day, and kindergarten was truly a “children’s garden.” Half day only and all about play, socializing, milk and graham crackers, naps, too. We sang, banged on triangles...
Porn Has Gone Mainstream and Our Kids Are Watching
Growing up in the restrictive 50’s and 60’s, much of what I wanted to do was off-limits. Wasn't allowed to wear makeup—not even lipstick. Cursing, too, was frowned upon; even telling my sister to "shut up" got me a scolding. Among the universal taboos: tattoos and...
School-Wise Snippets from Withheld Awards and Declining School Enrollment to AI Taking Over Teacher Paperwork
Virginia’s Fairfax County Schools has withheld National Merit awards from hundreds of students, done, says its website “to keep equity at the center of the curriculum” and “to eliminate gaps in opportunity, access, and achievement for students.” D’s and F’s were also...
As the Saying Goes: “If You Can Read This, Thank a Teacher.”
Teachers were never fond of me in my growing years. I did stuff like surreptitiously rolling marbles down aisles, making more than a teacher of two cry, and, oh, how I loved to talk and pass notes… Naturally, I never wanted to be one. Back story: Accepted as a...
Social Media Ensnaring Our Kids: Hook, Line, and Sinker
Though I rely on it every day, am not a big tech fan. Not anymore. Sure, I love keeping up with faraway friends. And no more card catalogs and endless book shelf searches, but I still miss the library itself, its quiet, studious air… Just don't really need it...
Thank you!! Thank you!! Thank You!!
When I was a kid… If someone opened or held a door for you, you thanked them. If someone handed you so much as a glass of water, you thanked them. If someone gifted you—even with something you hated—you thanked them, not with a phone call, email or text, but with a...
With Its Spying Eyes and Risky Challenges, TikTok Might Just Get the Boot!
*** TikTok boasts more than 1.5 billion active users worldwide. *** Finds parental control software maker Qustodio: “Overall last year, kids spent a whopping 91 minutes per day on TikTok…” CNN’s Oliver Darcy headlined his December 13 article with “Ban...
School-Wise News Update: From AI and History/Civics Instruction to Teaching Standards, Controversial Dress Codes and Political Tensions in Schools
*** Three You/Gov/ More in Common surveys found that most of us, both Democrats and Republicans, want history instruction to include “both the triumphs and the dark chapters of American history." However, there's a “perception gap," meaning “the difference between...
School-Wise News from Trending Words to Standardized Test Scores and Money Woes
Says high school English teacher Alice Dominguez: “No matter the data or intention, no packaged curriculum can offer space to reflect as a community and respond to the unique needs of each school. If school leaders can resist the promises made by ed tech companies,...
Greeting Cards: In Decline or Making a Comeback?
For young and old alike, nothing beats going to the mailbox and finding there, mixed in with all the bills, charity pleas, and catalogs, a greeting card--sometimes for no other reason than to say “’I’m thinking of you.” And best of all, sometimes a personal note is...
Grief during the Season of Giving Thanks and Gifting
Someone dies, we pause, mourn, and somehow move on, though nothing is ever the same again. Loss: I know it quite well. Gone from me are my husband, my sister, my young nephew, both of my parents, countless relatives and friends, too… Well-meaning folks said things...
Go Old School with SQ3R, No Digital Screen Required or Wanted
Seems we’re all on the digital bandwagon, obliviously glued to our screens, allowing tech companies to crawl into our homes and classrooms all to great applause. Costly and not just dollar-wise, in many instances, screens have compromised our kids’ well-being and...
Pot Headlines Keep Rolling In and Even the President Has Taken a Stand: All a Good Thing or Should We Hit Pause?
Pot, cannabis, marijuana, grass, Mary Jane, weed, bammy: Whatever name you give it, it’s been a headliner for several years, especially since November 2012 when Colorado legalized it for adults 21 and older—a marijuana first, but not the only one. That’s because...
Bring Spring into Winter by Forcing Bulbs to Bloom
In Anxious People, author Fredrik Backman writes, “She could see winter making itself comfortable across the town. She liked the silence of this time of year but had never appreciated its smugness. When the snow arrives autumn has already done all the work, taking...
Post Pandemic, School-Wise Snippets
The pandemic may be fading but not its academic aftereffects… **** According to Attendance Works, 16 million students missed at least 18 days of school in the 2021-21 school year, twice as many as before the pandemic. That means that 33% of kids were chronically...
As the World Turns from Dashing Robots and a Fired NYU Prof to Tik Tok Challenges and Spending, Too!
As we hit mid-October—and somehow so quickly—heaters are already purring away, leaves are coloring up and drifting to the ground, and… ONE: She’s got two legs, is named Cassie, and she runs. Does she ever! Created by Oregon State University’s Agility Robotics,...
Motivation: To Move Ahead with Determination Backed by Reasonable Goals
My big sister Valerie didn’t require bribes. Focused, hard-working, and artistic, to boot. Me? Not so much. A social being intent on pushing the envelope, I lit my first cigarette in 7th grade and nearly lost an eye lighting the damn thing when the tip went flying....
Autumn 2022: “It’s Not Easy Being Green…”
Say October and my head fills with pictures of apples, pumpkins, and, of course, pumpkin pies, beer fests, Halloween trick-or-treating, chilling temps, and falling, swirling leaves. First, though, colorful changes, and the show that is about to begin… Well, sort...
Noting Our Now 235-Year-Old Constitution, the State of Civics Knowledge and Education, Too
September 17 seems to have slipped by again kind of unnoted—no front page, above-the-fold headlines or below, for that matter, and no fireworks, either. Sort of just another day, made mention of but no hoopla. And so, though eight days late, I can’t let the month...
