Earth Day ’22 and a Call to Keep Cleaning Up
It’s a big deal, a very big deal that has now tied together the environment, climate change, even diet all under the Earth Day umbrella and its 3Rs, reduce, reuse, recycle. Just this week came Time Magazine’s “Earth, Inc.” and Nutrition Action’s “The Planet Lover’s...
The Antidote For These Tough Times, 11-Year-Old Role Model, Orion Jean
As the headlines lurch from one crisis to another, nothing seems right. We fret, we argue, we even end friendships over a difference of opinion, exemplifying the new normal. Even advertising nowadays has a look that ruffles feathers, and I don’t mean just those that...
For Better Recall and Grades, What Really Works: Hand-Written or Keyboarded Notes?
Devices rule. Students nowadays shuffle down crowded hallways, eyes glued to mobiles as they make their way to class and pile in, thumbs still tapping away. Settling in, they reach into bookbags, but, instead of a textbook and notebook, Chromebooks land on their...
Tech: Smartening Up or Dumbing Down Our Kids?
So, when folks talk about “the good old days,” I believe they mean, as Joan Abbott wrote, the generation… “Of Kids who did their homework alone to get out asap to play in the street. When kids spent all their free time in the streets with their friends. Of kids who...
Teaching Black History, Device-Free
Right off the bat: I'm Armenian—bless the Kardashians for giving the country name recognition—and fit the stereotype to a tee: olive skin, dark brown eyes and hair, and the proverbial big nose. Oh, old now and gray-haired. One summer, my family spent two weeks at...
Kids, Like Many Adults, Are in the Throes of a Mental Health Crisis
Though not a fan of the term trending, the state of Americans’ mental health is nothing short of a crisis and making for well-supported, above-the-fold headlines. Especially hard hit are young people who have paid a hefty price for COVID safety’s sake. Take for...
8 Steps to Improve Kids’ Writing
“The younger I was, the less I wanted to revise. Kids typically have the same taste for revisions as they do veggies. ~ Paul Fleishman, Newbury winner Correct wording, sentence structure, verb tense, spelling, comma usage, and on and on… Grammar and punctuation are...
In 2022, Resolve To…
Tyler Perry had it right when he said, “Developing a good work ethic is key. Apply yourself at whatever you do because that work ethic will be reflected in everything you do in life.” Share it, promote it, and model it every day by being reliable, cooperative,...
Thoughts for a Christmas Morning
"Random acts of kindness are those little sweet or grand lovely things we do for no reason except that, momentarily, the best of our humanity has sprung, exquisitely, into full bloom... You are doing what the best of your human soul invites you to do... In giving...
Young People’s Views and Plans, 2021 and Beyond
Mary Martin’s Peter Pan sang about perpetual youth, boldly shouting, “I’ll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up. Not me! Not I!” seemingly speaking for our kids today. Makes one wonder: “Will they ever grow up?” Adulting actually became Grammar Girl’s 2014 Word...
Question: What is the significance of September 25, 1789?
On September 17,1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention finally signed the Constitution after months of deliberation. Two years later, on September 25, Congress approved the first twelve amendments to the document. The first ten became the Bill of...
Catherine Rampbell’s Old-School Teacher, Mr. Greco: We Should All Be So Lucky!
Believing that teaching is supposed to be: well-versed and subject-centered, not political, brings me to columnist Catherine Rampbell's, “Priceless Lessons from My Sixth-Grade English Teacher.” In the piece, she gives Mr. Greco “much of the credit (or, depending on...
At What Cost Our Embrace of Tech on Our Kids
Back in February2021, News Wise reported that, “As teens' use of social media has grown over the past decade, so too has the suicide rate among younger people." Suicide is now the second leading cause of death among those ages 10 to 34. Many have suggested that social...
In and Out of School, Screened-In Lives Put Kids at Risk
Says the All Kids Bike Panel: “Kids and teens age 8 to 18 spend an average of more than seven hours a day looking at screens. The new warning from the AHA recommends parents limit screen time for kids to a maximum of just two hours per day. For younger children, age...
COVID’s Relentless Hold on Schools and Their Added-On Responsibilities
We all said 2021 would be different than locked down 2020. Vaccines were coming on the scene, the world reopened, and life as we knew it would be ours again. Except it isn’t... Districtadministrator.com’s Mark Zalaznicki, in his September 28 piece, “School Closings...
Why the Union League is honoring the great patriot, abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass with a new portrait, by John Meko, Jr.
On September 14, 2021, The Union League Legacy Foundation unveiled a new painting, a portrait of the great abolitionist and patriot Frederick Douglass. The event comes during a time when Douglass’ beliefs and values, including natural rights, limited government and...
America’s Schools, Teachers, and Students: The Stats
According to current National Education Association data, the 3 highest and lowest teacher salaries: New York: $87,738 Massachusetts: $86,315 California: $85,892 South Dakota: $49,993 Florida: $49,583 Mississippi: $47,655 According to 2017-18 data from the National...
Devil Tech or Saving Grace?
Tech, the end all and be all of American life, has revolutionized everything from how we get our meals, shop, learn, and be entertained, and, in the process, we’ve made the providers rich, including the billions spent by schools to be on the cutting edge of...
Remote Instruction: The Costly Learning Downside
Look up remote in a thesaurus, and you’ll find not just the usual distant and far-off, but also lonely, disconnected, and isolated, perfect descriptors for the distance learning foisted on millions of students in March 2020 when America was locked down, schools...
Standardized State Tests: Waste of Time or Effective Measure of Student Performance?
The ball got rolling with President George W. Bush’s 2001 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), next made its way to Obama’s Common Core Standards (CCS) online assessments and 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), and then landed on Biden’s lap. He, despite a year of...
