Guess what? People are lying when they say "Why the WTC?" because they don't want mosques ANYwhere in the US.

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A Times blog about how reading any book over the summer is good for kids

You can read all nine pages of comments if you like, but they're mostly either "Yes, duh" or "OMG, no, if we don't force 'worthy' books on children they'll never read them ever!" Worthy means, basically, hard. If it's fun, if it's enjoyable in any way, if you don't have to struggle every page - it's a waste of time!

An op-ed about the marriage-restriction being overturned in California

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On the uptick in bias crimes on Staten Island.

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On ugly animals

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On hateful and, yes, offensive ads that some buses in the city will have regarding the proposed it's-not-a-mosque at the not-the-WTC-site

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Clicky!

The comments are ALL over the board. Is this a sign of rampant grade inflation, or does it reduce pointless competition over a meaningless distinction? Does this keep us from teaching kids about The Real World, or does it keep the focus on learning instead of grades? If one of the people in the top ten got their high grades by focusing on music, does that mean their classes weren't as rigorous as the science major's, or does it mean that by not recognizing that guy you're punishing kids for branching out?

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First off, the Rotenberg Center is in the news again.

And one on the potential advantages of being autistic

Here's one about how trauma might alter your DNA. Sounds like Lamarck has gotten a worse rap than he deserved.

Here's an article about how prozac isn't actually more effective than a placebo. I haven't read it - I misplaced my original link, so I googled for it and this is what came up.

And finally, a LONG article about the morality of babies.

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As always, read the comments to the articles at your own risk.

They're opening it up on Daniel Low Terrace.

As it happens, there already *is* an elementary school on Daniel Low Terrace, or right nearby. That's PS 16. It's, uh, it's not a long street.

I'm glad they're starting new elementary schools in this area. It's long overdue - people have been complaining all over the city about a need for new kindergartens for years! That's why Ana and Evangeline are in their school, actually - it was opened in part to handle overflow from another school over by Snug Harbor.

Unfortunately, that's kinda the problem. The same kids who started this push for new elementary schools, the oldest of them are in the third grade now, or the fourth. How long is it going to take the city to build new middle schools, new high schools? Curtis High School, for example, is at 156% of capacity. How much worse will it be in another few years? The class size at IS 61 is currently 33 students. The year after I left, they added more classes per grade. How much worse will it be when these kids hit the 6th grade?

Of course, you tell people, and they kinda nod, but they don't do anything until their kids are in the crowded classrooms, and then it's all a big surprise. Wow, who could've POSSIBLY seen this coming?

*headdesk*

Well, with any luck we'll have a new school - and NOT the one that opened up by the Mall, that's a hellish commute - by the time Ana's in the 6th grade.