conuly

Lots of articles on a snowy day.

Sat, 14 Dec 2013 15:14:07 GMT

Some NSA Officials Favor Giving Snowden Limited Amnesty For All The Wrong Reasons

http://bit.ly/1gxXlHZ

Feds joins battle on citrus disease

http://bit.ly/1b5jANq

Obama to review changes in spy policy

http://usat.ly/18JP52D

Tech giants team up in anti-snooping effort

On the one hand: good for them! On the other, I am even more uncomfortable with corporate influence in the government than I am with the NSA, and that is saying an awful lot.

http://usat.ly/19v5TaK

The Return of the Welfare Queen

http://bit.ly/19odyex

Federal judge declares Utah polygamy law unconstitutional

http://bit.ly/1bFgIKy

This Ethiopian village has gained wealth, but has bred hostility

Because they aren't Christians or Muslims, basically.

http://bit.ly/IShpWz

ECONOMIC INEQUALITY: A MATTER OF TRUST?

http://nyr.kr/18Dk0jK

IF YOU REFRAIN FROM TALKING ABOUT RACE, PEOPLE MIGHT THINK YOU’RE RACIST

As many commenters point out, not all of the "black" people on that modified Guess Who? board look unambiguously black. So there's that as well.

http://bit.ly/1k0V0oL

Surprise! Charity Buys 21 Sacred Katsinam for Hopi at Auction in Paris

http://bit.ly/IVI58J

Scientists discover double meaning in genetic code

http://bit.ly/1duyD6q

How cholera evolved to be one of the deadliest diseases in history

http://bit.ly/18IkCil

This study shows how a good metaphor can change the world

http://bit.ly/1bEyUAv

Inside the Rainbow Gulag: The Technicolor Rise and Fall of Lisa Frank

http://bit.ly/1hPDhRG

The second operating system hiding in every mobile phone

http://www.osnews.com/story/27416

A Pen That 3-D Prints Bone Right Onto Patients

http://bit.ly/JeNtEF

In Ukraine, skepticism greets new vow on E.U.

http://wapo.st/1cruH49

Kindergartener signs song for deaf mom. It's the most adorable time of the year!

http://cnn.it/1gxU7UM

Teacher accused of feeding autistic student hot sauce rehired.

Either Florida has a serious teacher shortage or they really hate disabled kids down there.

http://abcn.ws/1ctku7j

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Mon, 30 Sep 2013 18:19:44 GMT

Children and Guns: The Hidden Toll

http://tinyurl.com/n7ktu29

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Guns at School? If There’s a Will, There Are Ways

http://tinyurl.com/nc9g7ba

( Read more... )

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Another article on the de facto segregation in NYC schools.

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 04:28:33 GMT

It's part of a whole series.

http://nyti.ms/ZFs09c

It comes with pictures

http://nyti.ms/WZlPKO

and a little graph

http://nyti.ms/10tRagR

( Read more... )

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Article time : )

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 03:00:22 GMT

On science kits through the decades:

http://nyti.ms/WCbJSs

( Read more... )

One on antivirus companies:

http://nyti.ms/130F9x2

( Read more... )

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Thu, 06 Dec 2012 04:56:57 GMT

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/05/education/young-latino-students-dont-see-themselves-in-books.html

This is an article basically decrying the lack of diversity in kidlit. It is apparently especially bad with regards to Hispanics. And even when books technically exist, there is no guarantee that families will easily be able to find those books. Not knowing specific titles and authors to look for (and having to ask for them to be specially ordered at the bookstore or library) can be a big barrier for any child.

Framing this article is a logical argument that runs pretty much like this:

1. Many children - and for that matter, many adults! - like to read books where they can easily identify with the protagonists.
2. Children need to practice a lot to learn a new skill. They need to read often, for long periods of time, to become fluent readers.
3. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the lack of any real Hispanic in children's literature is a turnoff for many Hispanic children (especially those who already have trouble learning to read English, perhaps because it is not their home language), and makes them less eager to read. This, in turn, is not doing their reading skills a favor.
4. So it is important for publishers and booksellers to make a more diverse range of protagonists available to children.

This is fairly straightforward, right? I should know better than to ever glance at the comments to any article, but I confess, I'm filled with morbid curiosity regarding them.

The comments reinforced my notion that the people most likely to loudly trumpet their reading comprehension skills are the ones who most lack any such thing. From that simple proposition they widely got the impression that third grade teachers want to burn every "classic" book ever authored and not allow high schoolers to read Shakespeare. Also, it's acceptable to ask children who cannot read Spanish to any level of fluency to just wait until they are old enough to read Don Quixote in the original, because it is positively anathema to provide English language books for children that don't feature whites. (Then again, these people might just be against new publications on general principle. Few of them seem to have read any children's books published in the last half a century.) Several people commented with nostalgic approval about the good old days of whites-only Dick and Jane, those days when every child learned to read, even Johnny. If they're old enough to have learned from those basals they're presumably old enough to know better, but apparently not.

And of course, there is the ever popular rallying cry of "let's be colorblind". Advocating for a greater diversity in protagonists is racist because good books are accessible to every reader and apparently it's impossible for a good book to not prominently feature white children. Children don't see race until we teach them to, and providing books with nonwhite protagonists just teaches them to see race. Asians do well in school despite there being few books with Asian protagonists and therefore we shouldn't even consider changing a thing because the only thing that matters about kidlit is how well kids do in school, and it's insulting to suggest some children might do better if they had an easy hook. This total lack of diversity worked for ME, so it ought to be good enough for everybody. (Nevermind that a highly motivated reader is going to need less encouragement in general!) If parents care, they should just teach their children themselves (after school, natch, because homeschooling isn't the answer) and order books online. This presupposes that these parents have Internet access and time in the first place, but if you're not willing to give up your family time for this you're just an awful human being.

I tell you, sometimes it's delightful to find out what the Internet-connected public thinks. Usually it's not, but I try to amuse myself.

Edit: you know, it's the hypocrisy that gets me. These are people criticizing teachers for daring to suggest that children might like to, occasionally, read books about kids like themselves. First they say that no, kids should read about people different from them (which means that the preponderance of white characters is harmful to white kids, yes? How is this any better?) and then they inevitably rattle off a list of Good Books they think all kids should read.

Several hundred comments, and a handful of books listed. For all this talk about reading good books, to read these comments you'd think quality children's literature was limited to seven titles.

Maybe that's why they can't comprehend the concept of adding to the library. They aren't actually very well-read, at least not in this area. It's sad, it really is.

comments

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 15:55:18 GMT

No Appetite for Good-for-You School Lunches

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Attention Disorder or Not, Pills to Help in School

( Read more... )

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I admit, I'm fascinated by the press Stuy has gotten lately.

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 15:52:08 GMT

http://www.nationalreview.com/agenda/329010/parochial-note-new-york-citys-specialized-high-schools-reihan-salam

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-singer/clueless-nyc-mayor-defend_b_1930940.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesmarshallcrotty/2012/09/29/new-yorks-elite-stuyvesant-high-school-has-a-cheating-problem-heres-how-to-solve-it/

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An article on a new writing program at New Dorp high school

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 14:01:02 GMT

Very interesting, though like always it leaves me with a vague sense of forboding regarding NYC public schools.

If you're interested, here's Insideschools' report on them.

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Here's a quick enough article on re-introducing recess to schools in Chicago

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 01:22:14 GMT

And, more generally, why recess is good for kids.

comments

Two more on schools and NYC :)

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 15:15:15 GMT

An article about the threatened cutting of afterschool programs in the city

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Cost of Prekindergarten Special Education Is Soaring

( Read more... )

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Some articles

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 15:10:38 GMT

Integrating a School, One Child at a Time
It comes with pictures

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How to Read a Racist Book to Your Kids

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With Casino Revenues, Tribes Push to Preserve Languages, and Cultures

The comments to this article, all 28 of them, are fascinating and I suggest everybody read them.

( Read more... )

For-Profit Private School Is Calling Its Own Shots

( Read more... )

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Some more links...

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 14:07:35 GMT

One on those gendered "survival guides" printed by Scholastic
One on how word spacing might affect how well dyslexics can read
One on pre-game prayers that I want to keep track of for the purposes of comments to internet articles

comments

Some articles

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 22:38:56 GMT

Way Beyond Bake Sales: The $1 Million PTA

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A Company’s Stand for Gay Marriage, and Its Cost
If you happen to want to support them, but aren't in need of new dishes and flatware, I can suggest some items! It's, uh, for a good cause, right?

( Read more... )

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Some articles

Sun, 13 May 2012 12:58:52 GMT

An Effort to Bury a Throwaway Culture One Repair at a Time

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An article on race and NYC schools

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One on a pretty awesome 11 year old rock climber

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Solar Installers Offer Deals, Gaining Converts

( Read more... )

There are more coming!

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A few quick links

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 18:35:40 GMT

Teachers Think White Females Lag Behind in Math, University of Texas at Austin Study Finds

I got that link from here, which recently linked to a site that shows a daily bedtime math problem. Apparently April is, in addition to Autism Awareness Month, also Math Awareness Month.

And here's another piece on math education in America

To round it all out, there's an article on The Blue School, but honestly, you don't want to read it. The prices are ludicrous for enrollment.

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Here's a whole bunch of articles from the Times.

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 14:06:13 GMT

Museums are apparently doing all sorts of special programs to welcome homeschool groups

Here's a piece on Chinese language use to avoid internet censors

An article on how spring break is apparently getting less wild because all this stuff stays online forever

Here's an article on this interesting new idea of altering the pricing for more popular spots on San Francisco to increase turnover of those spots.
The article is pretty positive, but in the comments there's this critical site. I have to say, I have long thought it silly to give zillions of cars up to 2/3 of any given street, just for free!

Here's a slightly older article on a new method of cleaning up lead.

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You know, "Your kid needs to study!" is a very unhelpful and inappropriate response.

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:13:08 GMT

If it's true, we already know it by looking at the results. And if it's not, it's just insulting by implying that we (and the kid) are just damn lazy.

Evangeline took a spelling test today. And she failed miserably. Which is funny because she got all those words right yesterday when I tested her on them! I'm putting under the cut the text of the email I sent Jenn about it.

( Read more... )

It probably didn't help that she developed a headache this afternoon (she says "right after the test"), but a headache should not have produced this amount of difference between what she did yesterday and what she did today. A difference in how the words were presented might make that difference, I think.

It also doesn't help that it apparently never occurred to her to go back and check your answers after writing them down. I asked, and she said she didn't re-read that first section after writing any of it.

Ana also had a spelling test today, but I don't know how she did yet. I know that on one of her homework assignments she wrote "friendlly" and nobody corrected it, which wouldn't be such a big deal except that friendly is one of her spelling words. And because nobody corrected her she tried arguing with me when I pointed it out to her, naturally. Her teacher checked it and didn't correct it! But as I pointed out, if friend has no l, and -ly has one l, zero plus one still only equals one.

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More on the NYC school numbering

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 02:17:48 GMT

Naming a Public School in New York? It Isn’t as Simple as 1, 2, 3

( Read more... )

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Interesting note....

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 03:39:06 GMT

In my earlier post, when I mention "PS 70 in Queens", I'm not just giving more information for the sake of giving more information. In NYC, different public schools can share the same number, so long as they're in different boroughs. So it's important to state which PS 70 or whatever it is. The administrative code for PS 70 would be ??Q070, if it were in Staten Island it'd be 31R070 (R for Richmond), in Brooklyn it'd be ??K070 (for Kings County) and so on. As it happens, the only other 70 in the city is in the Bronx, so that'd be ??X070. (The question marks refer to the district number, which I only know for Staten Island.)

You go to elementary school and typically middle school in your district with a few exceptions: If you're in the gifted program, you can go to any gifted program school in your borough (and it's several districts per borough with the exception of Staten Island, we all have the same district and it overlaps into Brooklyn as well), and all the self-contained special ed classes are in the same district (district 75, even on Statne Island) instead of being regional.

You can get to go to a public school out of district if they have space available OR if your school is seriously low-performing (and the school you want has space available, they register children in their district first.

And sometimes two or more schools will share a building. This can work out well, or it can work out very very badly.

This all excludes discussion of charter schools (a whole freaking can of worms!) and the high school admissions process. (Not to mention non-public schools.) All of you living outside of NYC should thank your lucky stars (individually and by name) that you never have to deal with the NYC high school admissions process.

The other day, passing by Stuy towards this awesome playground, Ana went "Could I try that out and change if I don't like it?" and I said "Yes... maybe." The truth is that Stuy can be a crazy pressure cooker in the best of circumstances, and already I'm thinking maybe not the best choice for Ana. (Plus, honestly, the quality of the teaching isn't any better than at any other school. In some cases it can be worse, if the teachers expect the students to teach themselves everything.)

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Eva is reading almost as well as Ana was at the same point in her school career.

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 03:13:27 GMT

Better than Ana was at her actual age, but not quite as well as during the same part in her school career, if that makes sense.

Both of them had, at this point, a problem with guessing. But they guessed totally differently!

Ana, at this stage, would look at the first few letters and make a guess based on how they should all sound... even if it didn't make sense. So if she had a sentence that ran something like "We all live on the Earth" and she was tired by the end of it, she might read "Earth" as "earring" or "eats" or some nonsense word that sorta sounds right.

Evangeline, looking at that same sentence and being just as tired at the end of it, is much more likely to make a guess based upon the sense of the sentence. So HER guess might come out as "planet" or "world".

This has the result of making Evangeline sound like a much better reader, and the fact that she pays attention to what the words mean is very good... but in the end, I don't really want either one of them guessing at all. When they do (and they don't guess right), deep down I feel like shouting "STOP GUESSING! JUST READ IT! R E A D!"

But I try not to do that. I doubt it's helpful. I know, being able to figure things out from context is an important skill, and Ana, at least, is reading well above grade level, so why worry?

But it really annoys me. I mean, really.

Here's something else about reading, and I'm allowed to post this on the condition that none of you ever mentions it to anybody who might ever meet Evangeline, ever. You're swearing an oath by reading onwards!

When they read, they like to pretend they're characters in the books they're reading. (And to an extent they do this when watching TV too.) So if I read about how Omakayas felt bad because her sister Angeline teased her (we're reading The Birchbark House now. Good book, but it's about to get REALLY depressing), Evangeline will go "That's me, I feel bad!" or start to "cry" at the same time I'm reading because "My sister was mean to me". Evangeline especially listens very closely for any mention of HER chosen character in whatever book we're reading. (She was Diana when we read Anne of Green Gables. She still IS Diana sometimes.)

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It's September!

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:11:41 GMT

So there's going to be a bunch of articles about school!

Ana was talking to me about her teachers and school, and boy did she ever have a lot to say! She doesn't like that her teachers always claim that when THEY were kids THEY always acted right and never were disrespectful or misbehaved in any way. This is clearly a lie. (And it clearly is, and a stupid one, no argument here.) She doesn't like that some kids get pulled out of class for special reasons and she never does. (After talking with her, I managed to get it across that they're not being pulled out of class because the teachers like them more, but because they probably need special help. It seems one of them won't do any of his work...?) She doesn't like that her kindergarten teacher was so awesome that she managed to set an impossibly high standard - seriously, she went on and on and ON about exactly why her kindergarten teacher was such a good teacher, using many specific details. I eventually told her she should write it all down and tell the woman next time she sees her, because it'd be helpful. (It'd be more helpful for the others, I guess, but how could that go over well? Forget it.)

And we talked about other things. Apparently, she thinks that the most popular girl in her grade is beautiful. Everybody thinks that. Except she's not very nice. (According to Ana, anyway.) And several other named people are pretty too. Which led to two discussions:

1. In five years, this girl A will think she's fat and want to be slender like Ana (Ana giggled, because the girl in question IS big compared to her - but then, who isn't?), that girl B will think she's too skinny and want to look more like A, a third girl C will just think she's ugly and want a face more like B's face, and D will want C's hair. And it's all a pointless waste of time.

2. There's pretty on the outside and there's pretty on the inside, and people can get over not having the first but very rarely get over not having the second. Ana apparently managed to completely and pointlessly antagonize That Popular Girl in her grade last year, and it didn't make her happy in the end (well, really, I could've told her that saying to the girl's face that she's mean was a bad idea, even if it IS true), but as I pointed out, there's probably lots of other kids who wish they could be brave and kind like Ana is. That doesn't mean they're going to be nice or are going to be her friend, but you have to take what you can get.

So we'll see what happens this year. Ana isn't convinced she doesn't want to transfer schools, but truthfully, I don't see her social problems (the extent of which she only was willing to talk about in June) as changing just because she changes schools. That's assuming that she has as many problems as she thinks. I pick her up, I see kids randomly hugging her as they say goodbye, and while it's possible they're all really being manipulative, they're not hugging everybody and calling out to them.

Anyway! Articles!

Growth scores give schools No Child Left Behind alternative

Basically they're saying that if you're evaluating teachers, evaluate by how much they taught, not whether they were magically able to pull 33 kids up to grade level from being 3 years behind. If they do a year's worth of work, that's a year's worth of teaching. I think that's fair.

PS 70 in Queens has the city's worst bedbug problem. I really only linked this for the first sentence:

This is one grade a Queens elementary school wished it hadn't scored highest in the city.

What an unusual way to form a sentence, don't you think?

And this piece on independent learning in a school

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Quick article on lunches

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 14:37:41 GMT

The Plastic Sandwich Bag Flunks

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This is a good one :)

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 14:53:10 GMT

Schools Restore Fresh Cooking to the Cafeteria

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conuly

Lots of articles on a snowy day.

Another article on the de facto segregation in NYC schools.

Article time : )

I admit, I'm fascinated by the press Stuy has gotten lately.

An article on a new writing program at New Dorp high school

Here's a quick enough article on re-introducing recess to schools in Chicago

More articles, because life right now is boring.

Two more on schools and NYC :)

Some articles

Some more links...

Some articles

Some articles

A few quick links

Here's a whole bunch of articles from the Times.

You know, "Your kid needs to study!" is a very unhelpful and inappropriate response.

More on the NYC school numbering

Interesting note....

Eva is reading almost as well as Ana was at the same point in her school career.

It's September!

Quick article on lunches

This is a good one :)

More random articles