Sometimes, signs of progress pop up in unexpected places. The Chicago Tribune this weekend ran a piece titled “Preschool FAQ,” by Heidi Stevens, who regularly writes on parenting for the Tribune. There’s nothing remotely LGBT-specific about it; it’s all about addressing questions that any parent, LGBT or not, might have if her or his child […]
(Originally published in Bay Windows, Thursday Feb 19, 2009.) Last week I registered my son for his first year in our public school system. It was one of life’s strange coincidences that news also broke last week about my very own state representative, House Minority Leader Bradley Jones, who filed a bill to require parental
Passing along this information from COLAGE about their 2009-10 Fellowship Program. Any questions, please contact them. (Info at bottom of post.) In addition to the Fellowship below, COLAGE also awards four $1000 scholarships to children of LGBTQ parents. See their Web site for more details. The application deadline for the scholarships is May, 1, 2009,
Today marks the first anniversary of the murder of openly gay teen Larry King (who identified as Letitia King in the weeks before the murder). I feel like a broken record, once again trotting out my list of safe schools resources, plus a few additional ones from GLSEN and PFLAG, as well as an update
The folks at the big G are holding a “Doodle 4 Google” competition, and want K-12 students to play around with the Google homepage logo to see what new designs they come up with. The competition is open to all students in U.S. schools from kindergarten to grade 12 (including private schools and all homeschoolers).
Today marks the start of No Name-Calling Week, “an annual week of educational activities aimed at ending name-calling of all kinds and providing schools with the tools and inspiration to launch an on-going dialogue about ways to eliminate bullying in their communities.” The event was created five years ago by GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight
Carol Adair, the spouse of U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan and a venerated teacher at the College of Marin, died of cancer on January 3rd, 2009, at the age of 66. She is survived by Ryan, two daughters, four grandchildren, her mother, and four siblings. Her death was first announced in the Marin Independent Journal
Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) has just launched Cultivating Respect, a program to address anti-LGBT sentiment in the nation’s schools. The program includes “training seminars for local parents and allies, empowering PFLAG supporters at the local level to work directly with their community leaders and school administrators to protect LGBT students.”
How can one evaluate who will be a great teacher? That’s the question posed by journalist Malcolm Gladwell (author of The Tipping Point) in the current issue of The New Yorker. He says, in part: Eric Hanushek, an economist at Stanford, estimates that the students of a very bad teacher will learn, on average, half
It’s time for another collection of news and fun stuff for LGBT parents: Put on your flak jackets. “It is same-sex parenting that is heating up as the next skirmish in the nation’s culture wars,” asserts the Chicago Tribune. Nancy Polikoff points out just how scary are the proposed Bush rules that would allow healthcare
