Today is Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day, a program sponsored by the Ms. Foundation for Women “to create an opportunity for girls and boys to share and communicate their expectations for the future.” The Foundation estimates that over 6.4 million boys and 10.1 million girls 8-12 years old will participate and “engage […]
A bipartisan group of legislators has introduced a bill that would require the Agriculture Department to set new nutritional standards for all food sold in schools, with the goal of restricting junk food sales. Current regulations apply to cafeteria breakfasts and lunches, but not vending-machine or school-store snacks. I’m all for this—but wonder if restrictions
The New York Times today reports on schools that are cutting funding for gifted programs in order to meet the requirements for the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. Schools are shifting funds to ensure that struggling students attain the law’s basic math and reading levels. This highlights one of the biggest dilemmas facing
The New York Times today discusses how “thousands” of schools across the country are reducing class time in subjects other than reading and math, as a reaction to the reading and math testing requirements of the “No Child Left Behind” law. (Registration required for NY Times site.) In some cases, schools have completely eliminated other
I’ve written a lot about politics this week, so in lieu of the weekly political roundup I’ve been doing, I’ll point out a hysterical satire on educational testing by Anna Quindlen in Newsweek. I’ve written before that I take a dim view of “teaching to the test”; Quindlen, however, dares to dream what might happen
There’s been a lot in the media recently about how boys are struggling in the U. S. educational system. Newsweek ran a cover story in its January 30 issue titled “The Trouble With Boys,” and PBS this month aired the documentary “Raising Cain: Boys in Focus,” based on the book of the same name. Some
One of the latest trends in geekdom is creating “mashups,” combinations of data from multiple Web sites that result in a new service for users. The best-known of these are combinations of Google Maps and something else: movie showtimes or house listings, for example. My two-and-a-half-year-old son, showing his attunement to such innovations, has been
I’ve never been a fan of education that “teaches to the test.” Now, a new study from the UK supports the view that the relentless focus on preparing children for national exams has lessened their cognitive and conceptual development and ability to handle new ideas. In fact, they claim, 11- and 12-year-olds are “now on
This coming Saturday, October 22, Lambda Families of NJ is hosting their 5th Biennial GLBT Family Conference at Montclair State College. It is a chance both to learn and socialize with other LGBT-headed families. There are workshops for parents, those planning on becoming parents, kids 8 to 11 years old, and kids 12 and over.
I met a mom earlier today who implied that girls don’t have an interest in things mechanical. Hmm. My partner has a doctorate in engineering. I’ve written programs to collect data from CCD cameras on rather large telescopes. (Not to mention installed the odd hard drive and assembled more furniture from IKEA than I care
