Contributor Posts

"A growing number of students in public schools – right now, about 15% of them – are eligible for special education services. These services include specially designed instruction for students with autism, learning or physical disabilities, or traumatic brain injuries. But going into the current school year, more than half of U.S. public schools anticipate being short-staffed in special education. More at The Conversation ➜

"When 19-year-old Aleysha Ortiz, told Hartford City Council members in May that the public school system stole her education, she had to memorize her speech......That’s because she was never taught to read or write — despite attending schools in Hartford since she was 6"  More at The Connecticut Mirror ➜

Schools in Ohio, like other schools across the country, are struggling to reduce chronic absenteeism, which spiked during the pandemic. But Ohio may have a head start on dealing with the problem, thanks to a 2018 state law encouraging a positive approach to discipline. More at The Conversation ➜

"The ability to teach and conduct research free from political interference is the cornerstone of higher education and its contribution to the public good. Academic freedom, however, has become increasingly threatened" More at The Conversation ➜

"In early 2015, the 10,000-entry Oxford children’s dictionary dropped around fifty words related to nature — words like fern, willow, and starling — in favor of terms like broadband and cut and paste, some of the world’s most prominent authors composed an open letter of protest and alarm at this impoverishment of children’s vocabulary and its consequent diminishment of children’s belonging to and with the natural world. Among them was one of the great nature writers of our time: Robert Macfarlane....Troubled by this loss of vital and vitalizing language, MacFarlane teamed up with illustrator and children’s book author Jackie Morris, who had reached out to him to write an introduction for a sort of “wild dictionary” she wanted to create as a counterpoint to Oxford’s erasure. Instead, Macfarlane envisioned something greater. The Lost Words: A Spell Book (public library) was born" . Read more at the Marginalian

From out of the past,
through the back door,
my thirst for knowledge,
hungers for more.

Magazines, countless books
and a little TV, too,
I devour the knowledge,
to impress you and you.

"In Greenville, students can specialize in engineering beginning in kindergarten. Some critics worry the push for career education at young ages is putting business priorities before those of students and school systems" ..."Greenville is now introducing the idea of a career path to students in elementary school and giving students the option to follow those programs to middle and high schools, hoping by eighth grade they will have a better understanding of what they want to do after high school and what it will take to get there." More at The Hechinger Report

The Hechinger Report, is a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.

If I say to you,
young lady, thou,
write your thoughts,
starting soon, or now.

Let your words flow
from your head.
Write them down,
no fear, no dread.

You're in control
of what you write.
No matter what,
you are right.

MFish

"I’ve been teaching English for 12 years, and I’m astounded by what ChatGPT can produce.......  Barring outright plagiarism, students have always arrived at that moment when they’re on their own with a blank page, staring down a blinking cursor, the essay waiting to be written...... Now that might be about to change" Read more

"Northwest SOIL promised to help students with serious disabilities. But when school districts urged action, the state let the private school stay open and receive millions in tax dollars..... For years, the complaints languished with Washington state education officials." ...."Northwest SOIL’s corporate owner, Universal Health Services, has for years skimped on staffing and basic resources while pressuring managers to enroll more students than the staff could handle..." Read more at ProPublica

When the federal government set up boarding schools in the 19th century to assimilate Native American children into American culture, one of the objectives was to get them to turn away from the use of their native languages. In recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the U.S., The Conversation turned to Daryl Baldwin, a citizen of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma who is a leader in Native American language and cultural revitalization and a member of the National Council on the Humanities, for insight into a tribal community’s efforts working with a university to help bring languages back...Read more

"The first thing to remember is that the great philosophers were only human. Then you can start disagreeing with them."...... Keeping in mind that "each giant of philosophy was a human being trying to figure out life by doing just what you do: reading, thinking, observing, writing"....  Read more