education – News Stories About education - Page 15

OPINION

May 15, 2011 3:14 PM CDT

High School English: A Waste of Time?

No one wants to teach grammar because it's not fun: Kim Brooks

(Newser) - Sometimes, while Kim Brooks is grading essays by her college composition students, she cries. "Not real tears, exactly—more a spontaneous, guttural sob, often loud and unpleasant enough to startle my husband or children," she writes in Salon . Why? Because many of these students "simply ... cannot write....

For Backbreaking Work, Teacher Pay Is Staggering

DAVE EGGERS

May 1, 2011 8:34 AM CDT

For Backbreaking Work, Teacher Pay Is Staggering

Like soldiers, teachers need more resources to compete, not blame.

(Newser) - When America fails in combat, we don't blame the troops for being lazy, we blame the top brass. So why is it that our response to a failing education system is to blame the teachers? asks Dave Eggers, writing with Nínive Clements Calegari in the New York Times...

Why Cursive
Still Matters

Apr 30, 2011 12:29 PM CDT

Why Cursive Still Matters

Handwriting style fights forgery, bolsters motor skills, and more

(Newser) - Cursive handwriting may seem archaic in a time of word processors and text messages, and in schools nationwide, it’s being taught less and less. But the ability to write in cursive has hidden benefits, experts tell the New York Times . When it comes to signatures, for example, “it’...

Homeless Mom Faces Jail
for Enrolling Son in School

Apr 27, 2011 4:25 AM CDT

Homeless Mom Faces Jail for Enrolling Son in School

Woman charged with grand larceny after boy sent to wrong school

(Newser) - A homeless mother who sent her child to the wrong Connecticut public school could be jailed for up to 20 years for stealing $15,686—the cost of a year's education in Norwalk. Tanya McDowell was charged with grand larceny after authorities discovered that she sent her 6-year-old son...

'Don't Say Gay' Education Bill Advances in Tennessee

Teachers can't talk about homosexuality before high school under bill

(Newser) - A Tennessee state Senate committee has passed a bill to make sure teachers don't mention homosexuality in classes below ninth grade, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. The Republican sponsor of the so-called “don’t say gay” bill got it passed 6-3 after some legal wrangling, and it now...

Scandal Aside,
Mortenson
Did Good Work

Nicholas Kristof

Apr 21, 2011 12:16 PM CDT

Scandal Aside, Mortenson Did Good Work

Let's not get cynical about education

(Newser) - Nicholas Kirstof is reeling from the allegations against Three Cups of Tea author Greg Mortenson , who he considers a personal friend. “Part of me wishes that all this journalistic energy had been directed instead to ferret out abuses by politicians who allocate government resources to campaign donors,” he...

Breitbart:
Glenn Beck
Betrayed Me

Apr 20, 2011 2:08 PM CDT

Breitbart: Glenn Beck Betrayed Me

Conservative blogger decries 'nihilist Marxist' education system

(Newser) - Andrew Breitbart thinks Glenn Beck backstabbed him during the Shirley Sherrod fiasco. In an interview with the Observer , the conservative blogger says that Beck joined him in editing the infamous video and castigating Sherrod on the radio—only to suddenly do an about-face, publish the unedited version online, and demand...

Maine Dropping $200K on iPads for Kindergartners

Apr 14, 2011 8:28 AM CDT

Maine Dropping $200K on iPads for Kindergartners

But will it really improve their learning experience?

(Newser) - Forget finger paint: One Maine city is looking to spend $200,000 next fall to outfit its kindergartners with iPads. "It's definitely an adventure, and it'll be a journey of learning for teachers and students," says one teacher; supposedly, the tablets will make learning more exciting and interactive....

US Spends $20M to Redo Sesame Street for Pakistan

but big bird's not invited

Apr 8, 2011 2:23 AM CDT

US Spends $20M to Redo Sesame Street for Pakistan

Makeover aimed at boosting education, tolerance, fighting extremism

(Newser) - Out of the $1.5 billion in civilian aid the US is sending to Pakistan this year, $20 million is being used to enlist Elmo in the fight against Islamic extremism. USAid is funding a Pakistani remake of Sesame Street in an effort to educate children in deprived areas, the...

Bloomberg Fires Ill-Qualified Schools Chancellor

Apr 7, 2011 11:44 AM CDT

Bloomberg Fires Ill-Qualified Schools Chancellor

Cathie Black had no experience in education

(Newser) - Cathie Black has resigned just three months into her tumultuous tenure as New York City schools chancellor, and city officials tell the New York Times that mayor Michael Bloomberg gave her a strong nudge out the door. Many were stunned when Bloomberg appointed Black in the first place; she’s...

Second-Grade Girls
Already Bailing on Math

Mar 29, 2011 4:01 AM CDT

Second-Grade Girls Already Bailing on Math

Study finds stereotype reaches kids strikingly early

(Newser) - A disturbingly high proportion of little girls have absorbed the stereotype that math is for boys by the time they reach the second grade, a new study finds. Researchers found that little boys and girls alike tend to associate enjoyment of math with boys, MSNBC reports. "We still don’...

Virginia
Gov. Vetoes
School PE Bill

Mar 25, 2011 9:35 AM CDT

Virginia Gov. Vetoes School PE Bill

'Unfunded mandate' would have required 150 minutes of PE a week

(Newser) - Virginia’s governor has vetoed a bill that would have required 150 minutes of physical activity per week at elementary and middle schools, handing a victory to school officials who complained that the measure would cost millions to staff, lengthen the school day, and take away from arts education. “...

Our Biggest Regret Is...

Mar 24, 2011 4:32 AM CDT

Our Biggest Regret Is...

Love, family, education, career, money all make the list

(Newser) - Love—or lust—was in the air, and we failed to take action, or took the wrong action. That's the biggest regret of our lives, according to a recent study. Nearly one in five survey respondents named a lost love connection as the one thing in their lives they regretted...

Dave Eggers:
Enough With the
Teacher Layoffs

opinion

Mar 22, 2011 12:54 PM CDT

Dave Eggers: Enough With the Teacher Layoffs

System leaves already-struggling public educators in lurch

(Newser) - Public school teachers grapple with 80-hour work weeks on tight salaries, with little creative freedom, while the media attacks their unions—and on top of all that, they face mass layoffs on a regular basis. In San Francisco, for example, 2,800 teachers were warned last week that their jobs...

Preschool Sued for Ruining Tot's Ivy League Chances

Mar 15, 2011 2:57 AM CDT

Preschool Sued for Ruining Tot's Ivy League Chances

$19K preschool 'just one big playroom'

(Newser) - A Manhattan mom is suing a preschool for scotching her 4-year-old daughter's chances of getting into an Ivy League university. The mother complains that the $19,000-a-year York Avenue Preschool failed to prepare the toddler for a test used for admission at top private elementary schools and sometimes put her...

It's Time to Give
Teachers a Fat Raise

NICHOLAS KRISTOF

Mar 13, 2011 6:44 AM CDT

It's Time to Give Teachers a Fat Raise

Teachers should be praised, not vilified

(Newser) - Right-wing propaganda aside, America's teachers are underpaid and need to make more if the United States is to compete internationally, writes Nicholas Kristof at the New York Times . "We should be elevating teachers, not throwing darts at them," he says. In 1970, a starting public school teacher earned...

Obama Joins Forces
With... Bush?

Mar 4, 2011 5:20 PM CST

Obama Joins Forces With... Bush?

Jeb Bush, that is, in education push

(Newser) - Barack Obama got a little help from an unlikely ally today in Florida, when Jeb Bush appeared with him at a speech promoting the administration's education agenda at Miami Central High School, the AP reports. Bush introduced Obama, saying that education shouldn't be a partisan issue. Obama shook his hand,...

Ron Paul:
Education,
Medical Care
Aren't Rights

Mar 4, 2011 2:28 PM CST

Ron Paul: Education, Medical Care Aren't Rights

They are 'things that you have to earn'

(Newser) - Neither education nor medical care are rights, Rep. Ron Paul told MSNBC—they’re "things that you have to earn." Host Cenk Uygur asked Paul whether the government should give "a helping hand" to a hypothetical poor child in his district who couldn't afford tuition, to which...

Providence Board Votes to Terminate All Teachers

Feb 25, 2011 8:59 AM CST

Providence Board Votes to Terminate All Teachers

More than 700 gathered to protest

(Newser) - Those 1,926 pink slips will definitely be going out in Providence: After two hours of debate, the school board voted last night to send out termination notices to every public school teacher in the city. More than 700 teachers gathered to express their feelings: "disrespected," "bullied,...

Providence Giving All Its Teachers Pink Slips

Feb 23, 2011 10:42 AM CST

Providence Giving All Its Teachers Pink Slips

But it won't actually fire them all

(Newser) - All 1,926 teachers in the Providence Public School District are about to get termination notices. Tomorrow the school board will vote on a resolution to dismiss every teacher on the last day of school, Superintendent Tom Brady announced in a staff email today, according to the Providence Journal . Not...