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Tagged: Education

Our best freaking stuff right now:

June 6, 2013
20:11 • 1 week ago
The student, in their opinion, had gotten too rambunctious and rowdy, and they said that he would not stay in his seat, so that’s what they did. That obviously is not the way to take care of it, but that’s what they did.
Judson, Tx. Independent School District spokesman Steve Linscomb • Discussing a situation in which a teacher duct-taped a child to a chair in an effort to stop them from being unruly. The teacher and a teacher’s aide both resigned after the incident, which comes a year after another teacher at the district was accused of ordering her kindergarten students to take turns hitting one of their classmates. Whoa.
June 4, 2013
12:14 • 2 weeks ago
Artists often possess the skills and temperament that business leaders regularly say are in short supply: creativity, resiliency, flexibility, high tolerance for risk and ambiguity, as well as the courage to fail.

Why art school may be the new business school (via fastcompany)

Short supply indeed….

(via wingtipsandloafers)

Art majors, see yourself heading towards the business world?

April 12, 2013
20:32 • 2 months ago
Your essay must be five paragraphs long, with an introduction, three body paragraphs containing your strongest arguments, and a conclusion. You do not have a choice in your position: you must argue that Jews are evil, and use solid rationale from government propaganda to convince me of your loyalty to the Third Reich!
The text of a 10th grade english assignment pushing students to offer their suggestions on why the Nazis were right, or as I like to call it, “instant dismissal from your teaching job.” What an awful idea. The Albany, NY school district, where the assignment originated from, is working hard to make amends to the local Jewish community as well as to students and parents; the teacher faces a reprimand and possible firing.
March 29, 2013
18:29 • 2 months ago

  • 65 the number of charges the former Atlanta Schools superintendent, Beverly L. Hall, faces as part of a wide-reaching cheating scandal, where cheating was allowed or encouraged as a way to get higher scores on Georgia’s Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests, and bonuses were offered for higher scores. She could face as many as 45 years in jail, and with a bond of $7.5 million, it’s clear they’re throwing the book at her.
  • 35 the number of other employees of the district that have also been charged in the case, including six principals and 14 teachers. As many as 178 employees were named as taking part in the cheating over 44 schools, according to a 2011 investigation. The case was first uncovered by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2009. source

March 14, 2013
15:07 • 3 months ago
I’m not a sixth-grader. I’m not a lawyer, but after 20 years, I’ve been up close and personal to the Constitution. I have great respect for it. … It’s fine you want to lecture me on the Constitution. I appreciate it. Just know I’ve been here for a long time. I’ve passed on a number of bills. I’ve studied the Constitution myself. I am reasonably well-educated, and I thank you for the lecture.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein • Responding to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who Sen. Feinstein believed was giving her an unrequested/undesired lecture on the U.S. Constitution and the wording used in its creation. The conflict arose during a heated debate between the two on a gun control bill (sponsored by Sen. Feinstein) which would ban the sale and manufacture of more than 150 types of military weapons, and was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. source
February 27, 2013
15:33 • 3 months ago

Ridiculous Story of the Day: A California high school student set up a sting operation to catch a locker thief at Linden High School, only to discover one of her teachers was actually the one guilty of taking students’ money. Naturally, after she showed the footage to her principal, he asked her to delete the footage. Yes, really. (ht Gawker) source

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February 12, 2013
21:45 • 4 months ago
President Obama just called for increased spending on infrasture, speficially saying he’d move to make necessary repairs on the scores of under-maintained bridges throughout the country. He also called to make pre-school available to every child in America: “Every dollar we invest in early childhood education can save seven dollars later on, …Let’s do what works, and make sure none of our kids start the race of life already behind.”

President Obama just called for increased spending on infrasture, speficially saying he’d move to make necessary repairs on the scores of under-maintained bridges throughout the country. He also called to make pre-school available to every child in America: “Every dollar we invest in early childhood education can save seven dollars later on, …Let’s do what works, and make sure none of our kids start the race of life already behind.”

February 4, 2013
08:58 • 4 months ago
January 5, 2013
12:18 • 5 months ago
December 19, 2012
09:22 • 6 months ago
In Massachusetts, good education no longer means higher income, and lower-income residents are falling behind. Above is a graphic from Reuters’ comprehensive in-depth report on the topic, part of its “Unequal State of America” series.

In Massachusetts, good education no longer means higher income, and lower-income residents are falling behind. Above is a graphic from Reuters’ comprehensive in-depth report on the topic, part of its “Unequal State of America” series.

Recent posts and stuff we dig:
December 16, 2012
16:17 • 6 months ago
It will change the way you think. What they are teaching is inherently spiritual, it’s just inappropriate therefore in our public schools.
Encinitas, Calif. mother Mary Eady • Discussing why she pulled her children out of a yoga class taught at the Encinitas Union School District, out of a belief that the classes would indoctrinate her children in an Eastern religion. Eady and other parents are considering lawsuits to stop the program. So yeah, there’s that.
November 25, 2012
15:26 • 6 months ago

israelfacts:

Palestinian children return to school for the first time since Israel’s latest attack on Gaza but not all students made it back. Sarah Al-Dalou had to be excused from class as she — along with 9 other members of her family and 2 neighbors [graphic] — were killed by an Israeli airstrike when F-16 fighter jets reduced their house in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza to rubble.

A sign now occupies her seat instead, calling her a ‘martyr’. She is one of over 30 children killed by the Israeli Army during their week-long assault on the blockaded coastal enclave, with 161 Palestinians dead in total.

(Photo source: @mohammednazmi)

Bottom photo: Palestinian children return to school in January 2009 after Israel’s massacre in Gaza, named ‘Operation Cast Lead’, when over 300 children were killed by the Israeli Army, and 1,400 Palestinians in all.

Signs replaced the once-occupied seats at al-Fakhura School in the Jabaliya refugee camp in Gaza; names of victims written under the word in red: ‘Martyr’, 24 January, 2009.

(Photo credit: Anja Niedringhaus / AP)

It’s incredibly difficult to try to see from the perspective of these children — sitting in class with just placards beside them, where friends used to be.

September 25, 2012
16:29 • 8 months ago
I believe that we simply can’t have a setting where the teachers’ unions are able to contribute tens of millions of dollars to the campaigns of politicians and then those politicians, when elected, stand across from them at the bargaining table, supposedly to represent the interest of the kids.
Mitt Romney • Calling for a ban on political contributions by public teachers’ unions, which he further denounced as an “extraordinary conflict of interest.” If implemented this would, of course, come at nearly the full detriment of the Democratic Party, a fact Romney acknowledged only jokingly: “I don’t mean to be terribly partisan, but I kind of am. In the case of the Democratic Party, the largest contributors to the Democratic Party are the teachers unions.” source
September 18, 2012
19:43 • 9 months ago
I am so thrilled that people are going back. Everyone is looking forward to seeing their kids tomorrow.
Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teacher’s Union • Announcing the end of the strike which captured national attention for the past week, and which will mark the return of some 350,000 Chicago-area students to their regular public school schedules. The vote to end the strike was held following agreement on a new three-year contract. Central to the standoff were arguments over teacher evaluations and firings — Mayor Rahm Emanuel sided with advocates for merit-based (tethered to test scores) evaluations of educators, but in the end had to drastically weaken those plans to come to terms with the union. The CTU isn’t exactly giddy abut the deal, either, with Lewis calling it “…not a good deal… but the deal we got.” In other words, everybody sounds to be feeling, at best, mildly unhappy with the bargain, if relieved at the resolution. source

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