Photograph; The study shows that by age 4, children in families living with incomes under 200 percent of the federal poverty line have less gray matter — brain tissue critical for processing of information and execution of actions — than kids growing up in families with higher [...]
Please ponder the possibility that not all possessions are tangible. We might have the best grade, the perceived better degree, more Facebook friends or Twitter followers, greater fame or fortune. Even an abundance of good favor can be acquired, and viewed as a commodity. Each has worth [...]
In the United States we are raised to appreciate the accomplishments of inventors and thinkers—creative people whose ideas have transformed our world. We celebrate the famously imaginative, the greatest artists and innovators from Van Gogh to Steve Jobs. Viewing the world creatively is supposed to be [...]
By Paul L. Thomas, Ed.D. | Originally Published at The Becoming Radical. December 5, 2013 While film critics have offered mostly negative reviews of This Is 40, I have watched all and then parts of the film multiple times during its run on cable TV because I [...]
Photograph; Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times Montserrat Garibay, a teacher in Austin, Tex., is focusing on helping families navigate a complex immigration bureaucracy. By Michael Brick | Originally Published at The New York Times. December 1, 2013 AUSTIN, Tex. — The meeting began, as so [...]
We test and test our children in a futile attempt to alter reality. We wish to believe that scores on a battery of examinations will predict the future, or at least offer some insight into a student's progress. Policymakers suggest the tests will forecast a child's potential. [...]
By Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers, and Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Professor Emerita of Early Childhood Education, Lesley University | Originally Published at AFT American Teacher Federation November 17, 2013 | Download pdf Early childhood education is “in” these days—from the bipartisan bill introduced in Congress this [...]
Have you ever been in front of an active teen or tween, a twenty or thirty something who is connected [in cyberspace], but disconnected? Perhaps it is your partner, a person in his/her forties, fifties or sixties? He or she sits with you in a restaurant or [...]
It is widely accepted in America that youth in poverty are a population at risk for being troubled. Research has repeatedly demonstrated that low family income is a major determinant of protracted stress and social, emotional, and behavioral problems. Experiencing poverty before age 5 is [...]
