If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
SNL Takes On Sequester.. On Friday night, President Barack Obama signed an executive order activating the across-the-board spending cuts known as "sequestration" that came as a result of an ongoing political budget standoff. Saturday Night Live explains the sequester, having an Obama impersonator bring up examples of folks affected by these cuts. Start at 1:15 to see a Philadelphia public schools teacher who was supposedly laid off. (Hint: The glee of her reaction to leaving that job is off message for Obama's grim tone. "Good luck reading Beowulf, you monsters," she says.)
Chicago Full-Day K? In the midst of much bitter infighting over school closures in Chicago, Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett are announcing an initiative that is perhaps aimed to quell the melee: all CPS schools will have full-day kindergarten, reports the Sun-Times. "The change will make full-day kindergarten available to 30,700 children next fall -- 4,200 more than this school year," the paper reports.
Now that I'm a mom of a 10-year-old girl, I realize how important it is to be involved in our children's education from the moment they step into kindergarten.
Is it not madness to do everything in your power to undermine the education of our future generations?
I strongly believe that at the heart of many required skills for these and other 21st century jobs is digital literacy, digital design, computational problem solving, and coding.
Amid the daily blast of headlines competing for attention, the public may sometimes have to search for substantive but less sensational news generated by colleges and universities.
Hundreds of schools launched a historic teach-in movement today to incorporate lesson plans from the banished Mexican American Studies program in Tucson in their own classrooms.
What's happening to academia in Florida demands national attention. Billionaires Charles and David Koch are infringing on intellectual freedom and independence in colleges and universities.
Here's hoping that 2012 will be the year when we stop abandoning schools and people as "failures" and begin reconnecting communities to build long-term educational, social and economic success.
In America, a great public education is our primary opportunity agent for a better future. Yet as our economic struggles have reminded us, educational opportunity and economic prospects are inextricably linked.
Despite countless studies proving that play is integral to children's learning and health, most kids aren't getting enough space and time to play during the school day. These seven absurd stories from last school year say it all.
