Downeast Schoolhouse » olio

News Roundup & Link Bomb

admin — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 10:00:12 +0000

This is a kind of week-end cleanup of bits and bobs of stories on hand. Think of it as Downeast’s really big pile o’ stuff.

Clock ticking for union-inspired panel on assessing teachers The recently-passed law allowing student performance to be linked to teacher evaluation — so Maine could/might be able to get Race to the [...]

Weekend Round-Up: Tell Me That It Isn’t True!

admin — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:00:12 +0000

Wherein we dump a number of interesting but disparate items in your lap.

Just in case you didn’t already think that things are seemngly spinning out of control!

First, from across the pond, the nanny state in overdrive: Parents banned from watching their children in playgrounds… in case they are paedophiles. Read, scream, weep, rage…

Next, that stimulus [...]

Friday Grab-Bag!

admin — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 10:00:25 +0000

Justice Souter’s ‘Safe Place’, Washington Post, May 25, 2009 The retiring justice embarks on a civics education project.

The justice went on to lament how many Americans today do not grow up understanding even the most basic truths about U.S. democracy — that there are three branches of government, for example. This ignorance, he said, was “the [...]

Monday Mish-Mosh

admin — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:48:56 +0000

Blogging will be light until maple madness is over.

Readers have asked who “we” is in my posts. “We” is always me and me alone; I speak for no one else, not even my dog. It’s the “editorial we“: I use it because it’s less obnoxious (to my ear) than the constant repetition of “I”.

Tomorrow: Subversion [...]

Linky Friday

admin — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 11:10:09 +0000

Diane Ravitch, Are Hollywood And The Internet Killing Reading?, Forbes, 2/17/09

Nearly five years ago, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) issued an alarming report called “Reading at Risk,” which declared that literary reading was in dramatic decline. The NEA reported a sharp drop from 1982 to 2002 in the proportion of people who were [...]

Linky Goodness

admin — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:06:48 +0000

A 21st-century caution , Boston Globe, 2/24/09 The Globe comes out strongly for penalty and repentance against fuzziness!

Rewards for Students Under a Microscope, Lisa Guernsey, New York Times, 3/2/09 The discussion about whether kids can be bought, for how long, and how much it’s going to cost.

To Hell with Niceness, Kenneth Monogue, Standpoint Magazine, March 2009 The creeping [...]