When our children were little, their grandparents really liked talking “baby talk” to them. I’d watch as supposedly intelligent adults spent hours talking nonsense to unresponsive infants. Both baby and adult seemed to enjoy it.
I hated it.
Why? Because my wife and I were convinced that it stunted brain development. Because of that, and because we [...]

I have to hand to Arnold. He seems to be making some very sound decisions recently, and this latest piece of legislation is no exception. Basically, it keeps poorly performing teachers from being able to slip through the cracks in the system.
From SF Gate:
(09-29) 04:00 PDT Sacramento — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill Thursday [...]

In case any of you despair about the workers who will be supporting you in retirement:
Educational doomsayers are again up in arms at a new adult literacy study showing that less than 5 percent of college graduates can read a complex book and extrapolate from it.
The obsessive measurement of long-form literacy is once more [...]

Is it reliable? Can we trust it?
Well, head-to-head tests may show that the online encyclopedia (even though some dispute it) is just as accurate as its real world, hard-bound counterparts. But why? Because the collective experts in the world can make things right? Can’t vandals make changes? Yes, of course…but still…some change and some change [...]

Beware may be a strong word, but they aren’t just answering our customer service calls anymore. They’re making our tractors and televisions.
Simpy put, other countries are besting our manufacturing capabilities because they have more affordable labor. This has been the case for years, but this trend is more obvious than ever before. And do note [...]

A followup to my post yesterday, the creationists/intelligent designers/what-have-yous were largely voted out in favor of moderate candidates who’ll keep religion out of science classes.
From USA Today:
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) � Conservative Republicans who brought international attention to Kansas by approving academic standards calling evolution into question lost control of the state school board in primaries.
As [...]

Today’s the day in Kansas when voters go to the polls and vote on the State Board of Education members. Will they vote the creationists out?
Well, the NY Times wrote today about how a bi-partisan group of evolutionists are mounting an offensive to the inclusion of creationism:
Less than a year after a conservative Republican majority [...]

Althouse has a post on Title IX and the new phenomenon of men being in the minority on college campuses. When colleges add or emphasize sports teams to attract more male students, they can be accused of violating Title IX, not providing equal athletic opportunities for women. There are many interesting comments. [...]

Yale isn’t going to let a former Taliban member get a degree…
A student at Yale University who was once a roving ambassador for the Taliban regime in Afghanistan has been denied admission to a degree-granting program at Yale, one of the student’s financial supporters said yesterday.
However…they’re still letting him roam the campus?
The student, Sayed Rahmatullah [...]

From Seth Chalmer, also quoting Jared Lefevre of The Split Rail. Jared:
1. A strategy for Iraq, set in clear terms…
2. Securing ports and borders…
3. Initiatives to support the development of green technology. Governmental power (grants, tax breaks, etc.) should be used to support a growing industry that will not only protect us from the [...]

Well, this is kind of weird…
Ernie Chambers is Nebraska’s only African-American state senator, a man who has fought for causes including the abolition of capital punishment and the end of apartheid in South Africa. A magazine writer once described him as the “angriest black man in Nebraska.”
Ernie Chambers, the only African-American in the Nebraska Legislature, [...]

They were told to sell their house and move.

Imagine this situation. Two black children, a brother and a sister, enrol at a school which is predominatly white. they are subject to racial slurs and other harrassment. They are threatened and assaulted. In one instance, after the girl is threatened, her white nemesis is forced to [...]

I think Rhode Island has made the right move on a faith-based abstinence program. More from The Westerly Sun:
PROVIDENCE - Rhode Island education officials have banned from public schools a federally funded abstinence program that civil rights advocates said embraced sexist stereotypes and included a voluntary student health survey that violated privacy laws.
Lawyers at the [...]

That isn’t my proclamation. That’s what an English Archbishop is saying.
From the Guardian:
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has stepped into the controversy between religious fundamentalists and scientists by saying that he does not believe that creationism - the Bible-based account of the origins of the world - should be taught in schools.
Giving his first, [...]

A 10 year old read the book Freakonomics and emailed author Steven Levitt with a correction. Needless to say, Levitt posted it on his blog, and since they get far more traffic than we do, I’m reprinting the email in full.
From the Freakonomics blog:
Hello. I am Rohan Patel, I am 10 years old. Your book [...]

The editor of the University of Illinois’ student newspaper has been fired for running the controversial Mohammad cartoons that sparked recent protests and violence throughout the Islamic world. Technically, editor-in-chief Acton Gorton was fired because he did not seek proper advice before running the cartoons. But that just sounds like a dodge by the board [...]

I think smart money management is one of the most valuable things you can teach anyone, period. Why? Well, I’m of the opinion that dysfunctional spending leads to a lot of problems in peoples’ lives that they otherwise would have avoided. And sure, people can be retaught when they’re older, but I wish that early [...]

The New Editor rounds up just the tip of the iceberg of the failure of America’s woeful public school systems to actually educate. And it’s one iceberg that isn’t shrinking:

A survey by ACT college testing service found “only 51 percent of students showed they were ready to handle the reading requirements of a typical first-year [...]

You don’t eliminate programs called “Teacher Quality Enhancement“:
Partnership Grants for Improving Teacher Preparation provide funds to partnerships among teacher preparation institutions, schools of arts and sciences, and local school districts in high-need areas. The partners work to strengthen teacher education through activities such as: implementing reforms that hold teacher education programs accountable, improving prospective teachers’ [...]