Why Mother’s Day founder came to hate her creation (and more on moms, gifts, baby names etc.)
by Valerie Strauss
Your friendly Census Bureau has provided the following facts about mothers, children and there is some surprising history behind the annual ritual we call Mother’s Day (and that some people see as a gift from greeting card companies to themselves).
First of all, where did Mother’s Day originate and how is that the founder of the day eventually came to be arrested for protesting a Mother’s Day carnation sale?
Says the bureau:
“The driving force behind Mother’s Day was Anna Jarvis, who organized observances in Grafton, W.Va., and Philadelphia on May 10, 1908. As the annual celebration became popular around the country, Jarvis asked members of Congress to set aside a day to honor mothers. She finally succeeded in 1914, when Congress designated the second Sunday in May as ‘Mother’s Day.’”
As it turns out, her mother, Ann, had started Mother’s Day Work Clubs
The fantasies driving school reform: A primer for education graduates
by Valerie Strauss
This is the text of the commencement speech that Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, gave this past weekend at the Loyola University Chicago School of Education. The institute is a non-profit organization created in 1986 to broaden the discussion about economic policy to include the interests of low- and middle-income workers. Rothstein is also the author of several books on education issues, and is senior fellow of the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy at the University of California (Berkeley) School of Law. From 1999 to 2002, he was the national education columnist of The New York Times.
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