A few days ago, Trump opened his daily press briefing with a White House-made video intended to prove that he acted decisively to counter the coronavirus threat. The video was a response to a major story in the New York Times about his failure to take the virus seriously but to compare it to the common flu. Trump smiled smugly as the taxpayer-funded tribute to Trump played. As this story in the I
Bob Greenberg is a retired teacher who created a mission for himself: He interviews educators and makes short videos about their work. He also asks, in a separate video, which teachers made a difference in your life. He calls his archive the Brainwave Video Anthology. Here is a collection of more than 400 educators describing the teachers that mattered most to them. Scan the list. You will find p
This article was written by Jennifer Weiner , an education professor at the University of Connecticut. She explains why she refuses to follow the worksheets and detailed instructions for her twin sons. She recognizes that she is privileged as a person who has economic security, healthcare and is white. But there’s no reason to believe that children who lack her privileges need to be subjected to
Our blog poet reflects to wistfully on the fate of the $2 trillion appropriated by Congress as coronavirus relief for the American people: Where have all the trillion$ gone Long time pa$$ing Where have all the trillion$ gone Long time ago Where have all the trillion$ gone Gone to Wall Street every one When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn?
Nancy Bailey warns us to keep watch for the vultures who want to use the pandemic to attack and control public schools and teachers. They see an opportunity, and they are ready to pounce. She writes: There’s a movement underfoot to end the way children learn. Look carefully at who says “we need to reimagine” or “this is the time to reassess” schools. These can be signals from those who’ve led the
An independent agency reported on a little known provision of the corona relief legislation, showing that Mitch McConnell took care of the Republican party’s big donors, again: More than 80 percent of the benefits of a tax change tucked into the coronavirus relief package Congress passed last month will go to those who earn more than $1 million annually, according to a report by a nonpartisan con
From Garrison Keillor’s “The Writer’s Almanac”: It was on this day in 1828 that Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language was published (books by this author). Webster put together the dictionary because he wanted Americans to have a national identity that wasn’t based on the language and ideas of England. And the problem wasn’t just that Americans were looking to England for the
Brazil halted a trial of the drug cocktail that Trump and Giuliani have endorsed: A small study in Brazil was halted early for safety reasons after coronavirus patients taking a higher dose of chloroquine developed irregular heart rates that increased their risk of a potentially fatal heart arrhythmia. Chloroquine is closely related to the more widely used drug hydroxychloroquine. President Trump
The governor of South Dakota is determined not to take any action to restrict individuals’ freedom of movement, like telling them to stay home, closing gatherings, or imposing any limits on freedom of action. Meanwhile the giant Smithfield pork processing plant has closed down because of the spread of the virus, and Sioux City has become a “hot spot.” But the Governor has a plan that she has work
The Washington Post Fact Checker has reviewed Trump’s relentless promotion of an anti-malaria drug and determined that his advocacy is misleading ungrounded in science. Trump received a four Pinocchio rating, the highest possible lie. But I think it could be, based on what I see, it could be a game changer.” — President Trump, at a White House news briefing, March 19, 2020 “ Hydroxychloroquine —
I was not familiar with the SGN Channel on YouTube and “Some Good News” with John Krasinski. He tells “good news” stories about people helping each other during these hard times. But in the segment noted here, he pulls off a magical experience. Billboard wrote about this amazing show where the host talks online to a little girl who was very disappointed when her trip to New York City to see “Hami
Our regular reader and diligent researcher Laura Chapman writes: It is not difficult to see who is busy publicizing and brokering ideas for federal action on pre-K-12 education and who is not. The active players are all in for school choice and they have a “perfect” opportunity to dismantle and starve brick and mortar public schools. Federal policies will jumpstart what happens in states, distric
Gary Rubinstein teaches high school mathematics in New York City. He is also a husband and a father of two young children. As he describes in his post , he and his wife must monitor their own children’s education at home while he is responsible for teaching his classes online. He is chagrined to see a new round of attacks on teachers in the midst of the pandemic. The teacher-bashers never take a
This is an essay I wrote for Education Week . I thank them for their close reading, fact-checking, and careful editing. The vast majority of the nation’s schoolchildren are out of school because of the deadly coronavirus. Parents
