Cancer: Education may play role - latimes.com

Cancer: Education may play role - latimes.com

Cancer deaths and education: Exploring the link

• 
• 
• 

• Share1
• Comments

  1

The effects of higher education may play a role in much-discussed cancer statistics. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

By Chris Woolston, HealthKey / For the Booster Shots blog

June 18, 2011, 6:30 a.m.

The American Cancer Society's annual report, released Friday, holds good news for just about everybody: The overall cancer death rate is dropping steadily, and fewer people are getting the dreaded diagnosis in the first place. But as the organization notes, one group has largely been left behind in this march toward progress.

For many reasons — some obvious, some mysterious — people who didn’t get far in school seem to be prime targets for deadly cancer. The cancer death rates are almost three times higher for people who didn’t finish high school than for college graduates. The gap was especially large for lung cancer — which makes sense because people without much education are especially likely to smoke — but it was also strong for all of the major killers, including cancers of the breast, colon and prostate.

Our Children Must Have Plenty of Clean Water at School « MomsRising Blog

Our Children Must Have Plenty of Clean Water at School « MomsRising Blog

Our Children Must Have Plenty of Clean Water at School

by Anisha Patel, M.D.

As the parent of a newborn and a 4-year-old, I want to believe that my daughters will have healthy environments at home and at school. But as a pediatrician and a researcher for the University of California, San Francisco, I know that many U.S. children may face unhealthy nutrition environments in child-care facilities and schools, and may even lack an essential nutrient that most of us take for granted – water that is safe to drink.

Studies suggest that children do not drink enough plain water and instead drink sugar-sweetened beverages that can lead to serious and costly health issues including obesity, tooth decay, and even decreased cognitive function.

As a parent I can take steps to make sure my daughters get enough clean water to drink at home. But when they enter child care and kindergarten, will I and millions of other parents across the United States know if they are getting enough free clean water to drink in these out-of-home settings?

In a paper just published in the American Journal of Public Health, my colleague Karla Hampton, J.D., an

Save Seattle Schools Community Blog: Young Adult Fiction; Is it Too Much for Teens?

Save Seattle Schools Community Blog: Young Adult Fiction; Is it Too Much for Teens?

Young Adult Fiction; Is it Too Much for Teens?

by Melissa Westbrook

I love children's literature. It's one thing that I look back on with fondest during the time my children were growing up. I loved revisiting old childhood favorites of mine and was so thrilled with all the new literature out there. (I remember when I worked at All for Kids Books and Music and the buyer handed me a book without a cover - a publishers' copy - and said "This is the next big thing." I read it and was enthralled. It was Harry Potter.)

But since my boys are young adults, I haven't kept up as much. But there's a new debate over how much realism should be in young adult books. The Times had a story from the Scripps Howard news service about this issue.

This debate was first sparked by the 1967 publication of "The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton, which is considered the first book truly aimed at teens. Many parents were horrified by Hinton's picture of violent, disillusioned young adults, but teen readers loved the book — and still do.

Now, the debate has flared up again with the June 4 publication of an essay, "Darkness Too Visible," in The Wall Street Journal. In the essay, Meghan Cox Gurdon, the Journal's reviewer of children's and teen books, contends that contemporary fiction for teens is "rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity.

Cox Gurdon's examples include the "hyper-violent" "Hunger Games" dystopian trilogy by Suzanne Collins, and

Virtual Conference Convention Center 2011 « Point of Inflection

Convention Center 2011 « Point of Inflection

Convention Center 2011

Welcome to the convention center! This is where you’ll come to find the presentations for the Virtual Conference this July.

Please, participate in the conference. All you have to do is respond to the prompt on your own blog and shoot me an email at riley@larkolicio.us to let me know. Teachers, administrators, students, and parents are welcome to join in and present. If you don’t have a blog yet, consider starting one!

We’ve gotten things started here with four eight keynote speakers. You can take their posts as inspiration during a particular week… or not! You do not need to pre-register, although I do of course recommendsubscribing!

The Program

WEEK 1: JULY 2 – JULY 8
July 2	Arne Duncan	ED.gov Blog
July 6	Jose Vilson	The Jose Vilson
WEEK 2: JULY 9 – JULY 15
July 9	Shawn Cornally	ThinkThankThunk
July 13	Deborah Meier	Bridging Differences
WEEK 3: JULY 16 – JULY 22
July 16	Scott McLeod	Dangerously Irrelevant
July 20	Dina Strasser	The Line
WEEK 4: JULY 23 – JULY 29
July 23	Frank Noschese	Action-Reaction
July 27	Holly Graff	Unschool Days

The Prompt

What is at the center of your classroom? What ultimate goal or question motivates your work in education?

You’ll see articles with titles like…

• It’s about relationships.
• Challenges and successes leading a student-centered class.
• Is there a place for teacher-centered classrooms?
• Why I keep teaching even though it’s hard.
• Leading a flipped classroom
• How I made projects the keystone of my class
• Giving meaningful feedback
• Using computers to let students explore
• The Matrix: Seeing the constructs for what they are; learning the rules so you can break them.

Some of these first set are more specific than others. They all give glimpses of their authors’ basic pedagogy. That basic pedagogy is what this conference is about: the hearthstones of our classrooms. Specific advice and experience is always helpful, and there’s also room here for philosophy and general values.

This summer’s conference will focus on the bigger questions of “What do we hold most important for our classes?” and “How can we better focus on that?”

Obama: Being a dad is sometimes my hardest job - NorthJersey.com

Obama: Being a dad is sometimes my hardest job - NorthJersey.com

Obama: Being a dad is sometimes my hardest job

SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 2011

BY ERICA WERNER

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ASSOCIATED PRESS

PRINT | E-MAIL

WASHINGTON — President Obama says being a dad is sometimes his hardest job, but also the most rewarding.

President Obama with daughters Malia, left, Sasha, first lady Michelle Obama, right, and her mother Marian Robinson visit Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Just ahead of Father's Day, the president devoted his Saturday radio and Internet address to fatherhood. He talked about growing up without a dad, his own failings as a father and the values he hopes to teach his daughters Malia, 12, and Sasha, 10.

He described the responsibilities that all fathers have to their children and said his administration is trying to help during tough economic times and long deployments for U.S. troops.

The president spoke of helping to coach Sasha's basketball team. "In the end, that's what being a parent is all about — those precious moments with our children that fill us with pride and excitement for their future; the chances we have to set an example or offer a piece of advice; the opportunities to just be there and show them that we love them."

Obama, who was raised largely by his grandparents in Hawaii after his father left when Obama was very

Wisconsin Supreme Court delivered made-to-order ruling to Republicans “by Wednesday” - blue cheddar blog

Wisconsin Supreme Court delivered made-to-order ruling to Republicans “by Wednesday” - blue cheddar blog

Wisconsin Supreme Court delivered made-to-order ruling to Republicans “by Wednesday”

This story is another confirmation that Wisconsin’s democratic foundation has rotted clear through.

When the Wisconsin Supreme Court recently gave a green light to Walker’s attack on public workers’ rights, it was not as a result of a deliberate, independent, honorable review of case law and legal argument. It was an action made-to-order by the executive and legislative branches – or that is what is very strongly indicated by an email revealed to Madison television station WKOW 27 about the court’s defense of Wisconsin Act 10.

WKOW acquired an email penned by county corporation counsel Carl Buesing that said “This Monday morning we met and were assured that the Supreme Court was going to rule by Wednesday and that that legislature was going to clean up all the loose ends,”

As Channel 27′s write-up states, “Four Republican legislators met with Sheboygan County department heads Monday as part of monthly sessions

Harry Potter and the Hatred of Teachers - Esquire

Harry Potter Teachers - Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 2 and Teachers - Esquire

Harry Potter and the Hatred of Teachers

His political fantasy and ours

By Stephen Marche

[more from this author]

Warner Bros.

The release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 will be the final installment in the most popular story cycle since Jesus and the Escape from the Enchanted Tomb. Seven books and eight movies have somehow not sated the hunger for the bespectacled boy from Little Whinging [NO. 1]. Meanwhile, the final spasm of Pottermania is coinciding with an assault on teachers' unions by Republican governors in New Jersey and Wisconsin, who are forcing decreases in the benefits and pay of teachers at the exact moment when the changing nature of the economy has rendered it nearly impossible for anyone without an education to enter the middle class [NO. 2]. The governors believe, and they may well be right, that beating up on teachers is a political winner. So the same people who will rush out to Deathly Hallows to watch the completion of a magical education will rush out in November to make sure education is cheaper. The fantasy of school life and its reality have never been further apart [NO. 3].

Teachers have become weird symbols in our public imagination, repositories of our most extreme hopes and fears. The magic in the Harry Potter books is mostly borrowed tinsel and a distraction from the main thrust of the plots — the

Read more: http://www.esquire.com/features/thousand-words-on-culture/harry-potter-teachers-0611#ixzz1Pdpc6r3o

Education Votes

Netroots Livestream: The Attack on America’s Middle Class, and the Plan to Fight Back

by treed [editor] | June 17, 2011 | Discuss 1

Share54

Tags: Al Franken, Bob Kuttner, collective bargaining, Joseph Hansen, Lee Saunders, Mary Bell, Mary Kay Henry,Union, WEAC, WI, Wisconsin, Wisconsin collective bargaining

This event has concluded. As soon as it is available, this page will be updated with a video of the complete panel.

Time: Saturday, June 18 · 10:00am – 11:30am EDT (9:00am – 10:30am CDT)

Wisconsin Education Association Council President Mary Bell will participate in a keynote presentation on defending America’s middle class. Americans of all walks are angry, loud and organized to retain collective bargaining as the bedrock of the middle class and to expand the power of working people. Why are public sector workers bearing the brunt of this attack, and what is next? How can we continue to fight for workers even as more states try to strip away our right to collectively bargain? And how can progressive activists stand up for and with the middle class against corporations who are attempting to buy our government? Other speakers include Sen. Al Franken, AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Lee Saunders, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry, UFCW President Joseph Hansen and economist Bob Kuttner. Moderated by Ari Melber of The Nation.

John Thompson: Fact Checking the National Council on Teacher Quality - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

John Thompson: Fact Checking the National Council on Teacher Quality - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

John Thompson: Fact Checking the National Council on Teacher Quality

by Anthony Cody

Guest post by John Thompson

The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), is a Gates-funded organization dedicated to data-driven, market-oriented "reform." It sees itself as a part of a coalition for "a better orchestrated agenda" for accountability, choice, and using test scores to drive the evaluation of teachers. Its forte is publishing non-peer reviewed opinion pieces under the guise of "policy analysis."

The latest NCTQ opinion piece, "Teacher Quality Roadmap," (downloadable here) seeks to shape Los Angeles school policy. The worst part of the latest attack on teachers is its saber-rattling statement that "economists recommend that districts routinely dismiss at least the bottom-performing 25% of teachers eligible for tenure." In fact, their source simply articulated a "thought experiment" and pulled the 25% figure out of thin air. Moreover, the source, "Assessing the Potential of Using Value-Added Estimates of Teacher Job Performance for Making Tenure Decisions," was a study which was also funded by the Gates Foundation. The study acknowledged its findings were mixed and would "reinforce views on both sides of the policy divide over whether VAM estimates of