Joanne Jacobs
Back in the USA
We returned from Barcelona last night, so I'm a bit jet-lagged -- and where was my breakfast buffet this morning? -- but the blog is...
top of page
Joanne Jacobs
- Feb 21
- 2 min
DC 2nd-graders will study gender roles in Rome, Aksum and China
Writing social studies standards is always controversial. Often they're vague and meaningless, but sometimes they're insanely detailed,...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jan 25
- 1 min
Choice lets parents find a school that respects their rights
"Families should not be stuck in an education system that actively undermines parental rights and ideologically grooms children, argues...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jan 25
- 3 min
Parents feel 'villainized' by teachers who think they know best
It's not just conservative parents who think they have a right to know if "Hannah" has become "Hank" at school, reports Katie J.M. Baker...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jan 8
- 1 min
A sharp right turn for Florida's New College: 'We are recapturing higher ed'
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis plans to turn the very progressive New College of Florida, the state's liberal arts honors college, into a...
Joanne Jacobs
- Dec 23, 2022
- 3 min
Mastering newspeak at Stanford
Will Stanford continue to award master's degrees? Will my daughter's major -- American Studies -- need a new name? Stanford's IT...
Joanne Jacobs
- Nov 16, 2022
- 1 min
Most don't want schools to 'say' LGBTQ
Most Americans don't think young children are ready for lessons about sexuality and gender, writes Morgan Polikoff, a USC education...
Joanne Jacobs
- Nov 10, 2022
- 2 min
Most want more focus on academics, less on gender, sex
The red wave turned out to be a purple haze. Moderates outperformed extremists. Democracy did not end. Trumpery lost its luster. An...
Joanne Jacobs
- Oct 21, 2022
- 2 min
'Red wave' includes frustrated parents
Education is an "iceberg" that will sink Democrats' chances in the midterms, argues Hugh Hewitt in a Washington Post commentary....
Joanne Jacobs
- Oct 17, 2022
- 2 min
When Harry became Sally: Parents have a right to know
Virginia's new transgender guidelines protect parents' rights to know whether their child is being counseled to change names and genders,...
Joanne Jacobs
- Oct 17, 2022
- 2 min
Teaching controversial issues is OK for teens, but not younger students
Most Americans want schools to teach older students about controversial issues, according to USC's Understanding America Survey, reports...
Joanne Jacobs
- Oct 5, 2022
- 1 min
Ed prof says there are 2 sexes, keeps her job
University of Southern Maine will not fire an education professor for saying there are two biological sexes, reports Troy R. Bennett in...
Joanne Jacobs
- Oct 1, 2022
- 2 min
Girls want to compete -- and win -- but it's hard to beat trans athletes
It's unfair to let biological males compete in girls' track and field events, whatever their gender identity, argued four female...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 29, 2022
- 3 min
Who decides what books belong in the school library? Can we talk about it?
You probably can't find Hustler in the school library -- or Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal, write Jay Greene and Robert Pondiscio in...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 26, 2022
- 1 min
Topless teens
More transgender and gender-neutral teenagers are having "top surgery" -- double mastectomies -- to make their bodies conform with their...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 26, 2022
- 3 min
Instead of gender dogma, why not say: 'There's no wrong way to be you'
Seven states now require schools to teach about gender identity: California’s Department of Education tells kindergarten teachers that...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 3, 2022
- 2 min
School can't ban Christian club, OK 'Satanic Temple'
You don't have to be Christian to join the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) at Pioneer High School in San Jose. You don't have to...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 31, 2022
- 2 min
'The child is not the creature of the state'
Parents aren't perfect. Some are very imperfect indeed. But they have the right to "direct the upbringing and education" of their...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jul 22, 2022
- 3 min
'R' is for reading -- and race
K-2 teachers won't be switching to a new research-backed, phonics-based literacy curriculum this fall, reports Dana Goldstein in the New...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jul 15, 2022
- 2 min
Teachers' union poll: Dems have lost education edge
Voters in battleground states trust Republicans slightly more than Democrats on education issues, according to a new Hart poll...
bottom of page