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Fighting fears
Zidaan Kapoor, a math-loving 15-year-old, coped with his anxiety about severe food allergies by creating a "fight fears" app for other...

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 29, 20221 min read


Protected kids become anxious adults
In an “Adulting 101” workshop, Kansas State students talk about "conflict" as though "it's this terrible thing," said Brett Mallon, an...

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 29, 20222 min read


'Are my kids going to be scared to come to school?'
Two teen-age boys were killed yesterday, and a boy and girl were wounded as they left their Chicago high school at the end of the day,...

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 17, 20223 min read


Home alone
Americans are socializing a lot less, staying home alone a lot more, writes economist Bryce Ward in the Washington Post. That's true for...

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 4, 20222 min read


Suicidal students: What can universities do?
Yale discriminates against students with mental-health issues, according to a lawsuit filed this week, reports William Wan in the...

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 3, 20222 min read


Teachers were more anxious about Covid than health-care workers
Teachers were more anxious than health care workers -- or anyone else -- during the first year of the pandemic, according to a newly...

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 17, 20221 min read


Feds push 'threat assessment' to prevent school shootings
The young man who murdered 17 students and staffers at a Parkland, Florida high school he once attended, was sentenced to life in prison...

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 6, 20221 min read


Teacher, counselor, therapist: Is it too much?
As students' emotional and mental health needs soar, teachers are being asked to serve as ad hoc counselors, therapists and social...

Joanne Jacobs
Oct 27, 20222 min read


Raising not-so-American kids
College-educated parents want their children taught in Japanese, Mandarin, French and Spanish, writes Abigail Shrier on Substack. They...

Joanne Jacobs
Oct 8, 20222 min read


'Ungrading' college
Many colleges have dropped admissions tests to promote diversity and equity: Applicants who grew up with educated (or Asian) parents and...

Joanne Jacobs
Oct 7, 20222 min read


You're not so special
"No one is you, and that is your superpower!" reads a sign at Brian Huskie's school. "Ridiculous," he writes on SubStack. "Imagine being...

Joanne Jacobs
Sep 27, 20222 min read


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, 20221 min read


Without phones, school is calmer and students are listening, talking
Banning cell phones transformed a Philadelphia high school, reports Kristen A. Graham in the Inquirer. Students were ignoring teachers --...

Joanne Jacobs
Sep 24, 20222 min read


Learning builds resilience
It's a mistake to put "social-emotional learning" ahead of academic learning, writes Eva Moskowitz, who created the high-performing...

Joanne Jacobs
Sep 19, 20221 min read


Closing schools was a 'wrecking ball'
"The pandemic was a wrecking ball for U.S. public education," concludes the Center for Reinventing Public Education in The State of the...

Joanne Jacobs
Sep 19, 20222 min read


Fear not
Every night when I put my daughter to bed, I would say, "There are no wolves or bears in Palo Alto. They live a long way away." How old...

Joanne Jacobs
Sep 11, 20222 min read


It's college, not kindergarten
Of the three million students who will start college this fall, one million won't make it through the first year on campus or won't...

Joanne Jacobs
Sep 4, 20222 min read


'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
Aug 31, 20222 min read


Why it's hard to close learning gaps
Student behavioral issues are a major barrier to closing learning gaps, say 67 percent teachers in a Khan Academy survey, reports...

Joanne Jacobs
Jul 29, 20221 min read


4-day week appeals to teachers, students
Schools -- especially low-paying, rural schools -- are using a four-day week to recruit teachers, reports Elizabeth Heubeck in Education...

Joanne Jacobs
Jul 10, 20222 min read
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