Joanne Jacobs
Out the classroom door, but still teaching
While there’s little evidence of a “Big Quit” in education there may be a Significant Shift in how teachers see their options, writes...
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Joanne Jacobs
- May 19, 2022
- 2 min
Teach students to meet deadlines, handle stress
When schools closed and classes went online, expectations fell. Some students had trouble accessing classes or younger siblings to tend...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 14, 2022
- 2 min
The young Puritans
Overprotected by their parents, Gen Snowflake demands that college “make them comfortable,” argued Greg Lukianoff, a First Amendment...
Joanne Jacobs
- Oct 14, 2018
- 2 min
In defense of (good) homework
Homework can help students learn and narrow the achievement gap, writes Janine Bempechat, clinical professor of human development at...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 24, 2018
- 2 min
None dare call it ‘yoga’
More schools are teaching yoga in hopes of promoting mindfulness and relieving stress, writes Alia Wong in The Atlantic. However, yoga is...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 13, 2018
- 1 min
Those unhappy college years
Here’s more on the fragility theme: A quarter of college students were diagnosed with mental health conditions within the past year,”...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 11, 2018
- 2 min
Why are kids killing themselves?
The number of teens “hospitalized for thinking about or attempting suicide doubled in less than a decade,” according to a recent study....
Joanne Jacobs
- Apr 13, 2018
- 1 min
School gym could shelter homeless families
The principal of a K-8 school in San Francisco’s gentrifying Mission District wants to shelter homeless families in the gym, reports Jill...
Joanne Jacobs
- Mar 11, 2018
- 1 min
We’re scaring the kids
School shootings are extraordinarily rare, writes David Ropelik, author of How Risky Is It, Really? Why Our Fears Don’t Always Match the...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jan 6, 2018
- 1 min
Dump the college interview
Interviews are of “considerable importance” to only 4.7 percent of colleges, while 46 percent of schools said interviews were irrelevant....
Joanne Jacobs
- Dec 27, 2017
- 1 min
Testing empowers parents
Testing enables social justice, argues Keri Rodrigues, founder and CEO of Massachusetts Parents United in CommonWealth Magazine. Minority...
Joanne Jacobs
- Dec 7, 2017
- 2 min
If at first you fail the test …
When students are allowed to retake tests for a better grade, what do they learn? Julie Scagell, a Minnesota mother, wonders if her...
Joanne Jacobs
- Nov 2, 2017
- 1 min
Higher ed anxiety: What can colleges do?
Students with mental-health problems, especially anxiety and depression, are flooding college health centers. The most selective colleges...
Joanne Jacobs
- Aug 15, 2017
- 2 min
The new homework: reading
Elementary schools are dropping homework in favor of reading, reports Greg Toppo in USA Today. There’s “very little correlation between...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 14, 2017
- 2 min
Grade-free transcripts help prep-school kids
High school grades are rising, even as SAT scores remain flat, reports the College Board. In 2013, the average 12th grader earned a 2.90...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 13, 2017
- 1 min
Fidget spinners: Do they help or distract?
Fidget spinners — handheld, multi-pronged tops — are supposed to help hyperactive and anxious kids stay focused. Some teachers say...
Joanne Jacobs
- Apr 26, 2017
- 2 min
Homework ban irks some parents
Banning homework for elementary school kids has divided parents, reports Kyle Spencer in the New York Times. Public School 11, a...
Joanne Jacobs
- Apr 21, 2017
- 2 min
Stress can make kids smarter (in some ways)
Unstable parenting, poverty, a violent environment and other “adverse childhood experiences” contribute to “toxic stress” that impairs...
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