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Best-selling bunk: We want to believe the easy answer
The idea of a student being "Nature Intelligent" is so much more palatable than "Unable to Do Trigonometry Intelligent."

Joanne Jacobs
Oct 22, 20252 min read


Harvard profs say students don't speak up in class (if they show up at all)
Harvard students skip class, don't do the reading and, if they do show up, are afraid to express dissenting views, say professors.

Joanne Jacobs
Oct 12, 20252 min read


'The learning comes from wrestling'
Students who say "no" to AI are willing work harder to build writing and thinking skills -- and to maintain their self-respect and their "humanity."

Joanne Jacobs
Sep 4, 20252 min read


Effort matters: Kids have to do the work
Effort matters.

Joanne Jacobs
Sep 3, 20253 min read


Eat your spinach and do your homework: Rigor is unpopular
Everyone says they value a rigorous education -- but many don't want to do the work.

Joanne Jacobs
Jul 14, 20253 min read


If AI is doing all the thinking, what's college for?
If a bot does the work for your college degree, the bot will get the job.

Joanne Jacobs
May 8, 20253 min read


At an average university, the average student is 'functionally illiterate'
College students can't read well and don't try, writes a philosophy professor.

Joanne Jacobs
Mar 31, 20253 min read


If a student isn't learning, who's responsible?
Teaching students to be responsible for their actions is back in fashion.

Joanne Jacobs
Mar 27, 20252 min read


How virtual learning broke a top high school's culture of excellence
Eighteen months of remote schooling broke the culture of excellence at Baltimore's City College high school.

Joanne Jacobs
Mar 10, 20251 min read


Students want A's for trying hard, B's for (mostly) showing up
Gen Z students expect to be graded on effort, not achievement.

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 13, 20251 min read


'Give yourself a break' is bad advice: Do difficult things!
Young people need to believe they can do difficult things. Don't tell them they're fragile.

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 6, 20252 min read


Teens are doing less homework, earning higher grades
Teenagers are working less and earning higher grades. Everybody's "phoning it in."

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 18, 20242 min read


'D' is for 'didn't show up or do the work'
“You’ll have a kid who does nothing for the whole semester, and then last two weeks of May or June, they’ll do a couple assignments and...

Joanne Jacobs
Aug 4, 20231 min read


Poverty is down, but can they fish?
Fewer people are living in poverty, but not because they're earning more, writes Jon Baron on The Hill. We're doing better at giving...

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 10, 20222 min read


College students don't study, say classes are too hard
Most four-year college students don't spend much time studying, yet complain that classes are too hard, according to a recent survey by...

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 28, 20222 min read
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