Should Non-Standard English Be Taught in Schools?
March 15th, 2017
The 2016 presidential election brought into sharp focus the divisions among Americans about how to handle diversity. While race and country of origin came to the forefront of public and private debates, language is another issue that …
Getting kids to eat more vegetables, easy-peasy
“Eat your vegetables” is a frequent refrain at many a family dinner table. Children are not known for their love of vegetables, and parents often find themselves prompting, cajoling, or bribing their kids to get their vitamins and minerals. But …
Confronting a Threat to Scientific Progress: Skepticism
Scientific progress is at its highest point in history, yet advances in health, environmental protection, and other fields face a major threat: distrust from some members of the public. Although 97% of scientists agree that global temperatures are rising and …
For Teaching Math, Two Ways Are Better Than One
If you think you’re bad at math, you’re not alone. Large percentages of adults lack confidence in their math skills; even teachers have surprisingly low ratings of their ability in the subject. But it might be possible to reverse that …
To Make Every Child a Reader, Teach Them All Differently
It’s hard to believe that questions about how children learn to read could cause a war, but in the 1970’s and 80’s, that’s exactly what happened. During the “reading wars,” proponents of the phonics approach believed beginning readers needed to …
Believing is Seeing
Most of us can think of a time we engaged in wishful thinking, and it probably didn’t work out as we hoped. But the situation was likely out of our conscious control, because we are predisposed to see what we …
