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Education

High Standards for Low Pay: Teachers, Facebook & Community Values

By Elizabeth J. Meyer, Ph.D. on April 11, 2012 in Gender and Schooling

NPR’s Talk of the Nation recently hosted a show to discuss the limits of teacher expression. Can teachers be disciplined for out of school behaviors? Is it fair to hold them to a higher standard than average citizens? In the world of Facebook, can we expect any privacy? Read More

Autism and Parenting: Preparing Yourself for Your Child's Transition to Adult Life

By Chantal Sicile-Kira on April 11, 2012 in The Autism Advocate

Transition is a process, and with the right perspective it can be enriching and rewarding. We started by defining what was important to us based on our principles, exploring our options, envisioning and creating new ones and then developing a game plan and that worked for us. Read More

The Challenges of Unschooling: Report III from the Survey

By Peter Gray on April 11, 2012 in Freedom to Learn

What is the biggest challenge or hurdle that families must surmount in order to "unschool" their children (that is, in order to allow their children to control their own education)? According to a recent large-scale survey, the biggest challenges lie not in unschooling per se, but in societal attitudes toward it. It is hard to stand up to social norms. Read More

Gifted Students: Scared of... Tests? Part 1

By Christopher Taibbi, M.A.T. on April 10, 2012 in Gifted-Ed Guru

It is entirely possible, maybe even likely, that gifted students can suffer from test anxiety. Read More

How to be a Genius

By Garth Sundem on April 10, 2012 in Brain Trust

Lacking superior IQ or prodigious talent? Don't worry, anyone can join Michelangelo in the "genius at" category. Read More

Third Graders’ Angst: Test Month Is Here

By J. Richard Gentry, Ph.D. on April 10, 2012 in Raising Readers, Writers, and Spellers

April in third grade used to be about flowers, shedding heavy jackets, and walking outside barefoot for the first time. It used to be about baseball season, fishing, the science fair, and creating colorful woven baskets or painting murals with ducks or bunnies. No time for that now. April in third grade is about fear of flunking a test. Read More

Let’s Go Shopping!

By Goal Auzeen Saedi, Ph.D. on April 10, 2012 in Millennial Media

Is the push for increasingly academically-oriented games for children excessive? What about simple creative playtime? According to the Flynn effect, children's IQs are increasing over time. What about going back to the days of yore and simple board games? Read More

The Paradox of Procrastination

By Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D. on April 10, 2012 in Fulfillment at Any Age

Procrastination is a natural human tendency to put off completing a task we know needs to be done. Among the many possible explanations for this nearly universal behavior are the irrational beliefs we have about our abilities to succeed. By challenging the four most common irrational beliefs, you can change from procrastination to timeliness before it’s too late. Read More

Am I Who He Says I Am?

By Sandra Brown, M.A. on April 10, 2012 in Pathological Relationships

One of the chief complaints of having been with a pathological is the 'acquiring' of his view of you. In previous newsletters I discussed the 'pathological world view which is the 'lens' thru which he sees himself, others, and the world. This view of the world is processed through his own pathological disorder which is why his view of the world is not like normal people's view. Read More

The Media Is an Accomplice in School Shootings

By Joseph Grenny on April 9, 2012 in Crucial Conversations

The attention given to and glorification of school shooters amplifies the violence. We must balance the right to speak freely with the responsibility to influence ethically. Read More

When Should Kids Learn about Evil?

By Katherine Ramsland on April 9, 2012 in Shadow Boxing

A popular TV show, Mad Men, depicted a child reaction to a violent massacre, raising the issue of how long we can (and should) protect children from awareness of evil. Read More

Super-Charged Safety

By Steve Baskin on April 9, 2012 in S'mores and More

The role of the parent is two-fold: providing safety and protection while fostering independence and success. Typically, the modern parent overachieves on the safety front, which impedes independence and later success. Read More

So You Want to Learn an Endangered Language...

By Michael Erard, Ph.D. on April 6, 2012 in The Will to Plasticity

Endangered languages are often in the news, and it might be tempting to say, let's go learn some. An excellent book on Yucatec Maya (spoken in Mexico) offers a sophisticated discussion of the cultural mechanics of doing this. Read More

The Shabbas Box

By David D. Nowell, Ph.D. on April 6, 2012 in Intrinsic Motivation and Magical Unicorns

How one family uses an old shoe box to support positive behaviors at home. Read More

My Teen Hates Her Body and I Don't Love Mine

By Dr. Barbara Greenberg, Ph.D. on April 5, 2012 in The Teen Doctor

What to do when your teen dislikes her body. Read More

Opportunity and Limitation: The Culture of Education

By Wade George on April 5, 2012 in PsychEd

Most children will spend at least twelve years of their lives involved in formal education. In comparison to the average lifespan, this is a relatively short amount of time. And yet, we are very interested in what does or does not happen during that time. Why? Read More

What Will Make Your Kid Succeed in Kindergarten?

By Todd B. Kashdan, Ph.D. on April 4, 2012 in Curious?

The secret to amazing teachers and successful 6-year-olds, pulled from scientific research that has yet to even hit the library shelves. Read More

Autism Awareness Every Day: Preparing for Real Life

By Chantal Sicile-Kira on April 3, 2012 in The Autism Advocate

Research shows that mothers of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are worrying across their child’s lifespan, particularly at that time of transition from public education services, and worrying more than other families of young adults with disabilities. Read More

Who Does That? Part 2

By Sandra Brown, M.A. on April 3, 2012 in Pathological Relationships

(Last week we began discussing the ‘who’ of certain behaviors and crimes often perpetrated by Cluster Bs, and how the various systems who come in contact with Cluster Bs have differing names, thus views, of their destructive patterns. You can read last week's newsletter on our magazine site under ' Sandra Says'). Read More

Helping Children Thrive with LD/ADHD

By Marilyn Price-Mitchell, Ph.D. on April 2, 2012 in The Moment of Youth

Beyond the logistics of helping children with learning differences do well in school, all adults —parents, teachers, and counselors—have a responsibility to foster a positive mindset that helps kids overcome the many obstacles they face. Read More

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