Fixing every student’s health problems; stop and frisk; and why you need to be kind—here’s what you might have missed this week in news related to student engagement, school climate, and the world that affects them.
1. “Where other nations supply childcare at public expense, on the principle that a well-educated workforce benefits everyone, the United States provides only limited services, to a limited set of the poor, through Head Start.”
—Elizabeth Gregory, for The Atlantic, on how the United States should focus on childcare—not birthrates—to help create a secure future
2. “It’s not reasonable to expect that substantial time can be allotted to the many different health issues affecting youth, but effective coordination can help.”
—Charles Basch, in a guest post for the American Association of School Administrators, on how schools can prioritize what health problems among students they should worry about
3. “By the end of the study, those who did have police contact early in the trial period reported committing five more delinquent acts on average, ranging from cutting classes to selling drugs and attacking people with a weapon, than those who were not stopped randomly by police.”
—Maia Szalavitz, for Time, on the deleterious effect of stop-and-frisk policies on youth
4. “About six months later, I received evidence that our class discussion continued to resonate with students. A male student emailed me to say my class had helped him understand why his girlfriend often complained she was fat.”
—Substitute teacher Liz Clift, on how she helped her students deconstruct portrayals of the female body in the media
5. "[I]t’s always too easy to attack teenage fangirls, especially when they’re communicating through the naturally hyperbolic language of Tumblr fandom, where caps lock is de rigueur and telling someone you want to stab her in the uterus is an expression of mild annoyance.”
—Aja Romano, writing about the misogyny aimed at young women who like British boy-band One Direction
6. “I still remember the way she’d look after such an insult: eyes cast down, a little gut-kicked, as if, having just been reminded of her place in things, she was trying, as much as possible, to disappear.”
—Author George Saunders in a graduation speech featured on The New York Times’ The 6th Floor blog, about the important of being kind
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