Teen girl culture, the War on Poverty, and powerful women—here’s what you might have missed in news and thoughts related to student engagement, school climate, and the world that affects them.
“Rosa Solache was fed up with getting teased every day before school, between classes, and even on the way home, so one day she punched her antagonist in the face.”
—NPR Code Switch’s Vanessa Romo, describing one of the incidents that helped cause Los Angeles to abandon zero tolerance
“I can hardly blame the many, many adult males who seem to have this cute assumption that all girls are dying for their approval of our cultural tastes, though we never actually asked for it.”
—Rookie’s Hazel Cills on why male journalists aren’t good at covering teen girl pop culture
“Government action is literally the only reason we have less poverty in 2012 than we did in 1967.”
—Wonkblog’s Dylan Matthews, describing the effects of the War on Poverty
“You can be successful without shutting down your emotions and ignoring all external feedback. You can be liked without being a doormat.”
—Ann Friedman, in New York Magazine, about being a powerful, likable female
“The USDA has studied the apple and released a preliminary conclusion that Arctic apples are pretty much as harmless as conventional ones. That assessment is now open for public comment, and thousands of people have taken advantage of the opportunity—most of them fiercely opposed to it.”
—The Salt’s Dan Charles, on genetically modified food, which has drawn severe backlash despite a wealth of scientific evidence that it’s not harmful to humans