Category: Education

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Education Links from other news sources. Reprints from others.

Dishonor Code: What Happens When Cheating Becomes the Norm?

Cheaters. Illustrations by María Jesús Contreras for The Free Press
Dishonor Code: What Happens When Cheating Becomes the Norm?

Thanks to the Free Press for this article.

Students say they are getting ‘screwed over’ for sticking to the rules. Professors say students are acting like ‘tyrants.’ Then came ChatGPT . .

When it was time for Sam Beyda, then a freshman at Columbia University, to take his Calculus I midterm, the professor told students they had 90 minutes.

But the exam would be administered online. And even though every student was expected to take it alone, in their dorms or apartments or at the library, it wouldn’t be proctored. And they had 24 hours to turn it in.

“Anyone who hears that knows it’s a free-for-all,” Beyda told me.

Beyda, an economics major, said students texted each other answers; looked up solutions on Chegg, a crowdsourced website with answers to exam questions; and used calculators, which were technically verboten.

He finished the exam in under an hour, he said. Other students spent two or three hours on it. Some classmates paid older students who had already taken the course to do it for them.

“Professors just don’t care,” he told me.

For decades, campus standards have been plummeting. The hallowed, ivy-draped buildings, the stately quads, the timeless Latin mottos—all that tradition and honor have been slipping away. That’s an old story. Then Covid struck and all bets were off. With college kids doing college from their bedrooms and smartphones, and with the explosion of new technology, cheating became not just easy but practically unavoidable. “Cheating is rampant,” a Princeton senior told me. “Since Covid there’s been an increasing trend toward grade inflation, cheating, and ultimately, academic mediocrity.”

Now that students are back on campus, colleges are having a hard time putting the genie back in the bottle. Remote testing combined with an array of tech tools—exam helpers like Chegg, Course Hero, Quizlet, and Coursera; messaging apps like GroupMe and WhatsApp; Dropbox folders containing course material from years past; and most recently, ChatGPT, the AI that can write essays—have permanently transformed the student experience.

“It’s the Wild West when it comes to using emerging technologies and new forms of access to knowledge,” Gregory Keating, who has a joint appointment at USC’s Department of Philosophy and Gould School of Law, told me. “Faculties and administrations are scrambling to keep up.”

Amy Kind, a philosophy professor at Claremont McKenna, said that, at the prestigious liberal arts college just east of Los Angeles, “Cheating is a big concern among the faculty.”

Nor do students have much incentive to turn back the clock: they’re getting better grades for less work than ever.

Exhibit A: Greye Dunn, a recent Boston University graduate who majored in international relations and minored in Spanish. Dunn said he never cheated per se, but he benefited handsomely from the new, lower standards. His pre-Covid GPA was just north of 3.0; during Covid, he averaged a 3.5. And he knows plenty of students who flouted the rules.

“Many students want the credential, and they just want the easiest way to get that,” Gabriel Rossman, a sociology professor at UCLA, told me.

A sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious business school, who declined to give me her name, said: “They’re here for the Wharton brand, a 4.0 GPA, and to party.”

“The students see school as a stepping stone,” Beyda told me. He meant they went on to graduate school or to jobs at consulting firms like McKinsey or Bain or in finance at Goldman Sachs, and then a spouse, a house, children, private school, vacations in Provence—all the nice things in life.

“Anything that you miss, you can just learn on YouTube,” he said.

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Education Links from other news sources. Reprints from others.

Teacher gets the boot. DeSantis gets the last laugh.

Teacher gets the boot. DeSantis gets the last laugh. AP Photo. Rebecca Blackwell

Teacher gets the boot. DeSantis gets the last laugh. Recently WP and some no name website ran with a fake story about a school library having no books left because of a Florida law against explicit stories in some books. A teacher showed a video about the shelves in the library being empty. DeSantis said it wasn’t true. Somebody didn’t do the research and ran with the fake news. Here’s the facts.

A viral hoax showing a supposedly cleaned-out library as a result of a new Florida law banning explicit material in schools has resulted in a teacher being fired.

Brian Covey, who was a substitute teacher for Duval County Public Schools (Jacksonville area), was told his services would no longer be needed after he posted a video making it seem as if the Mandarin Middle School library had been emptied out. When questioned about the situation at the time, Gov. Ron DeSantis denounced it as a fake narrative, noting that nothing in the law required any school to take any such action.

Apparently, the school hadn’t taken such action. Covey had instead filmed some random empty shelves in a library otherwise full of books. That was deemed to be a violation of the district’s social media policy and a harm to students by making them believe there were no books to check out.

Naturally, outlets like The Washington Post are still pushing the false narrative, even as they report on the firing and why it occurred.

Hey Lurkers this look familiar?

https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1627025178873204737?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1627025178873204737%7Ctwgr%5E10d87b98ad918fac3d323a92bb0dda2df302ef59%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthinkcivics.com%2Fteacher-who-perpetrated-empty-shelves-hoax-to-attack-desantis-gets-his-just-deserts%2F

“In discussion between the district and ESS regarding this individual’s misrepresentation of the books available to students in the school’s library and the disruption this misrepresentation has caused, it was determined that he had violated social media and cellphone policies of his employer,” the district said. “Therefore, ESS determined these policy violations made it necessary to part ways with this individual.”

If you read the article, they admit that Covey’s video was a misrepresentation. Yet, the Post, just a few words later, immediately repeats the falsehood that teachers are being forced to remove and cover books.

No, they aren’t. Rather, they are being forced to remove books with graphic sexual content such as “Gender Queer,” which contains illustrated scenes of gay sex. Ask yourself, why are these press outlets so obsessed with ensuring kids are exposed to sexual content in schools? I don’t have an answer to that, and I suspect the reasons vary, but it’s certainly a really weird and gross dynamic.

The reality is that there is no prohibition on what anyone would consider normal, acceptable reading material for children. The curation of books to exclude explicit and sexual content is not new and has long been part of school libraries. Any teachers or administrators that are rushing to clean out a library or cover up whole bookshelves are doing so simply as a political stunt.

Of course, advocacy groups are treating Covey as a victim, arguing his First Amendment rights were violated.

Kate Ruane, a director at the free-speech nonprofit organization PEN America, said in an interview that Duval’s termination of Covey may have violated the teacher’s First Amendment rights.

“What the district has done is clearly an attempt to chill the speech of public school teachers,” Ruane said.

You do not have a First Amendment right to take video at work in order to mislead and lie about your employer (in this case, partially being the State of Florida). Social media policies for employment have long existed and have long been held up as legal by the courts. Covey wanted his moment in the spotlight, and he got it. All it cost him was his job, and deservedly so. If he wants to be an activist, maybe Al Sharpton’s outfit, which is currently wasting time in Florida, is hiring.

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Education Public Service Announcement Reprints from others.

States with Best & Worst Education (2023) Scholaroo ventures to discover the best and worst school systems across three factors — Student Success, Student Safety and School Quality.

States with Best & Worst Education (2023)

Scholaroo ventures to discover the best and worst school systems across three factors — Student Success, Student Safety and School Quality. I’m in agreement with some and disagree  with some. Interesting how California is good in Math but at the bottom in  others ranked 45. My Ohio is ranked 22.

Education is a key indicator of the economic, social, and cultural success of any state. To analyze school systems across the United States, Scholaroo has identified various criteria such as student success, school quality, and student safety to compare all fifty states in order to assess which school systems are the best and worst in this 2023.

Student success can be measured through various academic metrics such as test scores and graduation rates. School quality accounts for the level of resources available to school districts. Finally, student safety is an important factor in determining school system rankings; this includes school security measures, bullying prevention programs, and other initiatives designed to ensure students feel safe at school.

The data set considers a depth of topics across 43 key indicators, ranging from metrics that measure how much a student is enabled to succeed, to metrics that measure the school’s security.

If you want to know which state has the best education system for 2023, here we show it to you.

Rankings of States with Best & Worst Public Schools

Category Breakdown

Methodology

In order to determine the best and worst school systems per state, Scholaroo compared the 50 states across three key dimensions:

  1. Student Success
  2. Student Safety
  3. School Quality

We evaluated those dimensions using 43 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weight. Each metric was graded on a 100 point scale, with a score of 100 being the max.

Finally, we determined each state’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample.

Student Success (25 Points)

High School Graduation Rate: Double Weight (2.27 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of graduates High school graduates or higher.

High School Dropout Rate: Double Weight (2.27 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of high school dropouts among persons 16 to 24 years old (status dropout rate).

SAT Scores: Double Weight (2.27 points)

Note: This metric measures the SAT mean scores of High School Seniors.

ACT Scores: Double Weight (2.27 points)

Note: This metric measures the average ACT score (Composite score: English, Mathematics, Reading, Science scores) of Graduates.

College-Going Rates: Double Weight (2.27 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of High School graduates going directly to College.

Reading Test Scores: Double Weight (2.27 points)

Note: This metric measures the Average of Scale Scores between 4th and 8th Grade Reading scores.

Math Test Scores: Double Weight (2.27 points)

Note: This metric measures the Average of Scale Scores between 4th and 8th Grade Mathematics scores.

Science Test Scores: Double Weight (2.27 points)

Note: This metric measures the Average of Scale Scores between 4th and 8th Grade Science scores.

AP Exam Participation: Regular Weight (1.14 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of graduates who took an AP exam during High School.

AP Exam Scores: Regular Weight ((1.14 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of the Class of 2021 scoring a 3 or higher on an AP exam during High School.

Students in Gifted Programs: Regular Weight (1.14 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of public students enrolled in gifted/talented programs.

Class Suspension Rates: Regular Weight (1.14 points)

Note: This metric measures the number of days missed due to suspension (per School).

Expulsion Rate: Half Weight (0.57 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of student expulsions (per school).

Retention Rate: Half Weight (0.57 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of 8th Grade students retained (per school).

Student Participation in Sports: Regular Weight (1.14 points)

Note: This metric measures child participates in a sports team or did he or she take sports lessons after school or on weekends, age 6-17 years.

 

School Quality (35 Points)

Annual per-pupil spending: Regular Weight (3.50 points)

Note: This metric measures the annual per-pupil spending in Public Elementary-Secondary School System Finances.

School Rankings: Regular Weight (3.50 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of presence of Public High Schools in the Top 100

0 Best U.S Schools by U.S. News & World Report.

Pupil/ Teacher Ratio: Regular Weight (3.50 points)

Note: This metric measures the pupil/teacher ratios in public elementary and secondary schools.

Presence of Guidance Counselors: Regular Weight (3.50 points)

Note: This metric measures the number of guidance counselors per Public High School.

Presence of School Health Councils: Half Weight (1.75 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of Secondary Schools with one or more School Health Councils.

Full-Time Registered Nurse: Regular Weight (3.50 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of Secondary Schools that have a Full-Time Registered Nurse who provides Health Services to students.

Health Education Curriculum: Half Weight (1.75 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of Secondary Schools that required Health Education Instruction in grades 6–12.

Healthy Eating Curriculum: Half Weight (1.75 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of Secondary Schools in which Teachers taught the benefits of healthy eating.

Sexual Health Curriculum: Half Weight (1.75 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of Secondary Schools in which Teachers taught all 20 sexual health topics (including topics related to how HIV and STD’s are transmitted, contraception methods, sexual orientation, gender expression, creating and sustaining healthy relationships, sexual risk behaviors, etc) in a Required Course in Any of Grades 9, 10, 11, or 12.

Teachers meeting State Licensing Requirements: Regular Weight (3.50 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of teachers that meet all State Licensing/Certification Requirements.

Level of Experienced Teachers: Regular Weight (3.50 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of teachers with 3 or more years of experience.

Average Teachers’ Salary: Regular Weight (3.50 points)

Note: This metric measures the cost of living adjusted to the average teacher salary.

Student Safety (40 Points)

Bullying Rate: Regular Weight (3.33 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of High School students who were bullied on school property.

Exposure to Illegal Drugs: Regular Weight (3.33 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of High School students who were offered, sold, or given an illegal drug on school property.

Absence of Students due to Safety Concerns: Regular Weight (3.33 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of High School students who did not go to school because they felt unsafe at school or on their way to or from school.

Bullying and Sexual Harassment Prevention: Double Weight (6.67 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of Secondary Schools where all school staff received professional development on preventing, identifying, and responding to student bullying and sexual harassment.

Sexual Assault Rate: Half Weight (1.67 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of Sexual Assault.

Rape or Attempted Rape Rate: Half Weight (1.67 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of Rape or Attempted Rape.

Robbery with a Weapon Rate: Half Weight (1.67 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of robberies with a Weapon.

Robbery with a firearm or explosive Rate: Half Weight (1.67 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of robberies with a firearm or explosive.

Robbery without a weapon Rate: Half Weight (1.67 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of robberies without a weapon.

Physical attack or fight with a weapon Rate: Half Weight (1.67 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of physical attacks or fights with a weapon.

Physical attack or fight with a firearm or explosive device Rate: Regular Weight (3.33 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of physical attacks or fights with a firearm or explosive.

Physical attack without a weapon: Half Weight (1.67 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of physical attacks without a weapon.

Threats of physical attack with a weapon: Half Weight (1.67 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of threats of physical attacks with a weapon.

Threats of physical attack with a firearm or explosive device: Half Weight (1.67 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of threats of physical attacks with a firearm or explosive device.

Threats of physical attack without a weapon: Half Weight (1.67 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of threats of physical attacks without a weapon.

Possession of a firearm or explosive device: Regular Weight (3.33 points)

Note: This metric measures the percentage of possession of a firearm or explosive device.

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Biden Pandemic COVID Education Links from other news sources. Uncategorized

I could have told you this two years ago. Pandemic widened California’s ‘achievement gap’

Dump DEI Image via iStock

The California media is finally reporting what common folks knew for two years. Unnecessary lock downs put the children behind. It’s apparent that California’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which included shuttering schools and forcing students into sporadic forms of on-line instruction, had the effect of widening the achievement gap. Not only did California kids score very low, vis-à-vis other states, in the most recent round of federal academic achievement tests, the National Assessment of Education Progress, but there were sharp differences in how individual school districts fared.

So how does the media say it can be fixed? California’s school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic widened the state’s “achievement gap” and addressing the crisis should be a major issue for the Legislature. They learned nothing.

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Education Links from other news sources. Reprints from others.

On to the Federal Courts. New York Education Department Will Halt Aid for Schools with Native American Mascots

Cambridge Central School/Facebook

cambridge_central_school (1)

The Department of Education in New York will halt aid to schools that have Native American team names, mascots, and logos.

According to a memo from Senior Deputy Commissioner James N. Baldwin that was circulated to all Empire State school districts, the department has “consistently opposed” Native American mascots, citing a 2001 memorandum “conclud[ing] that the use of Native American symbols or depictions as mascots can become a barrier to building a safe and nurturing school community and improving academic achievement for all students.”

The New York State Education Department issued a memo Thursday mandating that all its schools stop using Native American mascots, names, logos, and imagery.

Districts have complied, but Senior Deputy Commissioner James N. Baldwin called out Cambridge Central School District as one of a few that has not complied. Cambridge voted to retire its “Indian” imagery only to reinstate it, which sparked community members to file a legal appeal to Commissioner of Education Dr. Betty A. Rosa, who ruled to continue to retire the imagery. The district went on to appeal to the Supreme Court, where Rosa’s determination was upheld.

 

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Biden Pandemic COVID Education Links from other news sources. Reprints from others.

What speaking the truth gets you. Ex-Levi’s exec pushed out over anti COVID-19 school closure remarks speaks out on ‘Tucker Carlson Today’

Jeniffer Sey on speaking against COVID-19 school closures: I took this stance in defense of children Jennifer Sey reveals why she spoke up about opening schools during the COVID-19 pandemic on 'Tucker Carlson Today.'
Maria Lencki

By Maria Lencki | Fox News

A longtime Levi Strauss & Co. executive is revealing how she was allegedly pushed out of her high-profile role after speaking out against the COVID-19 school closures on Fox Nation’s “Tucker Carlson Today.”

Jennifer Sey, who spent nearly 23 years at Levi Strauss & Co. and described herself as a “lifelong liberal,” said she took her stance against school closure “in defense of children, which should have been a progressive value,” but soon realized it was not a welcome idea at the company.

“I kept my advocacy to schools because I knew all that other stuff was controversial, but I thought we could agree on kids,” Sey told Tucker Carlson. Her work included being vocal on social media, leading rallies and writing op-eds with data to back her point.

Advocates for keeping schools open during the pandemic were deemed racists and accused of wanting to “murder teachers,” Sey explained. Soon people were emailing the CEO and head of human resources and calling for boycotts of the company.

AS COVID CASES RISE, LA COUNTY RETURNS TO ‘STRONGLY’ RECOMMENDING MASKING UP INDOORS

“The feedback was when you speak, you speak on behalf of the company and I said, but I don’t,” the former executive said as she  recalled being told multiple times to cool it. “I’m just a mom. I mean, I know I have this big job, but I am not saying it as the Levi’s brand president. I am saying it as a public school mom in San Francisco.”

A critical turning point occurred after Sey moved her family to Denver and appeared on “The Ingraham Angle” to discuss opening America’s schools. While the company said there was nothing wrong with her commentary, Sey said she was also told she should not have spoken out on Fox News.

 

Employees were ‘outraged’ after appearing on your show: Jennifer Sey Video

“In the fall of that year, I was told I could be the CEO if I just cool it in my advocacy,” the former brand president told “Tucker Carlson Today.” “Schools at this point had been open for a hot second, two weeks … They needed to do a background check, not just on me, but on my husband.”

Prior to the background check, the former executive told the company they would think her social media was a “gray area” and her inclinations were right. Due to her position being the “succession role,” she was not able to keep her job if she was not eligible for the next.

After being told there would be severance, she resigned publicly. While she never received her requested severance package, she believes it would have come with a non-disclosure agreement, despite company denial.

“I wanted to be able to talk about the terms of the separation because I wanted to be able to tell you the story… In addition to the children being harmed, this idea that we can’t hold different views and work together, like the idea that I couldn’t have this view and work in this company is so disturbing to me that I did not want to sign my right away to talk about that,” Sey argued. “I wouldn’t do it.”

Research from the Department of Education shows that math and reading scores declined more during the pandemic than they have in decades, according to a previous Fox News report. Tony Kinnett, the executive director of the heterodox education publication Chalkboard Review, told Fox News Digital that some children are coming back to school “several grade levels behind.” 

Sey suggests reasonable conversations about school closures may have prevented their devastating effect on children.

 

The U.S. Department of Education building in Washington, D.C. 

The U.S. Department of Education building in Washington, D.C.  (STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

“I want it to be ok for us to talk to each other, to debate ideas,” Sey implored. “I really, in my heart of hearts, believe if we could have had a public conversation about the schools where people like me, invested parents, doctors… instead of us being vilified, we could have had a reasoned conservation, I think we would have gotten to the right answer much sooner.” 

Fox Nation programs are viewable on-demand and from your mobile device app, but only for Fox Nation subscribers. Go to Fox Nation to start a free trial and watch the extensive library from your favorite Fox News personalities.

Fox News’ Yael Halon and Andrew Mark Miller contributed to this report.

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Child Abuse Education Leftist Virtue(!) Links from other news sources.

The Inmates Running the Asylum: NJ mandates teaching “climate change” in almost all subjects – even PE

Climate change exercise
New Jersey’s teachers are now required to teach climate change beginning in kindergarten and across most subjects, including art, social studies, world languages, and PE. Supporters hope the lessons will spread.

This article appeared in both  WaPo and The Hechinger Report.

PENNINGTON, N.J. — There was one minute left on Suzanne Horsley’s stopwatch and the atmosphere remained thick with carbon dioxide, despite the energetic efforts of her class of third graders to clear the air.

Horsley, a wellness teacher at Toll Gate Grammar School in Pennington, New Jersey, had tasked the kids with tossing balls of yarn representing carbon dioxide molecules to their peers stationed at plastic disks representing forests. The first round of the game was set in the 1700s, and the kids had cleared the field in under four minutes. But this third round took place in the present day, after the advent of cars, factories and electricity, and massive deforestation. With fewer forests to catch the balls, and longer distances to throw, the kids couldn’t keep up.

“That was hard,” said Horsley after the round ended. “In this time period versus the 1700s, way more challenging right?

“Yeah,” the students chimed in.

“In 2022, we got a lot of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” said Horsley. “What’s the problem with it, what is it causing?”

“Global warming,” volunteered one girl.

Two years ago, New Jersey became the first state in the country to adopt learning standards obligating teachers to instruct kids about climate change across grade levels and subjects. The standards, which went into effect this fall, introduce students as young as kindergarteners to the subject, not just in science class but in the arts, world languages, social studies, and physical education. Supporters say the instruction is necessary to prepare younger generations for a world — and labor market — increasingly reshaped by climate change.

In Suzanne Horsley’s climate change lesson, yarn balls represent carbon dioxide molecules. Students try to clear the atmosphere — or playing field — of the balls. Credit: Caroline Preston/The Hechinger Report“There’s no way we can expect our children to have the solutions and the innovations to these challenges if we’re not giving them the tools and resources needed here and now,” said Tammy Murphy, the wife of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and a founding member of former Vice President Al Gore’s Climate Reality Action Fund, who pushed to get the standards into schools. Just as students must be able to add and subtract before learning calculus, she said, kids need to understand the basics of climate change — the vocabulary, the logic behind it — before they can tackle the climate crisis.Historically, climate change has not been comprehensively taught in U.S. schools, largely because of the partisanship surrounding climate change and many teachers’ limited grasp of the science behind it. That started to change in 2013, with the release of new national science standards, which instructed science teachers to introduce students to climate change and its human causes starting in middle school. Still, only 20 states have adopted the standards. A 2020 report from the National Center for Science Education and Texas Freedom Network Education Fund found that many states that didn’t follow the new guidance weren’t explicit in their standards about the human causes of climate change, and a few even promoted falsehoods about its causes and degree of seriousness. Meanwhile, discussion of climate change outside of science class remains relatively rare, educators and experts say.New Jersey is trying to change that, but it’s not a simple task. Like teachers around the country, educators here are exhausted after years of Covid disruptions, and, as elsewhere, some schools face dire teacher shortages. On top of this, many educators don’t feel prepared to teach climate change: A 2021 survey of 164 New Jersey teachers found that many lacked confidence in their knowledge of the subject, and some held misconceptions about it, confusing the problem with other environmental issues such as plastic pollution.

For now, the climate instruction requirements haven’t faced much pushback from climate deniers and conservatives, who’ve trained their attacks instead on the state’s new sex-education standards. But state officials anticipate some criticism as the lessons begin to roll out in classrooms.

A more pressing concern — and one that plagues any education initiative because of local control of schools — is that the lessons are rolling out unevenly across the state. Schools in affluent towns like Pennington tend to have more time and resources to introduce new instruction; schools in poorer communities like Camden, which are often the most vulnerable to climate disasters, may lack the resources to do so.

“I am happy to see New Jersey as a pioneer of climate change standards,” said Maria Santiago-Valentin, co-founder of the Atlantic Climate Justice Alliance, a group that works to mitigate the disproportionate harm of climate change on marginalized communities. But, she said, the standards will need to be revised if they fail to adequately emphasize the unequal impact of climate change on Black and Hispanic communities or ensure that students in those communities receive the instruction.

New Jersey is making some effort to help teachers adopt the standards, setting aside $5 million for lesson plans and professional development, and enlisting teachers like Horsley, who holds a master’s degree in outdoor education and has a passion for the environment, to develop model lessons.

Supporters are trying to ensure that teachers have plenty of examples for teaching the standards in age-appropriate ways, with racial and environmental justice as one of the key features of the instruction.

“It’s not like we’re asking kindergarteners to look at the Keeling Curve,” said Lauren Madden, a professor of education at the College of New Jersey who prepared a report on the standards, referring to a graph showing daily carbon dioxide concentrations. “We’re trying to point out areas where we can build some of those foundational blocks so that by the time students are in upper elementary or middle school, they really have that solid foundation.”

On a recent weekday, Cari Gallagher, a third grade teacher at Lawrenceville Elementary School in central New Jersey, was reading to her students the book “No Sand in the House!” which tells the story of a grandfather whose Jersey Shore home is devastated by Hurricane Sandy. Later, the students sat down to write about what they’d heard, drawing connections between the book and their own lives, world events or other books they’d read.

After the writing exercise, Gallagher directed the students to split into small groups to build structures that would help provide protection against climate change calamities. The kids used Legos, blocks, Play-Doh and straws to create carports, walls and other barriers.

That same morning, a kindergarten class at the elementary school listened as their teacher, Jeffrey Berry, held up a globe and discussed how different parts of the world have different climates.

At Hopewell Valley Central High School, in Pennington, art teacher Carolyn McGrath piloted a lesson on climate change this summer with a handful of students. The results of the class — four paintings featuring climate activists — sat on the windowsill of her classroom.

“It felt empowering to see people like me, who reflect me and my identities,” said Mackenzie Harsell, an 11th grader who’d created a portrait of 24-year-old climate activist Daphne Frias, who, like Mackenzie, is young, and is disabled. “This project told me I could do anything.”

Research suggests education does have an impact on how people understand climate change and their willingness to take action to stop it. One study found that college students who took a class that discussed reducing their carbon footprint tended to adopt environment-friendly practices and stick with them over many years. Another found that educating middle schoolers about climate change resulted in their parents expressing greater concern about the problem.

Jeffrey Berry, a kindergarten teacher at Lawrenceville Elementary School, encourages his students to care for plants and nature. Kindergarteners tend to the “garden of good manners,” pictured here. Credit: Caroline Preston/The Hechinger Report

“Education is certainly a way that we could have perhaps slowed down where we are right now in terms of the climate crisis,” said Margaret Wang, chief operating officer with SubjectToClimate, a nonprofit that is helping teachers develop and share climate lessons. More jobs related to climate change are already opening up, said Wang, and kids will need skills not just to discover scientific innovations but to tell stories, advocate, inspire and make public policy.

Back at Toll Gate elementary, Horsley, the wellness teacher, was getting ready to hand off the third graders to their classroom teacher. Before filing back into the school, a handsome brick building that suffered flooding last year during Hurricane Ida, students reflected on the lesson.

Ayla, a third grader dressed in jeans and tie-dye sneakers, said it made her want to “do something” about climate change because “I don’t want it to get so hot.”

Wes, another third grader, said adults could have done more to protect the environment. “I think they’ve done a medium job because they’re still producing a lot of carbon dioxide and a lot of people are littering still.”

“I feel bad for the other animals because they don’t know about it, so they don’t know what to do,” added his classmate, Hunter.

“We know about it,” said Abby, who was wearing a shirt emblazoned with the words “Girl Power.” She said it was up to humans to drive less and recycle and protect other species from climate disasters.

“When I first found out we were going to learn about climate change in gym, I was like, that’s surprising, because normally we learn that in class,” Abby added. “But I’m glad we did it in gym,” she continued. “It was really fun.”

Climate CHANGES.  Your hubris that we cause it or that we can change it is — unprintable.

Where’s Vito Corleone when you need him?

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Education Work Place

Not just colleges, but all affirmative action must end. Get hired or accepted on your skill. Not skin color or race.

No more free lunch. Fox Photo

You may have heard that the US Supreme Court is hearing a case on affirmative action being used in the colleges. It came about when Oriental ( Asian ) students were being openly discriminated against. Let’s hope that the courts abolish affirmative action. But take it one step further. The Workplace.

In so many situations, folks with less skill or talents are given jobs or promoted just to meet quotas to make it seem as if they’re being socially responsible. California is one of the worst states for this. I know every time I would go there, ( especially Northern California ) I would cross a bridge and praise the lord I made it safely across.

Construction and Manufacturing aren’t the only places you see quota hiring. Banking, Housing, Warehousing, etc. Hire the most qualified. Not the least qualified.

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Education Links from other news sources.

Walker gives an old fashion ass whippin.

Herschel Walker, U.S. Republican Senate candidate for Georgia, speaks during a campaign event in Carrollton, Georgia, on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022. (Ben Hendren/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

These are some highlights of the beat down Walker gave Warnock.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1581069905578708992

https://twitter.com/i/status/1581073359131082753

https://twitter.com/i/status/1581071980039733249

https://twitter.com/i/status/1581070957845905411

https://twitter.com/i/status/1581068401836974085

https://twitter.com/i/status/1581061307813761024

https://twitter.com/i/status/1581064477847453697

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Wednesday. WSJ Headline News.

What's in today's news headline storiesWSJ Photo

PAGE ONE

Juul to Pay $438.5 Million to Settle Probe Over Underage Vaping – The settlement with more than 30 states is the latest step by the e-cigarette maker to resolve allegations that it marketed its products to underage users. A1

Junk-Loan Defaults Worry Wall Street Investors A1

Schools Are Back and Confronting Severe Learning Losses A1

What’s News: World-Wide A1

Gavel Bashing Has Its Moment. ‘You Love That Thing, Don’t You?’ A1

Illumina’s Deal to Buy Cancer-Test Developer Is Blocked by the EU A1

U.S.

Nutrition Advocates Urge Front-of-Package Labels Highlighting Fat, Sugar Levels – The advocates want a more condensed label on the front of packaged-food items that would flag certain health risks, such as high sugar or saturated-fat content. Industry groups say existing labels suffice. A2

Labor Board Proposes New Joint Employer Rule, Easing Trump-Era Limits A2

Conflicting Surveys Paint Mixed Picture of Services Providers A2

Corrections & Amplifications A2

U.S. Plans Shift to Annual Covid Shots as New Boosters Roll Out A3

Los Angeles Schools Hit With Ransomware Attack A3

‘Fat Leonard,’ Former Contractor in Navy Bribery Scandal, Escapes House Arrest A3

Ghost-Gun Firms Find New Ways to Sell DIY Weapons as U.S. Rule Takes Effect A3

Commerce Secretary Embraces a Beefier Industrial Policy to Combat China and Russia A4

DOJ Considers Next Move After Judge Greenlights Trump’s Request for Special Master A4

WORLD