The IDEA Blog
Charting a new path forward in education by sharing positive stories of change, providing perspective on key issues, and giving you the news and analysis you need to take action.
Pathways to Healing After a School Shooting
I’m a self-proclaimed news junkie. Every morning, I begin by scanning through major news sites online, by poring over Facebook and Twitter posts, updating myself with what’s going on in the world. This continues throughout the day, just as it did on Monday, when I saw BREAKING NEWS cross my Twitter feed with a statement about a shooting at a high school in Chardon, Ohio. My heart immediately sank and started racing, wondering about the students and staff. My mind and heart next went to the place and time it always does when I read or hear about another school shooting: October 1, 1997, at Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi.
I was 16 years old the day Luke Woodham entered my high...
Posted on Mar 11, 2012 - 01:04 PM by Neola Young
We Are the Present: Why Youth Voices Are Necessary
When we pretend that children are just adults in hatching, waiting to become real participants in the world, we don’t merely take away their agency and lose out on their wisdom; we deny that they are already full participants in the world, on the front lines of the most critical struggles in modern history.
Photo courtesy of Manauvaskar Kublall
Posted on Jan 27, 2012 - 09:57 AM by Neola Young
Evaluating Our Values
Articles are written every year bemoaning the fact that young Americans are woefully ignorant about civics. Here’s a radical theory to consider: Young people don’t know civics because we don’t teach them civics! We made a decision in that moment with those twelve boys that practice with writing a brief constructed response was of higher value than becoming competent, prepared, participatory citizens. Does that decision mesh with your own values?
Posted on Jan 27, 2012 - 09:53 AM by Neola Young
What will happen to education in 2012?
What can we expect in the world of public education in 2012? (For a good review of what happened in 2011, check out this link.) I’ll start by considering three nagging questions.
1. Will this be the year that some school districts say ‘No mas!” to No Child Left Behind’s harsh rules?
2. Will we have that long-awaited national conversation about the goals of public education?
3. And will political leaders rise up against the excesses of for-profit education, so effectively documented in the New York Times (December 13, 2011), where we learned that the school superintendent of one for-profit charter chain that enrolls 94,000 students is paid $5,000,000 a year? (By contrast, Dennis Walcott, who is responsible for over one million New York City public school students, earns $213,000 a year.)
Posted on Jan 05, 2012 - 10:08 AM by Neola Young
Gender Bullying in the Classroom
Allison was biologically a girl but felt more comfortable wearing Tony Hawk long-sleeved T-shirts, baggy jeans, and black tennis shoes. Her parents were accepting and supportive. Her mother braided her hair in cornrows because Allie thought it made her look like Will Smith(tm)s son, Trey, in the remake of The Karate Kid. She preferred to be called Allie. The first day of school, children who hadn•€(tm)t been in Allie(tm)s class in kindergarten referred to her as • he.”
Posted on Dec 21, 2011 - 11:59 AM by Neola Young
Posts by Neola Young
