SF New Mexican:

Financial woes force Academy for Sciences and Mathematics to close. I’d heard such good things about the institution.  Very sad to see it close.

I need a reprieve from this morning’s news.

Capturing the bear essentials of Paddington. Pooh is more Taoist, but Paddington will do for today.

Guardian.UK:

“We train female children to be manipulative and to exploit their sex. From the time she is tiny, a girl in our society is taught to flirt. She is usually dressed like a mini-whore in pink and tinsel, short skirt, matching knickers, baby-doll pyjamas, long hair falling over her face ...” Nothing like a Brit to rip a hole in sanctimoniously sticky US tabloid ‘outrage.’

Chronicle of Higher Ed:

America’s Most Overrated Product: the Bachelor’s Degree. “A 2006 study supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that 50 percent of college seniors scored below ‘proficient’ levels on a test that required them to do such basic tasks as understand the arguments of newspaper editorials or compare credit-card offers. Almost 20 percent of seniors had only basic quantitative skills. The students could not estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the gas station.” The value of college degree is entrenched in the national psyche, in spite of the lack of substance we’ve all been seeing over the past couple of decades. It’s about time we questioned the quality of graduates - and through them, the quality of education.  The entire 1912 class of Princeton University became millionaires. Any recent such precedents?  Didn’t think so. Two other random observations from the scattered lumber-room of my mind: A) Though Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have no degrees, you don’t generally get jobs at their companies without one. It’s okay for them, just not for you.  B) When the military started requiring degrees for pilots, they lost the best stick-and-rudder aviators - men who lived and breathed airplanes. You don’t train reflexes through books.

Apprenticeships should be revived, IMHO, in many fields.

NY Times Research:

Memory Training Shown to Turn Up Brainpower. So, play Concentration.

BBC:

”Children who attend daycare or playgroups cut their risk of the most common type of childhood leukaemia by around 30%, a study estimates.”

SF New Mexican:

College of Santa Fe: Merger could keep school afloat. CSF is one of the best art schools in the area ... it would be a shame for it to close down.

Times Online.UK:

Adopted children: sometimes you can’t mend them. I’m surprised it’s only a third.  I think it’s more prevalent, in degrees of severity.

Guardian.UK:

Information alert. I warned about this shortly after I started weblogging.  Unless one is particular in digging for authoritative sources (and able to identify authoritativeness), education will be reduced in quality and value.  The internet itself has no rating of authoritativeness other than popularity, which in itself is worthless.

NY Times Washington:

Government Seeks to Buy Student Loans. Gotta convince the banks to loosen their purse strings again.

CNN:

Study: Single parents cost taxpayers $112 billion. Oh, shock me with your objectivity: “The study was conducted by Georgia State University economist Ben Scafidi. His work was sponsored by four groups who consider themselves part of a nationwide ‘marriage movement’ ...” Decent affordable childcare, you nimwits.  Colleges should have childcare as part of their work/study programs; use some of those huge endowments.

Washington Post:

“Nearly 50 student lenders, including some of the industry’s biggest names, have stopped issuing federally guaranteed loans in recent weeks because of paralysis in the credit markets, confronting students with higher borrowing costs just as they are starting to apply for financial assistance for the coming school year.” The halls of academia may be empty this coming fall.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Study warns against TVs in teens’ rooms. In the ‘70’s, my stereo kept me in my room, probably disrupted me just as much.  iPods at least allow kids to be active while listening to tunes, something we didn’t have.  Better overall to outlaw convenience foods from teen bedrooms.  “You can take an apple up with you, but that’s it.” Like that’ll ever happen.

CNN:

Frugal living more about priorities than sacrifice. ‘Tis true.  For those interested in raising children in a lifestyle without chasing the latest techno-gizmos and Disney effluvia, check out SouleMama.typepad.com. 

Wired:

Tooth Regeneration May Replace Drill-and-Fill. Just a side note: if your children are experiencing lots of cavities, despite brushing ... get your water tested for lead content.

CNN:

Vaccine-autism link divides parents, scientists. Instead of just denials, it would be more helpful if the CDC could simply supply autism incidence comparison statistics for MMR versus separate injections. Saying “it’s an unfortunate coincidence” isn’t making anyone feel better, or increasing understanding of the science.  Frankly, it’s alarming how fast the incidence is increasing. 1 in 94 kids in NJ.

WSJ:

The Tao of Early Musical Success. How to prevent Charlotte Church Syndrome?

NY Times Education:

“… many states use an inflated graduation rate for federal reporting requirements under the No Child Left Behind law and a different one at home. As a result, researchers say, federal figures obscure a dropout epidemic so severe that only about 70 percent of the one million American students who start ninth grade each year graduate four years later.” My italics.

BBC:

Using a see-saw to power African schools.

NY Times Art & Design:

“A Japanese university plans to return about 250 pieces of original animation art to the Walt Disney Company that were mislaid in storage after traveling to Japan nearly five decades ago.” Cels hand-picked by Walt himself.  Do view the slideshow.

BBC:

One in four teenage girls in the United States has a sexually-transmitted disease. HPV most common of all. A fig for Merck.

Science Daily:

Are Smart People Drawn To The Arts Or Does Arts Training Make People Smarter? Among many other examples: “Adult self-reported interest in aesthetics is related to a temperamental factor of openness, which in turn is influenced by dopamine-related genes.”

NY Times NY Region:

Paying for rote learning? Not the best investment.

SF New Mexican:

Eldorado: School sign irks residents. “Irks”?  It’s the Las Vegas Strip in the middle of a residential community.  I feel very sad for those whose windows face it.

New Scientist, Tech:

Gamers secretly enjoy getting killed. Well, that certainly explains why game difficulty isn’t an issue ...