education

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Can Video Games Save the World?

Creators take aim at education in the gaming industry

(Newser) - A small group of educators and activists is championing the use of video games for more than just entertainment, the Washington Post reports. “I don't think games have to be fun,” one key organizer said. “I think games have to be engaging.” New titles in the...

Germans Get Engineers Started Young
Germans Get Engineers Started Young
Jun 17, 2008 12:49 PM CDT

Germans Get Engineers Started Young

Top firms aim to turn kindergartners toward tech careers

(Newser) - With a personnel shortfall that's serious and getting worse, Germany wants to get its next generation of engineers started as soon as possible, the Financial Times reports. Hundreds of companies are sending materials and experts to kindergartens to try interest youngsters in technology and science. They hope getting the tots...

Bush Loyalist Hits the Road to Save 'No Child'

Education secretary seeks to shore up reviled program

(Newser) - As George W. Bush has become less and less popular, so too has No Child Left Behind, his education initiative that one congressman calls "the most negative brand in the country." As the administration realizes that its principal domestic achievement is likely to be undone by the next...

Grueling Gaokao Tests China's College Seekers

Dreaded university entrance exam covers 12 years of study

(Newser) - At least 10 million high school students in China are taking the grueling gaokao, or "high test," to win a coveted spot at college. It’s a two-day ordeal that covers everything students have learned for a dozen years. It also shuts down neighborhoods, redirects traffic, and determines...

As Gas Prices Rise, Field Trips Go Virtual

Online outings 'can be the next best thing,' educator says

(Newser) - More school buses are being left in park these days, thanks to rising fuel prices and technology that lets students go on “virtual field trips.” “If you can’t go somewhere, this can be the next best thing,” said one administrator, as schools enjoy low teleconferencing...

Retired Justice Turns Video Game Designer

Day O'Connor's Our Courts aims to boost civics knowledge

(Newser) - Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor isn't taking it easy now that she's no longer writing decisions, Wired reports. The first woman to be appointed to the top court is leading a project to help young people learn more about their government through a video game. Our Courts, an...

Anti-Evolution Groups Change Texas Tactics

Curriculum may allow for Darwin's 'strengths and weaknesses'

(Newser) - Evolution opponents are adapting. Now that “intelligent design” and “creation science” have failed in court, the new catch phrase, the New York Times reports, is “strengths and weaknesses.” It might seem innocuous, but critics say it’s yet another tactic to undermine the teaching of evolution...

Prof Grapples With Fate: Teaching Dolts
 Prof Grapples With
 Fate: Teaching Dolts 
commentary
May 25, 2008 1:32 PM CDT

Prof Grapples With Fate: Teaching Dolts

'I am the man who has to lower the hammer,' he admits

(Newser) - An English professor at a small US college admits that half his job is killing students' dreams—dreams that they can write, think, or even form a sentence, he writes anonymously in the Atlantic. Yet more American jobs require college credits, and his role is to force Joyce and Faulkner...

It's Time to Bring Back Geography to Classrooms
It's Time to Bring Back Geography to Classrooms
OPINION
May 22, 2008 9:40 PM CDT

It's Time to Bring Back Geography to Classrooms

Americans can't find their way around world maps

(Newser) - The impressive skills of 11-year-old Akshay Rajagopal—the nation's new geography bee champ—are all too rare. In fact, lots of Americans are geographically illiterate to an appalling degree, writes Evan Sparks in the American. At some point, the nation decided to leave the subject out of school curricula. Geography,...

Big Brother Indeed: Orwell Prank Ends in Arrests

Takeover PA system leads to sit-in protest at Mass. high school

(Newser) - What appears to be a senior prank that saw students commandeer the public-address system at a Massachusetts high school to read George Orwell (or perhaps Fidel Castro) ended with arrests and protests yesterday, the New Bedford Standard-Times reports.

Grammatical Dynamic Duo Wages War on Typos

Two men travel the country on a mission

(Newser) - Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson are out-of-work Ivy Leaguers on a mission. They just wrapped up a three-month cross-country drive to eradicate typos and grammar gaffes in public spaces. Sharpies in hand, the pair confronted store owners about typos on their signs and windows and did their best to correct...

Science Smackdowns Aid Search for 'Bill Gates 2.0'

Popularity of math, science competitions shoots off the charts

(Newser) - With the days when the space program inspired American students to embrace science and math a distant memory, the US is counting on competition among schoolkids to return the country as a whole to a leading role, the Christian Science Monitor reports. High-level science fairs and math bowls are potential...

Say Hello to Generation Duh
Say Hello
to Generation Duh
May 13, 2008 12:24 PM CDT

Say Hello to Generation Duh

Tech-savvy, yes, but far dumber than age cohorts past

(Newser) - Today's youth are dangerously dumb, Mark Bauerlein writes in his new book, The Dumbest Generation. Here's why:
  1. Check out Jay Leno's "Jaywalking," where "the ignorance is hard to believe."
  2. They boast "a new attitude," taking pride in their illiteracy.

Young Teachers Finding Big Trouble Online

Facebook, MySpace pages test boundaries between public, private

(Newser) - Questionable postings and photos on social-networking web pages are becoming an issue with younger US teachers, the Washington Post reports, raising questions about where to draw a line between private expression and standards for public employees. A case in point is a substitute special-education teacher whose page includes a so-called...

Two Trains Leave a Station Going 30mph...

Stop! Story problems wrong way to teach math, study says

(Newser) - All those sacks of different-colored marbles and word problems about pizza slices may not actually teach kids effectively, Reuters reports. Though meant to offer a real-world grounding, story problems just add extra distractions, a new study says, suggesting that students might be better off learning abstract concepts than figuring out...

Clark: McCain Must Get Behind Update to GI Bill
Clark: McCain Must Get Behind Update to GI Bill
OPINION
Apr 10, 2008 6:18 PM CDT

Clark: McCain Must Get Behind Update to GI Bill

Convincing GOP on aid for fellow veterans a must, general says

(Newser) - John McCain is "casting doubt" on his "commitment to the newest generation of American heroes” by not throwing his support behind an extension of the GI Bill, Wesley Clark writes in the Los Angeles Times. A bipartisan overhaul would fix the bill that once guaranteed veterans a paid...

King Would Relish Today's Challenges
 King Would Relish 
 Today's Challenges 
OPINION
Apr 3, 2008 5:10 PM CDT

King Would Relish Today's Challenges

40 years after civil-rights leader's death, Jesse Jackson finds message undimmed

(Newser) - With tomorrow marking the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination, the Rev. Jesse Jackson pens an appreciation for the New York Daily News. Jackson worked with the civil-rights giant in 1968 on King's last, tragically unfulfilled project, the Poor People’s Campaign. "He'd keep on dreaming and...

Nurses With Doctorates Ease Shortage

Advanced degrees, 'hybrid practitioners' raise questions

(Newser) - As part of the effort to counter the worsening doctor shortage, some 200 American nursing schools plan to train "hybrid practitioners" with doctorates in nursing practice who can function as independent primary care givers. But even as the concept of the DNP catches on, some physicians and nurse practitioners...

Top Colleges Report Record Low Rates of Admission

Harvard accepts just 7% of applicants

(Newser) - Acceptance letters from the nation's top colleges will begin to arrive on prospective students' doorsteps today, but far more rejection letters are in the mail than ever before, reports the New York Times. Harvard and Yale accepted only 7.1% and 8.3% of applicants, respectively, both record lows as...

School Supers Draw Big Bucks, Bigger Perks

Turnaround experts find profitable niche in failing school districts

(Newser) - Teachers aren't living in luxury, but some school superintendents are, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Some are pulling in $325,000 a year, plus multi-million-dollar consulting budgets to restructure impoverished, underperforming public school systems. The Monitor calls them "central office rock stars," a product of the No Child...

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