Good things
Things that make me smile.
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Marion Joseph’s literacy crusade for teaching
phonics in California is paying off Dan Walters March 19, 2023 Sometimes – not often, but sometimes – one person can have a life-changing impact on the wellbeing of millions of people. Marion Joseph, who died nearly a year ago at age 95, was one of those people. She impacted millions of California schoolchildren present and future who struggle with reading comprehension, the vital skill that underlies all of education. The pandemic underscored that too many of California’s elementary school students lack effective reading ability. EdSource noted that, prior to the pandemic, fewer than 50% of the state’s third-graders were reading at the expected level for their age. Three years later, after students…
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Can learning cursive help kids read better?
Some policymakers think it’s worth a try Shawn Datchuk May 6, 2025 Recently, my 8-year-old son received a birthday card from his grandmother. He opened the card, looked at it and said, “I can’t read cursive yet.” Then he handed it to me to read. If you have a child in the Philadelphia School District, chances are they have not been taught how to read or write cursive either. But cursive handwriting is making a comeback of sorts for K-8 students in the United States. Several states in recent years passed legislation mandating instruction in cursive handwriting, including California, Iowa and Oklahoma. Pennsylvania and New Jersey are considering similar legislation, as are other states. I’m an associate professor of…
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Not All Heroes Wear Capes2
These innovators, scientists, creative thinkers and just regular people all played a pivotal role in helping me live my best life. Ralph Braun Wheelchair van pioneer Ralph William Braun (December 18, 1940 – February 8, 2013) was the founder and CEO of the Braun Corporation. He is also known as the “Father of the Mobility Movement” at BraunAbility. Braun was born and raised in Winamac, Indiana. When he was six years old, doctors diagnosed him with muscular dystrophy. He started using a wheelchair at the age of 14. At the age of 15, he created a motorized wagon with his father to help him get around. Five years later,…
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The Power of the Chorale: How One Choir’s Love of Music Keeps Them Going During the Pandemic
By Vanessa Blankenship January 27, 2022 Inside St. Luke in the Fields, a whimsical church in the West Village, a choir group gathered for weekly rehearsal in November. On that Tuesday evening, a crisp late fall breeze blew through the open stained-glass windows. Of the 36 members in attendance, more than half were bundled in their overcoats, and some passed out hand warmer packets to help soothe their shivers. In the rows of pews, everyone practiced social distancing, and everyone was wearing a mask. Despite the discomfort, they relished being there together – no small feat after more than a year of singing while being apart. The Stonewall Chorale, one…
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Covid supercentenarian
Lucile Randon DC (French: [ly.sil ʁɑ̃.dɔ̃]; 11 February 1904 – 17 January 2023), also known as Sister André (French: Sœur André), was a French supercentenarian. Living to the age of 118 years and 340 days, she had been the world’s oldest verified living person since April 19, 2022, following the death of Kane Tanaka.[1][2] ] Randon was blind and used a wheelchair from the early 2010s.[6] In January 2021, she tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in an outbreak at her retirement home. She was asymptomatic and tested negative days before her 117th birthday, making her the oldest known survivor of the COVID-19 pandemic.[1][3][10]
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Jim Abbott
Amanda J Hales April 25, 2016 Baseball is a game that requires its athletes to run and to bat, catch and pitch a ball. We know the game as America’s Pastime and it’s about as summery as you can get. Young boys and girls play as youngsters with the hopes of one day making it to the big leagues, but the big leagues are only for the elite. What happens, then, if you have a disability? Well, if you are Jim Abbott it’s no big deal. Jim Abbott was born in Flint Michigan and attended the University of Michigan. He excelled at both baseball and football, albeit without the use…
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The World Series of the Apocalypse?
October 27, 2016 By Chris Lamb In it, Al Tiller, the manager of the Chicago Cubs, is haunted by a prophetic dream that the world will end if the Cubs defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers to win the National League pennant. This puts Tiller in a bind: He must choose between momentary glory or the end of the world. Those familiar with the short story may have braced themselves on Oct.…
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Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas
June 21, 2022 The rapid gains Republican women have made since 2018 could be a signal for how the party fares in this year’s midterms Mayra Flores was sworn in on Tuesday, becoming Texas’ first Republican Latina to join Congress. Flores’ victory also sets a new milestone: A historic high of 147 women overall and a record 41 Republican women now hold congressional seats, according to data from the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University. Born in Mexico to migrant farmworkers, Flores is a first-time candidate who defeated her Democratic opponent this month in Texas’s 34th congressional district, which is historically Democratic. Flores’ addition to Congress…
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How recess helps students learn
Published: February 14, 2022 3.03pm EST Author William Massey Assistant Professor of Public Health and Human Sciences, Oregon State University As parents and schools seek to support students’ social and emotional needs – and teach them what they need to learn – some education leaders are missing one particularly effective opportunity. The U.S. Department of Education has offered guidance on how to help students navigate the stress and trauma of the pandemic and readjust to in-person schooling after long periods of closed schools. But as someone who studies recess in connection with child development, I couldn’t help but notice recess was missing from the federal guidance and from many local…
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The psychology of roller coasters
BY RICHARD STEPHENS, SENIOR LECTURER IN PSYCHOLOGY, KEELE UNIVERSITY Can differences in brain chemistry explain the sensation seeking behaviour seen in theme parks? Roller coasters may seem like a very modern type of entertainment – constantly getting bigger, faster and scarier thanks to advances in technology. But they actually date back to the mid-1800s. Gravity-propelled railways built to transport coal from up in the mountains down to the town in Pennsylvania, US, were hired out at weekends by fare-paying passengers riding purely for the fun of it. Today theme parks are big business. But with queues occasionally as long as eight hours for an average ride of under two minutes – not to mention reports of…
