A comment from a middle school has ended with one Arkansas teacher arrested for aggravated assault in West Memphis, Arkansas. Tracy Matthews, 56, a teacher at Wonder Junior High School, faces a felony charge for reportedly putting his hands on a student on April 15. West Memphis Police say the incident happened in a classroom […]
Current Events in Education
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Opinion
The Objectification of Public Education
When I first entered the classroom at eighteen—as a long-term substitute, a vacancy, a body-to-fill-the-room; so I was hired, so I was told—I carried with me all the freshest and most potent and most upsetting memories of being a student in the same school system. Among them, I remembered how alienating my hunger felt, having […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
A gun came to my room, but it will not define my room
“When despair for the world grows in me,” writes Wendell Berry. “I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.” This poem is recited at the beginning of every class I teach. The class is called Wilderness Literature. The intent of the poem is to transition from […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
“I Might’ve Made a Mistake” – How the military uses public schools to ‘recruit’ marginalized youth for a lifetime of service
When the powers that be talk about sending kids to war, they aren’t talking about their kids. So, whose kids are they talking about, and where do those kids come from? I teach senior English at an urban high school in upstate New York. The poverty rate here is high. There are no Fortunate Sons […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
The Moral Challenge and Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Message to the Student Leaders
On Friday, mourners will have one last chance to pay their respects to the Rev. Jesse Jackson. The public homegoing service in Chicago marks the end of a two weeks of memorials that crisscrossed the country as the nation after the Civil Rights icon died on Feb. 17. His passing is not just a moment […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
The End of the Do-Over? Retake Policies in the Age of AI
As a college professor who also teaches high school students computer science in a summer program, dinner-table conversations in my home often sound like faculty meetings. My husband, an assistant principal and former classroom social studies teacher, and I regularly compare notes about what we are seeing in students as they move from middle school […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
When Everyone Else is Scrolling: Why I’m Delaying Smartphones for My Daughters
I’ve spent a decade teaching high school English, and I can tell you exactly when a student got their first unrestricted smartphone. Not because they tell me, but because I watch it happen in real time. The attention span fragments, the anxiety spikes, and the ability to sit with difficult thoughts disappears. I’m also a […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education
From Funding to Fidelity: What Districts Should Know as LIFT Implementation Begins
With the launch of LASO Cycle 4, Texas is ushering in the next evolution of its grant and allotment programs, investing over $500 million to strengthen schools across the state. “Learning Acceleration Support Opportunities (LASO) is a single, consolidated application that combines grants, allotments, and in-kind supports, bundled around a few key strategies to accelerate […]