She’s been banned from giving a speech at graduation, banished from grad night at Disney, suspended for two days and lost a summer tutoring job she was counting on to help pay for college.
Aurora Ponce …

They’ve learned to count to 100, by single digits as well as by 5s and 10s.
They’ve learned the sounds that all the letters make, thanks in part to a lovely little alphabet song to the …

Here’s one that should shock U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan out of his school-boy crush on charter schools or, at the least, make him pause before he forces the nation to go steady with the …

I’m sitting at my desk with 15 browser tabs open and wondering why my Internet connection is creaking.
The 15 tabs is standard operating procedure. What’s different, though, is the pages they’re connected to: Four school …

I’m not supposed to be here.
I’m supposed to be at a museum 45 miles away, watching 80 kindergarteners ooh and aah over helicopters and fire trucks while they occasionally pay attention long enough to learn …

It seems there are two development paces for digital textbooks in California:
There’s doomed-to-fail-fast for public schools that wants to kick off by this fall, and there’s pokey procrastination for colleges that wants to wait until …

It sounds like a sweet set-up in Alexandria, Va.
Magic potions in a Harry Potter class. Math You Can Eat that uses brownies to teach fractions. Calligraphy, karate and film-making.
It’s all because of the district’s experiment …

Confession: I never bought the cookie dough - Big Guy was allergic anyway, and much of it was recalled during the Peanut Corp. of America sweep so I’m glad I didn’t buy it even as …

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s push to put free digital textbooks in Californias high schools by this fall is so enticing on so many levels, the biggest of which is in the fewer number of trees that …

Think we could solve all our problems in education by going to a merit-pay system that would make teachers earn their checks just like the rest of us?
Turns out that teachers already do earn their …

Here’s a concern that had never occurred to me as a parent of child with food allergies because I’ve been spoiled by our school’s concerned, considerate reaction in dealing with Big Guy’s peanut allergy this …

Standards are good - they’re a framework for building a solid education.
Problem is, though, they’re only a framework, just as the human skeleton is the framework for the body. And just like the human body, the …

Until Boots moved in and sent all my beautiful high school treasures to the Salvation Army, I still had a souvenir from my prom. It was a wine glass - for red, not white, though …

How on earth does it become right in anyone’s mind to indict a 60-year-old with a spotless professional reputation on possession of child pornography simply for doing his job?
Who can justify an employer abandoning a …

I’m a Mean Mom with old fogey leanings. It’s the worst possible combination.
Just ask Big Guy, who’s reduced to bartering Batman stickers for Nintendo DS time because I won’t buy him one.
Just ask Boots, whose …

News flash: Little boys tend to look up to their fathers. And little boys whose fathers are in the military tend to find everything about the armed forces fascinating. The uniforms, the rituals, the gear,the …

My eyes turned pea green with a world-class case of baking envy tonight when I saw the darling treats a friend had made for her daughter’s birthday celebration at school.
Elizabeth over at Parenting Pink and …

First off, let’s get over the notion that American students are at a disadvantage because the school days are longer in China and India.
The lofty goal of the Chinese education system is nine years of …

Scholastic Inc.’s effort to push toys and trinkets on kids in the name of reading: Bad
Chuck E. Cheese’s generous offer to give schools 15 percent of the take from fund-raisers held at its restaurants: Tempting, …

It’s too bad that most of the buzz about President Barack Obama’s education policy speech today before the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce has to do with charter schools and merit pay.
Both are tired subjects that …

When we last left Big Guy, he was struggling mightly to keep his mouth shut and avoid losing recess time at school. He had brief spurts of success, but largely it was a problem that …

Rule of thumb for the guys: You won’t get in nearly as much trouble for what you do as you will for lying about it.
That’s what a 14-year-old Wisconsin girl found out last week when …

You’re a conscientious objector to flash cards and Brainy Baby videos, but a tiny portion of your brain fears you’ve doomed you kid to life in a dunce cap.
You titter to yourself when parents complain …

Big Guy simply cannot keep his mouth shut. It’s part of his charm, but also part of his downfall.
It keeps landing him in trouble at school, too, and Chatty  Charlie that he is, he always …

Big Guy had big news Friday that he couldn’t wait to share the second Boots and I came to pick him up.
He told other parents on the way home. He told cousins and aunts and …

Savana Redding is a college student in Arizona who likes to read, write and listen to classic and alternative rock.
“Sorry to say but I do not listen to rap … i don’t like the messages …

Happy Birthday, No Child Left Behind.
You were born seven years ago today as the federal government’s first major foray into education reform. Through testing and bludgeoning, you were supposed to be the solution to the …

I panicked and nearly froze Sunday night.
Let’s see … how exactly do I do this?
I think we need a lunch box, on the off chance Big Guy decides to eat at some point Monday. His …

Other than what people who are so Pepsi-addicted they feed it to babies in bottles sneak to them behind my back and a shared diet Sierra Mist once a week with popcorn, the guys don’t …

Don’t tell Big Guy’s teacher, but I tossed the “suggested homework” list shortly after it walked through the door at the end of the semester.
Halfway through kindergarten, I’m officially sick of homework even though I …

You can cram for a quiz. You can cram for finals. You can cram for the SAT.
But I’m skeptical that it’s possible to cram for a physical education test.
Yet, that’s exactly what Big Guy’s school …

As of this moment, I will cease and desist griping about the amount of homework Big Guy is assigned.
OK, except for the occasional gripe about its busy-work nature. And I’ll sometimes whine that its focus …

Things I learned from a day at kindergarten:
It’s amazing how quiet 40 5-year-olds can be, with no more warning than the tinkling of a bell like the ones that used at hotel desks. I must …

Am I smarter than a fifth-grader? Jury’s still out on that, but I did flunk sixth-grade math last night.
Big Guy’s cousins came over after school, and everyone decided to do their homework immediately instead of …

I’ve done a fantastic job showing Big Guy how to tie his shoes. He knows everything he needs to know to tie his shoes. But he still can’t tie his stinking shoes.
And there are accusations …

I’m still a relative novice at this kindergarten game, but thanks to Big Guy’s July start, I’ve been doing it long enough now to know Monday is the Day The Backpack Brings Bad News.
Two weeks …

Maybe I’ve lived a sheltered life but looking back over more than four dozen teachers I had when I was in public school, there were only three that I’d consider incompetent. And only one …

It’s coming. I’m headed toward it just as sure as the constant snotterfall has rubbed Big Guy’s tiny nose raw.
Any day now, I’ll have to decide whether Big Guy should miss his first day of …