Parenthetical

I found this HuffPo column, What If We Treated Doctors The Way We Treat Teachers?, pretty compelling (in a preaching to the choir sort of way, of course). It begins with: We must begin to hold all physicians accountable, regardless of specialization, to certain quantifiable measures of health, namely cholesterol levels, blood pressure, weight, and [...]

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This article from The Atlantic has been making the rounds lately: What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland’s School Success. Basically, Finland’s children are “accidentally” scoring at the top of the world’s standardized test charts, despite (because of) a system that focuses on “equality more than excellence.” For me, the crux is in this passage: [I]n [...]

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If you care about literacy and learning, please sign this petition. Ensure all school libraries are properly staffed, open, and available for children every day. Any school receiving Federal funds should be required to have a credentialed School Librarian on staff full time with a library that contains a minimum of 18 books per student…. [...]

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My colleague posted this article, by “Professor X,” a private and community college professor: “An Anti-College Backlash?” (The Atlantic, Mar. 31, 2011) Oh, there’s so much going on here. I can’t address all of it right now, but here’s a start: [F]our-year college is perhaps not for everyone. Rather, for a growing proportion of students, [...]

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Remember back a month ago, when we Bostonians were boiling our tap water and freaking out about it? I promised to donate $10 for each day of the “crisis” to a water charity, as a reminder of how stunningly lucky we are to have safe water come out of taps in our homes the other [...]

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First, a signal-boost for my friend Tahnan‘s brilliant idea: I pledge to donate $10 to a safe drinking water charity for every day of Boston’s boil-water order. Will you join me, with whatever you can afford? The reservoir water coming out of my tap right now is a) clear and tasty, b) far safer than [...]

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Marcus and his too-smart-for-their-own-good punk friends are in the wrong place at a very wrong time — the destruction of the San Francisco Bay Bridge by terrorists. They get picked up by Homeland Security, taken to a secret detention facility, and abused. This experience focuses Marcus’s teen rebellion and, upon his release, he resolves to [...]

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I try not to talk about politics much in this blog, unless it has to do with a book I’ve read, or books in general, or libraries, or geekiness. I try to stay on-topic. (But look at the image there! How on-topic is that?!) I care about politics, though. A whole lot. So I feel [...]

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From the (Environmental Protection) Agency’s Earth Day history page: EPA was born in 1970 – a time when rivers caught fire and cities were hidden under dense clouds of smoke. We’ve made remarkable progress since then in protecting human health and safeguarding the natural environment. Remember 40 years ago, when life was like a science [...]

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I finally finished Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, in which he traces four meals – fast food, industrial organic (a la Whole Foods), local organic, and hunted/gathered by himself – from their origins in fields and factory farms to his table. I don’t say this very often – in fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever [...]

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