Tea Bird

Student loan fixes will generate heat

From Marketplace come two stories on the troubles facing college students and universities when it comes to financing higher education:

Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain say they’ll reform the federal government’s $150 billion student financial aid program. Commentator Kim Clark says that’s great, but it’s going to come with political costs.

With unemployment up, [...]

Gifted Children: How to Bring Out Their Potential

From Scientific American:

Contrary to what many people believe, highly intelligent children are not necessarily destined for academic success. In fact, so-called gifted students may fail to do well because they are unusually smart. Ensuring that a gifted child reaches his or her potential requires an understanding of what can go wrong and how to [...]

Seventeen Year Olds on the Mother of a Seventeen Year Old

An interesting perspective from a high school teacher on a story I’d like to move past politically.
From Kevin Levin:

I started my classes today with some discussion about John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin for the V.P. slot.  My students were eager to comment, not so much on her position regarding the choice issues of [...]

Children with TVs in their room sleep less

Not exactly surprising:
Children with TVs in their room sleep less. Middle school children who have a television or computer in their room sleep less during the school year, watch more TV, play more computer games and surf the net more than their peers who don’t — reveals joint research conducted by the University of Haifa [...]

If there is a record for most consecutive plays of High School Musical,

then our family would win hands down.