Category Archives: The Heart of Learning
Great Resources for Internet Safety
The Internet opens new horizons for any student. But its vastness is also its pitfall. Children need guidance about how to analyze information they find on the Internet, how to determine for themselves whether information is valid or junk. Supervise … Continue reading
Filed under Learning With Your Child, The Heart of Learning
Review of Trespassing, by Uzma Aslam Khan
Review of Trespassing, by Uzma Aslam Khan, Picador, 2003 Uzma Aslam Khan’s character driven tale of two young Pakistanis, Trespassing, lays out in sweaty detail the tension between the old adage “you can’t go home again” and the one that … Continue reading
Filed under Literati, The Heart of Learning
Fixing Our Broken Schools
NASHVILLE, TN Tennesseans are met almost every morning with newspaper stories reporting the array of symptoms caused by problems in our state educational system. Nashville faces the possibility that the No Child Left Behind law will require our state Department … Continue reading
Filed under Learning With Your Child, teaching, The Heart of Learning
Extracurricular Activities, Part 2
When it comes to after school activities, it’s easy to overdo. Too many extracurricular activities can strain the entire family. It can hit school children especially hard. Besides the logistics of coming and going, a student’s brain needs down time … Continue reading
Filed under The Heart of Learning
Extracurricular Activities–Part I
Ever feel like your kid is the next teen superstar de jour and you are his chauffeur, personal assistant and agent all in one? I’m talking about the entire universe of extracurricular activities. You know what I’m talking about: the … Continue reading
Filed under The Heart of Learning
New Year Means Standardized Tests are Near
Before I’ve even mastered writing “2009″ instead of “2008″ I realize that spring will soon be upon us. Who doesn’t long for spring once the seed catalogues start arriving? But, for parents of school children, spring also means standardized tests to measure … Continue reading
Filed under Learning With Your Child, The Heart of Learning
What Would John Adams Do?
In Nashville, where I live, we will vote on January 21 for or against a measure proposed by a city councilman to make English the “official” language of the city and require that all official city business be conducted in English. … Continue reading
Filed under Learning With Your Child, The Heart of Learning
Poverty Harms Students’ Brains
Most people understand that an unhealthy lifestyle adversely affects their health. If you eat lots of junk food and don’t exercise, you’ll probably gain weight and may have high blood pressure or high cholesterol. That’s no big surprise. But, it … Continue reading
Filed under Learning With Your Child, The Heart of Learning
MINDING THEIR MANNERS
My son is a picky eater. He likes his food salty. While eating out with my in-laws, my son took a bite of pasta and decided that it wasn’t salty enough. Instead of swallowing and chalking that first bite up to a … Continue reading
Filed under Learning With Your Child, The Heart of Learning
Learning Strategy
A learning strategy isn’t a studying skill. Studying skills are great, but before a study skill can be of real benefit, you need to practice the art of learning by applying a four-part learning strategy. If you dissected the process of … Continue reading
Filed under The Heart of Learning
