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(Un) Heartbreaking Links of Staggering Genius

By Eduwonkette — September 11, 2008 1 min read
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1) Once Upon A School: Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, was awarded the TED Prize to help him fulfill this wish:

I wish that you -- you personally and every creative individual and organization you know -- will find a way to directly engage with a public school in your area, and that you'll then tell the story of how you got involved, so that within a year we have 1,000 examples of innovative public-private partnerships.

Now there’s a website called “Once Upon A School” that’s tracking project ideas for engaging in local schools. If you’re looking for a little shot of edu-Red Bull this week, check them out.

2) The Inalienable Right to Catch and Transmit Potentially Fatal Infections?: Over at Dangerously Irrelevant, Scott McLeod asks about the delicate balance between parents’ individual rights to deny vaccinations and social responsibility to protect other kids. Is it going to take a high-publicized outbreak of bizarre diseases for folks to wake up on this public health no brainer?

3) Heckman on Our Minds: Public School Insights, a blog dedicated to sharing what’s working in public schools, posts about Jim Heckman, Nobel prize winning economist who has been advising the Obama campaign about early childhood ed issues. Also in early childhood ed news, Steve Barnett, via the National Institute for Early Education Research, releases a new report, Preschool Education and its Lasting Effects.

4) And Speaking of Geniuses: Fall semester means an explosion of skinny jeans on campus, as well as the return of Debbie Meier and Diane Ravitch back to the blogosphere - just in time to kick around ideas of the next president. Take a look at Meier’s advice to the next president, as well as Ravitch’s insights on the changing politics of education.

5) Charles Murray - The Best Proof that You Don’t Get Wiser with Age?: Stay tuned for my review of the book, but in the meantime, Karin Chenoweth hands the good sir’s tushie to him in this trenchant critique.

6) Harold and Maude Strike Back: Michele McNeil, who has been doing a bang-up job covering the election, reports on the McCain sex ed ad. And I thought the true meaning of nuts had been thoroughly fleshed out over the last eight years.

7) Core Carnival Knowledge: Big props to Robert Pondiscio, who put together a fabulous Carnival of Education this week.

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