Teenage girls; teenage sons; and the role of grit—Here’s what you might have missed this week in news and thoughts related to student engagement, school climate, and the world that affects them.
1. “American kids’ performance on the field shows just how well they can do when expectations are high and they put their minds to it. It’s too bad that their test scores show the same thing.”
—The New Yorker‘s Elizabeth Kolbert, wondering whether sports teams decrease academic engagement in U.S. schools
2. “We have teenage sons, and so naturally there are quite a few pictures of you lovely ladies to wade through. Wow—You sure took a bunch of selfies in your skimpy PJ’s this summer!”
—Kimberly Hall, director of women’s ministry at All Saints Presbyterian Church, in Austin, Texas, on why girls should tone it down on social media
3. “Maybe you are a young woman who is heading to Princeton in hopes of becoming a doctor. Good for you. But that still might not cut it if you’ve been a little too carefree in your Internet postings.”
—Alexander Abad-Santos, for The Atlantic, responding to the aforementioned Ms. Hall
4. “I’m not sure it’s appropriate to lump everything related to social-emotional learning in general and self-regulation in particular into one bag.”
—Sarah D. Sparks, on the Inside School Research blog, on the problem of defining self-regulation and grit in meaningful ways
5. “Comic books may be particularly suited to teaching that combustible combination of history, politics, philosophy, and ethics.”
—Amy Wickner, at the BookMarks blog, on trying a new tactic to engage students in issues of social justice
6. There isn’t much text to this one, but it’s worth 38,000 words (and then some): A Chicago Tribune photojournalist visits the 38 Chicago public schools closed this summer.
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