Parent Cortical Mass

Week's Best Articles on Learning and Education, for Parents

Yippee, the kids are back in school! After our summer break, Parent Cortical Mass is back, too, and there's so much to cover. Parents, how many clever ways can you ask your kids that all-important question, “How was school today?” Getting kids to talk about what they're learning in school fortifies that learning. 8 In this week’s batch of articles we revisit four of PCM’s Top 10 Learning Concepts: language dancing, the growth mindset, flow, and background knowledge. 1 2 3 4 Four of our Top 10 Education Influencers -- E.D. Hirsch Jr., Arne Duncan, Linda Darling-Hammond and Diane Ravitch --have mentions this week. 4 5 6 7 A Washington state court ruled last week that tax-payer funded charter schools in that state were unconstitutional. Why? Because public schools are subject to the voters in school districts, and charter schools, by definition, bypass required local control. What do you think? 7 It's September. You've just recommitted to reading nightly to the kids. Check out Bonnie Lathram’s list of must-read kids' books for some fresh selections! 9

Parenting

Why We Should Let Our Children Fail - Jessica Lahey, The Guardian

When Did Parents Get So Scared? I Blame It on Bridge to Terabithia - Melissa Schorr, Boston Globe

How Schools Are Handling an 'Overparenting' Crisis - Anya Kamenetz, nprEd

When Homework Stresses Parents as Well as Students - KJ Dell'Antonia, New York Times

Fathers Who Serve as the Primary Parent - Andrew Moravcsik, The Atlantic

Wondering at What Age Children Can Safely Play with a Tablet? - C. Featherston, Hechinger Report

Learning

4 Ways to Remember Everything You Learn - Drake Baer, Time

The Lesson You Never Got Taught in School: How to Learn! - Simon Oxenham, Big Think

1 Pretending to Understand What Babies Say Can Make Them Smarter - Cari Romm, The Atlantic

2 3 Tricks to Find Your Flow - Christine Carter, Medium

3 Growth Mindset: How to Normalize Mistake Making & Struggle in Class - K. Schwartz, Mind/Shift

Education

Teachers Aren’t Dumb - Daniel T. Willingham, New York Times

5 Critical Skills to Empower Students in the Digital Age - Ki Sung, Mind/Shift

4 How Common Core Can Help in the Battle of Skills vs. Knowledge - Natalie Wexler, NYT

5 Arne Duncan: U.S. Needs to Modernize Its Schools - Sec. Duncan & Sec. Perez, eSchool News

6 A New Moment in Education - Linda Darling-Hammond, Huffington Post

7 What Makes a Public School Public? WA Court Finds Charters Unconstitutional. - Emma Brown, WP

New Poll: Heartening and Glum News for Ed Reformers - Chester Finn, Education Next

National Leaders Fail in School Reform - Jack Jennings, Huffington Post

The Problem with Making Education a Campaign Issue - Joy Resmovits, LA Times

Resources

8 25 Other Ways to Ask "How Was School Today?" - Liz Evans, Huffington Post

Parents of College-Bound Students: About the Upcoming SAT Changes - J. Bolkan, THE Journal

What is a Math Circle? - Anna Kuchment, Scientific American

The Best Way to Guess Correctly on a Multiple Choice Test - Justin J. Couchman, Quartz

9 20 Must-Read Children’s Books for Back to School - Bonnie Lathram, Getting Smart

Read a few articles each week, and gain parent cortical mass! If you enjoy our weekly article roundup, please email it to a friend, or share on social media. Thank you!

Week's Best Articles on Learning and Education, for Parents

The most controversial articles this week explore screen addiction and the impacts of helicopter parenting on college students. 1 2 The most brilliant article is by Ta-Nehisi Coates, the premier writer on race in America. "Letter to my Son" is unequalled. 3 Top 10 Education Policies examined this week include charter schools' performance, accountability iteration, and common core's textbook problems. 4 5 6 Do commencement speeches inspire you? NPR created a beautiful site to explore the best of the best. Memorize a sentence here and there from your favorites, wait faithfully for the right moment, and blow your kids away with a quote! 7

Parenting

Benefits of Sports to a Child's Mind and Heart - Patti Neighmond, npr

Preparing Our Kids for Jobs That Don’t Exist Yet - Zach Klein, Medium

1 Screen Addiction Is Taking a Toll on Children - Jane E Brody, New York Times

2 When Kids of Helicopter Parents Go to College - Julie Lythcott-Haims, Slate

3 Letter to My Son - Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic

Learning

Emotion Knowledge Fosters Attentiveness - von Salish, Haenel, & Denham, EurekAlert

The Science of ‘Inside Out’ - Keltner & Ekman, New York Times

REM Sleep, Memory Formation, and Young Brains - Rick Nauert, PsychCentral

How Facebook Can Help Informal Learning - Meg Bernhard, The Chronicle

Face It, Your Brain Is a Computer - Gary Marcus, New York Times

How the Brain Forms New Memories - Jessica Firger, Newsweek

Education

4 The Verdict on Charter Schools? - Bruce Fuller, The Atlantic

5 What Should the Next Version of Accountability Look Like? - Alyson Klein, Education Week

6 The Great Common Core Textbook Swindle - Matt Collette, The Daily Beast

Blended learning: Great New Thing or Great New Hype? - Phil McRae, Washington Post

The Critical Voice of Parents - Tiffany Taber, Ed.gov

The Beautiful World of Math - Yoni Appelbaum, The Atlantic

Resources

7 The Best Commencement Speeches, Ever - npr

Everything You Need to Know About Parental Controls - Caroline Knorr, Common Sense Media

23 Tools for Students to Publish What They Learn - TeachThought

Make Learning Spanish Fun With These Educational Games - Dan Albright, MakeUseOf

Read a few articles each week, and gain parent cortical mass! If you enjoy our weekly article roundup, please email it to a friend, or share on social media. Thank you!

Week's Best Articles on Learning & Education, for Parents

Many articles appeared this week about “raising kids who read.” Why? Because Daniel T. Willingham’s most recently published book, with that very title, is getting great coverage. Stay current. 2 3 When schools consider new education tech initiatives, parents can help their schools focus. How? With questions. Be ready with these. 1 A recently published book, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, by Robert Putnam, discusses why we should care about other people’s children. There's more to it than altruism. 4 Catch up on the latest research about the effectiveness of charter schools. 5 Get an update on the perpetually log-jammed No Child Left Behind reauthorization. 6 Check out the “color thesaurus” and use it to name the colors in the gorgeous photos of the northern lights. Notice all the turquoise. Or, is that sea-green? 7 8

Parenting

Why Children Need Chores - Jennifer Breheny Wallace, Wall Street Journal

The Case for Free-Range Parenting - Clemens Wergin, New York Times

Frank Bruni is Wrong About Ivy League Schools - Jonathan Wai, Quartz

‘The Opposite of Spoiled,’ by Ron Lieber - Claire Dederer, New York Times

How to Manage Media in Families - Bruce Feiler, New York Times

1 Parent's Guide to All That 'Ed Tech' In Your Kid's Classroom - Anya Kamenetz & Adriene Hill, WNYC

Learning

2 What Not to Worry About in Teaching Young Children to Read - Jessica Lahey, New York Times

Power Naps Produce a Significant Improvement in Memory Performance - ScienceDaily

10 Smart Study Tactics That Support How The Brain Actually Works - Saga Briggs, informEd

The Age You Reach Peak Intelligence, According to Science - Fiona Macdonald, Science Alert

Education

3 For the Love of Reading: Engaging Students in a Lifelong Pursuit - Daniel Willingham, AFT

What Motivates A Student’s Interest in Reading and Writing - Larry Ferlazzo, Mind/Shift

Shifting From Learning to Read to Reading to Learn - Robert Pondiscio, US News

4 Why You Should Care About Other People’s Kids - Paul Solman & Robert Putnam, PBS NewsHour

The Problem With History Classes - Michael Conway, The Atlantic

5 Charters Score in Cities - Sara Mead, US News

6 No Child Left Behind Law Faces Its Own Reckoning - Motoko Rich & Tamar Lewin, NYT

Pearson Under Fire for Monitoring Students’ Twitter Posts - Natasha Singer, New York Times

What is a Foreign Language Worth? - The Economist

Resources

7 "Color Thesaurus" Helps You Correctly Name Any Color - Julija K. BoredPanda

8 Gorgeous Photos of the Northern Lights - Vivian Selbo, Slate

All of America's Folk Heroes, in One Map - Phil Edwards, Vox

Families: 7 Books to Read Before They're Movies in 2015 - Sandie A. Chen, CommonSenseMedia

Read a few articles each week, and gain parent cortical mass! If you enjoy our weekly article roundup, please email it to a friend, or share on social media. Thank you!