Parent Cortical Mass

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

It’s midsummer. Doesn’t it feel like a time for family game nights? Check out Jessica Lahey’s article describing 5 fun games and the cognitive benefits of this informal learning time. ● Annoyed by the 10,000 Hour Rule? Good news. Maybe talent is more important than practice. Bothered by that? No worries. In a few years we'll see further research. Knowledge advances in refining increments! ● Have you wondered how the switch from print to digital media affects reading comprehension? Read Maria Konnikova’s well-written article on the topic. ● In education this week public discussion over teacher tenure turned bizarre. Dozens of articles covering Diane Ravitch’s unflattering comments about Campbell Brown circulated. But none of that is below. Too mindless for us, right? Instead, check out Daniel Willingham’s level-headed take on K-12 tenure. ● Meredith Broussard’s story about standardized tests is straight from a parent's point of view. Then, she makes helpful connections to education policy. Don’t miss it. ● Have you heard of the toy whisperer? She’s a huge hit on YouTube!

Parenting

How Family Game Night Makes Kids Into Better Students - Jessica Lahey, The Atlantic

How Becoming a Father Changes Your Brain - Christian Jarrett, Wired

New Dads Want Paid Leave to be Caregivers - Brigid Schulte, Washington Post

When Work Becomes a Haven From Stress At Home - Shankar Vedantam, NPR

Why We Should All Take a Nap in the Afternoon - John Medina, Brain Rules

Didn't Read Facebook's Fine Print? Here's Exactly What It Says - Amanda Scherker, Huff Post

OMG! Texting Doesn't Hurt Kids' Grammar or Spelling Skills - Joseph Stromberg, Vox

Learning

Humans Already Use WAY More Than 10% of Their Brains - Sam McDougle, The Atlantic

How Tests Make Us Smarter - Henry L. Roediger III, New York Times

Students Benefit from Learning That Intelligence Is Not Fixed - Ingfei Chen, Mind/Shift

What's Going On In There? How Babies' Brains Practice Speech - Nicholas St. Fleur, NPR

How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall? Talent - Benedict Carey, New York Times

The Neuroscience Behind Stress and Learning - Judy Willis, MD, edutopia

Being a Better Online Reader - Maria Konnikova, The New Yorker

Education

2 Years Isn't Enough: What K-12 Can Learn from Higher Ed on Tenure - Daniel Willingham, RCE

Higher Calling: To Improve Schools Make it Harder to Become a Teacher - Amanda Ripley, Slate

Five Inconvenient Truths for Reformers - Jal Mehta, Education Week

Five Inconvenient Truths for Traditionalists - Jal Mehta, Education Week

Sweden's School Choice Disaster - Ray Fisman, Slate

Charter School Battle Erodes Middle Ground - Joan Vennochi, Boston Globe

A Basic Flaw in the Argument Against Affirmative Action - Linda Darling-Hammond, Washington Post

Why Poor Schools Can't Win at Standardized Testing - Meredith Broussard, The Atlantic

The Case Against Exit Exams - Anne Hyslop, New America Foundation

Teaching 4-Year-Olds To Feel Better - Anya Kamenetz, npr_Ed

Resources

YouTube’s Biggest Star Is An Unknown Toy-Reviewing Toddler Whisperer - H. Reinsberg, BuzzFeed

12 Dozen Places To Educate Yourself Online For Free - The Mind Unleashed

This Software Guy Accidentally Designed an App That's Saving My Dyslexic Son - Jenn Choi, Quartz

Pack Your Bags for Summer Coding Camp - Charley Locke, edSurge

14 Facts That Help Explain America's Child-Migrant Crisis - Dara Lind, Vox

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

Would kids be better off with more free play or more structured learning time? Articles this week discuss how informal learning develops kids’ executive function. Plus Annie Murphy Paul talks about “embodied cognition” and the need to involve the body in learning. These stories make sense at the height of summer. Yet, at the same time, we see essays that make the case for summer school, to stop "brain drain." Reading conflicting information means your knowledge will be more broadly informed. ● There's commentary on the pros and cons of praise, and on sending texts to parents to fix the word gap. You'll be so current! ● This week the teachers union took two big actions. Randi Weingarten, the AFT President, announced the union would no longer support the common core. Then, she called for the resignation of the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. Education politics heated up this July!

Parenting

We Stink at Playing With Our Kids - Jens Peter de Pedro, Joan Ganz Cooney Center

Let 'Em Eat Dirt - Timothy Egan, New York Times

Should You Send Your Kids to Summer Camp? - Room for Debate, New York Times

We Tell Kids to 'Go to Sleep!' We Need to Teach Them Why - Annie Murphy Paul, NYT

Could Text Messages to Parents Help Close the 'Word Gap'? - Barbara Ray, EdCentral

The Emotional Whiplash of Parenting a Teenager - Lisa Damour, New York Times

Soccer Concussions are More Frequent Than You Think - Eric Chemi, BusinessWeek

Learning

Too Many Structured Activities May Hinder Kids' Executive Functioning - Ellen Wexler, Ed Week

Why So Many Kids Can't Sit Still in School Today - Angela Hanscom, Washington Post

We've Been Telling Kids to Sit Still and Pay Attention. That's All Wrong. - Annie Murphy Paul, Slate

In Praise of Praise: Pros and Cons of Giving Kids Praise - Carlin Flora, Aeon

Repetition Doesn't Work: Better Ways to Train the Memory - Gregory Ferenstein, Daily Beast

The Trouble with Brain Science - Gary Marcus, New York Times

Education

Teachers Union Takes on Common Core - Stephanie Simon, Politico

Another Teachers Union Ding for Arne Duncan - Allie Grasgreen, Politico

Beyond the Bubble Test: Why We Need Performance Assessments - Linda Darling-Hammond, EdWeek

Wrong Answer (Story of Atlanta's School Cheating Scandal) - Rachel Aviv, The New Yorker

How to Read Education Data Without Jumping to Conclusions - J. & T. Lahey, The Atlantic

A Draft Bill of Research Rights for Educators - Daniel Willingham, Real Clear Politics

A Teacher's Case Against Summer Vacation - Cristina Duncan Evans, Education Week

Will Computers Ever Replace Teachers? - Justin Reich, The New Yorker

The 'Bright' vs. 'Gifted' Comparison: A Distraction - Scott Peters, Creativity Post

Resources

How to Remember All Your Passwords and Keep Them Safe - Rafael Laguna, Quartz

3 Maps that Explain America - Max Fisher, Vox

Visual Guide to the Major & Notable Sects, Schools, & Movements within Islam - Information is Beautiful

100 Amazing How-to Sites to Teach Yourself Anything - EWAO

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

Did World Cup Soccer, the US-Belgium game, and the July 4th holiday consume your week? If so, maybe you missed the news about Facebook’s "Emotional Manipulation” research? It sparked a zillion articles. Read Anne Collier’s essay about, 1) what happened, and 2) the ethical commentary that followed. ● Most likely you’ve heard of “intrinsic” and “extrinsic” motivation. Two scientists, writing in the New York Times, describe two more motives--internal and instrumental. Even though these sound like intrinsic and extrinsic motives, they aren’t. The distinction is worth knowing. ● Influencer Linda Darling-Hammond wrote an article about teaching and the achievement gap. With over 14,000 likes and 3400 shares on Facebook, as well as 1,000+ retweets on Twitter, it's a must-read. ● This week in “Resources” discover some great summer time-sucks. Er, I meant summer learning games. Get dazed by Khan's light puzzles and lost in Google's map quizzes. Both are more entertaining than the emotional manipulation happening on Facebook!

Parenting

How to Trick Your Kids Into Reading All Summer Long - Daniel Willingham, The Atlantic

Clues to Teaching Young Children to Tell the Truth - Shirley S. Wang, Wall Street Journal

It's the Culture: The Point About That Harvard Study - Rick Ackerly, Genius in Children

The Perils of Too Much Happy Talk - Anna North, New York Times

How to Get Into Harvard - David A. Graham, The Atlantic

The Why of the Facebook Research Fracas & What It Calls For - Anne Collier, NetFamilyNews.org

Learning

The Secret of Effective Motivation - Amy Wrzesniewski & Barry Schartz, New York Times

9 Terms to Know About Executive Functioning Issues - A. Morin, Natl Center for Learning Disabilities

Becoming an Expert Takes More than Practice - Anna Mikulak, EurekAlert

The Latest on Digital Use by Preschoolers - Annie Murphy Paul, School Library Journal

Education

To Close the Achievement Gap, We Need to Close the Teaching Gap - Linda Darling-Hammond, HP

Gates Says Fixing Education Toughest Challenge - AP, KHOU.com

Americans Think We Have the Best Colleges. We Don't - Kevin Carey, New York Times

How Finland Keeps Kids Focused Through Free Play - Tim Walker, The Atlantic

Why Schools' Efforts to Block the Internet Are So Lame - Annie Murphy Paul, Slate

What You Need to Know About Charter Schools - Annie Baxter, Marketplace.org

The Era of Majority White U.S. Public Schools Is Over - Janell Ross, Peter Bell, National Journal

Animated Map: 70 Years of Educational Progress in 30 Seconds - Libby Nelson, Vox

Resources

Light-On/Light-Off Puzzles - Khan Academy

Smarty Pins: Google Launches Map-Based Quiz Game - Roberto Baldwin, TheNextWeb

The Awesome Physics in a Simple Sparkler - Rhett Allain, Wired

Einstein on Fairy Tales and Education - Maria Popova, Brain Pickings

Kids' Summer Movie Guide for 2014 - Sandie Angulo Chen, Common Sense Media

5 Old School Car Games for Retro Road Tripping - Lisa Tate, GeekMom

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!