Tara Westover’s memoir “ Educated ,” which describes growing up in a survivalist family in rural Idaho and then going on to Harvard and Cambridge, is our May pick for the new PBS NewsHour-New York Times book club, “Now Read This.” Become a member of the book club by joining our Facebook group , or by signing up to our newsletter . Learn more about the book club here . And for previous book club picks, go to our archives . Below are questions to help guide your discussions as you read the book over the next month. The questions are broken into three parts, to match the three parts of the book. (Spoiler alert on questions further down, which mention specific scenes in the book.) Part 1: 1. “Educated” starts with an epigraph from Virginia Woolf: “The past is beautiful because one never realizes an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don’t have complete emotions about the present, only the past.” … [Read more...] about Discussion Questions for ‘Educated’
Education
Rethinking What Gifted Education Means, and Whom It Should Serve
SILVER SPRING, Md. — It was a searing summer day before the start of the school year, but Julianni and Giselle Wyche, 10-year-old twins, were in a classroom, engineering mini rockets, writing in journals and learning words like “fluctuate” and “cognizant.” The sisters were among 1,000 children chosen for an enrichment course intended in part to prepare them for accelerated and gifted programs in Montgomery County, Md. All of the students were from schools that serve large numbers of low-income families. “It’s one of my favorite parts of summer,” Julianni said. The program is one element in a suite of sweeping changes meant to address a decades-old problem in these Washington suburbs, and one that is troubling educators across the nation: the underrepresentation of black, Hispanic and low-income children in selective academic settings. [Quiz: Try your hand at some test questions used to screen students for gifted programs.] Amid deepening … [Read more...] about Rethinking What Gifted Education Means, and Whom It Should Serve
A High School Education and College Degree All in One
Chigozie Okorie likes to say that he’s the “high school student who never left high school.” He’s kidding, sort of: Not only did Mr. Okorie graduate from high school, he also collected an associate degree and a full-time job at IBM within four years. And he’s now studying communications at Baruch College and expects to graduate next year. Not bad for someone who’s not even 20. No one is more surprised than he. “When you say things out loud it becomes so much more shocking,” said Mr. Okorie, who grew up in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. “I say it in my head, but it doesn’t impact me unless I say it around other people: ‘Wow, I’m going to graduate within a year with a bachelor’s and it only took me how many years?’” Mr. Okorie’s job as a program associate in education at IBM requires him to spend much of his day at his alma mater, Pathways in Technology Early College High School, or … [Read more...] about A High School Education and College Degree All in One
Do Children Get a Subpar Education in Yeshivas? New York Says It Will Finally Find Out
[What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox .] In parts of New York City, there are students who can barely read and write in English and have not been taught that dinosaurs once roamed Earth or that the Civil War occurred. Some of them are in their last year of high school. That is the claim made by a group of graduates from ultra-Orthodox Jewish private schools called yeshivas, and they say that startling situation has been commonplace for decades. Over three years ago, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration opened an investigation into a lack of secular education at yeshivas that serve about 57,000 students in the city, but the probe essentially stalled almost as soon as it began. The reason, advocates say, is the city’s politicians, including the mayor, are fearful of angering the Orthodox Jewish community that represents a crucial voting bloc in major elections. Then the state stepped in with the most significant action yet in the … [Read more...] about Do Children Get a Subpar Education in Yeshivas? New York Says It Will Finally Find Out
In 1990, the US was ranked 6th in education and health care. Today, it’s 27th, a study says
(CNN)A study that examines the education and health of a country's citizens has ranked the United States 27th in the world. The study, conducted by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, attempts to measure "human capital": a metric that describes "the attributes of a population that, along with physical capital such as buildings, equipment, and other tangible assets, contribute to economic productivity." It is defined, in context of this study, as "expected years lived between the ages of 20 and 64," adjusted for functional health status and education, or "learning." Essentially, it pinpoints the number of years an adult can be working at their peak -- before learning gaps or health issues slow them down. The results don't just tell us who is working at their peak, they can also give us some reflections about how governments can help their citizens reach their individual potential, which in turn helps a country's economic output. "It is a … [Read more...] about In 1990, the US was ranked 6th in education and health care. Today, it’s 27th, a study says