Weekend Reading: Magazines Etc.

Weekend reading from magazines and websites I don't check every day plus a bit of catching up from the past few days:

Envisioning Obama's Education Plan in 2010 Atlantic Wire
Education spending is exempt from the domestic spending freeze, but some commentators fear funding to school districts will decline.

For Tween Boys, Masculinity in a Spray Can NYT
Psychologists, parents, market researchers and middle-school principals (with drawers full of confiscated spray cans), report a sharp surge in the last few years of the use of grooming products by tween boys.

Where America Stands: Schools CBS News
Educators all across America are eager to turn schools around and change the system. Russ Mitchell reports "Where America Stands" on education and lays out the challenge ahead.

Outrage fatigue Salon
Whites-only basketball? Unlimited corporate political spending? And it's only Tuesday

Is mobile giving a good idea? Slate
Is this a cost-effective way to donate? How does the overhead charged by phone companies compare with credit card donations or the trouble of processing checks? Are there any downsides?

A call for stories about cyberbullying. Slate
A new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation reported last week that kids ages 8 to 18 now spend an average of seven and a half hours a day plugged in—online, on the phone, or in the thrall of TV or some other electronic device. The number seems impossibly high: Even the study's authors were surprised. And yet it doesn't sound off-base to some parents of teens.

Catcher in the Rye: The Movie (Finally) Esquire
Could the best thing to come from J.D. Salinger's death be a long-awaited movie adaptation? And can anyone play Holden Caulfield? One revealing letter says it all.

Comments

[erika]

One thing not to read: Don't bother with the New Yorker article about Ed. Sec. Arne Duncan! I kept reading thinking there must be something interesting or of substance at some point in the article, but no, I was wrong. If you have ever heard his name before, you really have no need to read that piece. I did learn some stuff about Duncan's mom, but if I wanted to learn about her, I'd rather just read about her.

[alexander]

great point, erika --
that article is pretty useless, it's true.
and yes, perhaps someone should write the sue duncan story --
that'd be something interesting.
thanks for commenting,
alexander

[RPOA]

The stench in my classroom has become totally overpowering lately. Half of my boys (10-12) haven't been told that they really need to start wearing deodorant every day, and the other half are absolutely bathing in those sprays. My desk is a little CVS full of contraband spray-on swagger.

Can't say its winning the hearts of any of my female students. They tend to gag and complain louder than the most curmudgeon-like of my co-workers. Kids.