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Joanne Jacobs
Feb 19, 20241 min read
Teach old, 'problematic' books
Teach old books, argues Daniel Buck, author of author of What Is Wrong with Our Schools?, on Fordham's Flypaper blog. Yes the language...
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Joanne Jacobs
Feb 18, 20242 min read
Empty shelves: School culls old books, can't afford new books
A Maryland elementary school's library has colorful posters urging kids to read -- but not many books on the shelves, writes Theresa...
6 comments


Joanne Jacobs
Feb 18, 20242 min read
Muslim parents win right to reject LGBT books for their children
Muslim children won't be required to read LGBT books in elementary schools in St. Louis Park, a suburb of Minneapolis, reports Mairead...
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Joanne Jacobs
Feb 7, 20242 min read
Teaching Ta-Nehisi Coates
Mary Wood is teaching Ta-Nehisi Coates' memoir, Between the World and Me, in her AP English Language and Composition class in Chapin,...
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Joanne Jacobs
Feb 4, 20242 min read
College is now a 'what to think' place, not 'how to think' for yourself
"Professors here teach how to think, not "what to think," college tour guides claim. Don't believe them, writes Caitlin Flanagan in The...
5 comments


Joanne Jacobs
Jan 26, 20242 min read
The shelves tilt left: School libraries have no McWhorter, but lots of Kendi
For all the talk about school libraries under pressure to "ban books," the real issue is lack of balance, argues James Fishback in The...
11 comments

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 15, 20231 min read
It matters how kids read: On-screen reading doesn't build comprehension
It doesn't matter what kids read as long as they're reading, people often say. Maybe so. But for "developing readers," leisure reading...
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Joanne Jacobs
Nov 6, 20232 min read
To kill 'To Kill a Mockingbird'
Ninth-graders aren't reading To Kill a Mockingbird this year in Mukilteo, Washington, an affluent, mostly white town north of Seattle. ...
7 comments


Joanne Jacobs
Oct 30, 20232 min read
Scared of Halloween: Ghoulies, ghosties and DEI beasties
Halloween has been canceled at schools in New Jersey's South Orange-Maplewood School District. No costumes, no parades, no...
2 comments


Joanne Jacobs
Oct 29, 20232 min read
Shut up, they explained
Cancel culture -- "campaigns to get people fired, disinvited, deplatformed, or otherwise punished" for dissenting from orthodox views --...
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Joanne Jacobs
Oct 22, 20231 min read
How to say you're sorry -- not 'sorry, you misunderstood me ... '
Rayna Freedman, who teaches fifth grade in Massachusetts, teachers her students how to apologize, reports Kara Newhouse for KQED's...
6 comments


Joanne Jacobs
Oct 17, 20231 min read
You can't give 'Hop on Pop' to a 7th-grader
Middle schoolers who read at the first, second and third-grade level won't read "baby books" and can't read grade-level books, says...
7 comments


Joanne Jacobs
Sep 18, 20232 min read
It's normal for parents to object to graphic sex in kids' books
Aymann Ismail thought book-banners were prudish hysterics, he writes on Slate. Then a librarian gave him a copy of one of the...
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Joanne Jacobs
Sep 18, 20232 min read
'Hungry Caterpillar' is banned as school purges pre-2008 books
Books published before 2008 have been removed from school library shelves in a school district near Toronto, Canada, reports Nicole...
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Joanne Jacobs
Sep 2, 20232 min read
LGBTQ books for all? Muslim, Christian and Mormon parents unite in protest
Religious parents -- Muslims, Christians (many of them Ethiopian) and Mormons -- have united in Maryland to protest new requirements that...
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Joanne Jacobs
Jun 17, 20232 min read
Banning book bans: It won't work
Illinois libraries that ban or restrict books for "partisan or doctrinal" reasons will lose state funding under a new law, reports Claire...
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Joanne Jacobs
Jun 12, 20232 min read
Beyond basics: Schools must teach 'virtues and habits' of free people
"Back to basics" education isn't enough, writes Gillian Richards on The American Conservative. "Some conservatives have responded to...
4 comments


Joanne Jacobs
Jun 4, 20232 min read
What books are best for children?
Which books should kids be reading, asks Robert Pondiscio. He talked to Casey Churchill, who runs Liberty Common School, a Colorado Core...
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Joanne Jacobs
Jun 3, 20231 min read
Good Book or bad book? Bible is challenged in Utah
The Bible is off the shelves at elementary and middle-school libraries in a suburban Utah district, after a parent's complaint, writes...
1 comment


Joanne Jacobs
May 28, 20232 min read
If Mia becomes Mike, parents want to know
If Jayden was cutting school, failing classes and getting in fights, he might not want his parents to know. But his teacher wouldn't keep...
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