600 — Teachers across 15 states who have applied for a free firearms-training program

18 — Days since the Buckeye Firearms Association in Ohio announced it was launching the program

6 — States with plans to introduce legislation that would allow firearms in school

Cartoon of the day: Newtown’s superheroes
RANDALL ENOS © 2012 Cagle Cartoons

More cartoons

(Source: theweek.com)

The nation’s total student debt load is growing by $2,853 per second.

America’s student debt crisis

(Source: theweek.com)

$42,918 — Average salary for men one year after graduating from college in 2009
$35,296 — Average salary for women one year after graduating
$26,600 — Average student loan debt for 2011 graduates

More stats of our lives

(Source: theweek.com)

Pakistani students pray for the recovery of 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai, who was shot on Oct. 9 by the Taliban in Peshawar, Pakistan, for speaking out in support of education for women. The young girl remains in critical condition at a military hospital and officials have reportedly arrested suspects in connection with the attack. 

The international community was stunned Tuesday when a 14-year-old Pakistani girl, Malala Yousafzai, was shot in the head by Taliban militants. The teen, who has been an outspoken advocate of girls’ right to education since she was 11, was ambushed on her school bus on the way home from school in the Swat Valley. Malala was flown from Mingora, the city where she lives, to Peshawar, where surgeons were able to remove a bullet near her spine. As supporters struggled to comprehend the brutal attack, many wondered why the Taliban would target a young girl. (The Taliban response: Malala has “become a symbol of Western culture in the area.”) Malala’s fight against oppressive Taliban strictures first began when, at age 11, she penned a diary for the BBC’s Urdu service detailing the atrocities committed by the militant group. Since then, Malala has continued to speak out. Here, a look at the teen girl who took on the Taliban:

(Source: theweek.com)

On the first day of her “Sex, Gender Culture” class, American University Assistant Professor Adrienne Pine found herself in a conundrum when her baby awoke with a fever. Unable to drop the infant off at daycare, Pine brought her to class and began to lecture, keeping an eye on the baby as she crawled on the floor; at one point, a teaching assistant held and rocked the baby.

But then the baby grew “restless.” Pine chose to breastfeed the baby while continuing to lecture, until her offspring fell asleep. Though Pine saw the situation as a non-issue, AU’s student newspaper tried to interview her on the “incident” — and the controversy has grown exponentially from there.

Facing public scrutiny, Pine has published a defense, declaring “whether it is private or public has no bearing on whether I would choose to feed a hungry child.” But critics have argued that her actions were inappropriate and unprofessional. 

Did Pine cross a line?

(Source: theweek.com)

After a new report makes it painfully obvious that Joe Paterno covered for Jerry Sandusky, the question remains: Should Penn State take down the legendary coach’s iconic statue?

Science: It’s a girl thing! 

The European Union is sponsoring a three-year campaign to encourage young girls to study science and engineering, but a teaser video for the effort has caused feminists — and pretty much everybody else — to erupt in protest.

The video, called Science: It’s a Girl Thing, features young women gyrating and doing “science” while wearing stilettos and short dresses. As the women saunter into view, a male scientist looks up from his microscope, puts on glasses, and leers. Random shots of lipstick flash on screen, interspersed with images of lab equipment and sexy young women casting come-hither looks and doing math. The campaign yanked the video from its website shortly after the wave of criticism hit.

With the ubiquity of keyboards, neither children nor adults need to write much of anything by hand. That’s a shame, because study after study has suggested that handwriting is important for brain development and cognition — helping kids hone fine motor skills and learn to express and generate ideas.

How writing by hand makes kids smarter

“The best way to fix this inefficiency is to address the root of the problem: Most bright students do not have any collateral and cannot easily pledge their future income…. Investors could finance students’ education with equity rather than debt. In exchange for their capital, the investors would receive a fraction of a student’s future income — or, even better, a fraction of the increase in her income that derives from college attendance. …”

U.S. taxpayers spend $43 billion a year subsidizing college education, but is there a better way to make sure underprivileged kids can go to college? University of Chicago business professor, Luigi Zingalas, thinks so.

(Source: theweek.com)

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is donating $1.1 million to study the effectiveness of a wristband that tracks a student’s level of engagement.

The wristband uses the body’s natural electricity to measure emotional arousal, says Edwin Kee at Ubergizmo. Whenever someone gets excited, for example, their electrodermal activity shoots up. When they’re bored or relaxed, that level goes down. The bracelet, which is still in its early phases, seeks to chart a student’s mood while in class. 

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