1. 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

     

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

    More cartoons

    (Source: theweek.com)

     

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

    America’s student debt crisis

    (Source: theweek.com)

     

  4. $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)

     

  5. 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. 

    Photo: AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad

     

  6. 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:

    • January 2009
      The Taliban, hoping to enforce a ban on girls’ education, orders all private schools closed in the northwestern Swat district where Malala lives. Malala subsequently writes a diary about the harrowing experience for the BBC’s Urdu site. Among the more unsettling things she shares: “On my way from school to home I heard a man saying ‘I will kill you’.” New York Times reporter Adam Ellickthen interviews Malala for the documentary Class Dismissed. At 11, she already knows that she wants to be a doctor, but cries at the thought of not being able to fulfill that dream because of the Taliban’s edicts.
       
    • May 2009
      The Taliban seizes complete control of the Swat Valley, and begins to freely patrol the city of Mingora. Dozens die and thousands flee. A peace deal between the Pakistani government and the Taliban collapses. Later, the Taliban is routed from the area, but pockets of militants remain, and they force their harsh rules on citizens.
       
    • November 2011
      Malala, who has continued to speak out on behalf of all Pakistani girls, is awarded the country’s first National Peace Prize for Youth, with a $10,500 award. “I convinced my friends and other classmates of the importance of education and told them that our primary education will decide our future,” she says. “I am thankful not only to the students but also to their parents for honoring my requests and sending their daughters back to school.”
       
    • December 2011
      The government renames the honor the National Malala Peace Prize.
       
    • April 2012
      Malala, now in the eighth grade, speaks with the website Think Twice Pakistan about a possible career in politics. “My purpose is to serve humanity, fight for their rights,” she says.
       
    • Oct. 9, 2012
      On her way home from school, Malala is shot in the head when Taliban gunmen pull over her school bus and ask for her by name. She is rushed to a hospital, and then later transferred to another facility in Peshawar for emergency surgery. The Taliban claims responsibility, and promises ”to finish this chapter” because of Malala’s ongoing “obscenity.”
       
    • Oct. 10, 2012
      Doctors successfully remove a bullet that was lodged near Malala’s spine. Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik obtains a passport for the young girl, and the head of PIA, the national airline, offers to pay all expenses for Malala to be flown anywhere in the world for treatment should she need it. 

    (Source: theweek.com)

     

  7. 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)

     

  8. 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?

     

  9. 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 Thingfeatures 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.

     

  10. 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

     

  11. “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)

     

  12. 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. 

    Keep reading

     


  13. Today, against the backdrop of slow growth and high unemployment, we are increasingly being challenged around the world by nations threatening our innovation edge. We were not always the most innovative nation in the world, nor will we necessarily be in the future. To remain on top, we need to take smart action. The fight of the future will be over jobs, and America’s deadliest weapon is innovation.