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50-Year Study: Spanking Isn’t Effective 0
- Culture
- April 27, 2016
A new study has found that spanking does not improve behavior in children in the short term and leads to detrimental behavior in the long term. Via CBS News: Spanking a child leads to bad behaviors, not the better manners some parents may think a smack on the bottom will elicit, a new study suggests. Researchers
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How ‘Rights’ Have Gone Wrong 0
- History
- April 27, 2016
Americans love to ascribe “rights” to themselves and others. The number and scope of rights seem to expand constantly—beyond even the long and impressive list set forth by the UN’s Universal Declaration on Human Rights. But what, exactly, is a right? What is the ultimate origin of so-called “human rights”? Why do those questions matter
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More Evidence that America’s Education System is Getting Worse 0
- Education
- April 27, 2016
The 2002 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law set the bar high. It’s goal was for 100% of American students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014. When the class of 2015 entered kindergarten, the implementation of NCLB was just beginning. Because NCLB largely focused on subjects such as math and reading, it
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Apprehensions at US-Mexico Border Reach 40-Year Low 0
- Culture
- April 27, 2016
The number of Mexican migrants seized near the U.S. border plummeted in 2015, according to a report by the Pew Research Center. Via Pew: Apprehensions of Mexican migrants declined to near-historic lows last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, 2015, according to data released earlier in the year by the U.S. Border Patrol. (U.S. border
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Kindergartners get little time to play. Why does it matter?0
- Culture
- April 27, 2016
Being a kindergartner today is very different from being a kindergartner 20 years ago. In fact it is more like first grade. Researchers have demonstrated that five-year-olds are spending more time engaged in teacher-led academic learning activities than play-based learning opportunities that facilitate child-initiated investigations and foster social development among peers. As a former kindergarten teacher, a father
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Canning is Getting Popular Again 0
- Culture
- April 27, 2016
When I was a little girl, I remember spending a number of summer days sitting and watching my mother load scores of garden tomatoes into jars and plop them into a steaming canner. Later, I would hear her banter with an older neighbor, “I have 30 quarts so far, Bob! How many do you have?”
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