High-school students here rarely get more than a half-hour of homework a night. They have no school uniforms, no honor societies, no valedictorians, no tardy bells and no classes for the gifted. There is little standardized testing, few parents agonize over college and kids don’t start school until age 7.
Yet by one international measure, Finnish [...]

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From “Rice: Bush Opposes Penalties in War Bill.”

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush will not sign any war spending bill that penalizes Iraq’s government for failing to make progress, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday, a fresh warning to Congress about challenging him.
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“To begin now to tie our own hands - and to say ‘We [...]

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by Tom Moore. A great editorial on urban teaching from the New York Times.
In the past year or so I have seen Matthew Perry drink 30 cartons of milk, Ted Danson explain the difference between a rook and a pawn, and Hilary Swank remind us that white teachers still can’t dance or jive talk. In [...]

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Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings finished second on Jeopardy. The winner? Michael McKean, aka David St. Hubbins in Spinal Tap.

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I spend a little bit of money on something charitable every few weeks. It’s not always clear where the money’s going, though. I sometimes donate to the general fund of the Red Cross, for example…talk about a tiny splash in a huge pond.
So thank my lucky dollars for DonorsChoose, which directs money toward specific proposals [...]

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