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Kids’ access to recess varies greatly
On any given day, young children have their recess taken away for academic or behavioral reasons and must stay inside, walk laps or sit on a sidewalk and watch their friends play.
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A Boy Went to a COVID-Swamped ER. He Waited for Hours. Then His Appendix Burst.
To have so many ICU beds pressed into service for a single diagnosis is “unheard of,” said Dr. Hasan Kakli, an emergency room physician at Bellville Medical Center in Bellville, Texas, about an hour from Houston. “It’s approaching apocalyptic.”
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American Amnesia
I happen to love “today”. Little Orphan Annie sang about tomorrow, but I’m a “today” fan. Big time. We only get it once. You see, today is one unique day in all the days that will ever be. And according to actuarial tables, I don’t have many left. I want today to be peaceful, tranquil, and filled with joy. But you know, folks, I find this polarized, divisive country we live in to be incredibly annoying and distracting. I’m constantly amazed at the length people go to find fault, hate, and spew venom. All this poison attempts to invade my “today”, and although I’m pretty good at keeping it at…
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The psychology of roller coasters
BY RICHARD STEPHENS, SENIOR LECTURER IN PSYCHOLOGY, KEELE UNIVERSITY Can differences in brain chemistry explain the sensation seeking behaviour seen in theme parks? Roller coasters may seem like a very modern type of entertainment – constantly getting bigger, faster and scarier thanks to advances in technology. But they actually date back to the mid-1800s. Gravity-propelled railways built to transport coal from up in the mountains down to the town in Pennsylvania, US, were hired out at weekends by fare-paying passengers riding purely for the fun of it. Today theme parks are big business. But with queues occasionally as long as eight hours for an average ride of under two minutes – not to mention reports of…
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The Lost Year: What the Pandemic Cost Teenagers
by Alec MacGillis, photography by Celeste Sloman ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. Everything looks the same on either side of the Texas-New Mexico border in the great oil patch of the Permian Basin. There are the pump jacks scattered across the plains, nodding up and down with metronomic regularity. There are the brown highway signs alerting travelers to historical markers tucked away in the nearby scrub. There are the frequent memorials of another sort, to the victims of vehicle accidents. And there are the astonishingly deluxe high school football stadiums. This is,…
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A ‘daunting, dark and difficult’ time: How a Brooklyn school moved forward after losing its leader to COVID
Alex Zimmerman, Chalkbeat New York Mar 12, 2021 7:30am EST High school student Etienne Musole remembered one of his first interactions with principal Dez-Ann Romain. She asked point blank whether he wanted to graduate. It was a high stakes question at a place like Brooklyn Democracy Academy, an alternative high school in Brownsville serving students who have struggled at traditional schools and are at risk of dropping out. After the 19-year-old Musole said yes, Romain never let up. “Every day she sees you from that point on, she’s going to be on you,” Musole said. For many students at the school, Romain was the first educator they felt they could trust,…
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A Writer’s Guide to Writing and Working with People with Disabilities
NOV 11, 2018 BY DALE HARRIS One out of every five Americans is currently living with some form of a disability. This means that the chances are high that you know, work with, or even teach a disabled person. Perhaps you’re writing about a person with a disability, maybe you’re tutoring a disabled student, or maybe you’re interested in hiring a person with a disability. You want to make sure that you’ve done your part to make the environment as safe and accessible as is possible. But if you’re new to working with people with disabilities, it can be tough to know where and how to start. Keep on reading this post to…
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Hold me closer Tony Danza…
I remember liking the 80’s song “Africa” by Toto. I always thought that the lyric was “I bless the rains down in Africa.” This morning, though, my song reality was momentarily shaken when I learned I might have been singing the wrong lyrics to “Africa” all this time during my solo drive time concerts. I was half-watching a report on Today about a couple who works to preserve the lion population in Africa and the title of the segment was “Bless the manes down in Africa. Hmm…was that really the lyric? “Manes” in Africa were blessed, not “rains?” The song itself was not played on the segment, but even Greg did not…
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Friday reflections
October 19, 2018 My mom turns 74 today. A few weeks ago, my dad turned 76. Both of my parents are Libras. My brother and I are Geminis. I think my parents had a mating season-eww. Last night I got distracted on Youtube while looking for other information. I got trapped in a “Youtube vortex” and watched a video on Youtube of Vin Scully’s call of Kirk Gibson’s 1988 World Series home run for the Dodgers. The combination of Scully’s voice, Gibson pumping his fists in the air as…
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Friday Reflections-October 5, 2018
A few things I pondered on my way to work this morning: I have been under heavier surveillance since I was diagnosed with MS in 1995. Since then, someone always seems to know (or thinks they have to know) where I am, which makes sneaking around practically impossible-if I wanted to sneak around, that is. I can’t even sneak up on my own kid! Since Alex is now 16, it would be nice to be able to be less conspicuous when I need to find out what he’s doing. A point of contention for me: Even if someone, anyone, says he is listening to you, I think it’s rude for…
