America has one of the highest rates of incarceration for juveniles in the world – as of 2008, the US rate was five times
Category: Youth issues
U.S. at bottom of heap in social justice rankings
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organization of 34 countries founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. All
Standardized education: moving America to the right
Listening to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, one would think that American schools are bastions of the hard left, education factories that churn out
“Then you win:” A family visit to Occupy St. Louis
When you’re a parent, there is plenty to feel guilty about. My kids don’t eat enough vegetables, I don’t always keep my cool during
What would reasonable school reform look like?
In my last two articles for Occasional Planet, I lambasted two current trends in our country’s educational system: over-reliance on standardized tests and the
My kids’ school doesn’t ban books. I checked. And yours?
Students in Missouri’s Republic school district won’t find Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five or Sarah Ockler’s Twenty Boy Summer in their school libraries. Classics like
F.A.S.T. stimulus plan: Fix schools, put people back to work
America could put hundreds of thousands of people back to work by implementing a proposed stimulus program called F.A.S.T. The acronym stands for “Fix
Why are we abstaining from sex education?
In early August, Mayor Bloomberg unleashed a new initiative that would make sex education in New York City schools mandatory. That means for middle
Pentagon tells teens, “Want to be a superhero? Join the Army.”
For decades, the Department of Defense (DoD) has been collaborating with the entertainment industry to create TV ads, movie theater ads, comics, video games,
Best and worst of times for St. Louis City parents of school kids
There is a widespread misperception that, unless it’s a Catholic school or very expensive private school, to send your children to school in the