Education (K-12)
School Searched 6-Year-Old’s Backpack Before Newport News Shooting, Officials Say
Abigail Zwerner, the teacher, was in the middle of a routine lesson in her first-grade classroom when, the authorities said, the boy suddenly pulled out the gun and aimed it at her. At the time of the shooting, “the firearm was displayed from his person, not from his backpack,” said Steve Drew, the chief of […]
Know More
Don’t Ban ChatGPT in Schools. Teach With It.
Cherie Shields, a high school English teacher in Oregon, told me that she had recently assigned students in one of her classes to use ChatGPT to create outlines for their essays comparing and contrasting two 19th-century short stories that touch on themes of gender and mental health: “The Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin, […]
Know More
6-Year-Old Shoots Teacher at Virginia Elementary School, Police Say
A 6-year-old first-grader at an elementary school in Newport News, Va., shot a teacher on Friday afternoon during an altercation in a classroom, the authorities said, leaving her with “life-threatening” injuries and renewing calls for greater gun restrictions. The boy, who shot the teacher once with a handgun at about 2 p.m., was in police […]
Know More
In Hasidic Enclaves, Failing Yeshivas Flush With Public Money
The groups all emphatically said Hasidic schools operate independently of each other, not as a network. They denied some of The Times’s findings, including that the schools do not provide an adequate education and that teachers regularly use corporal punishment. They also noted that the schools receive far less taxpayer money per pupil than public […]
Know More
The Abortion Decision, Haunted by Brown v. Board of Education
WASHINGTON — In the Supreme Court decision that eliminated the constitutional right to abortion, the justices engaged in an extended debate over the meaning and legacy of Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 decision that said the Constitution does not permit racial segregation in public schools. The connection between abortion and education may seem […]
Know More
Last Conviction in Salem Witch Trials Is Cleared 329 Years Later
Elizabeth Johnson Jr. is — officially — not a witch. Until last week, the Andover, Mass., woman, who confessed to practicing witchcraft during the Salem witch trials, was the only remaining person convicted during the trials whose name had not been cleared. Though she was sentenced to death in 1693, after she and more than […]
Know More
A Cyberattack Illuminates the Shaky State of Student Privacy
The software that many school districts use to track students’ progress can record extremely confidential information on children: “Intellectual disability.” “Emotional Disturbance.” “Homeless.” “Disruptive.” “Defiance.” “Perpetrator.” “Excessive Talking.” “Should attend tutoring.” Now these systems are coming under heightened scrutiny after a recent cyberattack on Illuminate Education, a leading provider of student-tracking software, which affected the […]
Know More
Pope Francis Will Travel to Canada to Apologize to Indigenous Community
OTTAWA — Pope Francis is traveling to Canada this week to apologize to Indigenous communities for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in the country’s notorious residential school system, where thousands of Indigenous children died, and countless others were sexually and physically abused. The visit comes after years of pleas from Indigenous leaders and leading politicians […]
Know More
Putin Aims to Shape a New Generation of Supporters, Through Schools
Starting in first grade, students across Russia will soon sit through weekly classes featuring war movies and virtual tours through Crimea. They will be given a steady dose of lectures on topics like “the geopolitical situation” and “traditional values.” In addition to a regular flag-raising ceremony, they will be introduced to lessons celebrating Russia’s “rebirth” […]
Know More