As you all must have seen, the government posted its proposed new national K-12 standards this week, and the plan totally changes the game for all us. Not only are content areas given their due, but literacy is now clearly defined as including a strong non-fiction strand. We are back in the schools — in [...]

I Wish I’d Had a Camera Next month, Betty Carter and I are running a preconference session at TLA devoted to non-fiction. Our idea was to offer attendees some new N-F books for free in advance, and then come together to talk about the books — and, thus, more generally, how to select, evaluate, and [...]

Life Without a Safety Net My nine year old has really taken to basketball this year, so when his Y coach gave him a chance to practice and train with kids his age who are from the inner city — and so play a tougher, faster, game — he was eager to try. The other day [...]

What Is True?: A Dangerous Split In Our Country Two articles that recently came out point to a serious divide in our nation — and one that speaks directly to those of us involved with non-fiction and young people. The New York Times wrote yesterday that those who oppose teaching evolution (or want to present it [...]

Did You Catch the Article About Diane Ravitch? You may recall her name from the debates about school reform — and perhaps associate her with the testing, charter school wing . Well, she has changed her mind, tinyurl.com/yg34mfx In particular, she sees the NCLB focus on reading and math as driving — for example — Social Studies out [...]

Race, Slavery, Violence, Morality I’m giving a talk on the Age of Exploration to 5th grade teachers this weekend, and was reviewing the focus of the meeting with my host. We came to the place in the talk where I explore the question of morality, and the nature of the tragedy. Historians estimate that the [...]

Race, Slavery, Violence, Morality I’m giving a talk on the Age of Exploration to 5th grade teachers this weekend, and was reviewing the focus of the meeting with my host. We came to the place in the talk where I explore the question of morality, and the nature of the tragedy. Historians estimate that the [...]

Race, Slavery, Violence, Morality I’m giving a talk on the Age of Exploration to 5th grade teachers this weekend, and was reviewing the focus of the meeting with my host. We came to the place in the talk where I explore the question of morality, and the nature of the tragedy. Historians estimate that the [...]