By Margarita Nahapetyan
According to the surprising findings of a new study by U.S. investigators, chewing sugarless gum during class and while doing homework can have a positive effect on academic performance in teenagers. The research was funded by the William Wrigley Jr. Co., the Chicago-based chewing gum giant. However, scientists from the Baylor College of Medicine say that this fact did not influence the study's design or its results.
Excerpted from The Gatekeepers; Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College By Jacques Steinberg
Ralph Figueroa and Sharon Merrow were sitting next to each other toward the back of the auditorium of the Harvard-Wesdake Upper School, where Sharon was now dean of the junior and senior classes. On the stage of the theater, with its Broadway-quality lighting and acoustics, Tony and Maria gazed longingly into each other's eyes. But Sharon wanted Ralph to notice anothe
Excerpted from The Running of the Bulls: Inside the Cutthroat Race from Wharton to Wall Street By Nicole Ridgway
Thanksgiving break is a short but much-needed respite between midterms and finals for students, a time to refresh, eat home-cooked meals and relax. Typically, students from America's colleges and universities head to their hometowns in order to see their parents for the first time in months and catch up with friends from high school. It's a four-day period wh
Excerpted from Montessori from the Start; The Child at Home, from Birth to Age Three By Paula Polk Lillard, Lynn Lillard Jessen
For nine months the unborn child's environment is established for us. We have no role in its preparation beyond caring for the mother's well-being. As soon as the baby struggles from the mother's womb, however, we are faced with the task of preparing its second environment. This is our opportunity to consciously prepare for the infant's needs i
Excerpted from Teaching Hope: Stories from the Freedom Writer Teachers and Erin Gruwell By The Freedom Writers, Erin Gruwell
When I made the decision to become a teacher, I enthusiastically studied the principles of pedagogy at my university, but the moment I stepped foot in Room 203 at Wilson High School, I discovered how really unprepared I was for the difficulty of working with vulnerable teenagers. Like so many idealistic college students who watched movies about ed
By Margarita Nahapetyan
Recently the United States Department of Education released a long-awaited federal statistics stating that more than 32 million adults in The U.S., or about 14 percent of population, have very low literacy skills. The skills are so low that some of them cannot even read anything more complicated and challenging than a simple children's book with pictures.
In spite of major gains in all areas of education, illit
By Margarita Nahapetyan
In the past few years the number of parents who decided to educate their children at home has significantly increased. According to The Parent Survey which is published by the National Household Education Surveys Program, in 2001 the number of home-educated children achieved one million, which is approximately 1.7 per cent of the U.S. population. The rate has continued to grow every year since, from 7 to 15 per cent, and currently ther
By Margarita Nahapetyan
If you have ever wondered whether physical attractiveness, grooming and personality help to get the best grades at school, you would be absolutely right. According to the new findings by the University of Miami Health Economics Research Group, all these non-cognitive traits play not the last role when it comes to the assignment of grades in high school and are more likely to indicate future success in college and labor markets.
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Excerpted from All Girls: Single-Sex Education and Why It Matters By Karen Stabiner
Full Ride. For the girls at TYWLS, financial aid was as much a part of the college dream as was acceptance at a favorite school. Maryam Zohny had done everything she could to get into Columbia University, and now she waited, atop a valedictorian's straight-A record, to see if the university would come up with enough money to make it possible. Amy Lopez still yearned to go to school in Ca
Excerpted from Middle School Years: Achieving the Best Education for Your Child, Grades 5-8 By Michele A. Hernandez
Children need routine in their lives, particularly in regard to doing homework and getting used to a schedule. Remember, it is always easy when they get older to allow more freedom, but while they are young, you want to mold their behavior as much as you can to teach them positive habits.
Assuming your child gets home from school a
By Margarita Nahapetyan
Apple's iPhone is addictive, says a new Stanford University survey, confirming what has long been suspected by its users.
The survey was conducted involving 200 students who owned iPhones, 70 per cent of whom had had their iPhones for less than a year. The participants were asked to rate their addiction to their iPhones on a scale of one to 5, from 'not at all addicted' to 'fully addicted.'
&#
Excerpted from Roadblocks to Learning: Understanding the Obstacles that Can Sabotage Your Child's Academic Success By Lawrence J. Greene
Academics
A learning disability can undermine performance exclusively in one subject area, such as reading, or in multiple academic subjects. In most cases, the tendrils of a learning dysfunction will invade every content area. For example, dyslexic children are likely to have problems not only with deciphering
By Margarita Nahapetyan
Scientists from the UC Davis Medical School and Michigan State University report that there is a link between attention problems early in school - as early as kindergarten - and lower scores on high school tests.
According to a lead author of the new study, Joshua Breslau, an assistant professor of internal medicine at the UC Davis School of Medicine and a researcher with the UC Davis Center for Reducing Health
Excerpted from The College Dorm Survival Guide: How to Survive and Thrive in Your New Home Away from Home By Julia DeVillers
It's move-in day in the dorms. The smell of cleaning products mingled with move-in sweat wafts up to greet you. The halls are colorful, covered with welcoming bulletin boards and doortags. There are people saying "Hey," hallways to navigate, and your room to find.
Welcome to your new home.
This is
Excerpted from Strapped: Why America's 20 and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead By Tamara Draut
If you've ever spent time on any of the nation's 1,132 community college campuses, one thing you're bound to notice is the diversity of students. And I'm not talking solely about racial diversity. Today, community colleges enroll 44 percent of all undergraduates attending colleges, and the breadth of learning and the diversity of students at our community colleges is quite amazin
Excerpted from The Kindergarten Wars: The Battle to Get into America's Best Private Schools By Alan Eisenstock
I know that when parents visit a school, they're looking for a vibe. Well, so are we. If we don't get it, we won't accept. - a private school director of admissions
Private School Expo
In most cities, the kindergarten application season begins two weeks after it ends. While scores of parents are on edge, waiting
Excerpted from Paying for Your Child's College Education By Marguerite Smith
There is an enormous and crucial difference between the official cost of a college education and the cost of that college education to you. In this chapter we will explore two trends that help explain that difference: college costs that continue to rise faster than inflation, and a basic upheaval taking place in college admissions and financial aid giving. We'll show you how you can use the sec
Excerpted from Ready to Learn : How to Help Your Preschooler Succeed By Stan Goldberg, Ph.D.
The long brown curls became visible as tear-filled eyes peeked from behind the banjo case. My four-year-old son looked at me and tried to form words, but only quivering movements came from of his little mouth.
"Justin!" I screamed, "I told you not to climb on that cabinet! Can't you ever listen to what I say? Don't you understand how dangerous that was?
By Margarita Nahapetyan
A significant number of teenagers in the United States admit that they are using the Internet to cheat, according to a new national poll, conducted by the Benenson Strategy Group. The survey also found that 35 per cent of teens use their cell phones to boost test scores or school grades.
Nearly 65 per cent of all teens who took part in the survey, reported that they had heard or seen other students using cellul
By Margarita Nahapetyan
More than 30 per cent of British teens admit that they use caffeine tablets and energy drinks in order to better study for exams, a new survey has revealed.
According to the new findings, 8 out of 10 teenagers (79 per cent) who took part in the survey, have reported that they were likely to snack more and eat more junk food when revising for exams. A study by the School Food Trust also found that 25 per cent (o
Excerpted from Creating Emotionally Safe Schools: A Guide for Educators and Parents By Jane Bluestein, Ph.D.
Most of us begin life with the neural networks necessary for seeing, hearing, speaking and moving already in place. Along the way, we develop the networks we need to do things like read, add fractions, speak a second language, rebuild a carburetor or play the violin. How does this happen? Our brains contain about 100 billion nerve cells, or neurons. These neurons
By Margarita Nahapetyan
According to a new study recently released by the U.S. Department of Education, online education has definite advantages over face-to-face instruction when it comes to teaching and learning.
In addition, the report, titled "Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies," states that those who take "blended" courses which combine elements of both
Excerpted from A Is for Admission: The Insider's Guide to Getting into the Ivy League and Other Top Colleges By Michele A. Hernandez
Middle School/Junior High
As parents, if you know your children are able to handle the challenge and the teachers agree, select all available honors-track courses when they are offered. That way, by the time your children enter high school, they will be taking the most advanced courses. Especially in high schools t
Excerpted from The Schools We Need: And Why We Don't Have Them By E.D. Hirsch, Jr.
It is a bitter irony that the egalitarian rhetoric of American educational orthodoxy has fostered inequality. All recent social observers in the United States have condemned the widening economic gap between rich and poor, and have noted its correlation with a gap in educational achievement. In the period from 1942 to 1966-that is, in the period before the anti-subject-matter theories of
Excerpted from The Essential Conversation: What Parents and Teachers Can Learn from Each Other By Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
Andrea Brown, the founder and head teacher of a tiny Montessori school in Beach Mead on the North Shore, is unusual in her awareness and purposeful use of her early childhood experiences as a way of seeing and interpreting her work with children and their families. In her school, which serves twelve to fifteen children (in two shifts) from three to s
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