Category — Public Policy

In the third of our four part series discussing education in the Netherlands we take a look at the secondary school options available to students. In using the term options, we do not mean strictly a choice of which type of programming to attend. Instead, the option is determined by school performance at the elementary […]

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When looking at the Dutch school system, there are some glaring differences between what takes place in the Netherlands and what takes place in America. However, while many educators have taken a look at high performing Finland for ideas, it should be noted that in the Netherlands the socioeconomic diversity is more in line with […]

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A short time ago we took a brief look at Finland, the highest scoring country on the 2006 PISA Exams (Programme for International Student Assessment). The tiny country demonstrated extraordinary results taking the top spot in science, the number two slot in Reading (only trailing Korea), and the number two slot in Mathematics (trailing […]

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Over the past few weeks, as the presidential race dissolves into the muck of negative campaigning and simplistic rhetoric, it is easy to become discouraged. With each passing day, as we get closer to the moment of selection, our politics and our discussions grow ever smaller.
Sadly, with America involved in two wars and our economy […]

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This past week, a Boston Globe article revealed the development of an alarming educational trend within the State of Massachusetts. Hidden beneath the surface was yet another subtle demonstration as to why the No Child Left Behind Act may actually be acting as a deterrent to improved educational outcomes.
The issue? It seems that many Massachusetts […]

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As we noted in our prior post, Dr. Tanya Byron, a Consultant Clinical Psychologist, recently released an important set of E-safety recommendations, “Safer Children in a Digital World,” for children in the UK. Today we turn to her summary recommendations regarding video gaming.

Here again, the most compelling aspect of her research as well as her […]

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Across the pond, Dr. Tanya Byron, a Consultant Clinical Psychologist, recently released an important set of E-safety recommendations for children. Her report, “Safer Children in a Digital World,” was commissioned by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2007 in response to growing concerns about the dangers of the Internet.
Ms. Byron’s recommendations appear, dare we say […]

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According to Drs. Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson, the authors of Grand Theft Childhood, those people examining violent video game play may in fact be asking the wrong questions and making incorrect assumptions. As but one example, the authors note that “instead of looking for a simple, direct relationship between video game violence and violent […]

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An interview with Dr. Cheryl Olson,
author of Grand Theft Childhood
In my previous post, I acknowledged a long-standing personal concern regarding the potential detrimental effects of playing violent video games, especially the impact such play might have on teens. That stated, in our prior piece we referenced the latest research from two Harvard professors, research that […]

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If you are a parent of a teen today you are no doubt concerned about what you hear regarding violent video games. Generally speaking, there appears to be a wide-spread consensus that such games are the bane of society and the source of growing anti-social and risk-taking behavior in teens.
At the same time, if […]

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