Progress on math

When I wrote a column on Pelham’s elementary math curriculum seven weeks ago, I did so with some trepidation. I wasn’t afraid of controversy or outrage. Hardly. I felt the greatest of all writer anxieties: I’d be ignored. The words “math” and “curriculum” in the headline? Instant turn-offs, right? Time to start reading the police […]

Superman vs Rupert Murdoch

I’m still reading DC Comic’s No. 1s. In the first “Superman” in the restarted series, Clark Kent is furious the Daily Planet has been bought by mogul Morgan Edge, owner of the Globe and all sorts of nasty TV and Internet news outlets. Here’s what’s in the speech bubble over Clark’s head as he argues […]

Traveling to play soccer

In George Vecsey’s profile of US national soccer team coach Jurgen Klinsmann: He “has brought in two young German players with American fathers, Danny Williams and Tim Chandler, who demonstrate more skill and aggression and feel for the game than almost anybody coming out of the expensive suburban soccer programs all over this rich vast […]

The theater of the mind

In a hotel near Newark airport, set between railroad tracks and spaghetti-piles of New Jersey highway, the Friends of Old-Time Radio will sit in meeting rooms for the last time this weekend, asking and answering the question, “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?” The friends will no longer meet after their […]

Steve Jobs and me

Steve Jobs changed my life. I know, I know. You’ve already heard it and from every other journalist on the planet. An entire issue of Bloomberg BusinessWeek turned into instant biography. The cover of the Economist. Articles in the New York Times showing up two Sundays after the man’s death. People and the Poughkeepsie Journal. I […]

My son explains ADHD

The following words my ten-year-old son wrote as his personal essay in fourth grade: What is ADHD? ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hearing Disorder. Here are three facts I’m going to tell you about. What is ADD? What is HD? And what types of medicine can help. ADD stands for Attention Deficit Disorder. That’s the […]

Smartboards and iPads

Technology will set us free, and save education even? I think not. Questioning Our Mania for Education Technology By Jack Schneider The solution to the nation’s education problems is as simple as binary code: a smartboard in every classroom, an iPad in every backpack, and wikis across the curriculum. That seems to be how the […]

File under: ‘trailers, great’

“The Avengers” movie trailer was released Tuesday morning, and the two-minute peek into the Marvel Studios movie promises explosions, fight scenes and Tony Stark’s trademark sass. via ‘The Avengers’ trailer: Marvel superheroes unite | Hero Complex – movies, comics, fanboy fare – latimes.com.

Multiple choice questions

Okay, get a tight grip on your No. 2 pencil. Knuckles white? Here’s your first question. Who said: “Never blame a legislative body for not doing something. When they do nothing, they don’t hurt anybody. When they do something is when they become dangerous.” * Jon Stewart * Will Rogers * Roy Rogers * Stephen […]

DC Comics, no. 1

I don’t feel the slightest bit nerdy writing about the latest pan-galactic shake-up of DC’s comic universe. I know for a fact the New York Times has published not one, but two, Arts front pagers on these mighty developments. The first story hyped the re-numbering back to 1 of all 52 DC titles (because what’s […]