Teacher vs curricula: Determining what works

Newsweek

Since holding teachers responsible for student performance is now all the rage, from the White House to the political right, let us do a simple thought experiment. Imagine an amateur baseball league in which team owners dictate which bats players use. The owners try to choose the best, but the research on bats is so poor, they have to rely on anecdotes—"Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs with maple!"—and on manufacturers' claims. As a result, some teams wind up using bats that are too heavy, too fragile, or no better than a broomstick. Does it make sense to cut players who were forced to use ineffective equipment? [...]

Grandmother goes to jail for slapping foul mouthed granddaughter

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Israel: Jews often disagree with leaders

NYTIMES

Criticizing Israel has long been the equivalent of touching a third rail in many Jewish families and friendships, relegating disagreements to a conversational demilitarized zone where only the innocent and foolhardy go.

“You cannot really engage in that conversation,” said Phillip Moore, a teacher in this Detroit suburb who has embraced strong opinions on many topics in his life — on politics, education, even religion — but avoids the subject of Israel at gatherings of his Jewish relatives.[...]

Incidence of child abuse skyrocketed during recession

Children's Hosptial of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, PA - May 1, 2010 -

The number of cases of abusive head trauma in children has increased dramatically since the beginning of the recession in December 2007, according to a multi-center study led by Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC.

Results of the study are being presented by lead researcher Rachel Berger, MD, MPH, on Saturday, May 1, at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia. Dr. Berger is a child abuse specialist and researcher at Children's Hospital's Child Advocacy Center.[...]

IDF reports serious abuse of soldiers by officers

Haaretz

The annual report of the IDF Ombudsman, which was served to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday, has revealed serious cases of mistreatment of soldiers inside the Israel Defense Forces.

The report included cases of abuse and humiliation of IDF soldiers by their commanders and inadequate medical treatment in IDF medical clinics.

The Ombudsman report revealed that 6,100 complaints were lodged by soldiers against their commanders in 2009, a decrease of 400 complaints from 2008. Of the 6,100 complaints lodged, 60 percent of the complaints were found to have merit by the IDF Ombudsman. [...]

Interview with HaRav Ruderman, zt"l

Neil Harris wrote to anther list

I recently found a great website, closetotorah.com that is hosting a recording of R Ruderman zt'l, a talmid of Slabodka, being asked questions about the Alter.
The link is:
http://www.closetotorah.com/archives/627
 
I found it to be quite revealing and blogged about it, as well, here.

 

Abuse - Israeli PTSD expert on Time's list

YNET

Prof. Edna Foa, clinical psychologist who developed treatment methodology for post-traumatic stress disorder following second intifada, named one of world's 100 most influential people. 'There were people who hadn't functioned 30 years and were able to function within two months,' she tells Ynet [...]