iPads, anyone?

Should you buy an iPad? Follow the flow chart below.

RIP Jaime Escalante, Master Teacher

Jaime Escalante taught AP Calculus in one of the toughest schools in the country, and did it so well that, one year, all of his students passed the grueling AP Exam, only to be told by the College Board that they had to retake it. No one believed a bunch of kids in East LA could pass the exam without cheating. They took it again. And passed. His story was the basis for Stand and Deliver.

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And the 2010 Kent County High School Teacher of the Year is. . .

Mrs. Kristin Schutte of LHS! This makes LHS the home to two consecutive honorees (that Kampfschulte guy won it last year). Mrs. Schutte has busted her -- tail to help our students succeed on the ACT. Congrats!

Eschewing Obfuscation and Pledging Allegiance to Hapax Legomenons

Rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? So does our Pledge of Allegiance, so much so that, according to linguist Geoff Nunberg, we've forgotten its origin and meaning:

People don't pledge allegiance to Hadassah or the U.S. Marines or Kappa Kappa Gamma, much less to other inanimate objects. We only use the words when we're either quoting the flag pledge or riffing on it. So there's no independent reference point, no way to know what you've just signed on for that you weren't down for already.

Writer/Editor in Chief

Respect for diction and syntax. That's what I like to see in a leader of the free world. Obama has it, as shown in this photo of his editing of a speech he gave last September.

He was a good little monkey, but he was always. . .

. . . running from Nazis? Turns out Curious George's creators fled Paris just days before the Nazis took over. The little monkey's narrow escapes paralleled their own.

Awesome. Your Video Study Break of the Year.

Thank you, OK GO.

American Family Association: Stone To Death Killer Whale Who Killed Trainer

What could top a CNN anchor calling Tilly the Orca a "serial killer"? The American Family Association calling for Tilly's death - by stoning.

Good luck finding that stone.

Rachel Maddow and a little thing called truth, or, don't read this if you don't care for logical arguments

Here's what a journalist is supposed to do: seek the truth, then report it. Those who fear reason fear this woman:

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Read Across America Day

From the better late than never department: Today is Read Across America Day, when all red-blooded Americans are supposed to read Dr. Seuss to their kids in honor of his birthday. I, however, propose reading a bit of John Irving to them. It's his birthday, too.

And the teachers replied, "NO KIDDING!"

Diane Ravitch, a former supporter of No Child Left Behind (or, as those of us in the trenches call it, No Teacher Left Standing), has changed her tune. Raising test scores leads to cheating and "gaming the system". As for treating schools like businesses:

"There should not be an education marketplace, there should not be competition," Ravitch says. "Schools operate fundamentally — or should operate — like families. The fundamental principle by which education proceeds is collaboration. Teachers are supposed to share what works; schools are supposed to get together and talk about what's [been successful] for them. They're not supposed to hide their trade secrets and have a survival of the fittest competition with the school down the block."

Keep your eyes on the road, if you can

I'm not a big fan of the LED billboards, but to call them "weapons of mass distraction" is going a bit too far, don't you think?