geralt / Pixabay
I thought readers might, or might not, find this new regular post useful.
Each week, I highlight several sentences, with links to their sources, that I find interesting/concerning/useful. And they may, or may not, be directly connected to education. I may also include my own comments or related links.
This regular post will join my other regular ones on teaching ELLs, education policy, Artificial Intelligence, infographics, and Pinterest highlights, not to mention sharing of my regular Education Week posts.
Here are this week’s sentences:
Before asking, “What’s wrong with this student?” try asking: “What might this student be communicating, and what can I change?”
Schools need to make sure they’re not so focused on compliance that “we lose the joy of learning,” Tos said. “Students need structure and accountability, absolutely. But they also need opportunities to lead, to make decisions, to take risks, to fail safely, and to discover what they are good at.”
If it feels like all discourse has become unhinged and flooded with hate, full of provocations that once would have been shamed out of public life, this is probably because social media allows us the cover of anonymity and physical distance. Most people communicate digitally now, so most interactions are less mediated by shame. In person, you are much less likely to insult someone’s wife, for instance, because you would have to calculate the very real possibility that you would get punched in the face.
Do we all have a what-if version of ourselves?
What I’d learned in the disorder was to recognize good moments.
Gen Z students who felt more connected at school were 5x more likely to look forward to class and feel prepared for the future.
Compared with the 2022 results, almost every country saw a drop in families’ support for their kids’ education, especially for boys, as measured by questions about how often parents talk to their kids about their schoolwork or take an interest in their learning.
Overall, less than half of students (48%) look forward to going to school every day or most days, the Gallup/Walton report found.
“When you see people and recognize them and make them understand they matter, we’re halfway home,” he said.
By the time I got home, I had concluded, based on a multitude of examples, that the two great pillars of American culture are church and self-storage.
Neiman cites research showing that “the longer people study economics, the more selfish they become.” The reason, as she interprets it, is that they grow convinced that maximizing self-interest is normal, and that to do otherwise makes you a sucker.
Not having to think is one of the most attractive and delicious things we can offer to the human brain.
Oliver Stone dramatized the moment in his 1995 film, Nixon: The defeated, haggard president focuses on a painting of John F. Kennedy and says, with startling self-awareness, “When they look at you, they see what they want to be. When they look at me, they see what they are.”
Me trying to convince my dog there isn’t medicine in the peanut butter pic.twitter.com/m4mbMpKG6j
— Keith Orejel (@keithdorejel) September 8, 2026
Or, the assistant superintendent announcing that teachers will find today’s required training led by the textbook publisher to be useful and engaging
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— Larry Ferlazzo (@larryferlazzo.bsky.social) September 11, 2026 at 8:54 PM
No, motivation and achievement have bidirectional relationship.
— Ralph Pantozzi (@mathillustrated) September 10, 2026
Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor Say the End of the World Is Now on the Table www.nytimes.com/2026/09/12/m…
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— Larry Ferlazzo (@larryferlazzo.bsky.social) September 12, 2026 at 7:23 PM
Or, the number of teachers who read the superintendent’s weekly emails
— Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) September 15, 2026