Most Japanese teenagers who struggle with school life say the start of a new term after summer break feels painful, a recent survey shows, with 93.1% of respondents saying they “wanted to disappear from the world.” https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/08/28/japan/society/summer-vacation-end-school/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #society #schools #children #suicide #mentalhealth
Alex Akselrod
boosted
How #Maine churches are reckoning with fear of #ImmigrationRaids
by Sean Scott, August 24, 2025
Excerpt: "Selma, an asylum seeker from Angola, moved to Texas at the start of the pandemic and then to Maine in January 2022. She fears persecution if she returns because of a family member’s involvement in a #HumanRights group.
" 'As a Christian, I was praying, and then God just gave me direction, which was Maine,' she said.
"She joined a nondenominational Christian church in Portland right away, and she and her two children have been regular attendees ever since. After President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, her 12-year-old daughter asked if it was still safe to go to school.
"As immigration enforcement efforts have increased dramatically this year, many migrants have also reckoned with whether it’s safe to go to places of worship, whether they’re congregants or faith leaders like one Westbrook pastor detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this month.
"In one of his first acts in office, Trump rescinded a policy that essentially barred #ICEAgents from making arrests at sensitive locations like #churches, #hospitals and #schools. A coalition sued the Department of Homeland Security over the policy in February, arguing it violated #ReligiousFreedom. A judge declined to block the policy, citing a lack of evidence that churches were 'singled out as special targets' for immigration enforcement.
"Faith leaders are preparing for the possibility of enforcement regardless, and several other lawsuits have been filed on similar grounds, including one in late July with a New England plaintiff.
"#MichelTshimankinda, a Westbrook man who founded a church in South Portland, has been in ICE detention in New Hampshire since Aug. 14, according to the Portland Press Herald. He wasn’t arrested on church property, but his detention has shaken his family and congregation."
Read more:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/maine-churches-reckoning-fear-immigration-100000727.html
#ICESucks#ICEKidnapping#MaineNews#DHS#Gestapo#FascismInTheUSA#Racism#Fascism#Authoritarianism#TrumpIsARacist
How #Maine churches are reckoning with fear of #ImmigrationRaids
by Sean Scott, August 24, 2025
Excerpt: "Selma, an asylum seeker from Angola, moved to Texas at the start of the pandemic and then to Maine in January 2022. She fears persecution if she returns because of a family member’s involvement in a #HumanRights group.
" 'As a Christian, I was praying, and then God just gave me direction, which was Maine,' she said.
"She joined a nondenominational Christian church in Portland right away, and she and her two children have been regular attendees ever since. After President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, her 12-year-old daughter asked if it was still safe to go to school.
"As immigration enforcement efforts have increased dramatically this year, many migrants have also reckoned with whether it’s safe to go to places of worship, whether they’re congregants or faith leaders like one Westbrook pastor detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this month.
"In one of his first acts in office, Trump rescinded a policy that essentially barred #ICEAgents from making arrests at sensitive locations like #churches, #hospitals and #schools. A coalition sued the Department of Homeland Security over the policy in February, arguing it violated #ReligiousFreedom. A judge declined to block the policy, citing a lack of evidence that churches were 'singled out as special targets' for immigration enforcement.
"Faith leaders are preparing for the possibility of enforcement regardless, and several other lawsuits have been filed on similar grounds, including one in late July with a New England plaintiff.
"#MichelTshimankinda, a Westbrook man who founded a church in South Portland, has been in ICE detention in New Hampshire since Aug. 14, according to the Portland Press Herald. He wasn’t arrested on church property, but his detention has shaken his family and congregation."
Read more:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/maine-churches-reckoning-fear-immigration-100000727.html
#ICESucks#ICEKidnapping#MaineNews#DHS#Gestapo#FascismInTheUSA#Racism#Fascism#Authoritarianism#TrumpIsARacist
Junior high and high schools across Japan are getting students involved in the reassessment and revision of "black rules" that are considered outdated or unreasonable. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/08/18/japan/japan-unreasonable-school-rules/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #schools #education #nagoya
joene 🏴🍉
boosted
Imagine a world in which you can lose your job for calling someone by their chosen name. Welcome to today's world of teaching. In Florida, you can be fired for calling your students by their chosen name without parental consent. That's what happened to Melissa Calhoun.
Her district's superintendent said that parental input can’t be ignored. But what if the parents are just plain wrong?
No matter. SCOTUS gave a ruling earlier this year that essentially made parental input is the ONLY thing that matters. Parents across the nation can now exempt their child from any and all curriculum that "goes against their religious beliefs." This would allow parents to exempt their kids from any of the standards, including evolution, in biology, or the Civil Rights movement, in U.S. history.
From the teachers' and schools' perspective, this completely throws the concept of teaching standards out the window. It makes it pointless for teachers to plan curriculum in advance since they wouldn't know until the last minute which students, if any, would be allowed to learn it. And it would significantly increase teachers' workload since they must create alternative curriculum for students who are exempted.
https://apnews.com/article/florida-lgbtq-education-desantis-fc8c37368bca9cfd33b6676576c78f06
#transrightsarehumanrights #lgbtq #transphobia #education #schools #students #freespeech #censorship #fascism
Imagine a world in which you can lose your job for calling someone by their chosen name. Welcome to today's world of teaching. In Florida, you can be fired for calling your students by their chosen name without parental consent. That's what happened to Melissa Calhoun.
Her district's superintendent said that parental input can’t be ignored. But what if the parents are just plain wrong?
No matter. SCOTUS gave a ruling earlier this year that essentially made parental input is the ONLY thing that matters. Parents across the nation can now exempt their child from any and all curriculum that "goes against their religious beliefs." This would allow parents to exempt their kids from any of the standards, including evolution, in biology, or the Civil Rights movement, in U.S. history.
From the teachers' and schools' perspective, this completely throws the concept of teaching standards out the window. It makes it pointless for teachers to plan curriculum in advance since they wouldn't know until the last minute which students, if any, would be allowed to learn it. And it would significantly increase teachers' workload since they must create alternative curriculum for students who are exempted.
https://apnews.com/article/florida-lgbtq-education-desantis-fc8c37368bca9cfd33b6676576c78f06
#transrightsarehumanrights #lgbtq #transphobia #education #schools #students #freespeech #censorship #fascism
Alex Akselrod
and 1 other
boosted
Books will soon be obsolete in school
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/08/books-will-soon-be-obsolete-in-school/
I recently had a chance to ask a question to one of the top AI people. At a Q&A session, I raised my hand and asked simply "What is your estimation of the future educational value of AI?"
The response was swift and utterly devastating for those laggards who want to hold back progress. The AI guy said:
Books will soon be obsolete in schools. Scholars will be instructed through AI. It is possible to teach every branch of human knowledge with AI. Our school system will be completely changed inside of ten years.
We have been working for some time on educational AI. It proves conclusively the worth of AI in chemistry, physics and other branches of study, making the scientific truths, difficult to understand from text books, plain and clear to children.
That's it. We can throw away all those outdated paper books. Children will learn directly from an AI which, coincidentally, is sold by the company. We can trust their studies on such matters and be assured that they have no ulterior motive.
But, ah my friends, I have told a slight untruth. I didn't ask that question. Frederick James Smith asked the question to Thomas Edison in 1913. The question was about the new and exciting world of motion pictures.
You can read the full exchange from The New York Dramatic Mirror.
A hundred-plus years since the great and humble Edison made his prediction and… books are still used in schools! Those of us of a certain age remember a TV occasionally being wheeled in for one lesson or another. Today's kids watch more video content than ever - of mixed quality - but still rely on books and teachers.
Videos are good for some aspects of learning, but woefully inadequate for others.
I'm not trying to say that just because one technology failed, so will all others. But it is amazing how AI-proponents are recycling the same arguments with basically the same timescale. Will AI be part of education? Sure! Just like videos, pocket computers, the Metaverse, and performance enhancing drugs.
Will it be the only tool ever needed for education? I doubt it. Will vested interests and uncritical journalists continue to boost it? You don't need to have read many history books to work out the answer.
Further reading: In the Future All Food Will Be Cooked in a Microwave, and if You Can’t Deal With That Then You Need to Get Out of the Kitchen
🆕 blog! “Books will soon be obsolete in school”
I recently had a chance to ask a question to one of the top AI people. At a Q&A session, I raised my hand and asked simply "What is your estimation of the future educational value of AI?"
The response was swift and utterly devastating for those laggards who want to hold back progress. The AI guy said:
Books will…
👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/08/books-will-soon-be-obsolete-in-school/
⸻
#AI #education #history #schools
Books will soon be obsolete in school
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/08/books-will-soon-be-obsolete-in-school/
I recently had a chance to ask a question to one of the top AI people. At a Q&A session, I raised my hand and asked simply "What is your estimation of the future educational value of AI?"
The response was swift and utterly devastating for those laggards who want to hold back progress. The AI guy said:
Books will soon be obsolete in schools. Scholars will be instructed through AI. It is possible to teach every branch of human knowledge with AI. Our school system will be completely changed inside of ten years.
We have been working for some time on educational AI. It proves conclusively the worth of AI in chemistry, physics and other branches of study, making the scientific truths, difficult to understand from text books, plain and clear to children.
That's it. We can throw away all those outdated paper books. Children will learn directly from an AI which, coincidentally, is sold by the company. We can trust their studies on such matters and be assured that they have no ulterior motive.
But, ah my friends, I have told a slight untruth. I didn't ask that question. Frederick James Smith asked the question to Thomas Edison in 1913. The question was about the new and exciting world of motion pictures.
You can read the full exchange from The New York Dramatic Mirror.
A hundred-plus years since the great and humble Edison made his prediction and… books are still used in schools! Those of us of a certain age remember a TV occasionally being wheeled in for one lesson or another. Today's kids watch more video content than ever - of mixed quality - but still rely on books and teachers.
Videos are good for some aspects of learning, but woefully inadequate for others.
I'm not trying to say that just because one technology failed, so will all others. But it is amazing how AI-proponents are recycling the same arguments with basically the same timescale. Will AI be part of education? Sure! Just like videos, pocket computers, the Metaverse, and performance enhancing drugs.
Will it be the only tool ever needed for education? I doubt it. Will vested interests and uncritical journalists continue to boost it? You don't need to have read many history books to work out the answer.
Further reading: In the Future All Food Will Be Cooked in a Microwave, and if You Can’t Deal With That Then You Need to Get Out of the Kitchen
The education ministry is considering launching a model project in fiscal 2026 to dispatch cram school lecturers and others with teaching qualifications to public schools as temporary teachers. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/08/10/japan/japan-substitute-teacher-plan/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #schools #teachers #education #mext
The boards of education in two rural towns in Oita Prefecture will together launch a program in fiscal 2026 to nurture educators who have strong connections to the local community. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/08/04/japan/nurturing-teachers-locally/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #education #schools #teachers #kusu#kokonoe #oita
Since the age of 7, Japanese schoolboy Shun Sasaki has been offering free guided tours to foreign visitors at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, ensuring the horrors of nuclear war do not fade with the passage of time. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/07/31/japan/society/hiroshima-schoolboy-guide/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #japan #society #hiroshima #schools #elementaryschools #children #atomicbombings #wwii #english #volunteers
#Idaho Schools Consistently Break Disability Laws. Parents Say They’re Not Doing Enough to Fix the Problem.
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Idaho #students with disabilities have worse outcomes than many of their peers in other states, according to federal data.
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Idaho #students with disabilities have worse outcomes than many of their peers in other states, according to federal data.
#Parents say it can take months to evaluate students, and in some cases #schools have refused to provide needed services.
#News#Government #Education#Kids
https://www.propublica.org/article/idaho-special-education-disabilities-complaints
Tristan Nitot✓
and 3 others
boosted
In Finland, charging fees for tuition is illegal, which means rich kids have to mix with normal kids, which means rich families had to make sure the schools the kid went to were good, which meant the rich were prompted to invest in public schools. Finland, take a bow.
In Finland, charging fees for tuition is illegal, which means rich kids have to mix with normal kids, which means rich families had to make sure the schools the kid went to were good, which meant the rich were prompted to invest in public schools. Finland, take a bow.
This is just one school district in Tennessee, but WTF:
Under the Lawrence County School System’s new attendance policy, doctor’s notes will no longer excuse an absence. Students will now just be marked absent or present.
The policy states that after just three absences, schools will start intervention. If the student misses school for eight or more days, they will be referred to juvenile court.
While there will be exemptions for verified chronic illnesses and several other things, Adkins and other district officials said during the meeting that students need to learn reliability and work ethic.
“If you have the sniffles, that is fine,” Adkins said during the meeting. “You are going to have them when you go to work one day. We have all gone to work sick and hurt and beat up.”