Test . . . Optional?
Last month, btw took a look at the way many college admission offices are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic by canceling their standardized test score requirements, meaning that students don’t need to take the SAT or ACT in order to apply. Now, several other schools have gotten on board with this plan. At the same […]
Stay-at-Home School
Before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, most mornings you probably woke up to the sound of your alarm and wished you could just stay home and not go to school, right? Well, now that is happening, so how has your experience been? Have you enjoyed the opportunity to learn from home and develop new distance […]
Stuff YOU Should Know
Coronavirus Hits Prisons By now you’re probably very familiar with the phrase “social distancing.” Hopefully, you and your friends and neighbors have been practicing this policy. But what happens when people are kept together in close quarters and physically can’t practice social distancing–such as in prisons? The United Nations addressed this concern last week, saying […]
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Trump Proposes Middle East Peace Plan Every presidential administration since the post-World War II era has tried to find a way to establish lasting peace between Israel and Palestine. So far, none of them have been successful long-term. But now, Trump thinks that he has a plan that will work. He calls it a win […]
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A Plan for Peace and Safety After the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Valentine’s Day in 2018, students across the United States came together to protest gun violence. On March 24, 2018, the group marched on Washington, D.C., with over 880 sister marches taking place at the same […]
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Oregon Republicans Hide to Avoid Climate Vote Earlier this month, btw brought you the story of Oregon’s new climate change bill. In essence, the bill would require companies to purchase a certain number of “permits” for their pollutants (fewer and fewer permits will be available over time), and would then use that money to invest […]
AFTER THE FACT: Mary Beth Tinker
You might remember that last spring, thousands of students across the country walked out of their schools to protest gun violence in the wake of the tragic school shooting in Parkland, Florida. For the most part, these student protestors were not punished for their activism. But as recently as fifty years ago, that might not […]
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Kavanaugh Update Recently, btw brought you a closer look at Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s most recent Supreme Court nominee, and the challenges he faced as he began his week of Senate confirmation hearings. Now that those hearings are finished, however, Congress, as well as the American public, are more divided than ever over Kavanaugh’s nomination. Related […]
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A Champion Promise LeBron James may be the best basketball player in the world. But now he’s contributing something to society that’s arguably even more meaningful: a school. Situated in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, James’s school–called “I Promise”–is no ordinary educational facility. Focusing on academically “at-risk” youth, the program seeks to do more than […]
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A Civic Debate Does your school require you to take a civics class? Probably not. Civics classes focus on the study of U.S. government, history, and democracy. One of the reasons why our country first set up a widespread public education system was to create informed and active participants in the government. Until the 1960s, […]