Learning

Brian Sewell laments the state of art history teaching today, including the neglect of Byzantine studies; though he ends on a hopeful note-  on THES site. Yes, an art history education should open up great cultural possibilities whatever your station in life. “If, on graduating, the student of art history has grasped enough of the discipline to form a chronological frame for further observation and experience, then he can add to it. No matter whether he becomes a monied banker or digs tunnels for the new fast train to Birmingham, his appreciation of paintings in the Louvre and the Prado (or even Birmingham), the architecture of Amsterdam and Angkor Wat, and the sculpture of Michelangelo and pre-Columbian Mexico, will be enriched by what he sees and reads and hears. No other compulsory subject (and certainly not mathematics) pursued in our adolescent years could so swiftly, broadly and ubiquitously elevate our cultural lives.” Am I glad that I recently taught some Byzantine art, at least its influence on the early renaissance, like the painter Berlinghieri shown here . I can’t run to Pre-Columbian, but I will be doing some Egyptian and Etruscan art on my Vatican blog. Watch this space.  

With the Summer school break quickly approaching, now's the perfect time to add some fresh titles to your child's bookshelf. To help, we asked moms who have also been teachers to share some of their favorite children's stories. Whether you have a color-loving toddler, a beginning reader needing practice, or a preteen looking for an exciting plot, there's something in here for kids of all ages.

While there is little doubt that excellent early education sets students up for long-term academic success, the definition of "excellent" varies along with communities' diverse needs. This is nowhere truer than with dual language learners. Great early education for these students requires reorienting educational and developmental perspectives away from unduly "monolingual perspectives" in favor of research-based metrics that take this core difference into account. While English proficiency is enormously important for students' academic careers, social mobility, and economic opportunities along the course of their lives, it is a grievous mistake to stress it at the cost of other critical developmental goals.

Once upon a time, the Big Bad Wolf was a mighty fearsome fellow. In the folkloric tales of Aesop and the Grimms, he terrorized small children and other helpless critters. He blew down houses in Disney's "Three Little Pigs," and in "The Three Little Wolves," a somewhat sinister Silly Symphony cartoon from 1936, after the Nazi ascent to power, he is saddled with a German accent.

Downtown Silver Spring isn't exactly Hollywood, but for Montgomery County middle school students, it was transformed into a scene as thrilling as any L.A. movie premiere Wednesday. Silver Spring International Middle School students filled the seats of the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center to see their documentaries and films roll on the big screen, part of a two-day film festival that continues Thursday morning. The event is the culmination of the school's "Lights, Camera, Literacy!" classes, designed to teach middle school students about storytelling and the elements of literature through movies and other visual media.

The Idaho elementary school is unsure if or how it will continue to issue tablets to students next year. Students in Ashley Johnson's fifth-grade class have been using individually issued iPads to produce video papers on matter, volcanoes and the pros and cons of school uniforms. But when these fifth-graders leave Paul Elementary School for West Minico Middle School in the fall, they will go to a school with fewer devices than students.

As Luca Parmitano's launch approaches, ESA Euronews looks at life aboard the International Space Station

Terry McAuliffe, a Democratic operative embroiled in a tight race to become Virginia's next governor, knows a thing or two about conservatives like his Republican opponent, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. That's in part because his older brother, Joseph McAuliffe, spent two decades as a Republican activist who worked for the evangelical leader Pat Robertson's [...]

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(Phys.org) —Studying complex systems like ecosystems can get messy, especially when trying to predict how they interact with other big unknowns like climate change.