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Education and Children (RSS)

Wednesday, October 15, 2008 5:53 AM

Finding Mr. Schrupp

"Mr. Schrupp's Final Lesson" by Jeff Seidel in the Detroit Free Press is a nice story about a beloved teacher. But what really stands out is the way Seidel connects with readers by telling them how he found it. I'm often asked: How do you find the stories
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Monday, September 22, 2008 5:42 AM

Who's Driving the Bus?

"Dozens of Felons Driving School Buses" by Larry Higgs and Paul D'Ambrosio of the Asbury Park Press is a fine example of watchdog journalism. Dozens of school bus drivers with criminal convictions transport children to class each day, many with the state's
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Friday, September 19, 2008 5:54 AM

Living with Autism

Dan Collison of NPR has produced a beautiful series about what it's like for families with autistic children. "The Autism Chronicles" profiles single mother Amy Thompson as she struggles to raise two children, including 6-year-old Kollin,
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Wednesday, September 10, 2008 5:53 AM

The Back of the Bus

Last month we recommended a great ESPN story about John Challis, the teen battling cancer who inspired thousands of people with his positive attitude (along with a big hit in his last baseball game). This time I want to highlight a very different
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Friday, August 29, 2008 5:51 AM

The Courageous Kid

It's not often that we feature stories about funerals on News Gems, but Mike White's "Funeral for a Teen Whose Bravery Touched So Many" in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette grabbed my heart. White does an amazing job of using simple words to richly describe the
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Thursday, August 21, 2008 5:50 AM

Empty Classrooms

In 2001-2005, Milwaukee Public Schools spent $102 million building new classrooms, science labs and libraries to revamp neighborhood schools and thus reduce the costs of busing by convincing parents to choose nearby schools. In an excellent series, "Subtraction
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Monday, August 11, 2008 5:55 AM

Notable Narratives

Newspaper readers recently have been treated to three excellent narratives. "The Long Haul," a 7-part series by AP's Sharon Cohen, recounts a Minnesota National Guard unit's 22-month deployment for training and combat in Iraq. Cohen follows several soldiers
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Thursday, July 31, 2008 6:33 AM

A Child Must Testify

"Jessica's Trial" by Eric Adler of The Kansas City Star is one of the finest courtroom dramas we've seen. The story begins two days before the trial when prosecutor Lori Fluegel takes 12-year-old Jessica into the empty courtroom to help her work up the
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Friday, July 18, 2008 6:54 AM

Treatment or Abuse?

In Boston Magazine's "The Shocking Truth," Paul Kix does a masterful job of investigating the use of electro-shock therapy at the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC), a Massachusetts home for mentally handicapped and behaviorally impaired youth. The
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Wednesday, June 11, 2008 6:27 AM

Juvenile Justice

The Long Beach Press-Telegram has produced an excellent series, "Kids and Crime: Inside Juvenile Justice." The sections, written by Wendy Thomas Russell, Greg Mellen, Tracy Manzer and Kevin Butler, cover local neighborhoods, schools, police, courts and
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Thursday, June 05, 2008 6:37 AM

College Life

Earlier this week News Gems featured a great investigation by students at Humboldt State University. Today I want to highlight one of the most exciting multimedia projects I've seen, which was created by students at Northwestern University. Developed
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Thursday, May 22, 2008 6:59 AM

Vision Quest

In September 2006, Marquette University engineering professor Mark Polczynski challenged a team of five students as they began their senior project: Can you design a biodiesel reactor that's high tech, yet so ingeniously simple that you could imagine
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Tuesday, May 20, 2008 6:34 AM

How Lucy Got Through College

Barbara Mahany of the Chicago Tribune does a fine job on human interest stories. Her latest, "Lucy's Mom Was There," is the inspiring story of Rosa Trevino and her 24-year-old daughter, Lucy, who is confined to a wheelchair and has limited use of her
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Thursday, April 24, 2008 8:00 AM

The Condemned

"Islamic Schools Lure African Boys Into Begging," by the AP's Rukmini Callimachi, is a powerful, disturbing story. While Callimachi builds dramatic tension by describing 9-year-old Coli's attempts to escape from a Quranic instructor, she takes us into
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Thursday, April 17, 2008 8:30 AM

Attacking the Teachers

Gabriel Sherman has a fascinating story in New York magazine about what happens at an elite prep school when its students begIn writing vicious attacks on a teacher using their Facebook pages. Sherman's "Testing Horace Mann" explores how social
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