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Educational Technology Isn’t Leveling the Playing Field
Slate: The local name for the Philadelphia neighborhood of Kensington is “the Badlands,” and with good reason. Pockmarked with empty lots and burned-out row houses, the area has an unemployment rate of 29 percent and a poverty rate of 90 percent. Just a few miles to the northwest, the genteel neighborhood of Chestnut Hill seems to belong to a different universe. Here, educated professionals shop the boutiques along Germantown Avenue and return home to gracious stone and brick houses, the average price of which hovers above $400,000. Within these very different communities, however, are two places remarkably similar in the resources they provide: the local public libraries.
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Cool at 13, Adrift at 23
The New York Times: At 13, they were viewed by classmates with envy, admiration and not a little awe. The girls wore makeup, had boyfriends and went to parties held by older students. The boys boasted about sneaking beers on a Saturday night and swiping condoms from the local convenience store. They were cool. They were good-looking. They were so not you. Whatever happened to them? Read the whole story: The New York Times
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One Type of Motivation May Be Key to Success
Science Magazine: Do you want to lose weight? Make more money? Learn to play the piano? Your odds of achieving any of these goals depend not just on how motivated you are, but also, according to a new study of West Point cadets, the source of that motivation. There are two types of motivation. Internal motivation drives people to achieve a goal for its own sake, whereas external motivation is not directly related to the goal itself. For example, if you are learning how to play the violin, you may be internally motivated by your love of the instrument, but also externally motivated by your parents’ pride or your hope that the skill will help you get into a better college.
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Clues to Teaching Young Children to Tell the Truth
The Wall Street Journal: Parents who want their children to be more honest might be better off trying to make them feel more like George Washington than Pinocchio. The story of Pinocchio emphasizes the shame the puppet-boy feels when he lies. Rachael Saunders The story of the first U.S. president coming clean to his father about chopping down a cherry tree significantly reduced children's likelihood of lying in a recent study. The tykes who heard "Pinocchio," the puppet-boy whose nose grows when he lies, or "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" didn't change their behavior. Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal
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When Top Talent Hurts a Team
The Boston Globe: Should Boston Sports fans be happy when one of their teams adds an exceptional player to the roster? It depends whether we’re talking about the Red Sox or the Celtics. A new study finds that adding top talent to a team is beneficial only up to a point, after which adding more top talent subtracts from team performance—at least in sports that demand cooperative play. This was true in soccer (based on an analysis of 2010 and 2014 World Cup qualification matches) and in basketball (based on an analysis of NBA seasons). However, it was not true in Major League Baseball, where win percentage always increased with more top talent.
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When Negativity Is What We Need
The New York Times: If your friend is feeling bad about himself, you might try to convince him that everything’s actually O.K. But a new study suggests this kind of reassurance doesn’t necessarily make people with low self-esteem feel better, and some say it’s further evidence against the idea that positive thinking heals all wounds. For the study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the psychologist Denise Marigold and her co-authors examined how people with low self-esteem responded to “positive reframing” of difficult events in their lives (statements like “that’s not so bad,” or “at least you learned something”).
