Hey there Readers! It has been a majorly busy summer here at the Doench/Nelson household. Vacations and camp and good craziness. But the Hellions are back in school, I’ve got some new brain drugs and I’m ready to get back to it!
All hasn’t been completely quiet here at Grounded Parents, veteran GP Steph has rounded up a pair of great Guest Posts to share. Ranjini (Rini) Ghosh, health and breastfeeding policy researcher, PhD student, and mom tells us how Breast Became Best When it Actually Isn’t.
And Sofia Jawed-Wessel, PhD, MPH, recently tenured Associate Professor at University of Nebraska at Omaha, and badass mother of two tells her story of balancing motherhood and tenure in a man’s world, or Snapshots of a Unicorn.
The feature’s favorite villain, the Wicked Witch of the Northwest, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has stepped up to bat for the worst idea in the world, arming schoolteachers. And she thinks the taxpayers should pay for it. (via The Washington Post)
Speaking of education, America’s kids may be heading back to school into the teeth of the next big crisis… a dire shortage of teachers. (via CBS News Moneywatch)
The numbers of teachers leaving the profession for other fields has grown for each of the past three years, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Most leave for jobs in health care or social assistance, which includes nursing, family assistance and child care. Some shift into administrative services like office work, Census said.
At the same time, fewer college students are studying education. Enrollments dropped by 35 percent between 2009 and 2014, according to the Learning Policy Institute.
Teachers are earning almost 2 percent less than they did in 1999 and 5 percent less than their 2009 pay, according to the Department of Education. Teacher pay hit the national headlines earlier this year when educators in states such as Kentucky and Oklahoma protested and went on strike because of low pay and pension changes.
Most of us, writers and readers of Grounded Parents are raising our kids without religion. With the nonreligious population growing, we’re finally seeing some decent science examining the pros and cons of introducing kids to religion. (via Quartz)
(CN: Sexual Assault of Minors) Speaking of cons… a grand jury in Pennsylvania issued a scathing report on the sexual abuse of children in the Catholic Church in their state. The details are horrifying.
The report, which covered six of the state’s eight Catholic dioceses and found more than 1,000 identifiable victims, is the broadest examination yet by a government agency in the United States of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. The report said there are likely thousands more victims whose records were lost or who were too afraid to come forward.
It catalogs horrific instances of abuse: a priest who raped a young girl in the hospital after she had her tonsils out; a victim tied up and whipped with leather straps by a priest; and another priest who was allowed to stay in ministry after impregnating a young girl and arranging for her to have an abortion.
Are you an introverted parent with an extroverted child? Here’s some advice on how to help your kid thrive.
This video is not parenting related… just schadenfreude related…
Featured Image: The Hellions go back to school
How is Michigan in the Northwest? Northwest Ordinance?
Though to be fair, the original wicked witches were the banks and the railroads. I’d bet Silicon Valley would replace the railroads today.