Literacy — the ability to read and write — is the most important skill a child can develop. Without the ability to effectively use these skills a child will always be limited in their growth. Recent studies have shown that a child reading at standard by third grade has a better opportunity to graduate high school ready for college, or career ready, than those who do not. Students not reading at grade level by third grade are four times more likely to drop out before graduating. So what does this tell us? It tells us that we must provide our children every opportunity in learning to read.
You may have seen the news article recently about the growing popularity of unified sports teams, a wonderful collaboration between high schools across the country and Special Olympics.
Recently, as I was reading the news on the web I came across one of those articles that made me stop and say to myself, “What a great idea.”
How necessary is public transportation? If you flunk your vision test when applying for a driver’s license, absolutely necessary. If you’re a student commuting from affordable housing to college, very essential. If driving a private car isn’t an option for any of a hundred other reasons, you need buses.
In talking with residents about various programs and services provided by city government in Marysville, you’re more likely to hear about the work of the Legislative branch (City Council) that passes laws and appropriates spending, and the Executive branch (Mayor and Administration) that is responsible for city services and enforcing the laws.
Marysville’s eight high schools prepare students for graduation, college and life.professional and diverse teaching and support staff.
Look at a high school text book. Everything is first-class, or was when it was new. It’s tough, colorful, heavy and made to last. If you tried lugging a trade paperback to school and back every day it would be a mess of loose pages within a week or two. Library-rated bindings last longer but even they are no match for the durability of textbooks. Of course that level of quality costs a bundle so with school budgets in crisis you can be sure that school districts are squeezing one more year from nearly used up textbooks.
The strategy announced last week by The American Psychiatric Association to revise the definition of autism will effectively eliminate the autism “epidemic” simply by changing what we mean by the word autism itself. The APA’s strategy has two paradoxical outcomes. First, it neatly absolves society of the burden of supporting a significant population of people whose needs are not changed in the slightest by the clever redefinition of the label that describes them.
