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Education and Children (RSS)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Autism Alert

CNN and its partners at Time and Parenting magazines have put together an impressive package on autism. "Autism: Unravelling the Mystery" features more than two dozen print stories and videos along with an audio slideshow. Some of the highlights

Winning Pictures

The National Press Photographers Association has finished its 2008 competition, and the winners show us the best of photojournalism on the Web. John Moore of Getty Images captured first place in the still photo category for a portfolio showing the causes

When Schools Protect Predators

Amy Hsuan, Melissa Navas and Bill Graves of The Oregonian have produced a first-rate investigation into sexual abuse by educators, "Disciplining Oregon Teachers." Their most damning finding: School administrators often cut secret deals with teachers who

Showing the Way

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus recently hosted a "tactile tour" for young children from Atlanta's Center for the Visually Impaired. A reporter might have covered this event by telling readers what happened and providing after-the-fact quotes
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