Feb. 8, 2013 Rabbi Berel Wein: Lofty ideals must be followed with grounded applications Clifford D. May: Letter from the West Bank Steve Rothaus: Judge OKs plan for gay man, lesbian couple to be on girl's birth certificate Gloria Goodale: States consider drone bans: Overreaction or crucial for privacy rights? Environmental Nutrition Editors: Don't buy the aloe vera juice hype Michael Craig Miller, M.D.: Harvard Experts: Regular exercise pumps up memory, too Erik Lacitis: Vanity plates: Some take too much license The Kosher Gourmet by Susie Middleton: Broccoflower, Carrot and Leek Ragout with Thyme, Orange and Tapenade is a delightful and satisfying melange of veggies, herbs and aromatics Feb. 6, 2013 Nara Schoenberg: The other in-law problem Frank J. Gaffney Jr. : A see-no-jihadist for the CIA Kristen Chick: Ahmadinejad visits Cairo: How sect tempers Islamist ties between Egypt, Iran Roger Simon: Ed Koch's lucky corner Heron Marquez Estrada: Robot-building sports on a roll Patrick G. Dean, M.D.: Mayo Clinic Medical Edge: How to restore body's ability to secrete insulin Sharon Palmer, R.D.: 3 prostate-protecting diet tips The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen 7 principles for to help you make the best soup ever in a slow cooker Feb. 4, 2013 Jonathan Tobin: Can Jewish Groups Speak Out on Hagel? David Wren: Findings of government study, released 3 days before Newtown shooting, at odds with gun-control crusaders Kristen Chick: Tahrir becomes terrifying, tainted Curtis Tate and Greg Gordon: US keeps building new highways while letting old ones crumble David G. Savage: Supreme Court to hear case on arrests, DNA Harvard Health Letters: Neck and shoulder pain? Know what it means and what to do Andrea N. Giancoli, M.P.H., R.D.: Eat your way to preventing age-related muscle loss The Kosher Gourmet by Diane Rossen Worthington Baked Pears in Red Wine and Port Wine Glaze: A festive winter dessert Feb. 1, 2013 Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb: Redemption Clifford D. May Home, bloody, home Christa Case Bryant andNicholas Blanford Why despite Syria's allies warning of retaliation for Israeli airstrikes, the threats are likely hollow Rick Armon, Ed Meyer and Phil Trexler Ex-police captain cleared by DNA test is freed after nearly 15 years Harvard Health Letters: Could it by your thyroid? Sharon Palmer, R.D.: When 'healthy food' isn't Sue Zeidler: Coke ad racist? Arab-American groups want to yank Super Bowl ad (INCLUDES VIDEO) The Kosher Gourmet by Nealey Dozier The secret of this soup is the garnish January 30, 2013 Allan Chernoff: Celebrating 'Back from the Dead Day' America isn't a religious country? Don't tell Superbowl fans! Mark Clayton Cybercrime takedown! Germany remembers Hitler rise to power Israel salutes U. N. --- with the one finger salute Sharon Palmer, R.D.: Get cookin' with heart-healthy fats Ballot riles Guinness World Records The Kosher Gourmet by Elizabeth Passarella Potato, Squash and Goat Cheese Gratin January 28, 2013 Nancy Youssef: And Democracy for all? Two years on, Egypt remains in state of chaos Fred Weir: Putin: West is fomenting jihadi 'blowback' Meredith Cohn: Implantable pain disk may help those with cancer Michael Craig Miller, M.D. : Ask the Harvard Experts: Are there drugs to help control binge eating? David Ovalle Use of controversial 'brain mapping' technology stymied Jane Stancill: Professor's logic class has 180,000 friends David Clark Scott Lego Racism? The Kosher Gourmet by Mario Batali The celebrated chef introduces us to PANZEROTTI PUGLIESI, cheese-stuffed pastry from Italy's south

Jewish World Review Feb. 6, 2009 12 Shevat 5769 An ‘Obama Effect’ on Learning By Suzanne Fields http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Everybody wants a fix for the crippled system for educating our kids, but we're all alchemists. We think we can discover that elusive perfect formula, the magic bullet, the miracle elixir, the silk purse fashioned from a sow's ear, but all we get are mixed metaphors. The latest discovery is the "Obama effect." Three distinguished professors say they've discovered a closing of the performance gap between black and white since the election of the new president. President Obama has not yet turned water into a mellow Cabernet, but perhaps it's because he's been busy raising low test scores to higher ones simply by occupying the Oval Office. In a study of 472 Americans — 84 black and 388 white, ranging in age from 18 to 63 — who took a test of 20 questions before the presidential election, blacks got only 8.5 correct. Whites got 12 answers correct. After Barack Obama was elected, Ray Friedman, a management professor at Vanderbilt and one of the authors of the research, tells The New York Times, the gap between black and white became "statistically nonsignificant." The test questions were taken from the verbal section of the Graduate Record Exam. Conceding the small sample, Ronald Ferguson, a Harvard professor who studies black-white achievement disparities, nevertheless says the study suggests that "Obama's election could increase an African American's sense of competence, and it could reduce the anxiety associated with taking difficult test questions." If true, we should anticipate racial disparities on standardized tests to diminish at least as long as we've got a black president. Who needs to read great books when the teacher in chief can wave a magic wand? These results may merely emphasize poor research by professors who must publish or perish, but it casts a flashlight if not a spotlight on the idea of test scores as a measurement of learning. Students learn what to expect and study for scores rather than for knowledge. Testing usually tells very little about what a person has learned. We've seen a dramatic change in the perceptions of how children absorb information. We've learned that there are simply no quick, easy ways to raise learning levels. Self-esteem and "role models" have little to do with learning — parents must monitor their children's study habits. Merit pay and teacher accountability help school administrators pinpoint the best teachers, and this would help if the unions don't obstruct the clearing out of teachers who should get jobs in other lines of work. That's a very big if. There are the bright spots: Thousands of bright college graduates who avoided "Mickey Mouse 'education' courses" have joined Teach for America and are assigned to low-performing schools, demonstrating what can be done. But it's harder to overcome a culture of low expectations and obstacles to true learning. Many young people have lost the ability to enjoy silence and solitude, crucial ingredients for disciplined learning. The electronic culture has many virtues, providing quick access to information, but the din and dependency on interactive communication obstructs contemplation. Someone alone at a computer is not alone at all, but risking addiction to stimuli banging into his consciousness from a thousand sources. Students "text" each other during class, and cell phones interrupt walks in the park, concerts and lectures. Many schools won't allow a moment of silence at the beginning of the day because someone might suspect that a classmate is lost in a divine reverie. Who can understand what Walt Whitman meant when he said, "I loaf and invite my soul"? Many young people who find Thoreau a hero couldn't endure his isolation. The National Endowment for the Arts has documented how few read for pleasure. In bemoaning the end of solitude, William Deresiewicz in the Chronicle of Higher Education describes technology as a robber of privacy, of the pleasure taken in being alone, the ability to enjoy the self that thinks while reading. The Internet shortens attention spans, and the reading of books is reduced to skimming and skipping. No one dare asks, "What did you read today?" because the list is so long. No one could remember, anyway. "I believe," Thoreau said, "that grown men are still afraid of the dark." Today, they're afraid of the "blank screen," an iPod with dead batteries or a Facebook without friends. President Obama grew up with books, both fiction and non-, devouring them for ideas and insights. He learned to love words, the power of poetry and the gifts of philosophy. If there is a bully pulpit for an "Obama effect," the president should use it to encourage serious reading and the solitude books require. Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here. Comment on JWR contributor Suzanne Fields' column by clicking here. Suzanne Fields Archives © 2006, Creators Syndicate, Suzanne Fields

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