Word: questionables
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...told tale. The titular mortal protagonist falls in love with Jupiter, king of the gods. They have an affair, but when Jupiter’s jealous wife Juno finds out, she swears revenge. Furious, Juno disguises herself as a mortal and appears to Semele, convincing the poor girl to question Jupiter’s immortality. Semele, unaware that the sight of Jupiter in all his divine glory is fatal, demands to see him as a god. He begs her not to, but she stands firm, and once he reveals himself, she is burned in the heat of his thunderbolts...
...circles over the past few years: "Nothing matters more to a child's education than good teachers." Anyone who's ever had a Ms. Green or a Mr. Miller whom they remember fondly instinctively knows this to be true. And while "Who's teaching my kid?" is an important question for parents to ask, there may be an equally essential (and rarely remarked upon) question - "Who's teaching my kid's teachers...
...Duncan's speech raises another question: If most teacher colleges are "mediocre," does that mean the teachers they produce are equally lackluster...
...major problems with answering that question, says David Steiner, New York's education commissioner, is that we simply don't know, can't know. It is nearly impossible in many states to tell which teachers produce the best student outcomes, let alone which teacher colleges. "And if we can't identify the skills that make a difference in terms of student learning, then what we're saying is that teaching is an undefinable art, as opposed to something that can be taught," says Steiner. Until recently, Steiner served as dean of Hunter College's School of Education, where...
...European officials also face a deeper question over what constitutes a refugee these days. The international refugee rules were drafted during the Cold War in order to offer asylum to those who risked individual persecution for their political or religious beliefs. That now seems dated, with migrants fleeing everything from wars to famine and ecological disasters like droughts. Still, many immigration officials have stuck to the original definition. "They say, 'You weren't really fleeing persecution, just fleeing bullets,' " says Bill Frelick, director of the Human Rights Watch refugee-policy program in Washington. "But those distinctions are rapidly fading...