Word: use
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...change. My teacher, Linda Garcia at Central Elementary in Wilmette, Ill., says my class was one of the last to learn the loops and squiggles. "For a while I'd show my kids both ways," she says. "But the new alphabet is easier for them, so now I just use that...
...Technology is only part of the reason. A study published in the February issue of the Journal of Educational Psychology found that just 9% of American high school students use an in-class computer more than once a week. The cause of the decline in handwriting may lie not so much in computers as in standardized testing. The Federal Government's landmark 1983 report A Nation at Risk, on the dismal state of public education, ushered in a new era of standardized assessment that has intensified since the passage in 2002 of the No Child Left Behind Act. "In schools...
Cursive's demise is due in part to the kind of circular logic espoused by Alex McCarter, a 15-year-old in New York City. He has such bad handwriting that he is allowed to use a computer on standardized tests. The U.S. Department of Education estimates that only 0.3% of high school students receive this particular accommodation. McCarter's mother tried everything to help him improve his penmanship, including therapy, but the teenager likes his special status. "I kind of want to stay bad at it," he says. These days, that shouldn't be a problem...
...most of us are all too familiar with the annoyances that come with compact fluorescent lamps. Yeah, yeah, CFLs use about a third as much energy as old-school incandescent bulbs, last many times as long and can save consumers an average of $50 over the life of a bulb. But the light that standard CFLs give off doesn't seem inviting, they can't be used with a dimmer, and they take way too long to turn...
Electric lighting currently accounts for 19% of the world's electricity use, pumping as much greenhouse-gas pollution into the atmosphere every year as half the world's cars. Much of that results from outdated, inefficient light sources in homes, offices and parking lots. Energy-efficiency advocates say that because lighting is ubiquitous, the new guidelines will have a bigger environmental impact than any other appliance standards, including those for refrigerators and air conditioners...