The article that I've chosen for this week is "Less Homework, More Yoga, From a Principal Who Hates Stress" by Sara Rimer. It was published on the front page of Monday's NYT and can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/education/29stress.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin.
I liked the lede. I thought it was catching and even though it's a soft lede, it gives you enough to draw you in. I do wonder though if the word "affluent" is necessary. There's no other mention of wealth in the article, so it just seems like an unnecessary accessory, so to speak.
I really liked the article idea itself. Stress reduction in high schools where the competition for college admissions gets fierce is an important problem in today's society and brings about the big debate of where we draw the line - when is enough achievement enough?
Rimer initially uses the example of one school to bring in the overall big picture, and I think that it's effective, in this case. If she had started with a hard lede about the number of schools that are trying to add stress-free programs, I don't know if it would've been as alluring.
She does a good job at bringing both sides in. She puts the benefits of the stress-free programs in, but adds information and quotes about how the programs force cuts in curriculum areas. There's also good information at the end about how quickly the programs will be gone if results aren't seen.
It ends with a good kicker quote. I really liked this article, and thought it was really well written.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I really enjoyed this article as well. I wonder if we can start things like homework-free holidays in college?
Good break down of the piece :)
I thought this article was great! Nice analysis. I wish more K professors were reading the same studies...
I wish i could have had this throughout my college experience. Nice breakdown
I agree with you that the lede was very good. The article was in general really interesting.
Post a Comment