Bob CollinsA report on youth and sports in the last week revealed that among the decline in sports participation by kids, track and field is among sports with the least amount of interest. That’s too bad, really, because track and field kids have a way of being some of the classiest and truest sportspeople in all of athletics. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Education
Three giants of neurology will be talking about the mystery in our head, but one guest’s story of how she ended up in a position to be the human who solved the cause of a horrific neurological disease is worth particular attention. It’s also a story that should frame the various debates over immigration. Read more →
If you’re really concerned about an achievement gap, you focus efforts on providing academic support to those not getting it, not taking it away from those who are. Read more →
School officials in the Crosby-Ironton school district reportedly have threatened to withhold the diploma of a senior because he showed up at school yesterday with a Confederate flag attached to his car.
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Minnesota native and future football Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald has fulfilled his mother’s dying wish. Read more →
Because of poems like this, Julia Dinsmore inspires people like St. John’s Prep Student Cullin Egge. Read more →
The American Bar Association says that only 60 percent of the people who graduated law school in 2015 have jobs in the legal business. That statistic is contained in a New York Times story on the University of Minnesota’s effort to cut the number of admissions to its law school.
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It’s time to hold parents more accountable for the kids who skip school, the St. Cloud Times says in an editorial today.
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The stench from the U of M athletic department has only gotten stronger since the academic scandal under Clem Haskins. So we’ve gotten better at holding our nose.
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Some kids who played baseball could have learned a valuable lesson this season: Standing up for values requires personal sacrifice.
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Baylee Bjorge, a senior at Grand Forks Central High School, started a Twitter account recently and asked University of North Dakota freshman hockey star Brock Boeser to the prom.
But her mother shut the account down without knowing about the invitation.
That didn’t stop Boeser. Read more →
Big problems become bigger problems when they feel too big to solve. The reaction to Yuen’s story was an uplifting reminder that we don’t need to have giant solutions to start solving big problems. We just need to care. Read more →
There’s nothing that can rip the heart like the sound of a dying dream. Read more →
A Wisconsin case illuminates the other half of the growing texting-while-driving problem: the people with whom the drivers are texting. Read more →
Minnesota could make purple its official state color. It could name a new transit line the “purple line.” It could find a street somewhere and call it Prince Street.
Here’s another idea: It could better support music in public schools. Read more →