I’m still thinking about Laurie Essig’s September 16th blog on urinary segregation.  I guess this is a complicated topic, but when I first read the blog, all I could think about was the joy I felt seven years ago when we finally purchased a house with more than one bathroom, which meant that I could impose a policy of urinary segregation in my own home (that is, until we decided to live on a boat, which put us back to a single-toilet environment).  I tried hard to train my boys to have good bathroom manners, but after years of sitting on toilet seats and looking at surrounds that were dribbled and splattered with pee, not to mention the middle of the night plunges into the cold water of an unseated toilet bowl, I decided that it was time for the queen of this castle to have her very own (porcelain) throne. 

Some will say this is yet another sign that I am a bad mother, but from the...

We are told that families earning over $250,000 a year are wealthy.  That is, of course, if the family consists of two working adults who happen to be married.  If said family simply lives together under the same roof without being married, then they can earn up to $400,000 per year before they join the ranks of the wealthy.  Hmmm—something seems very wrong with policy that essentially penalizes people who make the commitment of marriage, which researchers tell us again and again is a significant predictor of positive educational outcomes for the children involved. 

Individuals are considered to be wealthy once they earn $200,000, which, coincidentally, is just above the current salary earned by Members of Congress (except for those in leadership positions who earn more).  It would be meaningful if congress were asked to vote on legislation that would essentially force them to tax...

While some scientists may enjoy their new role as political activists, it is bad for America and ultimately damaging to science when those who are supposed to be purveyors of the impartial truth destroy the public confidence by parroting messages that may be popular in some circles, but are not supported by the facts and are quite distant from the truth.  The problem is that when scientists get caught misrepresenting the facts, confusing empirically derived knowledge with convenient supposition, or presenting opinion as if it is fact, they erode the very trust upon which they depend so greatly.   In order to preserve the integrity of science, it is critical that research and political advocacy remain separate and distinct. 

The most recent trap in which scientific misrepresentation has been snared came in the form of a DC federal judge who revealed the truth about restrictions on the us...

The hypocrisy in higher education is sometimes just astounding. I read Richard Kahlenberg’s blog yesterday about the admirable efforts on the part of Washington University in St. Louis and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to increase graduation rates among low income students who attend these institutions. In fact, Mr. Kahlenberg goes as far as to suggest that other universities should learn some valuable lessons from these institutions.

Give me a break.

Of course I applaud efforts to help those less fortunate succeed, but the idea that we should celebrate two highly selective, well-funded, elite universities that require even more funding to develop special programs to serve such a small, hand-picked population of students who, in the end, enjoy only slightly improved outcomes (at best), seems a bit outrageous to me. Instead, I would suggest that the stories of Wash U a...

On Thursday we landed in Salt Lake City and, as I expected, the Blackberry was buzzing. A crisis at work ... e-mails back and forth ... reading a pdf file on a 2-inch screen ... more trouble ... conference call this morning to sort it out.

Okay, NOW I am on vacation! We drove from Salt Lake to Bryce Canyon yesterday. I hope these are among the images that will flash before my eyes in my final hours. My husband's family is from Utah, so we travel here every few years, but somehow between visits I seem to forget how amazingly beautiful this part of the country is. Long stretches of trees, and fields, and ramshackle log cabins mark the struggles and triumphs of generations now gone. Yes, This is the Place.

How beautiful the mountains are. How rugged the pioneers must have been to conquer this gorgeous but inhospitable terrain. My husband's grandparents were Mormon pioneers who told...

Ahhh, summer vacation is finally here.  No, not the three months, I’m going to write a book, organize my papers, clean my basement, and make home-made meals sort of vacation, but instead, the I’m taking 13 days off in a row so that I can be with my family, visit extended family, and see the sites sort of vacation.  We 12-month-a-year working stiffs long for this sort of thing.  Yes, yes, I am paid to work 12 months a year, so no pity party required or deserved.  It’s just that our family has taken relatively few vacations over the last 20 years, so this is very much a special occasion for us.  

It would be nice to have an annual week at the beach, or a ritualistic trek to Grandma’s, but we live on a boat so we can't justify beach hotel expenditures and both grandmothers live just around the Beltway, so the regular vacation thing has just never worked out for us (although some would...

E.J. Dionne wrote a column today entitled “In American Politics, Stupidity Is the Name of the Game.” Before calling politics (I assume he means politicians) stupid, he should have considered the fact that he might not have been so smart to cite data in his column that in no way supports his assertion that $250,000 per year households are wealthy and under-taxed or that this is the income level that should separate the tax burdened from the tax advantaged.  I do agree with Mr. Dionne that, for better or worse, tax increases are imminent given the humongous national debt we have accumulated, but the evidence he cites in no way supports the idea that $250,000 is the right place to draw the line. Maybe it’s higher and probably it’s lower, but neither study cited by Mr. Dionne can answer that question.

The first report referenced by Mr. Dionne was produced by the Congressional Budget Office ...

My recent blog on the wasted resources associated with the academic “summer vacation” stirred up quite an interesting dialogue.  What is most shocking to me is that outside of a few comments about the benefits of summer internships for students (as if there are enough summer internships and jobs for all who want them, or that all college students are spoiled 18-year-olds who have never worked a 9-to-5 job before and need to do it during their college summers, or that summer is the only time when it is conceivable that an internship or job might be available), it is clear that most of the commenters weren’t at all concerned about how to improve outcomes or reduce costs for students, but instead how to make their own lives and careers more comfortable. 

Having summers off certainly doesn’t help students finish college more quickly, it doesn’t reduce the cost, and it definitely doesn’t...

Once upon a time, a long time ago, the city of Washington cleared out for the summer. In part this was because Members of Congress had to go home at that time to tend to their fields.  Perhaps even more importantly, the swamp upon which Washington was built served as the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes that carried malaria to those who dared to summer-over in the Federal City. But, as the mosquitoes were controlled, as jobs migrated from field to city, and as electricity enabled indoor temperature control, Washington adjusted and Congress extended the legislative session well into the summer months. In other words, when the conditions and circumstances that once necessitated a lengthy summer recess were eliminated, the congressional schedule changed and summer became a time of year, like most others, when people race around at breakneck pace and are expected to perform no...