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On June 15, women members of the House and Senate played women from the Washington press corps in the 8th annual congressional softball game. On June 23, the Democratic and Republican members of the House and Senate squared off against each other in a baseball game that has been contested with some regularity since it was inaugurated in 1909. While the congressional women played softball on a bipartisan team and the congressional men played hardball on partisan teams, the game on … [Read more...]

[This is the final blog in a series of five that we have posted on grit and what it means for poor kids.] In the first blog, we introduced the concept of grit and its importance. In the second, we placed the focus on building grit through quality early childhood education and beyond. In the third, we addressed the three essential grid-builders: communities, neighborhood schools, and families. In the fourth, we examined the crisis conditions confronting poor kids today. We … [Read more...]

Donald Trump, the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party for President of the United States, has become famous - or, should we say infamous - for saying he would build a wall on the border between Mexico and the United States. In a recent interview with Jake Tapper of CNN trying to defend his indefensible comments regarding Gonzalo Curiel, a native-born American of Mexican heritage, who is the federal judge overseeing the lawsuit against Trump University, Trump repeatedly … [Read more...]

[This is the fourth in a series of five blogs that we will post on grit and what it means for poor kids.] In the first blog, we introduced the concept of grit and its importance. In the second, we placed the focus on building grit through quality early childhood education and beyond. In the third, we addressed the three essential grid-builders: communities, neighborhood schools, and families. We closed our last blog by stating that, “... the need for an innovative and comprehensive … [Read more...]

This is the second in a series of five blogs that we will post on grit and what it means for poor kids. In the first blog of this series, we introduced the concept of grit, as defined by Professor Angela Duckworth in her new book, Grit:The Power of Passion and Perseverance, and discussed how important it is for poor kids. We ended that blog by asking what can be done to help poor kids raise their GPA. That’s not grade point average. In this instance it stands for Grit Potential … [Read more...]

Grit! If you don’t have it, get it. It’s the key to success. [We look at grit and what it means for poor kids in this series of five blogs. In this first blog we introduce the concept and explain why it is important. In the next four blogs we examine: what can be done to build grit in early childhood and beyond; the roles and responsibilities of the primary grit-builders: families, neighborhood schools and communities; the crisis conditions facing poor kids today; and, what needs to be … [Read more...]