Turns out my blog about homework help was right on the money, as this week's Washington Post article is about just the same topic.

See "With Homework, a Helping Hand Can Sometimes be a Hindrance"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/15/AR2007041500778.html

I cannot begin to imagine the anguish of the parents of students killed at Virginia Tech yesterday.

To raise a child from helpless infancy, navigate all the perils of childhood and teenage years, to finally send them off to college . . . to have THIS happen. So senseless.

So unpreventable.

As parents, it is our job to anticipate danger, to keep our children safe. How can we even begin to imagine that college won't be safe?

Because THE U.S. DOES NOT HAVE A FEDERAL PAID FAMILY LEAVE POLICY, many women are forced to either go back to full-time work too soon or to quit their job and become stay-at-home moms.

Neither is a great option.

Why can't the U.S. join other industrialized nations in having FEDERAL PAID FAMILY LEAVE?

Let us take a trip around the world, to see what other countries offer:

Like many working women, I spent a lot of my pregnancy trying to figure out how I was going to afford to take time off from work when my child was born. A part-time worker at the time, I had no paid sick days or vacation days to bank. And THE U.S. HAS NO FEDERAL PAID MATERNITY LEAVE POLICY.

So, homework seems to be a big dilemma faced by both parents and teachers these days. A lot of parents I talk to say that they think their child is getting too much homework while other parents complain that their kids do not get enough.

So, you probably have figured out by now that two topics near and dear to me are gender and education. The conference I just attended in Dublin addressed both. My research generally looks at both.

Well, even those who are not devoted to the topics of gender and education should read the new book out by Ayaan Hirsi Ali called "Infidel" (Free Press, February 2007).