‘Every Vote Matters’ in 5-4 Supreme Court rulings

Cases that have direct bearing on students’ lives were decided with a vote of 5-4 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Their rights to free speech, limitations on speech, drug testing and treatment in the courts might be radically different if these splits had gone a different way.

In Every Vote Matters (Free Spirit Publishing, March 2016), Judge Tom Jacobs and his daughter Natalie Jacobs review several U.S. Supreme Court cases that were decided with a single vote.

Like the title suggests, “Every Vote Matters” to Judge Tom and Natalie Jacobs, and they present a strong argument that it needs to matter to young people reading this book. Their one vote could shape who is elected president or elected to U.S. Congress — which, in turn, affects the ideology of who is appointed to the United States’ highest court.

Autism Speaks: Two autists elected to board

From John Elder Robison, I learned this week that, for the first time, Autism Speaks has elected two actual people with autism to its board of directors.

ESSA includes favorable library provisions

President Obama signs the ESSA. Photo credit: U.S. White House

President Barack Obama has signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), and American Library Association (ALA) President Sari Feldman credited ALA members’ advocacy efforts with favorable provisions for school libraries.

‘Susan B. Anderson’s Kids’ Knitting Workshop’

After three attempts at learning to knit, I finally succeeded with the help of a circular-knitting class: 16 inches of knit stitch on circular knitting needles to form the body of a bag.

It’s precisely this approach that is taken by Susan B. Anderson in her Kids’ Knitting Workshop (Artisan Books, 2015). “Knitting in the round is the easiest and most effective way for children (and adults) to learn how to knit.” All of the knitting in her book uses circular knitting needles.

Knitting: No longer ‘left-’ or ‘right-handed’?

Knitting-book authors seem to be moving away from terms like “right-handed” and “left-handed” knitting, referring instead to “Continental-” and “English-style” knitting. (In “Continental,” the yarn is carried in the left hand; in “English-style,” it’s carried in the right.