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What’s in Ramsey County’s Wind?
Back in April, Ramsey County received an F for particulate matter (PM) pollution on the American Lung Association's (ALA) 2012 State of the Air report. Hennepin, Dakota and Scott Counties all received a C grade for PM pollution. As the apparent metro black sheep, what is Ramsey County doing wrong? Well, it may not be that simple. One cause for the polluted air, says the Minnesota Lung Association’s Robert Moffitt, is simply a combination of weather patterns and geographic location. We’re always polluting somewhere, says Moffitt, and with Minnesota’s flat open spaces and high winds air pollution can blow in…
Education: More Like Parks, Less Like an Oil Change
I am not particularly car-literate, so my experience with an oil change goes something like this: I drive to the service station, drop the car off, sit in the waiting room for a while, and then pay the bill. I may need to answer a few questions and make an extra decision or two, but that's the basic gist of it. I believe this has become the default metaphor of education, and I think that's a problem. Schools are too often treated like service stations where kids are dropped off, subjected to little-understood maintenance procedures, and then returned to their…
