Teacher thanks, measles in Marin, afterschool activities, same sex non-education, tenure denial, and more: Required Readings, 02.01.15

As a bit of positive reinforcement, let’s start off today’s Required Readings with one man’s thank you to the 10th-grade English teacher who changed his life.

Blogger Dr. Jen Gunter gets close to home with “Effect of a science fair project on MMR vaccine beliefs in Marin County.” (I would guess that at least one of the 5th graders involved is hers.) Meanwhile in Marin, the father of a young cancer patient wants his child’s school to ban unvaccinated children.

Will income-based disparities in access to extracurricular activities widen the achievement gap?

The increase in U.S. states legalizing gay marriage has created a paradox in which laws and policies in some of these states prohibit education about homosexuality. And “Texas, Alabama, and Mississippi require sex ed teachers to frame homosexuality as a crime.”

On the campus speech front, a lawsuit against the University of Illinois of tenure denial has also demanded “damages from university donors who pressured its leaders not to hire him” over criticisms of Israel that were considered anti-Semitic.

Finally, some heartbreaking news about the destruction of libraries and other cultural and historical sites in Iraq.

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