A reader submitted the following question: “I recently discovered that my husband is attracted to transsexuals (MTF - non op). This is the only type of porn that he looks at. He also role plays online with men for sexual play and chat. I discovered this after I started snooping because I had some red flags. He is very embarrassed and uncomfortable discussing it. He has apologized for the online chatting (as we had agreed this was out of bounds for our relationship). He says he likes them because they are feminine but his primary attraction is to women (with female parts). However, I just am not sure I believe him. I am terrified that when we are intimate (which I have to pretty much beg for), he can only do it when its dark and I am fearful he is fantasizing that I have a penis. This bothers me deeply on a number of different levels. Are there men who are only interested in transsexuals? Is it possible he is no longer turned on by my female genitalia?” There’s a lot to unpack in this question, but let’s start here: over the years, I’ve received several emails from women describing similar stories and concerns, so you’re not alone in feeling the way that you do.

In much of the world, gender is viewed as binary: man or woman, each assigned characteristics and traits designated by biological sex. But that's not the case everywhere, says France Villarta. In a talk that's part cultural love letter, part history lesson, he details the legacy of gender fluidity and inclusivity in his native Philippines -- and emphasizes the universal beauty of all people, regardless of society's labels.

"You don't predict the future -- you imagine the future," says sci-fi writer Charlie Jane Anders. In a talk that's part dream, part research-based extrapolation, she takes us on a wild, speculative tour of the delights and challenges the future may hold -- and shows how dreaming up weird, futuristic possibilities empowers us to construct a better tomorrow.

To understand what makes marriages work, we need to talk about why they sometimes end, says family law professor Jeannie Suk Gersen. Follow along as she lays out three ways that thinking about marital decisions through the lens of divorce can help you better navigate togetherness from the beginning.

Some biological structures are so small that scientists can't see them with even the most powerful microscopes. That's where molecular animator and TED Fellow Janet Iwasa gets creative. Explore vast, unseen molecular worlds as she shares mesmerizing animations that imagine how they might work.

STANDARD ERRORS VS STANDARD DEVIATIONS Click to enlarge There’s an ancient haiku that goes: People confuse a well-estimated mean with a certain outcome Ok, that’s not true. But Jake Hofman, Dan Goldstein, and Jessica Hullman have a new paper (recently accepted at CHI 2020) about this. They bet you’ll think the results of their paper […]

The post How visualizing inferential uncertainty can mislead readers about treatment effects in scientific results appeared first on Decision Science News.

I recently talked with Carrie Conaway, Harvard lecturer and former Massachusetts state administrator, about the challenges coronavirus presents for state ed. departments.

Officials have not done enough to prevent fraud in Head Start programs, the GAO said. The findings prompted Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., the ranking member of the House education and labor committee, to call for a hearing on the federally funded preschool program for low-income children.

The Ohio board of education last week voted to order the state's largest full-time online charter school to repay $60 million in state aid.

Ohio is seeking to recoup millions of dollars in funds from now-defunct online charter school, the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow.

Ohio's attorney general last week filed suit against the founder of the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow, aiming to recover millions of dollars in public funding that the state claims wrongfully went to the cyber charter school.

Academic achievement at Ohio schools eligible for School Improvement Grants during the Obama administration increased for a few years, a new study says, but SIG's legacy remains complicated.

"We have a responsibility to save lives," Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said on Twitter. "We could have waited to close schools, but based on advice from health experts, this is the time to do it."

The decision comes after a state investigation of one Tulsa school found that the individualized education programs for students there frequently used generic educational goals.

As the national conversation on reopening schools accelerates, experts say the best way to protect vulnerable teachers might be to not have them in school buildings at all.

The chairman and CEO of H-E-B, a Texas-based grocery chain, is sinking more than $100 million into the launch of a new institute focused on improving school leadership in Texas' public schools.

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is not famous for pressuring states into desired outcomes, but did put at least two states' Title I funding on "high-risk" status last year.

"Educators are completely redesigning instructional delivery while constantly being thrown new rules. It's like 'flying the plane as you build it,'" says Maddie Fennell.

The state's last superintendent resigned under pressure after he attempted to take over Montgomery's school system and figure out a way to grade the state's schools.

The STEM School shooting underscores the huge challenges educators face in keeping students safe, even as fatal and injurious gunfire inside K-12 schools remains statistically rare.

As the national conversation on reopening schools accelerates, experts say the best way to protect vulnerable teachers might be to not have them in school buildings at all.

Knowing the shift to remote learning would be tough for teachers, school and district administrators have scrambled to assemble as many kinds of supports as they can.

Schools are "still dealing with the belief that children [with disabilities] can't be educated with their peers," says Nicki Vander Meulen, an autistic school board member in Madison, Wis.

Aspiring teachers in California will now be able to major in education as undergraduates, which has been forbidden for more than five decades under an unusual state law.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review a decision by Montana's highest court that struck down a tuition tax-credit program allowing tuition scholarships to benefit students at private religious schools.

The case being heard by the Supreme Court next week deals with a debate that has raged since the 19th century about federal education funding for private religious schools.

The president said he'd "like to see schools open" where possible, although most states have closed them for the academic year, and said children seem to be doing relatively well during the coronavirus pandemic.

Montana Superintendent Elsie Arntzen offers practical advice to schools that could open as early as May 7, even as she says "how they open schools and how learning takes place is up to them."

The state wants to test its middle school students in the mathematics courses in which they're enrolled, rather than with the state tests created for that each student's particular grade.

Federal watchdogs find that Utah inflated its high school graduation rate in the last of a series of reports warning states not to make end runs around the rules for calculating graduation rates.

Having failed to shape their states' Every Student Succeeds Act plans to their liking, elected officials in a a few places want the U.S. secretary of education to send the plans back or turn them down.

Six school systems, the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools, and the NAACP Pennsylvania State Conference want to change the state's school-funding system, which allows for wide spending gaps between low- and high-income districts.