Technolandy

Day 19 (of 2025/26) In the news… gotta talk Tylenol and **** and fees 

First,  there is the blame game on Tylenol and acetaminophen as the cause of autism.. despite the findings being inconsistent and inconclusive… love one of my favourite education resources on the socials, @Kaelynn_vp – who shared a great video on research, not opinion, on Tylenol/autism: https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSDqrTfrx/

As many have pointed out – science separated autism from a broader neurological classification about three decades before acetaminophen was first concocted… you would likely have better success in correlating the rise of diagnosing ASD with the increase in school shootings than trying to blame one gender (again…)

Second, Book and TV censorship continues to to be a big deal – earlier this week someone got mad at The Hate U Give for ‘promoting political views… which… is kinda the point of books… all books have an agenda… that’s why a common assignment is to define the theme of the book… https://www.thetimes.com/uk/education/article/divisive-black-lives-matter-book-the-hate-u-give-ddhc3r7ls I know people say schools shouldn’t indoctrinate students… but education literally IS indoctrination, which is why the responsibility of teachers is held at such a high level ~ I don’t want my students to know my political leaning (except that I’m against fascists and nazis, and am always happy to share ‘why’) but more often than not, I acknowledge and point out that actions like focusing on banning books is just trying to avoid saying the quiet part out loud and how some would really prefer to live in segregated environments – which is why schools need to indoctrinate society on the power and beauty of inclusive societies – in classrooms and in the real world. And I will continue to speak out and show support for #SOGI and #BIPOC  and #neurospicy issues because the more we know and understand, the better it is for all!

Once again – rather than taking the opportunity to enter discussions into this, the focus of banning it only kicks the issue down the road and allows more bad things to happen in the meantime. 

And the third news item that got my attention this week: fees… expect the next one to be the premium cost to work with a real live person rather than an eduAI…

TDSB is now charging for its IB program. Here’s everything you need to know about it — and whether it’s worth the cost :mwwfor students — Toronto Star

Think I’m kidding? A Texas preschool is trying to lean into screens: https://apple.news/ANTRrb_v7SBuzhf5yrK9Kig

Now as I balance hypocrisy, I still believe in the human element of education – even in our online learning school where there is a lot of work done on/via schools, it is the relationships that families continue to highlight as our key selling feature… I am also curious if a cohort of students will survive the Turing test (hmm TutURING test??) and realize that their teacher and ea are ai… but we don’t charge fees for either preferred interaction method – future robot overlord or human!