Aimee Viana has been appointed to the position of executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics (the Initiative). According to a statement, :”Viana will work closely with the Hispanic community and the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. She will align the work of the Initiative with the…
In northern Sudan, archaeologists have uncovered a trove of new artifacts at the necropolis of Sedeinga, an ancient Nubian city. Tablets, lintels, and steles covered in the mysterious script of one of the oldest known written languages will hopefully provide more insight into this ancient culture. Sedeinga is known for its group of small pyramids…
New research has found a groundbreaking link between Australian Indigenous languages, demonstrating for the first time that they all descend from one common ancestor. The unprecedented finding sheds new light on the origins of Australian language and has significant implications for the cultural history of Australia. The result of a collaboration between the University of…
The United Nations celebrated its ninth Chinese Language Day last month at its offices worldwide. Celebrations in New York included lectures on Chinese culture, film screenings, panel discussions on education, and art exhibitions. Lectures on Chinese poetry, calligraphy, and painting attracted UN staff from around the world. The event also offered them an opportunity to…
The Amazonian Bora people mimic the rhythm of their language using drums. Credit: GAIAMEDIA/AEXCRAMThe Amazonian Bora people mimic the rhythm of their language for communication over large distances using drums Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the Université Grenoble Alpes have found that the drummed speech of the Northwest Amazon Boras…
According to a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program has had a “significant impact” on the educational outcomes of undocumented immigrant youth, including a 15% increase in high school graduation rates, an extra 49,000 Hispanics obtaining a high school diploma, a 45% drop in teenage motherhood,…
Today is a big day, with three coinciding celebrations all at once. World Book Day is a celebration of authors, books, and most importantly, reading. According to their website, it is “the biggest celebration of its kind, designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and marked in over 100 countries…
Although U.S. Latinos believe it’s important for future generations of Hispanics to speak Spanish and the vast majority speak the language to their children, less Latino parents ensure their children speak Spanish as they become second- and third-generation, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis. Overall, 85% of Latino parents say they speak Spanish…
Last month, the Latvian Parliament (Saeima) passed amendments to its education laws according to which ethnic-minority schools will have to transition to Latvian-only secondary education in the 2019/2020 academic year. In passing the amendments, lawmakers rejected a petition calling for the preservation of bilingual education signed by over 10,000 Latvian citizens. When education and science…
A new study of more than 11,000 7-year-old twins found that how well children read determines how much they read, not vice versa. Furthermore, the authors of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry study found that how well children read is highly heritable, while how much they read is influenced equally by genes and the…