I'm a teacher, and a pretty good one, if I do say so myself. I was as pleased as the next educator when kids started picking up books and reading them for fun again, even if I think the particular Hogwartian motivator isn't the be all and end all of children's lit.

Using a student's interests to teach a difficult subject is a pretty effective way of motivating kids to examine something they previously disliked or shied away from in a new light, and it's not a new practice. Crossing subject areas within a single lesson is also not new - teaching reading in harmony with the other subjects is proven to both make kids stronger readers and more successful in other disciplines as well. For example, I frequently use both fiction and non to teach social studies.

All that being said, I think Harry Potter math is hooey, from the picture the article painted. As someone active in school reform, I can say with near 100% certainty that mumbling spells over subraction problems did not raise this school's performance. It may have made math more palatable for the students who didn't dig math, but that alone is not enough to take a school from the bottom to the top of the barrel. The anecdotal evidence may indicate differently, but I'd be willing to bet an authentic, scientifically based study would prove it's not the "numerus subtracticus" that made the difference for this school.

Clever motivation technique? Maybe. Solution for low performing schools? I don't think so.

Plus, here in the good ole USA, for every parent that read every page of the HP tomes with as much gusto as their child, we have a parent who believes the magic/witchcraft themes go against their core values. That's a discussion for another letter, though. : )

Family Guy stole it from here: http://www.chucknorrisfacts.com/

"After a night of drinking, Chuck Norris doesn't throw up, he throws DOWN."

Good for Huckabee. Still won't vote for him, but this gave me a nice chuckle.

Michelle is also baffled by the need for everyone to know every mundane detail of everyone else's life.

Michelle is an anachronism this way.

Michelle is feeling awkward and self-conscious at all the passive voice-speak in the third-person.

Michelle is shutting up now.

These are some really nice gifts! So nice, in fact, I think there are two I can afford, the Impeach-mints and the knit hat.

I know I'm in the minority; well-educated, well-informed, broke-as-hell-from-common-good-job Salon reader, but maybe next year could you consider adding some cool, hip, reasonably priced choices for those of us without a $10k holiday budget?

I'm about to drive to work in an ice storm, and was spending my morning glowering, grumbling and grousing to myself about the unfairness of it all. This article made me laugh, and suddenly the day doesn't seem so bad. Okay, driving on the ice will still suck, but at least the phrase "suck it up, bitches! Meet my new boyfriend!" will keep me entertained while wrestling with black ice, tailgaters and playing dodge 'em with the semis.

So who do we sterilize without consent? People with physical illnesses? People with mental illness? People with less than say 120 IQs? How do we go about it? Do we start screening when individuals become physically able to reproduce?

I see it now, we pull every fourth grader, give them extensive testing and if they don't meet the rules for acceptable human beings we perform castrations and hysterectomies. Just like a round of immunizations. After all, we're doing it for the earth, such a shame it's speckled with so many undesirables.

Sarcasm off, y'all make me sick. Jeez, I'd rather deal with ultra-right-wing fundamentalists trying to impede on my rights to control my body, at least they aren't proposing mass sterilization.

I live in Indiana, a state which has been economically decimated for the past twenty years. And guess what? People are bitter here. People DO cling to immigration, abortion, gun control, gay marriage and attacking the public schools. I'm a regular reader of a free-for-all forum that used to be connected to our local newsrag and daily there are hundreds if not thousands of bitter, angry, aggressive and inflammatory posts about those five subjects.

Indiana lost 9000 jobs in February of this year. The biggest employer in our state is Wal*Mart. Of course we're angry. Of course we're trapped in a bubble of self-involvement, panic and fear. We're the ultimate target audience for right-wing shock jocks who feed, nurture and encourage that fear to grow into self-righteous hatred.

I'm guessing most Salon readers don't live in the parts of our country that have been slowly eroded from comfortable middle class to paycheck-to-paycheck panic. I'm also guessing most of the media who are criticizing his statements don't live in the big chunks of the midwest and the rust belt where the working class has been marginalized. My father worked for 45 years at a manufacturing plant owned by one of the big three automakers, only to see the pension and benefits he slaved for half a century to earn disappear shortly before he retired. He did exactly what he was supposed to do to get his tiny sliver of the American Pie; he worked hard, he was a loyal employee, he paid his taxes, he voted - and in the end he had to get a job after retirement so he and my mom could afford medical care and luxuries like heat and food. If someone besides Rush Limbaugh acknowledged that my dad was bitter, he'd be more relieved than insulted, I guarantee it.

Read any thread here: http://www.topix.net/forum/indy and tell me people aren't bitter. Tell me they aren't using the laundry list of outrages I gave above as scapegoats.