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      Trump to Speak at Moms for Liberty Convention

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      Last year, the former president told the group it was time to “liberate our children from the Marxist lunatics and perverts” in education. Does that message still resonate with voters?Former President Donald J. Trump is set to speak Friday evening to a gathering of Moms for Liberty, a conservative activist group whose priorities mirror much of his own education platform.Like Mr. Trump, they have called for stricter classroom discipline and vouchers for private school tuition and home-schooling costs. They want to ban certain books and cut funding to schools that embrace progressive ideas on gender and race, while slimming down or even closing the federal Department of Education.But as his presidential campaign leans heavily on cultural divides over gender, parenting and education, there have been signs of voter weariness, and questions over whether social issues in schools are still energizing voters.“Is this a wave that’s on the decline?” asked Julie Marsh, a professor at the University of Southern California who has studied school board elections. “We’re perhaps seeing signs of parents being turned off by some of this.”Mr. Trump’s appearance in Washington, D.C., is his second time speaking at the annual convention of Moms for Liberty, which was founded in 2021. He has embraced the group’s rhetoric, telling convention attendees last year that he would “liberate our children from the Marxist lunatics and perverts who have infested our educational system.”In the past several months, Mr. Trump has floated provocative ideas like allowing parents to elect principals and creating an alternative credentialing body for teachers who embrace “patriotic values.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Cellphone Bans in Schools? NYC Is ‘Not There Yet,’ Mayor Says

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      Districts and states across the United States have supported restrictions on student usage, but New York City’s leaders are backing away from the idea because of logistical concerns.Los Angeles became the largest school district in the United States to ban cellphones in June. Entire states, such as Virginia, Ohio and Minnesota, have moved to institute broad crackdowns on phones in schools. But not New York City.At least not yet, Mayor Eric Adams said on Tuesday.Mr. Adams said at a news conference that New York City was a “unique animal” and that while there would be “some action,” the city was not yet ready for a full ban.“We’re not there yet,” he said. “We have to get it right.”Earlier in the summer, David C. Banks, the schools chancellor, suggested that new cellphone restrictions would be unveiled before the fall semester. So the mayor’s announcement — a week before the city’s first day of school — came as a surprise to many families.Mr. Adams’s comments will likely placate some parents and educators concerned about the logistics of a ban, while worrying others who argue that the devices harm students.A growing list of states, cities and school districts have curbed students’ cellphone use as concerns rise over their mental health. Officials point to the potential damage that access to social media and an “always online” culture may do to children.Mr. Adams said that while he did not want any distractions in city schools, he also wanted to be careful about the implementation of any eventual ban, so that the city wouldn’t have to backtrack on its plans.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Overlooked No More: Mabel Addis, Who Pioneered Storytelling in Video Gaming

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      She was a teacher when she participated in an educational experiment with IBM. As a result, she became the first female video game designer.This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times.In the 1960s, Mabel Addis was an elementary-school teacher in a small town in New York State when she was offered a unique opportunity that would make history: Create an educational game with IBM.What resulted was the Sumerian Game, an early video game that taught the basics of economic theory to sixth graders. In it, a student would act as the ruler of the Mesopotamian city-state of Lagash, in Sumer, in 3500 B.C. In Level One, the primary focus was on growing crops and developing tools; Level Two oversaw a more diversified economy; and in Level Three, Lagash interacted with other city-states. In each round, students responded to prompts issued by Urbaba, the royal steward.The video game was text-based, but it is believed to be the first to introduce storytelling and characters, and the first in a genre now known as edutainment. It also made Addis the first known female video game designer, according to several game historians.The Sumerian Game “is pretty rudimentary by today’s standards, but the thing about being ‘first’ is that just existing at all becomes innovative,” Kate Willaert, the author of the blog “A Critical Hit!,” who has studied the game extensively, said in an email. Addis, she maintained, was the first video game writer ever.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      5 Things School Nurses Say Parents Are Doing Wrong

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      The stalwarts of children’s health shared their tips and gripes.Carren Teitelbaum, a school nurse in Ramapo, N.Y., once had a student stumble into her office with a 102 degree fever. Mrs. Teitelbaum called his mother, who said she’d given her son Tylenol that had likely worn off and that she could come give him more.“That kind of thing is extremely frustrating,” Mrs. Teitelbaum said. “And it’s not an isolated incident.”Most parents are aware that fevers are a symptom of communicable viruses, and it’s best to keep their children home when they have one. But on short notice, many parents can’t stay home from work, leaving school nurses to care for sick and contagious children.Sending feverish kids to school is just one miscalculation school nurses say parents make. The New York Times spoke with 14 school nurses across the United States who shared other common mistakes. “Some of these things are common sense,” said Mrs. Teitelbaum, “but I find that what makes sense for me may not make sense for somebody else.”They leave the school nurse in the dark.Parents might inform a new teacher about their child’s health but many forget to tell the school nurse, Mrs. Teitelbaum said.Last year, a student with a bad headache visited Anna Etlinger, a school nurse in Cook County, Ill. After calling the boy’s mother, Mrs. Etlinger learned he experiences migraines that cause vomiting without medicine. But public school nurses generally can’t administer most medications without parental consent and permission from a licensed health care provider.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Supreme Court, for Now, Blocks Protections for Transgender Students in Some States

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      The order maintained halts by lower courts on federal rules prohibiting discrimination against transgender people in schools.The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily continued to block Education Department rules intended to protect transgender students from discrimination based on their gender identity in several Republican states that had mounted challenges.The emergency order allowed rulings by lower courts in Louisiana and Kentucky to remain in effect in about 10 states as litigation moves forward, maintaining a pause on new federal guidelines expanding protections for transgender students that had been enacted in nearly half the country on Aug. 1.The order came in response to a challenge by the Biden administration, which asked the Supreme Court to intervene after a number of Republican-led states sought to overturn the new rules.The decision was unsigned, as is typical in such emergency petitions. But all nine members of the court said that parts of the new rules — including the protections for transgender students — should not go into effect until the legal challenges are resolved.“Importantly,” the unsigned order said, “all members of the court today accept that the plaintiffs were entitled to preliminary injunctive relief as to three provisions of the rule, including the central provision that newly defines sex discrimination to include discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.”The decision handed a victory to the Republican-led states that had challenged the rules. A patchwork of lower court decisions means that the rules are temporarily paused in about 26 states.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Saving Conservatism From Trumpism

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      More from our inbox:The Candidates’ Foreign ExperienceA Loss of Diversity in Network NewsProtecting School LibrariesIndependent Voters Thalassa Raasch for The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “How to Save Conservatism From Itself,” by David French (column, Aug. 12):I commend Mr. French for declaring his intention to vote for Kamala Harris despite his pro-life convictions. And although I do not share his anti-abortion stance, I respect his beliefs.However, in my view Mr. French is mistaken to think that if Donald Trump is defeated in November, there is hope for a conservatism that demonstrates real compassion.Mr. Trump has not become the standard-bearer of the Republican Party against its will; on the contrary, he has articulated (in his most inarticulate way) the fanaticism of today’s conservative movement in America.Absolutism in regard to abortion, gun ownership, immigration, tax cuts for the wealthy, the slashing of benefits for the impoverished — these are the bedrock beliefs of today’s conservative movement, with or without Donald Trump. Who are the compassionate, compromise-seeking Republican leaders waiting in the wings to command a majority of voters once Mr. Trump somehow exits the stage?Donald Trump is a symptom, not the cause, of where the Republican Party finds itself today. Until honorable, conservative-minded people like Mr. French recognize this, it seems impossible to me that the Republican Party can rise from its ashes.Barth LandorChicagoTo the Editor:I don’t think one man’s vote will “save conservatism from itself,” but every vote counts, so I’m sure Kamala Harris will appreciate David French’s.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Texas Parents Fed Smoothies to Sick Daughter Who Later Died, Police Say

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      Miranda Sipps, 12, suffered for four days before dying while her mother and stepfather failed to seek medical treatment for her, the authorities said. Both are charged with a felony.A Texas mother and stepfather failed to seek medical assistance for their sick daughter and instead fed her smoothies as she battled life-threatening injuries for four days before she died on Monday, according to the Atascosa County Sheriff’s Office.The parents, Denise Balbaneda, 36, and Gerald Gonzales, 40, of Christine, Texas, “basically confessed” by telling the authorities how their daughter, Miranda Sipps, 12, was injured and that they had failed to act, Sheriff David Soward said at a news conference Wednesday. They were both arrested and charged with causing serious injury to a child by omission, a first-degree felony, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.“They thought they could nurse her back to health,” Sheriff Soward said Wednesday. “We do not think they wanted the attention that this would draw to them if the little girl was injured — which is strangely ironic.”For four days, the injuries that Miranda suffered left her unconscious and she was able only to “flutter her eyes and move her hands a little bit,” Sheriff Soward said. Instead of seeking medical attention, Ms. Balbaneda and Mr. Gonzales had her lie “on a pallet” and tried to feed her smoothies which she could not swallow, Sheriff Soward added.Miranda did not have any broken bones but authorities would not provide details about how the girl was injured or the nature of her injuries. Sheriff Soward said that the charges could change as more information is revealed.Efforts to reach Ms. Balbaneda and Mr. Gonzales for comment on Thursday were unsuccessful and it was unclear if they had legal representation.At around 8 p.m. Monday, Ms. Balbaneda, who was in a vehicle with her daughter, called 9-1-1 and was met by dispatchers on the side of a highway in Atascosa County near their family’s home in Christine, about 45 miles south of San Antonio, according to the sheriff’s office. The child was alive but unconscious and died in the hospital two hours later, it said.Sheriff Soward, who confirmed there had been “calls for service” to the couple’s home in the past, said that he felt that the couple did not want the police coming to their home. He described the home as “untidy, unkept, sort of dirty.”Monday was the first day of school for the Jourdanton Independent School District, where Miranda attended junior high school and was a cheerleader.“The Jourdanton ISD is currently dealing with the tragic loss of one of our Jr. High students,” the district said in a statement. “In our Junior High library, we made counselors available for anyone who may need or want help or assistance.”A GoFundMe post apparently from Miranda’s aunt, Pricilla Chapa, has raised about $2,000 for her funeral.“She was taken from us far too soon in an unexpected way,” the post read, “leaving behind a legacy of love, laughter, and memories that we will cherish forever.” More

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      Bennington to Revive Dance Program of Philadelphia Arts School

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      Bennington College raised nearly $1.3 million to absorb the dance program of the University of the Arts, which shuttered suddenly in June.Two months after the University of the Arts in Philadelphia closed, the school’s dance program will be revived at Bennington College in Vermont, which will absorb the dance school, three staff members and nearly 50 students, the college announced on Thursday.“What they are doing is the future of dance,” said Laura Walker, the president of Bennington College, who helped raise nearly $1.3 million from philanthropists to make it happen. The money included a donation of $1 million from Barbara and Sebastian Scripps, who run a nonprofit focused on arts education.“It’s a tough time, and we hope this will be a model for others,” Walker said.Nearly 1,150 students and 700 employees were left adrift after the University of the Arts president, Kerry Walk, abruptly closed the school in June, citing financial woes, and then resigned. Soon after, Pennsylvania officials opened an inquiry into the unexpected collapse. Some faculty and students have joined class-action lawsuits accusing the school of fraud and breach of contract; a union representing workers also filed an unfair labor practices complaint against the university in July.Several universities have offered spots to incoming freshmen who had committed to the University of the Arts. Temple University in Philadelphia has also welcomed returning fine arts and drama students, some of whom were near graduation.But the agreement with Bennington College goes further: All incoming and returning students were invited to attend. Donna Faye Burchfield, the former dean of the University of the Arts School of Dance, will oversee the bachelor and masters of fine arts programs, with about 50 students. The program will also include a number of visiting dance artists who previously taught in Philadelphia.“On a Friday evening, we learned about the school closing,” Burchfield said. “On Saturday morning, I started making calls.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More