education

In tribute to her wonderfully rounded decade of hits at Ball State, here are some intriguing facts about BSU’s outgoing leader.

“I’m making up for being disqualified the last time I played in Indianapolis,” Agassi said when addressing the audience of about 200.

Upon being sworn in last January, Indiana educator-in-chief Glenda Ritz braced for a fight. Who could blame her?

As AP reporter Tom LoBianco churned out hit after hit, politicos quietly talked about how he was able to get so much dirt on Tony Bennett. But the blogosphere erupted with more pointed talk of foul play by the Glenda Ritz administration.

“I had a lot of disappointments, not being able to read. Problems in school, people making fun of me, people laughing. I left when I was about 15. I was good with my hands, so I tried going into Job Corps.”

Ball State’s pioneering president will step away from the spotlight—sometimes harsh, always bright—that has been on her since May 2004, when she was named as the first female leader of a public university in this state.

Indianapolis charter schools are signing up students as fast as they can find them. Will reform spell the end of traditional public education?

“I marveled at the evidence of Jacob’s precocity, but in truth, the new normal was still hard. In particular, we weren’t making much progress on real conversation. … Simply put, social skills are far more important than academics in kindergarten.”

Inside Crooked Creek Elementary School’s cafeteria, Glenda Ritz wielded a scalpel, in-structing about 100 fourth-graders in the art of dissecting a spiny dogfish shark. The smell of the dead specimens, spread out on metal trays on top of blue table covers, filled the air. It was a lesson she had delivered—and a procedure she’d performed—more than a dozen times throughout her 33-year teaching career.

To understand the chasm currently separating Indiana’s political parties, all you need to do is picture their election-night celebrations. On November 6, the Democrats chose a sedate ballroom at the Downtown Marriott. The Republicans, who were marching toward supermajorities in the House and the Senate, chose the end zone at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Every year about this time, I get the back-to-school itch. The smell of plastic pencil cases fills the air, and I dream about the days when I broke in a pair of stiff new oxfords, donned an itchy Black Watch plaid jumper, and trudged off to School 84. 

Editor’s Note, Nov. 7, 2012: Despite outspending his opponent, Glenda Ritz, by a 10-to-1 margin, Tony Bennett was unseated as Indiana’s schools czar on Nov. 6. Here, our September 2011 feature profile on the man who catalyzed a lot of visceral responses—both for and against him