Luna, 26, no longer speaks to her father. There was no single betrayal, no dramatic rupture. What ended the relationship was his insistence on obedience and dominance. “In his head it’s like, ‘I’m the father, you’re the daughters, we do things my way,’” she told me. Luna explained to him that she was “not willing […]

Every child should leave third grade able to read with competence and confidence. That is not a political position. It is an educational and moral obligation. The question is whether mandatory grade retention is an evidence-based response when a child has not acquired those skills. As a pediatric psychologist who has spent decades evaluating children […]