Beta Moms and Cursive Types

“next-generation aura”

Alix Earle debuted a Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover and a Hawaiian Tropic campaign on the same day; Kristen Stewart is starring in an A24 vampire thriller; Michael B. Jordan is producing Rebecca Yarros’ romantasy adaptation Fourth Wing; and I finally started S3 of Euphoria — it’s way better than the media had led me to believe, but that wedding episode gave me the goriest nightmares.

CURSIVE CLUB, WHERE STUDENTS LEARN WITH A FLOURISH, nytimes
Cursive is making a comeback among young students who never learned it in school, with extracurricular clubs popping up in high schools and public libraries to teach the looping script Common Core dropped in 2010. At the Urban Assembly Early College High School of Emergency Medicine in Manhattan, six seniors gather after school in English teacher Suzanne Finman’s classroom to practice signing their names. “When students see me take my own notes in cursive, they immediately ask me to write their name in cursive and then they ask me to teach it to them,” Ms. Finman said. “This has happened a lot over the years, so I asked, ‘Could I teach you this in a cursive club?’” Libraries in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania now run weekly cursive sessions, and Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Idaho have joined at least 23 other states in reintroducing cursive to school curricula.

HOW AI KILLED A 133-YEAR-OLD PRINCETON TRADITION, theatlantic
Princeton’s faculty voted yesterday to begin proctoring exams again after 133 years of trusting students to self-police, following a sharp rise in academic dishonesty cases — 82 students found responsible in 2024-25, up from 50 in 2021-22 — and a senior survey in which 30% admitted to cheating and 28% said they’d used ChatGPT on assignments where it wasn’t allowed. Take-home exams at Princeton have dropped by more than two-thirds in the past year, in-class blue books are returning, and one history professor now requires students to write papers in Google Docs so he can review the composition history. Nadia Makuc, a senior at Princeton, said students often post about cheating on Fizz, an anonymous campus social-media app, and “as long as people think there is more cheating, it encourages more cheating.”

HELP! MY KINDERGARTEN IS ALL IN ON AI., nymag
While college professors are pushing back against AI, elementary school administrators in New York City are embracing it, much to the concern of parents and educators alike. Since 2024, around 150 NYC schools have rolled out Amira, an AI reading app whose purple-haired avatar listens to kindergarteners read aloud and collects their voice data, while five schools also use ST Math, a gamified app starring a penguin named JiJi that kids can buy as a $20 plush. Brooklyn dad Kevin Dugan said his daughter told him, “You know I love iPad math, but regular math is boring,” and Flatlands mom Bridget Kessler said, “These companies are literally mandated by their corporate charters to maximize profits in any way possible. So how can I trust that they have the best interests of my kids in mind?” At a six-hour policy hearing, parent Rachel Pelz told Chancellor Kamar Samuels from the mic, “You are experimenting on our children.”

The loudest round of applause was for Dina, a 6-year-old in a pink dress who walked up to the mic but froze and turned to hide her face in her dad’s sweater when it was her turn to speak. After a moment of terror, she gained the confidence to give her message about AI-enabled iPads during indoor recess. “We look at screens all day, so it’s not actually good for our brains,” she said. “So I think with indoor recess we could do something more fun.” She was gaining momentum, and the crowd cheered her on. “You could play with a friend, you could bring toys,” she said. “Or you even could read.”

THE ERA OF THE TIGER MOM IS OVER. ENTER THE BETA MOM., wsj
The Emma Grede effect? High-achieving mothers once “felt pressure to optimize their children for success,” with a societal expectation “to intensively helicopter,” but now they’re pulling back to prioritize their own sanity and their kids’ independence. Danielle Antosz, who refuses to sort her kids’ socks and puts them all in a free-for-all bin, doesn’t “believe getting into an Ivy League school indicates your potential for success or happiness.” Brown economist Emily Oster calls beta mom “a reaction to a trend that has reached its practical limits,” with parents “realizing that maybe going to Harvard isn't going to deliver success on a silver platter.”

HOW JACK SCHLOSSBERG BECAME THE CLOUT CANDIDATE FOR A CERTAIN NYC SOCIAL SET, vanityfair
Hosting a fundraiser for Jack Schlossberg, the 33-year-old Kennedy scion running for New York’s 12th congressional seat, has become a status play for a certain kind of young Manhattanite. Lingua Franca founder Rachelle Hruska MacPherson decided to host a pizza-and-wine get-together for Gen Zers in support of the candidate after a campaign sweatshirt was “fought over” by her young staff. “Every single 20-year-old girl that works for me is like, ‘When are we doing this event?’” she said. The draw, according to Andrew Zucker, is “a mix of Love Story buzz, youth, nostalgia, Instagram clout, genuine civic interest, and of course, the candidate’s Mount Rushmorian good looks.” But is “next-generation aura” enough to nab him a victory? Stay tuned.

One last thought:

@hanasdiariessx#mcdonalds #food #relatable #friendship #yellowfont

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