Strollerderby : school

One School, 19 Sets of Twins

JeanneSager — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:27:00 GMT

They're seeing double at Armstrong Elementary School in Garland, Texas. And double. And double.

The small Texas school has just five hundred thirty-nine students - and thirty-eight of them are twins. There are nine sets in the second grade alone.

It's surely a sign of the trend toward twins - spurred on by fertility interventions. These days, one out of every thirty-three kids is a twin (compared to one in eighty back in the day). In 2004, there were more than one hundred thirty two thousand twin births recorded in the U.S. - more than any year prior (that was the latest year data is available on, no word on whether it's risen in the past five years).

There's no question there are more of them, but I'd hazard a guess they're more spread out too. And they're bringing more attention. Perhaps because because the hot button fertility drug issue (hello Octomom) make these parents an easy mark? The years have also been marked by advancements in medical technologies that keep twin pregnancies going and keep premie duos alive.

And perhaps I'm the anomaly that proves the rule, but I never thought twins were rare. I grew up in the eighties in an even smaller school than Armstrong (there were thirty-four kids in my graduating class). And there was one set of twins in my class, plus half of a set of a twins (his brother failed a year and ended up behind us). My next door neighbors had identical twin boys, I have a set of twin uncles (born in the sixties) plus a set of twin cousins. None of these kids were born with fertility interventions.

Twins make up seven percent of the population at Armstrong. But they made up eight percent of the population in my third grade class.

Did you know a lot of twins growing up or are you meeting your first multiples as parents?

Image: MSNBC

Gay Boy Crowned Prom Queen

JeanneSager — Sat, 30 May 2009 15:08:00 GMT

He's a boy, and he's gay, but Sergio Garcia isn't ashamed to tell people he's a queen. Prom queen that is.

Describing himself as "flamboyant," openly gay Garcia was crowned the queen of his Los Angeles high school's prom this week after deciding he could better identify with being a queen than a king, and campaigning hard for the part.

After reading about the racially segregated proms still allowed in some parts of the south this week, I needed this story. Because Garcia's principal says this is a great example of how successful the school is at driving home the message of diversity. At a school that's offered LGBT programming since for the past twenty-five years, it's apparently working.

The vote wasn't unanimous, but speaking in front of his classmates to campaign for the part, Garcia told them, "I'm not your typical prom queen candidate. There's more to me than meets the eye." Kids who spoke to a local TV station said they were swayed by his words, and they cast their vote for him.

Now we can only hope the same kids start voting in California elections soon - and find a way to send proposition 8 back to pasture.

Image: Twirlit

No Hugs For You At Some High Schools

Brett Singer — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:30:00 GMT

According to this New York Times article, hugging is very popular among high school students. A video on the site mentions Hug High School, and calls teenage hugging a "sociological phenomenon." (Hey, whatever floats your sociological boat.)

But at some schools, the big bad grown-ups decided that enough is enough. The Times tells us that "schools from Hillsdale, N.J., to Bend, Ore., wary in a litigious era about sexual harassment or improper touching — or citing hallway clogging and late arrivals to class — have banned hugging or imposed a three-second rule."

First of all, a quick personal note. I'm not that young and when I was in high school boys and girls kissed each other hello. Boys tended to slap hands, either as a high-five or as a slap-into-handshake. I don't remember boys hugging, but boys and girls did, and girls hugged other girls. So I'm not so sure that this "phenomenon" is terribly significant.

Now, back to the issue at hand. If the kids are hanging all over each other in the halls, that could be problematic I suppose. But the problem isn't the hugging, it's that they're standing in the halls. The three-second rule is nuts and won't work. At summer camp, I remember a "6 inches rule" (which now that I type it, sounds vaguely pornographic). Boys and girls had to be that distance from each other at all times. The rule was even enforced by some (though not all) couselors and especially the camp owners, who felt very strongly that the sexes should remain at opposite sides of the room at all times. Because as we all know, closeness leads to touching, and touching leads to... well, you know. More touching.

My children aren't old enough yet but I don't think I would be in favor of a "no hugs" rule. What would be better is teaching kids about boundaries and personal space. Maybe someone doesn't want to be hugged. Maybe it makes them uncomfortable. Maybe you need to stop hugging and get to math class already. I don't know what the answer is, but I do know that if you tell a teenager not to do something, especially something that seems to be very much a part of their daily lives, all you're going to do is make them want to do it more.

What do you think? Is banning hugs a good idea? Or should the grown-ups just, well, grow up?

Source: New York Times

Brett Singer is the editor-in-chief of DaddyTips.com. You can follow his tweets at Twitter.com/brettsinger.

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California School District Approves So-Called Gay Curriculum

Brett Singer — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:30:00 GMT

This was a tricky story to put into a headline. See, it's not a "gay curriculum" per se. That's what the opponents of the program, officially called LGBT Lesson #9, are calling it. A better headline is this one from KCBS news -- Alameda Approves Elementary Curriculum on Tolerance. The "controversial lesson plan aimed at discouraging bullying and teasing based on gay and lesbian stereotypes" was approved by the Alameda school board by a vote of 3-2.

Yes, 3-2. And it's only in Alameda, California. When I first saw the story on Fox News a few days ago (before the vote had occurred), I initially thought that this was state-wide. Because based on the tone of the reporting, one would think that something HUGE was going on.

Watch this fair and balanced (not) report from Fox News:

(If the embed doesn't work, please click here.)

Listen to the way Steve Ducey says "transgendered people" as if he were saying "horrible, evil nazis who would like nothing more than to eat your family dog."

The question the Fox report raises is whether or not it is "age appropriate" to teach K-5 kids about what they refer to as the "gay lifestyle." Also, "Opponents [of the curriculum] say that this is an effort to advance the gay, lesbian and transgendered agenda," according to Fox. Next: those opponents want to recall the board members who voted for it. Then Steve Ducey wraps things up for us by saying "OK. Same sex penguins. Only in California." (Well, also in New York, at the Central Park Zoo. But hey, East Coast, West Coast, we're all heathens in the eyes of the Duce.)

So what is everyone so upset about? One item is the book "And Tango Makes Three," described by FoxNews.com as a book that is "about two gay penguins who raise a baby peguin, is the basis for grade school teachings on gay and lesbian lifestyles."

Right. Because that's what the point of the book is. To showcase the gay lifestyle. Because being gay is just a lifestyle choice, right? A choice made by irresponsible Sodomites who hate America and all of the values on which we stand.

The purpose of the lesson plan is to promote tolerance. And judging by the reaction, some tolerance is needed.

Another take on this is provided by KGO-TV, an ABC News affiliate in San Francisco. That report says that parents are upset that they will be unable to "opt-out" of the lessons if they feel that they go against their religious beliefs. They also say that "race and religion...can also lead to bullying," but those things are not discussed.

Here's the thing. I don't know the full extent of the curriculum being proposed. But tolerance for gay people is not taught the way tolerance for people of different races are taught. Wen I was in school, we learned about racial tolerance. I very clearly recall a film strip (remember film strips?) in which Bill Cosby said, "There's a Black man sitting in your loafers," and pointing out the racism in old movies ("When they got scared -- these dudes turned white!"). We read "Native Son." What we didn't do was discuss anything about gay people.

Fast-forward thirty a few years. My son is in school. He learns about racial tolerance. He has told me more than once that anyone who believes that one race of people is better than another race of people is "insane." He learns about the holidays of religions that he wouldn't otherwise be familiar with. But as far as I know, he hasn't read "And Tango Makes Three." Why not? Maybe because gay stuff still makes people uncomfortable. (The Onion had a headline that reflected this brilliantly. I can't find it but basically it said that the popularity of "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy" could attributed to the fact that gay people are so cute without all that gay sex. The Onion said it better than that.)

I admit that this is based on my own experience, but I think there's something to it. Is this particular curriculum the answer? I don't know. Will reading "And Tango Makes 3" in second grade cause the sky to be consumed in hellfire? Nope. Gay parents are out there (no pun intended). Why shouldn't kids know that?

What do you think? Is K-5 too young to learn about gay people? Or should it be treated as another path down the road to tolerance?

Source: Mercury News

Image: Amazon

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Who Really Cares if They Have Perfect Attendance?

JeanneSager — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:27:00 GMT

A perfect game only takes nine innings (seven in high school). But perfect attendance takes two thousand three hundred forty days.

That's one hundred eighty school days times thirteen years of school. Of this year's crop of seniors, guess how many have that kind of record? Not a whole heckuva lot.

But for all the kudos due Stefanie Zaner of Maryland for her thirteen years of showing up at school (hey, it earned her a feature in the Washington Post), there are plenty of reasons not to stress yourself out about your kid's not-so-perfect attendance.

As Zaner's teachers attest, she was an extraordinarily healthy kid. She wasn't the kid walking in the door with a high fever and a vomit bag to make it through the day. That's luck (and a hearty immune system). According to the CDC, the average kid gets anywhere from six to twelve illnesses a year (from the common cold to a major bout with a bug). Nearly twenty-two million school days are lost to the common cold alone.

And you know how you stop the spread of all those icky disease? By keeping your sick kid HOME. Hence all those school closures in the face of swine flu, folks.

It's also worth nothing that Zaner called the last two years of her life the most stressful, period. And it wasn't just being a kid looking at getting into college. She said the idea of being "perfect" weighed heavily on her. Credit goes to this incredible kid for not crumbling under the pressure, but if she hadn't grabbed this particular brass ring, would anyone really have thought any less of her? Colleges? Her parents? Her first boss?

If this is something your kid wants to do, and is up to doing, fine. But don't make it your goal Mom and Dad.

Image: Toombs

Schools Say No Pain in the Butt Parents

JeanneSager — Fri, 22 May 2009 14:01:00 GMT

The minute your kid starts some social function - be it library group or school - there's one set of parents you can identify by the wide berth between them and every other parent in the pick-up line.

You know the parents I'm talking about. They complain. About EVERYTHING. Nothing is their kid's fault. And there's no more loaded a question than "how are you?"

But the next time your school administrators whine that they need more parent volunteers, you might want to ask them: do you weed out the whiny parents?

A Maryland school district is in hot water with parents after a board of education member let slip that principals "might not pick PIAs" (yes, that would be pains in the tuchas) to stand on committees and other school organizations. According to the Washington Post, the board was discussing School Improvement Teams, when an argument broke out over wether they're open to everyone or just up to the principal's discretion.

Members of the public charged the district with being secretive about who is on the committees and doesn't advertise for members.

As a parent who has steered clear of the contrary parents as much as possible, there's that knee-jerk reaction to the story that prompts me to say: "well, you wants a pain in the ass on your committee?"

But let's face it, parents who complain have a say too. At least, they should. Because their kids are as affected by the governance of a school as anyone else. You may not like them, but they're still a critical part of the school community.

Dig deeper, and you might find the whiny parents bring an extra facet to school governance that you and I won't bring. Because the contrary view might not be popular. It may not even be right. But it's evocative. And when it comes down to choosing someone to represent my views, I'd like to know there was someone who isn't afraid to speak their mind up there on a board or focus group. Who wants a mouse who will "yes" the school administration to death? Because they aren't going to change a thing.

So listen up administrators. I don't not want to sit next to them at the class play, but the pain in the ass parents are still parents. Which means you answer to them too.

Image: Gifts.com

Meet The Robot Teacher

Brett Singer — Fri, 15 May 2009 19:00:00 GMT

Some kids may joke that their teachers are so weird, they must be from another planet.

For some elementary school kids in Japan, they wouldn't be too far off.

Saya is a robot and she/it is teaching this elementary school class.

Here's a really creepy video of the... thing in action:

(For a less jokey take on the story, check out this video from MSNBC.)

Here's the thing. I get that technology can make our lives easier. (Freudian slip: I typed "teachnology" my mistake, which I thought wasn't a word but I guess it is, at least according to Google.) But teachers shouldn't be robots. Or is that robots shouldn't be teachers? Certain jobs would be okay I suppose, although in an economy like this one, any job taken away from humans seems like a bad thing. But teachers? Really? Doesn't that imply that the job is nothing more than a glorified baby sitter?

According to the embedded video, which is a bit cheeky, the purpose of the TeachBot 9000 (my name, not theirs) is to "get kids excited about technology." The MSNBC clip says that Saya started out "her life" as a "robot receptionist" and that she/it "isn't meant to take jobs away from real teachers, but could fill in in a pinch for understaffed schools." They say that she 'bot has the kids "undivided attention." Frankly, I think they look a little scared.

Would you want your children to be taught -- or whatever that thing is doing -- by a robot?

Source: Gizmodo via Telegraph, MSNBC

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Third Grader Expelled Because He Made A Hit List

Brett Singer — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:00:00 GMT

A third grader at a Hamilton, Ohio private school was expelled because of a "hit list" that was found in his desk. The list contained the names of a teacher and several students that he said he wanted to kill.

Michael Mayo, the principal of the Immanuel Lutheran School, said that he did not believe the boy was actually going to harm anyone, but he felt that he had to take action anyway. (Maybe he could go to that Texas school where they had cage fighting. OK, that's a bad idea.)

This quote bothered me a little bit: "But this sort of thing in this day and age, you just can’t do that. It will never be acceptable." Does that mean it used to be acceptable? I know that's not what it means, but I hate it when things are blamed on "the times we live in."

Without knowing the circumstances it's hard to comment. The report says that the child had "received counselling in the past" which implies that this may not have been an isolated incident. On the other hand, it is possible to overreacted to this sort of thing when it's done by a kid this young.

When I was in 8th grade, I was rehearsing a production of "Bye-Bye Birdie" at my local Y. On the back of my script, I wrote a parody of the song "Kids" in which I made obnoxious comments about the director, an older woman with whom I frequently disagreed about certain artistic matters. OK, I'll admit -- I was an obnoxious 12-year-old. I left my script at rehearsal one day (because I couldn't be bothered to take it home and learn my lines), and the following week I was called into the administrator's office and asked if I intended to do harm to the director. I was told that she had been carrying a pair of scissors in her purse for protection since finding my little ditty. I told them that no, I had no intention of doing anything other than act like a jerk. I continued to do so and never made it to the performance (I wasn't kicked out, I just stopped going to rehearsals).

While I can't remember my song (although I'm certain it contained Mel Brooks-level hilarity) I do know that I didn't make any physical threats in it. Again, I was just being a jerky kid.

I'm not saying that this kid doesn't need counselling, but I guess I'm more inclined to be sympathetic to him than the school was. If he needs help, let's hope he gets it. If not, well, maybe he'll find a school to go to that doesn't make him want to kill everyone.

Source: Ohio Share via ParentDish

Image: sxc

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Three Year Old Left On School Bus

Brett Singer — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:30:00 GMT

A three-year-old boy in Milwaukee was left on his school bus for two and a half hours.

When his son didn't arrive home at 3:30 as he usually does, his dad called the Northcott Head Start school. There was no answer, so he went to the school to check things out. He saw someone washing a bus, kept walking. He walked by another bus, and heard crying. It was his son. He got him out through a "half-opened passenger window."

OK, I'm upset now. Imagine how the father must feel.

The headline at TMJ4 Milwaukee's web site says "Another Child Left on Bus" which is even more depressing. How many times does this have to happen before someone starts paying more attention? Sorry to be so high and mighty but stories like this tap into very basic parental fears, at least for me. We give a lot of people that we really don't know all that well a lot of responsibility when it comes to our kids.

This happened to a friend of mine when I was too young to remember. We were coming home from day camp and they just left my friend there. I made it home. My mother was not pleased.

Something similar happened when I was a bit older; this one I recall pretty well. The bus company, which I think was called Elmsford (this was quite some time ago, so if there is a company called that today, this is not a reflection on them), sent out a driver who didn't know where any of us lived. After dropping one or two of the kids off, he just started driving around the Bronx, lost. This was before cell phones, and for some reason Mr. Dopey Driver didn't pull over and call the office. I remember giving him directions, which were very wrong; I think I was six years old, and was saying things like "I think I live near here. It looks familiar. Yeah! Turn there. That's... no, that's not it. Let's see..." Eventually he pulled over, knocked on the door of someone he didn't know, and called the bus company, who called our parents to come and get us. Luckily he knocked on the door of a nice old lady who fed us all cookies. I remember not being all that scared, but I'm sure my mother was less than thrilled.

Anyway, the boy was fine, according to the report. The bus driver may face charges of child neglect, and the incident is being investigated by the "Sensitive Crimes Division", which is a great name for a law enforcement group. (Next on NBC -- "Law & Order: SCD, Sensitive Crimes Division.") Hopefully everyone will be more careful from now.

Source: todaystmj4.com

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Sidwell Parents Say Obamas are Cheapskates

JeanneSager — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:02:00 GMT

First it was the British press all abub about Michelle Obama's gifts to the prime minister's children. Now fellow parents are claiming the president and first lady cheaped out on the gifts they donated for the auction at the school daughters Sasha and Malia attend.

Really? This is what we're worried about in light of the disastrous global economy, a swine flu pandemic that's taking lives and should I even point upward to that ever-widening hole in the ozone layer?

The Obamas reportedly donated a Rolling Stone with a picture of President Barack Obama on the cover, autographed by the president. They also gave a copy of Vogue Magazine with the first lady on the cover, autographed by Michelle Obama. Have you priced a presidential autograph lately? An Obama-signed baseball recently went for $1,500, but hold on to it and who knows - a recent estimate put his signature on a picture at about $6,000. Anything signed by JFK is estimated to bring at least $2,500 at auction. These were hardly dollar store trinkets.

But according to MSNBC, the parents were hoping for something more personal - then President Bill Clinton gave a golf outing with himself while Chelsea Clinton once offered up her own baby-sitting services. Cool experiences? Most definitely, although I will say an Obama autograph can be sold down the line - you can't make any money back on having someone babysit your kids.

And while I understand Sidwell Friends is an exclusive school, as I understand it the cachet of having a president's child attend is a big draw for the school in and of itself. So the Obamas send their kids there AND pay money to send their kids there, and they have to give their own time too? You know, the time OTHER than that used for running a country at war with a crumbling economy?

School auctions are not big in my very rural area, so I'm not familiar with protocol. Do parents really feel that everyone has to give something of equal value? Isn't the point of paying tuition to a school sort of enough anyway?

Image:

Let Them Chew Gum: It Makes Them Smarter!

JeanneSager — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:04:00 GMT

It's about time I track down my old high school teachers (maybe they're on Facebook) and get them this new information. A study has found kids who chew gum score higher on math tests because "Teachers observed that those who chewed gum seemed to require fewer breaks, sustain attention longer and remain quieter."

Take that Mrs. Peake - who used to hand out detentions to gum chewers in her classroom.

The study out of the Baylor College of Medicine is small - not just in the sample size but in how much of a difference in scores between chewers and non-chewers (the latter had scores that were lower by three percent), but the crux of the findings make a lot of sense.

Much in the way that smokers say they use cigarettes for stress reduction (not advocating for smoking, just saying), a lot of former smokers say chewing gum helped bridge the gap as they weaned themselves off the smokes. Part of that? The rhythmic chewing helped reduced stress. And kids with less stress perform better on tests.

Baylor's scientists say the chewing may also enhance blood flow to the brain, although how that's linked to academic performance (if at all) has not been determined.

So next time your kid gets written up for chewing gum in class, how about sending this blog post in to his teacher as an excuse?

Image: SundayObserver

Bag of Feces Sent Home in Kid's Backpack

JeanneSager — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:05:00 GMT

As Madeline pointed out yesterday, the word "panties," is shudder-tastic. I've found three worse words - at least used in succession, and when referring to the contents of a little kid's backpack.

Bag of feces.

Yup, a kindergartner came home from school this week with a big ol' bag of dung in his backpack.

Inside, his dad says, was a note from the teacher that read "This little turd was on the floor in my room."

What??? This child is five and apparently had an accident in the classroom. I repeat, this child is five. Accidents happen (come on parents, sing the Elmo's Potty Time song). For a teacher to make an issue of it to begin with shows she does not belong in a kindergarten classroom (or, perhaps, any classroom). Kids need to realize there's no shame in accidents and taught that they can always ask the teacher to use the bathroom. If this was a habit, the teacher might even be wise to talk to the school psychologist about the incidents, as elementary age kids whose potty training regresses are often displaying signs of stress, illness or even abuse.

Bagging it up and sending it home is particularly heinous because, let's face it, this is POOP we're talking about. Human waste. Excrement. Should I continue? The school says they're "looking into it," but I'd say they need to look at flushing this teacher out of their system.

What do you say, Babble readers?

Image: PoopReport

Kindergarten Looms, She's Fine, I'm Noten

Amy Kuras — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 14:31:00 GMT

Later today, I will bring my four year old to the school we are thinking about putting her in next year for a “kindergarten assessment.” She’s an “on the bubble” kid – born eight hours past the cutoff in our state, tall, verbal, and already in preschool for two years. So methinks it will be time for kindergarten next year. Scary.

In short, I think she’s ready, her dad thinks she’s ready, and her preschool teacher thinks she’s ready. The question is whether or not the teacher who would be teaching her next year thinks she is. But for me, as for most parents, this is kind of bittersweet. Sending my precious sweet bright little girl off to “real school” all day with new kids and a new teacher and possibly even homework is scary – and did I mention I do not do well with change?

I know lots of us are going through this right now, with districts having kindergarten roundups right now. That’s why I found this essay from Siobhan Connally awfully sweet. She talks about how grown up her little girl suddenly seems, how excited to be a big kindergartener, and how going through the school’s checklist of what her child can do reminds her of what a great kid she is.

Of course, the daughter goes through the assessment just fine, while she and her husband develops some doubts about themselves. “I admitted to the smiling woman behind the desk that we have no doubt that you are ready for school and that you will do well. We are not worried about your abilities at all. I tell her we are the ones who are scared. We are the ones who will have trouble fitting in.”

Yes, exactly. I know my girl will be fine. Me? Not so sure about.

Elementary School Offers Math Classes... for Parents

KeriF — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:28:00 GMT

How do you find the area of a circle? What's Pythagorean's theorem? What's the difference between sine and cosine?

You don't remember, do you?

For many of us, it will have been 30 years or more when we start having to help our kids with their math homeowrk. Thirty years during which the most extensive math most of us have done is balancing the checkbook or counting the minutes between contractions. How are we supposed to help our kids with their homework when we don't even know how to do it ourselves?

Robison Elementary School in Tucson has the solution. And no, "Google it!" is not their solution. (Though that works, too.)

The school is offering math workshops to parents aimed at helping them help their kids. These workshops will teach the parents the same skills the kids are learning in the classroom, using techniques that may be unfamiliar to parents, like using "manipulatives" (whatever those are).

What do you think? Would you take a class like this one?

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Teen Sends Over $4,000 Worth of Text Messages in a Month

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 22:13:00 GMT

Last month, Verizon upped the price of text messaging to 20 cents per text. That still doesn’t seem like much money—unless you’re sending and receiving about 300 text messages a day.

That’s how a Wyoming teenager spent her school days, until her parents got a phone bill for $4,756.25. Because her family didn’t have a texting plan, they were charged for each of the approximately 20,000 text messages 13-year-old Dena Christofferson sent and received. A few hours after opening the bill, Dena’s shocked father smashed her cell phone to bits with a hammer.

Her texting addiction didn’t just break the family’s bank account. “She went from As and Bs one semester to Fs in two months," Dena's dad said. What do you expect, Dad? Texting takes time. It’s like haiku, composed of gossip and employing abbreviations for every other word.

I think Dena’s teachers are at least partly to blame for this. It’s disturbing that teachers did not notice—or chose not to discipline—a girl pounding away at her cell phone for nearly every minute of class.

On the bright side, Verizon agreed to lower the bill to a "reasonable" amount, and Dena's grades have gone way up since her phone met its untimely death.

Do your kids have cell phones? If so, do you have rules about texting?

Photo: 9 News

Texas School Accused Of Student Cage Fighting

Brett Singer — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:00:00 GMT

Next time you have complaints about your children's school, remember this story. Because things could be worse.

According to a report obtained by the Dallas Morning News, school officials at South Oak Cliff High in Texas (ironically known as "SOC", pronounced "sock", as in "sock it to me") had students settle their differences by fighting. In a cage. This did not happen last Tuesday. It happened back in 2003 and continued until 2005. And no one did anything about it.

Listen to this quote:

"Superintendent Michael Hinojosa told the newspaper that there were 'some things that happened inside of a cage' and called the fights 'unacceptable.'"

See, the only thing that should be happening "inside of a cage" at school is a hamster being fed. Maybe a little jog on the ol' exercise wheel. The hamster, I mean. Perhaps a bunny. I'm thinking cages at schools are for class pets. Students generally should not be doing ANYHTING in a cage. Especially at school.

In a blog entry at The Dallas Morning News web site, Kent Fischer digs up a few facts about former SOC principal Donald Moten. Moten allegedly "not only allowed [the fights] to take place, but that he egged on the participants." Hey, at least he wasn't just picking up a paycheck, right? Fischer points out that Moten's other "accomplishments" at SOC include "An athletic grade changing scandal, times two," "Allegations of credit card abuse," "Allegations of inappropriate sexual relations with students' mothers." Oh, and of course -- "Cage fights." The piece questions why Moten was even hired for the $92,000 a year job in the first place, since his employment history includes a stint as a police officer where he faked his own kidnapping.

When I was a student at a New York City Public School, people would always ask me how horrible it must have been. Sure, there were problems. But we never had anything like this. Well, as far as I know.

Source: Yahoo! News

Image: SXC (stock photo)

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Babble Talk: Why Preschool is NOT a Scam

JeanneSager — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:02:00 GMT

I've got to hand it to one of the moms who commented on Lisa Emmerich's recent Bad Parent: Preschool Hysteria.

She managed to equate well-respected institutions of learning across the nation with something cooked up by Bernie Madoff.

Her exact words for what preschool amounts to in her book? "What a racket! I cannot believe you people pay someone to teach your child what you can teach them at home."

Way to insult every mother and father who actually work outside the home and CAN'T teach their children at home. Not to mention those of us who are mindful enough of our own shortcomings that we don't try to teach our kids at home; we put our kids into a program where we feel a certified teacher is providing a headstart for kindergarten while they get to have fun and interact with other children of the same age.

I am a huge proponent of the home schooling movement. But I've got to tell you, I can't do it. Call me a bad parent, but my patience wears thin after the fifth time my daughter looks at me after I've asked a question and says "I don't know. Tell me."

Yes, I teach her little things, the "unschooling" method does have merit in the fact that we count out the number of plates coming out of the dishwasher, and she learned her shapes by identifying road signs while we're out riding around.

She knows her alphabet. She'll recite the whole thing to a stranger at the grocery store. But at home, where she's interacting with a mother with a very similar personality (we are, after all, mother and daughter), she opts for game playing. For pretending she needs help with simple tasks. When push comes to shove - she shoves back. And I'm PROUD of her for it. But it means that we are not meant to be in more than a mother and daughter role.

The issue of home schooling, plain and simple, is not that it doesn't work but that it doesn't work for everyone. Putting aside the fact that the majority of two-parent households in America include two working parents, a lot of parents are still uncomfortable with the idea of being their child's primary source of education. Simply put - if we felt we could be teachers, many of us would have gone to school to be teachers.

I went to school to be a journalist. Faced with a room full of squirmy children, I can play games and sing silly songs. I don't have the patience of Job that my daughter's preschool teacher fortunately possesses. Nor do I have the early childhood development degree that she's earned. I can't get ten kids to sit around a table and draw the letter P and glue feathers to the page to make a parrot. My daughter loved making parrots.

I'm not convinced that kids need to be in a nursery school at two. We waited until my daughter hit three, and even then, we opted for a half-day program just two days a week. For us, it's daycare - I work in a newspaper office while she's at preschool. It's also a place where she spends a fair portion of the time playing with other kids, learning about sharing and picking up on social cues from kids her own age. They're there for social education more so than your traditional academic education at this age, and they're fostering their independence in a safe setting. My daughter feels important learning outside of the home and telling me things - things she doesn't think Mommy knows. At this age, I don't think kids need much more than the basics, and preschool settings that are fairly laissez faire work best for all involved.

It works for us. We knew exactly what we were signing her up for, and why we needed to do it. If that's a racket or a scam, I can only say I've bought it, hook, line and sinker. Oh, and my daughter? Has learned to stop resisting me when I suggest she was her hands after she uses the potty, found some best little buddies for playdates and draws the letter "P" like a champ.

Spiderman Rescues Autistic Boy

Brett Singer — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:00:00 GMT

To be fair it was really "a Bangkok firefighter in a Spiderman suit." But to the kid, it was probably Spiderman. So I prefer my original phrasing.

The BBC reports that a Thai fireman named Somchai Yoosabai put on a Spidey suit in order to coax an eight-year-old autistic boy down from a ledge. It was his first day at school. The boy's mother told Somchai that her son had a "passion for comic superheroes," which prompted the costume change.

In case you, like me, were wondering why a firefighter keeps a Spiderman outfit handy, it's to "liven up fire drills in schools." Good idea. If someone had done that when I was in school, I might have joined the force.

Source: BBC via Wired

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Open Letter To The Woman Who Pushed Me While I Was Picking Up My Kid

Schools Start Later So Teens Can Sleep In

KeriF — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:30:00 GMT

It's tough to be a teenager these days. Between MySpace, Wii, texting, and the like, not to mention activities that actually require you to leave the house, it can be hard for a teen to get to bed before midnight. How, then, are they supposed to get up at the ungodly hour of 7am to go to school?

What? Go to bed earlier? No, that's not the right solution.

Why not have school start later instead?

For a handful of schools in Britain, that indeed is the solution. The Hugh Christie school in Kent has been running classes for 16- to 18-year-olds from 11am to 5pm, specifically so teens can sleep in. Here in the United States, schools in 19 states have delayed their start times. And apparently 100 more school districts are considering the move.

"There's a chagne in hormones in teenagers' brains that requires some rewiring in the brain," says Jim Horne, director of the Sleep Research Center at Loughborough University in England. "That rewiring can only be done in deep sleep," so teens need up to an hour more sleep each night than adults.

I need a lot of sleep too. That's why I go to bed around the same time as my 4-year-old most nights, so I know I'll be well-rested when my 10-month-old wakes up with the sun. And when I do stay up too late watching Grey's Anatomy, er, I mean Nova on PBS, my daughter doesn't sleep three hours later to accommodate me. (Though that would be nice once in a while.)

Is it just me, or is this move patently ridiculous?

"It's possible this could be solved with better parental control," says Horne. Okay, it's not just me.

Photo: HPIRC.com

I'm Not a Brat, I'm Autistic

Back to the Third Grade for This 71-Year-Old

JeanneSager — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 16:26:00 GMT

He stands more than a head taller than his classmates, but what really makes Alferd Williams stand out as a member of the third grade at Edison Elementary School is his age. He's seventy-one.

The son of a sharecropper, Williams headed to elementary school two years ago when he was sixty-eight. He started back in first grade, the last grade he attended before dropping out as a child in Missouri to help his family make a living.

He promised his mother then that one day he would learn to read. At sixty-eight, he found a teacher in Alesia Hamilton, a first grade teacher at Edison Elementary. Hamilton was uneasy, but she started teaching Alferd during summer school and when the school year began invited him into the classroom in the mornings to help out as a volunteer and read with the kids. She made the rounds with Alferd of talk shows (including Ellen, which helped launch a Website to help Williams build a house) noting he was a model student.

Two years later, he still is. Williams made a presentation to the kids in his school recently, explaining to them, “I don’t have a mother living, and I don’t have a father living, so it’s up to me how long I go to school and how well I learn.”

I confess I got a little weepy with this one and grateful that I can indulge in a good book to destress at the end of the day. Feel lucky you're reading this right now. Recent statistics released by the U.S. Education Department showed one in seven adults in American lack basic prose literacy skills. There are thirty-two million people like Alferd out there, all shining examples to our kids of how bad it can be - not able to read a newspaper, a blog or the back of a box of cereal.

Maybe we need an Alferd at every school in America. Can he take this show on the road; speak with kids who are pondering dropping out? He's got just the message every kid needs to hear - stay in school or spend your "retirement" back in the third grade.

Image: KC Star

Judge: Home-Schooled Kids Must Go to Public School

JeanneSager — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:01:00 GMT

In a decision that will no doubt have home-schooling parents everywhere spitting mad, a judge in North Carolina has ordered three children in the midst of a divorce proceeding be sent back to public school.

But don't pull out the pitchforks yet moms and dads - this comes down to religion . . . or quasi-religion anyway.

Judge Ned Mangum has granted Thomas Mills and his now ex-wife, Venessa, joint custody of their three kids, ages ten, eleven and twelve. But he's over-ruled Venessa's request that she be able to continue their home-schooled curriculum, which includes swimming lessons, piano and instruction via Web Cam from Sound Doctrine, a Washington-based church group described by some as a cult.

It's the Sound Doctrine work that concerns Thomas Mills, who has said in court affidavits that after getting involved in the church (online), his wife withdrew and became a different person from the woman he married. While his wife called on evidence that their kids have tested at least two grades above grade level in the program, he countered with witnesses who testified to the "church's" leader making lascivious and inappropriate statements about young girls and called on Venessa's mother to speak out against her daughter's practices as a parent.

Check out the church site for yourself (or this scathing look at its philosophies) - see if you agree with kids being taught to "keep yourself in the fear of God and do not seek too much freedom. Restrain all your passions under discipline and do not give yourself to foolish mirth." OK sheep-le, no laughing, no showing passion for anything and for God's sake, you are NOT free. You are oppressed, kids, and that is good.

Their other site, by the way, is down not because it's under construction but "at the Lord's direction."

Still, Venessa Mills is earning a band of supporters - home-schooling parents who say the judge's decision puts their decisions to home-school at risk, even though they have no personal affiliations with Sound Doctrine. Says the parent who created Home School Liberty, "I suddenly realized that if I do not stand up and take action I might lose my parental right to teach my children according to my own beliefs and convictions."

I have several home-schooling friends who are doing a fine job - and know plenty of home-schooled kids who can attest to its success, so I'd agree that protecting parents' rights to home-school is important. But this case may well be a litmus test of where states should - or at least can - draw the line on what a home-school curriculum entails.

Is this an invasion of a parent's right to choose a lifestyle for their kids? Or is this appropriate use of the state's power?

Image: HSLDA

Open Letter To The Woman Who Pushed Me While I Was Picking Up My Kid

Brett Singer — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:00:00 GMT

Dear Lady,

Hi. How are you? I ask because you seemed very agitated this afternoon. What do I mean? Well, you shoved me and a few other people as you made your way through the throng of folks standing on the sidewalk.

I know, you had two small children with you. That can be annoying. I know, because I have kids too. So did all of the people who were standing on the sidewalk today, the ones you knocked around like bowling pins.

See, that street has a school on it. (Actually, it has more than one school on it.) And we were there to pick up our kids. So when you shoved me and declared, "I HAVE SMALL CHILDREN WITH ME!" I could relate. To the "having small children with you" part. I can even relate to the "I have small children with me and I really, truly want to just get where I'm going already because it's cold out here, and damn it if these kids aren't tougher to wrangle than they were a couple of months ago." I get it, trust me.

The thing is, please don't yell at me. I'm not going to tell you that I've never done the same thing. No saint, me. So I'm not trying to get all high and mighty with you. Mostly I just want you to not yell at me, and use your kids as an excuse.

Maybe that is kind of high and mighty. Sorry about that. If you think about it, though, maybe you'll see that I'm right. Or not. Like I said, I'd just prefer not to be shoved. There really isn't anyplace else to stand, and it can get a little crowded around dismissal time. A simple "excuse me" and a tap on the shoulder should suffice. Give it a try. I did, and it feels better than "HEY! MOVE IT SCHMUCKO!"

Sincerely,

Brett Singer

Image: SXC (not the woman who pushed me, just a stock photo. I suppose it could be the same woman but that would be a coincidence so huge it boggles the mind.)

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Steve Martin Funds Banned High School Production of his Play

Brett Singer — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 03:40:00 GMT

I always liked Steve Martin. One of my first R-rated movies was "The Jerk," and I listened to his comedy albums "Comedy Is Not Pretty" and "A Wild and Crazy Guy" over and over again. (Two words - cat juggling.)

More recently, Steve (he lets me call him Steve - well, we've never met, but I think he'd let me call him Steve. Maybe.) has written a few plays, including "Picasso at the Lapin Agile", which ran Off-Broadway for awhile and has since had many productions around the world. Students at LaGrande High School in Oregon were rehearsing the play when 137 people signed a petition protesting the show. In a bold move, the school stopped the rehearsals.

So Steve (for now, I'll just call him Steve, OK?) offered to pay for a production off campus, far from the reach of the long arm of the educational law.

What was the perceived problem with the show? It features "people drinking in bars, and treating women as sex objects." Now, far be it from me to tell a local high school what they should and should not allow on their stages. But any Shakespearean tragedy features murder. Does that mean it can't be performed? How about the perennial high school musical favorite "The Pajama Game"? Unions. And we all know that "union" is code for "communism."

Steve wrote a letter to the local paper defending his work.

"Because of the controversy, I recently reread the play, and, frankly, I could understand how some parents might object to certain lines if they were to be delivered by a 16- or 17-year-old. Yet I do believe that the spirit of the play and its endorsement of the arts and sciences are appropriate for young eyes and minds.
"So while the question of whether students should perform the play at their high school remains something to be determined by the community, I firmly believe that seeing the play will bring no harm to them and might well uplift them — and acting in the play, if they are permitted by their parents, would also bring them no harm, and may help them to understand the potency, power and beauty of the arts and sciences."

The fact that he decided to go the extra mile and go all "Hamlet 2" and rent a theater off campus is kind of amazing. On the one hand, why should he care? On the other hand, if he believes in freedom of expression, why not put his money where his mouth is?

I bet the students are pretty excited. I know I would be.

Source: The Onion AV Club

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Bedtime: Does Your Kid Have One?

Kate Tuttle — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:01:00 GMT

Do your kids have a regular bedtime, like Sasha and Malia Obama? (The first kids, aged seven and ten, are in bed by eight p.m., according to reports.) Or do they just keep going and going, exhausted little energizer bunnies, till late into the night? Growing up in the freewheeling 70s, I remember being smug about my family's lack of set bedtimes -- and I remember falling asleep in school all the time. In fact, my bedtime-free childhood seemed less and less fun as I got older, leading to mornings of scrambling out of bed, late as usual, and arriving at high school (college, work) with wacky hair and bleary eyes.

Most research now indicates that kids -- even tweens and teens -- need far more sleep than they get, and that their sleep needs don't change much as they grow up. Most adults, too, are chronically sleep-deprived, getting far less than the eight recommended hours (the number for school-aged kids is ten hours, for young teenagers at least nine).

As one pediatric sleep expert said in a recent column in the New York Times by Dr. Perri Klass, the problem comes when people underestimate their own sleep needs, and those of their kids:

“It’s a bell-shaped curve,” she said, with just 2.5 percent of the population needing significantly less sleep than average. “The problem,” she went on, “is that 95 percent of us think we’re in that 2.5 percent. You should assume until proven otherwise that your kid needs that much sleep.”

It's these night owls who end up nodding off during circle time, first period math class, and, later, morning meetings. So how to fix the problem? Set bedtimes, such as in the Obama household, are a good idea, according to researchers. And we all know, or should, to keep the TV out of the bedroom (for kids especially, but it's good for parents as well). Beyond that, simply understanding and trying to account for a child's changing sleep needs and routines can be extremely helpful. Teenagers' sleep needs scarcely change, but their circadian rhythms undergo a shift that pushes them -- biologically, not just through their lifestyle demands of homework, facebook, etc. -- toward later and later bedtimes. Some researchers are now calling for later high school start times to allow these weary teens to at least get some decent sleep -- but it seems unlikely to happen, especially in an era when many are pushing for more and more schooling, period.

Having grown up in a household bereft of healthy sleep habits, I'm trying to instill a slightly more organized routine for my kids -- the toddler's asleep by eight, the teen by eleven (still not enough sleep, but better than she would do on her own). What do you do in your house to ensure that everyone gets enough rest?

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The Most Awesomely Epic High School English Paper of All Time

Cole Gamble — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:30:00 GMT

This is the most awesome thing I've seen all week. Imagine you are a student who really hates your English teacher. And let's say you had to write an essay about a famous poet but didn't give a damn. Your essay might go like this:

"I chose Walt Whitman for my biography report because Mr. Farlow said if I wasn't going to take this class seriously and pick a real poet I might as well not show up anymore.Walt Whitman was born in ancient China, is over 90 stories tall and travels the land with his blue ox, Emily Dickenson...

Here it is in it's original state:

I can't wait for this kid's next paper.

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