Strollerderby : teachers

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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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.

Tennessee Public School Computers Block LGBT Websites

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:30:00 GMT

Whoopsie! It turns out that the computers of the Tennessee public school system are inexplicably biased against gay rights. How the heck did that happen? School administrators are completely baffled by the embarrassing snafu, but say that it must be the fault of their filtering service, Education Networks of America.

But the ENA has clearly stated that they are off the hook. "The decisions on whether to block certain websites are made solely by the school districts,” the ENA attorney said. “ENA does not participate in these decisions in any way and is instead simply told which websites to block." Huh. Is it possible that homophobia had something to do with this?

Some of the blocked Web sites include Human Rights Campaign--with such inappropriate messages for kids as, “In a world defined by difference, our strength depends on our common humanity”--and the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, which creepily “envisions a world in which every child learns to respect and accept all people.” Not all Web pages dealing with gay people were blocked, however. Tennessee schoolchildren are more than welcome to peruse such sites as People Can Change and The Americans For Truth Against Homosexuality.

As Jezebel points out, the silver lining of this rather shocking homophobic agenda is that no one wants to take the blame for it, showing how much public opinion has progressed in favor of gay rights.

Photo: britannica.com

Brit Kids Learn to Twitter in School

JeanneSager — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:25:00 GMT

I racked my brain for a way to write about this in one hundred forty characters or less. Sorry, can't do it.

But in deference to the subject matter, I'll be brief.

Twitter and Wikipedia have been added to the curriculum at schools in Britain.

Oh, you want more? OK, then. The proposal is to have kids leave primary school with a familiarity with blogging, Twitter, Wikipedia and podcasts. They'll have to have fluency in using a keyboard and spell check . . . in addition to handwriting and actually learning to spell.

But it's not all about technology. The proposal also calls for less usage of calculators and more of a focus on life skills, including learning to handle peer pressure and develop relationships.

The teachers union has jumped all over the proposed changes, accusing the government of going with trends instead of evidence-based studies of how kids learn and what they need. "Computer skills and keyboard skills seem to be as important as handwriting in this. Traditional books and written texts are downplayed in response to web-based learning," said John Bangs, head of education at the National Union of Teachers.

As a writer who does a lot of her work on the Internet, I can't say I disagree with the plans. I love traditional books, I sit down with my daughter and read them every night. But I get my own news on the Web, and I expect she will too soon enough. I can't see a future where she won't need keyboard skills or the ability to navigate the net.

If this were your child's school, would you be protesting the changes or cheering them?

Image: Twitter

Should Schools Separate Non-English Speaking Kids?

JeanneSager — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:29:00 GMT

At first blush, I would have said separating non-English speaking kids from their English speaking peers at school is a segregationist tactic that hinders the chances of immigrant children from success.

But a New York Times story that follows kids at the Cecil D. Hylton High School in Woodbridge, Va., a suburb of Washington, D.C., begs the question - if kids can succeed separately, wouldn't throwing them in with English-speaking kids be the real hinderance to academic success?

The story follows a group of kids in the ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) program at Cecil D., kids from a host of Latin and South American countries plus China, Sri Lanka and more. These kids aren't just learning English while their peers study Spanish; they're in an ESOL classroom for social studies, math and almost every other subject. And as their teacher - an immigrant herself who was the first in her French-Canadian family to learn English when they moved to the U.S. - points out, there's a vast difference between the words they pick up from their English-speaking classmates in the cafeteria and those used in a classroom. No one is talking about "imperialism" at the lunch table.

In a story recently about a mid-western private school that's banned kids from speaking anything but English within its walls, I focused on the efforts to make American kids more competitive in the global economy by encouraging bilingualism. Being exposed to immigrant classmates is GOOD for American kids.

I would say, overall, the opposite is true too. I learned best in the assimiliation language courses in college; when the professor refused to speak anything but French for the course of the day. Was I confused at first? Oh yeah. I wasn't out in left field, I was in the parking lot. But slowly, you can't help but learn. Beyond language, there's also exposure to American customs, and cultural assimiliation, to some degree, is necessary to survive. Kids should retain a cultural identity, but they need to at least understand which new customs they are adopting - or avoiding.

It's a debate I don't know that any educator can truly answer. The kids at Cecil D. are performing well on tests, they say they're happy (watch the video), and the school does introduce them into "mixed" classes as their English language skills develop. Perhaps that's the real answer - starting with segregation that has a logical endpoint, segregation that results in assimilation.

What do you think? Would you fight this if it happened at your kids' school?

Image: New York Times

School Kids Get Exercise Balls Instead of Chairs

JeanneSager — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:30:00 GMT

Your kid could be getting an education - and a core workout - all at once.

Teachers at schools around the country have opted to pull chairs out of their classrooms in favor of workout balls – those giant rubber blobs that are the bane of out-of-shape mothers everywhere. Turns out, they're keeping kids focused - and not just on keeping their butts centered.

In a study published last month in the Chronicle of Kinesiology and Physical Education in Higher Education, a college professor who switched out chairs for workout balls says the balls improved students' focus and their attention. For young kids who need to get the wiggles out, the balls give them a chance to bounce their behinds, something your average chair can't.

Of course there are drawbacks. Critics say without relief for leaning back, kids are putting pressure on their tail bone all day long - and teachers can't well be expected to roam the aisles correcting kids' posture. And posture is a big issue with kids - backpacks on wheels started flying off shelves a few years back when parents got the warning that their kids had "backpack syndrome" from carting packs that were more than ten percent of their body weight.

But teachers aren't currently strolling the aisles telling kids to stop slumping in their seats either (who has time for that?), and I'd dare so most kids have horrible posture in your standard chair. At least with the ball, they develop core muscles which, in turn, strengthen the back. Come to think of it, maybe I need to do this to finally get the aching back left over from the little girl who loosened up my abdominal muscles.

Some schools are asking parents to chip in for the "seats" for their kids. Would you?

Image: MSNBC

School Yanks Teachers' Coffee Pots to Save Money

JeanneSager — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:31:00 GMT

As a mom who has pondered the feasilibity of a caffeine drip to keep going all day, I feel for the teachers of the Glendale School District.

Administrators of the California school system have told teachers they're taking their coffee pots to save the district money. Gone too are microwaves and refrigerators, a move that could save the district as much as $60,000.

Meanwhile, sleepy teachers across the district are wondering how they can keep up with children with boundless energy. As I sit yawning at my own desk, with a cold bottle of soda beside me, I can't help but agree.

Glendale isn't the first district to make this change. Some have banned appliances while others have set up a fee structure, charging teachers as much as $40 a year to keep a fridge in the classroom. There's still a communal refrigerator, coffee pot and microwave in the teacher's lounge at Glendale. But as many teachers have pointed out, that requires hoofing it across campus at lunchtime, a time when they often find themselves allowing a student to come into their classroom for extra help. Not to mention the lack of breaks during the day to shoot down to the lounge for a cup of coffee to keep them going.

Caffeine addiction may not be the healthiest thing, but it keeps plenty of Americans going - including teachers who stay up late grading papers. Be it the cup of coffee or the cold soda, most of workers in a white collar setting have immediate access. And I think you'd be hard pressed to find any old break room fridge with an Energy Star label.

As a taxpayer in a state where education costs laid on the taxpayers' shoulders long ago spiraled out of control, I'm all for districts saving a buck or two. I'm also not a big fan of the teachers unions or of coddling teachers. Educators need to educate - and if they're not doing so, we've got a problem.

But numerous studies have shown the comfort of the workers is linked directly to the workforce productivity. In the case of teaching, that productivity means a better education for our kids. This seems to be a place where administrators are cutting costs along with their nose to spite their faces. Leave appliances in the classroom and let teachers stay in the room to tutor a kid at lunchtime or during their free period. Let them suck down coffee all day so they can stay alert and on top of the curriculum.

Find someplace else to cut . . . like, I don't know. . . administrators' salaries?

Image: LA Times

Teacher Wants to Drop Huck Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird "for Obama"

JeanneSager — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:37:00 GMT

Now that we have a black president, ~~an Oregon~~ a Washington teacher says he's ready to stop teaching about the days when the "n-word" was acceptable - and he's willing to say bye-bye to some of the most acclaimed books of school curricula to do it.

John Foley says he's sick of having to explain the usage of the "n-word" in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird to his students.

Sure, in the end the authors stood as beacons of light in their time for writing books that decried racism, but Foley doesn't think kids (or "an angry African American mom") have the wherewithal to stick with it to the end of the books.

OK, let's back up here. He's decrying racism and a lack of education with . . . racism and a refusal to educate?

Foley wrote a guest editorial in a recent issue of the Seattle Post Intelligencer, noting he's sick of having to explain to those African American mothers why he has students read books that portray blacks as inarticulate and uneducated. He's weary of having black students sit in class uncomfortable when the "n-word" is read out in class. What's more - he says the kids find the books "dull and plodding," and they never get past the usage of the racist word.

And lest you think he's being satirical, Foley told the Los Angeles Times he was "bemused" by the people who came to his quasi-defense in the name of satire.

To be fair, Foley does not want to ban these books. He wants to update the curriculum, replacing what he sees as poor black role models with more empowering examples for his students. I certainly support him on that. So add a few in there, beef up the reading list. But does that have to be at the loss of literative examples of the racial struggles that led up to Obama's victory? However corny, the George Santayana quote comes to mind: "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Dropping the Huck Finns of literature from our kids' reading lists is akin to whitewashing those struggles out of our history books. Where else do these children learn what the times in which the n-word" was acceptable were like? Where else will they learn that, yes, the black men depicted in these books were indeed uneducated and inarticulate - not because of stupidity but because of oppression?

As a white teacher, I can also appreciate that Foley faces a daunting task. A close friend is white and teaches at a racially diverse school in the south, where she has been called out time and again by over-sensitive parents of other ethnicities for perceived slights. I am not saying all white teachers are innocent; but unwarranted accusations can be tough on a teacher - my friend is currently seeking a move out of the classroom. Perhaps I am reading too much into his words, but it sounds like Foley has experienced having to rationalize a misperceived support of the n-word to an African American mother who has only been told by her child that the teacher used the n-word (without providing the context of the book).

He's tired. And maybe he's tired of teaching too. Because the saddest comment of all is what Foley has taken out of a classroom after all of these years teaching literature. "You have to remember, it's hard to sell kids these days on books," he told the Times. "I write young adult novels, and sometimes I wonder, why bother? You're writing for three girls who like to read."

Kids can wear teachers down, especially the kids who just don't care. But when a teacher begins to blame the kids for just not getting it or just not being able to get past a stumbling block, perhaps he needs to examine not the book and the history lesson but his method of "inspiring" young minds.

These kids need someone to tell them "that was then, and this is now." Can John Foley still do that?

Image: Amazon

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Entire School Board Recalled By Angry Students

JeanneSager — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:15:00 GMT

Note to boards of education: listen to your students, you're there for them. Or maybe you're not?

A collection of angry students at one California high school organized a recall election that might well be the first ever in the state to unseat an entire school board. The kids and their adult supporters collected enough signatures to authorize a recall vote on all five members of the board of education at the Big Oak Flat-Groveland Unified School District.

What made the kids this angry? The board fired a popular math teacher. Yes, a math teacher, not a football coach (although he is a former professional football player) or a gym teacher. A guy who teaches one of the core subjects. To be fair, he was also coaching baseball - but that wasn't at the heart of the kids' arguments.

The board released Ryan Dutton from his job teaching math at Tioga High in September over an allegation of plagiarism. Working toward his teaching credentials at Cal State Fresno, Dutton was accused in March 2008 of copying another student's homework. He denied the charge, and the university eventually found it was unfounded. Still, members of the school board say they're standing behind THEIR source, and they've refused to rehire Dutton. Nor have they revealed their sources.

Students have appealed to the board to no avail. So civics teacher Tim King helped them organize a civics project instead: collecting the necessary nine hundred ten signatures per school board member necessary to put the recall on the ballot. They got them. . . and more.

There's scuttlebutt, according to the Los Angeles Times, that these kids are being used to settle old scores in a fractious community. And while I'm often cautious about putting kids on the front lines of these kinds of arguments, I've seen what they can do. As a community reporter, I followed the case of a school librarian cut because of budget constraints, and the students who worked to have her reinstated. The kids were brushed aside by a school board that did not realize the gem they had in their midst - kids who cared enough about a librarian, with no ties to the sports community. They held lengthy executive sessions while the teenagers sat in the high school library, waiting patiently to have someone simply listen to their pleas. Never was there an explanation issued of the way budgeting works, of the intricacies of tenure. Nor was a thank you issued to the kids for their hard work.

Teachers can't always be reinstated simply because the kids care about them. But without the children, there is no school community, no school board. Not listening to them, at least providing some feedback and a "hey, you tried, but. . ." is tantamount to telling them you're not there FOR them.

Image: Los Angeles Times

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Should Homeschooling Parents Be Certified?

Brett Singer — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:00:00 GMT

Over at Mixx (one of the seemingly hundreds of promote-your-webpage sites) there is a poll asking the following question:

Should parents need teaching credentials to home-school their children

It's worth noting that the poll doesn't have a question mark at the end of it, which it should, and that one of the two comments is, shall we say, in need of an English teacher ("No. There is plenty of Homeschool programs that don't require it."; thanks to Shannon for noticing that.)

So far 44% say that parents "absolutely" need teaching credentials in order to homeschool their kids.

But what does that mean exactly? In some places (New York, for example) only Public School teachers are required to be certified by the State. That means that the expensive private school you send your child to may have teachers that are not, in fact, state certified. Does that make them unqualified to teach? Clearly a large number of parents don't think so, or they wouldn't send their kids there (at least, I hope they wouldn't).

It seems like a fair question, however. To me, the thing that homeschooled children miss out on is the social part of the school experience. Of course, that social experience can be torture, so maybe missing that is a good thing.

Over in the Babble Playground, one mother asked about others' homeschooling experience. Of the folks who responded to her query, some gave pretty specific reasons for why they went this route:

"My middle son was a slow learner when it came to reading and fast with math. His teacher kept embarrassing him and making him feel stupid in front of his class, so in turn he started being made fun of."

And, from another parent:

"Everyday was a heartbreak. I took him out and within a couple of months he was back to the happy, positive child he had been pre-kindergarten."

The question of certification doesn't come up, mostly because nobody asked. It's not something I've ever thought about either.

Amy's post about the rise of homeschooling has a lot of comments, some pro and some con. This one, from Kyle, relates to my question here: "You are fooling yourself (and that is fine) if you think you can provide a complete education for your child simply because you are an adult. I certainly wouldn't take my kids to my neighbor to have a cavity looked at or try to fill their prescriptions myself. I am of the opinion that teachers are trained professionals and offer my children a service for which I am grateful." I generally agree. But considering that in my own school experience, I had one teacher who slammed the classroom door on my leg (which happened to already be in a full cast, and I was on crutches), and another who literally had a nervous breakdown during class, screaming at us and telling us that we should be grateful that she even bothered to show up (that was in 4th grade – fun stuff), I think it's fair to say that just because someone is a teacher, that doesn't mean that they are good at what they do. If your dentist botches a bad root canal, you can go somewhere else. With a teacher and/or school, it's not always that easy.

So I'll put the question to the class (and by "the class" I mean "anyone reading this who would like to share their thoughts on this issue"): should parents who homeschool be required to have some form of teaching certification and/or training?

Image: Amazon.com

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Should Students Attend Parent-Teacher Meetings?

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 18:30:00 GMT

In an effort to boost participation in parent-teacher meetings, many schools have started including an unlikely facilitator in the talks: the student. According to The New York Times, attendance at parent-teacher meetings at a middle school outside Chicago increased sevenfold after administrators started letting students sit in on the conferences. The principal speculated that parents from low-income and immigrant families are more likely to attend a discussion with their child and her teacher than a traditional meeting in which they listen politely to a 15-minute teacher monologue. I would guess that parents are also more likely to attend conferences when they don’t have to pay for childcare.

Candidly discussing your child’s performance and challenges in front of him may seem like a joke of a conference (and doubtless it sometimes is), but, if led well, such a conference does have the potential to improve more than just attendance. Allowing the student to present her own academic successes and concerns makes kids feel in charge of their learning process. As one parent put it, “My daughter is learning that the teacher is not responsible for her learning. Cierra knows that she is responsible for her own success.”

On the other hand, parent-teacher conferences can be vital times for both parent and teacher to fill each other in on important behavioral concerns that neither party would be comfortable discussing in front of the student—perhaps your child is having trouble sleeping, for instance, affecting her engagement in the classroom. To address this need for privacy, some schools offer parents the opportunity for closed parent-teacher meetings by appointment. Every school opting for a student-inclusive meeting should—quite clearly and vocally—offer parents this option.

Photo: New York Times

Kids: The World's Best Form of Birth Control

JeanneSager — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:29:00 GMT

You've got to laugh when someone tries convincing a childfree-by-choice non-breeder that parenting is wonderful while her two-year-old runs around her feet screaming. I'd give them half a Popsicle for trying. Yes, parenting is wonderful, but boy our kids do a lot to convince people otherwise.

This week's Babble feature Non-Breeder: A Preschool Teacher's Confession drives home a theory I've always had. Kids make great birth control.

Lauren Johnson loves, loves, loves the adorable tots who take up her business hours, but her home life is her escape. Come on, who hasn't wanted to escape their kids? Come on . . . get the snoot out of the air; it's OK to admit it. When they're chucking banana at you. When they're lying on the floor at Toys R Us, beating their fists on the tile because they neeeeeed a T-Rex with mechanized arms, head and feet at $59.99.

Ask a grandparent which stage of their life they like the best - and I bet you you'll get a dentist-like ratio. Nine out of ten will probably agree, grandparenting rocks. Parenting . . . eh . . . it was good then, but this is better. They can send them home with us.

I've heard people whine that their kid's teacher isn't very understanding; she doesn't even have kids. It's true, kid-free folks very often don't get us. The ones who really don't want kids just plain think we're crazy. Because our kids have convinced them - hell no, I won't go . . . there.

Think your friend has the making of a really great parent but they're still on the fence? A few suggestions:

Don't send your child over there when he's snotty; if tissues are necesary, cancel any interaction between the two parties post haste.
Keep all snack baggies of food well hidden to enhance the chances of a jam hands-free "five."
A napping child is a peaceful child. They always look sweeter when they're asleep.
Don't . . . ever, ever, ever . . . ask them to baby-sit. There should be a parent shield present at all times.

Finally? If they work with kids all day, don't tell them how much different it is when it's their own. I think they can figure that out; it doesn't mean it's going to change their mind.

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Elementary Teacher Sends Student 80th Birthday Card

JeanneSager — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:57:00 GMT

If she were still manning a classroom today, Collette Hartung would be the teacher who inspired parents to start a bribing war to ensure their kids got to be her students. The ninety-year-old Hartung put down her chalk almost seventy years ago, but she hasn't forgotten her kids.

Just last month, she sent one of them a birthday card. An eightieth birthday card.

Hobart Anderson was one of the children Hartung taught during her just three years in front of a classroom. She taught his sister too - twice during that three-year span. It's no wonder she remembers them; there were just two students in Anderson's class. But there are plenty of kids from small classes whose teachers have long since forgotten them. Running into Hartung once several years ago, Anderson's wife, Charlotte, said the teacher not only remembered her husband but had kind words to say. "She said 'He was a smart little fellow but he liked his fun'," Charoltte told the Minnesota newspaper The Journal.

At ninety, she apparently had the same fond memories. Here's what she wrote in Anderson's birthday card:

"Eighty candles shine today to honor one important life that's touched so many others and been such an inspiration. And as they shine, may you look back with pride and satisfaction knowing that your life and you are cause for celebration!

Your teacher 70 years ago, Collette Hartung"

Think your kids' teachers will care when they turn 80?

Image: The Journal

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Childcare Relationships and Bickering Parents Affect Kids' Stress Hormones

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:30:00 GMT

It seems self-evident that kids with poor childcare relationships or parents who frequently fight are more stressed than other kids. But now two new studies have established this common sense theory from a biological standpoint, by monitoring the levels of cortisol (the human stress hormone) in preschoolers and 6-year-olds. As parents across the country struggle to afford high quality childcare and to maintain a stable home environment, these studies are unfortunately quite applicable to these trying economic times.

In most people, cortisol levels decrease throughout the day. But for many children in full-time daycare, the stress hormone increases as the day progresses. Researchers found that class size clearly affected children’s moods, with preschoolers in classes of 10 or fewer children producing less cortisol than those in classrooms with closer to 20 other kids.

Children with poor relationships with their daycare providers became more stressed after one-on-one interactions with the teacher, while clingier kids had higher overall cortisol increases throughout the day.

Similarly, a study of 6-year-olds with bickering parents found that those who were very involved in and distressed about the fights produced more cortisol than other 6-year-olds. Since high levels of cortisol have been linked to health and psychological problems, this finding offers a biological understanding of why kids who get very upset by their parents’ arguments are more likely to have psychological problems later. (Whether higher levels of cortisol are a cause or an effect of psychological disorders is not clear.)

The study’s authors hope that understanding the biological basis of stress in young children will change the way kids in these common problematic situations are treated. For instance, monitoring kids’ levels of cortisol could help indicate whether a given intervention is working to relieve stress or not.

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Photo: pregnancy-depression-help.com

Teacher Has Affair With Student, Parents Say Keep The Door Open

Brett Singer — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:00:00 GMT

OK, I really really really need to never say, "I'm beyond being surprised" EVER AGAIN.

From our big blog sibling Scanner (at Nerve.com), comes this little item.

Anna Louise Thompson, 28, was a "maths" teacher in Brisbane Australia (They says "maths" in Australia, I guess). For three years she had a sexual relationship with one of her female students, beginning when the student was 14. When the student fell in love with a fella, she turned her former lover in and Thompson was fired.

Apparently this was quite the affair to remember. It began "when Thompson proposed the 14-year-old girl go to lunch with her. It soon escalated into sleepovers and racy text messages... while Thompson continued to be married to her husband." Eventually they experimented with various sex toys and other things that sound like these two had a more interesting sex life than I ever will.

Here's the kicker:

But the couple were found out when the parents discovered them having sex one evening. Their reaction was simply to request that their daughter keep her door open when she had visitors. (bild.de)

Um, hi. If I come home and discover that one of my kids is having "relations" with someone their own age (forget about an adult), we're going to have a little chat. I definitely don't want them to do it in my house WITH THE DOOR OPEN WHILE I'M THERE. And did the parents not notice that Ms. Thompson was just a teeny bit older than their daughter? And that's giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming that they were unaware that Thompson was their daughter's "maths" teacher.

The remarkable thing about all of these sex scandals is how often they seem to occur. When you were in school, did you know anyone who was getting a little, shall we say, extra credit? Just based on the odds, I'd say somebody must know of a situation like this.

(Thanks to Brian Fairbanks at Scanner for the tip.)

Source: Scanner

Image/Original story: bild.de

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Teacher's Aide Suspended For Racial Obama Jokes

Brett Singer — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:30:00 GMT

To quote outgoing President George W. Bush, what is our children learning? Apparently the curriculum is Truly Tasteless Jokes. (Anyone remember those?)

An instructional aide at a McCandless vocational school is serving an unpaid suspension for making what a student described as racist comments directed at President-elect Barack Obama.
During a lunch period last week, the aide at A.W. Beattie Career Center said Obama would be killed, KFC would be emblazoned on the American flag and the national anthem would become "Movin' on Up," according to the student's mother.

Mara Gilligan is the parent of a student at the school who complained. She said that her daughter says that the aid becomes "infuriated when anyone mentions Obama…That's fine, you can have your own beliefs, but when you start yelling at someone, that's unacceptable."

This is doubly true with regard to teachers. First of all, I don't want to hear that they express their political views from either side of the aisle. (If McCain had won, would the aide have done a week-long "nyah-nyah" dance?) And the jokes – oof. On what planet does anyone think that's an OK thing to say to a student? It's one thing to have dumb thoughts like that, but when it pops out of your mouth in a school setting, maybe you need to consider a different line of work.

Not that it should matter, but the article mentions that the school's student body is 2.8 percent African-American; the student who complained was biracial. I know at my high school, any teacher who had made a joke like that would have found themselves locked in a closet for a few hours. And that was when Reagan was President.

The aide, identified by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review as Chris Skertich, has been suspended without pay "pending a further investigation." In a way, I sort of hope this isn't true. Although a kid making up a story like this wouldn't be much better than a teacher who made those jokes. A little bit better. But not much.

Source: pittsburghlive.com

Image: Amazon.com

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Political Bullying in Elementary Schools

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:34:00 GMT

What would you do if you found out that a little girl was telling your child, “His name is Obama bin Laden” and, “It’s not Hilary—it’s Hitlery”? A writer on the blog Daily Kos, who is one of few Democrats in a Texan town, was faced with this dilemma when her eight-year-old daughter Abigail reported that one of her classmates was repeatedly making these comments. This was around the time that Abigail’s class was voting for president in the Scholastic presidential election.

Darcy writes, “I doubt if the little girl even knows who Osama bin Laden or Hitler are, but my kid does. She is upset about the comments, and I am stunned.”

Darcy’s husband wanted Abigail to learn to deal with the taunts herself, but Darcy ultimately decided to speak with Abigail’s teacher. The teacher, according to Darcy, “decided to use the incident as a teaching moment to address mudslinging.” (For what it’s worth, the mudslinging didn’t seem to help McCain in this third grade classroom: Obama won 17-5.)

I think Darcy did the right thing. No matter what your political affiliation is, that kind of hateful speech has no place in schools. By making mudslinging into a classroom dialogue, the teacher had a chance to teach the bullying girl and other students just what it means to call someone Hitler or bin Laden.

Do you think that hateful comments about political figures count as bullying? Was the mother right to go to the teacher with her concerns?

The Kids Have Voted!

October: It's Not Just for Halloween Anymore--Teacher Week

Shannon LC Cate — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:00:00 GMT

After a miserable winter last year, summer just seemed too short here in the Midwest. To combat the cold dreariness of the past few days, I decided to go holiday-hunting. I found a few great reasons to celebrate. First up: National Classroom Teacher Week! (I teach online, so I guess this is not my week.)

I'm celebrating by remembering Mrs. Lynn of my fifth grade year. Mrs. Lynn was warm, funny and didn't play favorites. We were all her pets. In fact, the whole school was her pet. Mrs. Lynn taught English too, and if you memorized her list of prepositions--which we chanted daily right after the class announcements, Hail Marys and Our Fathers (Catholic school!)--she'd give you a tootsie roll for reciting them. You could come back in the sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade, high school, college. You could bring your first-born for a visit to Mrs. Lynn's classroom. As long as you could still list the prepositions, you got a tootsie roll. As a result, folks were constantly visiting our classroom and catching up with Mrs. Lynn. It made her seem like a celebrity and those of us in her class felt a special glow of privilege to be able to say we belonged to her.

It was also Mrs. Lynn who taught me that "only turkeys are done, people, unless they're being roasted are FINISHED" and it's one of my pet grammar peeves to this day.

Mrs. Lynn addressed a bad case of bullying from my soccer team in my fifth grade year as well. She might have looked the other way as most teachers did in these situations, but as soon as she found out about it, she became my champion. Her moral authority alone made the other girls back off for the remainder of that year.

So, tell us about a special teacher in your life: yours, your kids', a friend, neighbor or relative who teaches, a community hero. Let's celebrate!

Image: earthinpictures.com

Posts by this Writer on Education:

Extending the Privilege of Preschool

Let There Be Science in Science Class

LGBT Magnet Schools: Hurt or Help?

Virginia Teachers Get Flack for Pro-Obama Email

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 18:30:00 GMT

The Virginia Teachers Union is in hot water for allegedly mixing education with politics. A union member sent out an email encouraging teachers to participate in “Obama Blue Day” by wearing a blue shirt (without displaying any candidate names), and getting at least two people to register to vote.

The author concedes that she should have worded the email differently—perhaps “Obama Blue Day,” for instance, was not the wisest turn of phrase. But the union stands by the email as an example of the nonpartisan voter registration efforts that Virginia educators have long engaged in. The union voted to endorse Obama because of his education policies, so the left-leaning tone of the email reflected that endorsement; it was not an indication that teachers should influence their students' political leanings.

According to the union president, no teacher interpreted the email as a call to encourage students to support Obama, as state Republicans have, quite understandably, charged. The president pointed out that "Obama Blue Day" was all but ignored. She even forgot all about it and wore red that day.

Just another reminder to take to heart the adage, "Always assume that whatever you write in an email will be published on the Internet."

Photo: Bag News Notes

Don't Leave Home Until You Help These Children's Charities

JeanneSager — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:54:00 GMT

I'm going to risk sounding like a public service message. If you “don’t leave home without it,” now’s the time to change some little kids’ lives. Nearly half the finalists in the American Express Members Project race for $2.5 million are non-profit working to help moms and children around the world.

Only one will win the prize on October 14 (voting ends on Sept. 29 on the top 25, followed by voting on the top five), but the yearly project sheds light on the kinds of ventures that are priceless.

Although it's a list chock full of ideas that are both ingenius and innovative, I settled on throwing my support behind those that will make a different right here at home. My favorites:

My Little Waiting Room: would use the funds to created drop-in childcare centers at pediatric hospitals. Why’s it needed? Parents of sick kids don’t stop being parents. The Starlight Children’s Foundation http://www.starlight.org/site/c.fuLQK6MMIpG/b.1075955/k.2732/What_We_Do.htm says families who can’t find child care for their healthy children can find it impossible to access the medical care their “sick” child needs.
Help 100,000 Children Thrive in the Classroom: would split the money among 4,000 teachers to help them better outfit their classrooms. Why’s it needed? American teachers collectively spend $1 billion of their own money to ensure their kids have what they need to learn.
Project Brain Child: would take the first steps in creating a National Pediatric Genomic Brain Tumor Registry. Why’s it needed? The 120 types of pediatric brain cancers are the leading cause of solid tumor cancer deaths in children.

For a full list, visit: American Express Members Project

Babble Talk: Sandra Tsing Loh

Amy Kuras — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:07:00 GMT

Somehow, I find myself with an almost four-year-old who hopefully will be starting kindergarten next year, or if not the year after. Which means thinking, or more accurately agonizing, about schools.

I thought it was just here in Detroit that where to send your kid and which private schools are good and are any public schools good and $8,000 for kindergarten are you KIDDING me are major topics. Wherever two or more Detroit parents are gathered, there is talk of schools. And based on this extra awesome Five-Minute Time Out with author Sandra Tsing Loh (written by our own Madeline Holler), this isn’t unique to my city.

Loh's book Mother on Fire: A True Mother*^$Sing Story About Parenting, chronichles her school search. Takeaway message: the neighborhood school's all right. And she reserves special scorn for those parents who talk a good, liberal, egalitarian game and yet enroll their kids in the priciest, most exclusive private schools because their kids just are a little too awesome for the publics. If they spent the same time and money on the public school, she points out, they'd be almost as great.

Rarely have I read something like Loh's interview, where I was muttering "damn straight" and "hell yes" right along, but have no intention of following along with anything she advised. See, the public schools here are baaaadddd; not just garden variety bad, but like "taken over by the state, more than half of high school students drop out, metal detectors at the doors, graduates can’t read bad" bad bad bad. Decades of mismanagement mean that pretty much everyone who can afford to has fled to the suburbs or put their kid s in private school –including, I might add, all but one of my friends who actually teach in the district.

I could write more – much more – but just go read it instead. It's that thought provoking and will challenge your assumptions and biases about where's the right place for your child and why.

Middle School Teacher Rides Bike Into Bear

SunnyChanel — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:11:00 GMT

Middle school teacher Jim Litz better think twice before discounting a student’s claim of “the dog ate my homework”, because he knows that stranger things can happen, and they have happened to him. On his way to work in Missoula, Montana this week ,via his trusty red bicycle, he was peddling along at a clip of about 25 miles an hour and “he came upon a rise and spotted a black bear about 10 feet in front of him. He didn't have time to stop and T-boned the bruin. He tumbled over the handlebars, his helmet hit the bear's back and the two went cartwheeling down the road. The bear rolled over Litz's head, cracking his helmet, and scratched his back before scampering up a hill above the road.”

Litz was then taken to the hospital and is expected to make a speedy recover and should be able to go back to class on Friday. Now that will make a great story for show and tell.

(via AP)

Schools tying up autistic kids

Brett Singer — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:30:00 GMT

This is something that you would hope wouldn't happen anymore, like lobotomies. This isn't that bad, of course, but the fact that it happens as often as it does is pretty alarming.

According to an article in the New York Times, a large number of students with autism, ADHD and other diagnoses are being forcibly restrained when they misbehave. I say "misbehave" because, according to the Times, "defying a teacher’s instructions – 'noncompliance' – can invite a takedown or time alone in a locked room."

And before you say, "well, look, what's the big deal?" the article mentions three children who died because of these "disciplinary measures", including a 9-year-old autistic boy in Montreal who suffocated under a weighted blanket that was being used to restrain him. The harm done is psychological as well as physical: Tim Miller, a 12 year old boy with Asperger's from upstate New York, told his father that he didn't want to go to school anymore "because he thought the school was trying to kill him."

Isn't it illegal to tie kids up? Nope. "Federal law leaves it to states and school districts to decide when physical restraints and seclusion are appropriate, and standards vary widely. Oversight is virtually nonexistent in most states, despite the potential for harm and scant evidence of benefit."

OK, but these are just a few isolated incidents, aren't they? Wrong again. The article states that "one or two a week surface on some parent e-mail lists," which sounds like a lot to me. The Times also implies that for some kids, locking them up is the norm. An 8-year-old California boy was locked in a "seclusion room" 31 times – "at least" 31 times. His parents only found out when another parent "saw the boy trying in vain to escape."

Frankly, once a kid dies, you would think that would spark a major outcry, but that doesn't appear to be the case. This makes the incident where the teacher called a kid to the front of the classroom and invited the other children to berate him seem almost mild by comparison.

While there is a legitimate point about teachers not being properly trained to deal with special needs children, why is violence and dangerous restraint ever the answer? I went to a New York City public school, and I saw some pretty intense behavior, some of it violent. As far as I know, nobody was ever put in restraints or locked in a room. While I of course don't think its appropriate for one child's behavior to dominate a classroom, whatever the reason, there has to be a solution other than what's described here.

image/source: NYTimes

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Autistic boy voted out of kindergarten by classmates

Brett Singer — Tue, 27 May 2008 13:30:00 GMT

This is so messed up I don't even know where to start.

The basics: Alex, a 5 year old boy "who is in the process of being diagnosed with autism," specifically Asperger's syndrome, was voted out of his kindergarten classroom by the other students. How did that happen? The teacher thought it would be a good idea to let the other kids tell Alex what they thought of him. "Disgusting" and " annoying" was the verdict. The vote was 14-2 in favor of kicking him out of the class, so he left and spent the rest of the day in the nurse's office.

Now, it's one thing for a teacher to handle a "problem" child badly. Apparently Alex had some behavioral issues, and it sounds like they might have been tough to deal with. But allowing students to verbally berate another student, and then suggesting they vote on whether or not the kid should remain in the classroom? That's about as screwed up as it gets. Regardless of whether or not the child has autism, bad acne or chronic halitosis, teachers can't get involved in something so petty and cruel.

This happened in Port St. Lucie, Florida. (What is it about Florida and voting scandals?) Alex's mom, Melissa Barton, is considering legal action, although "the state attorney's office concluded the matter did not meet the criteria for emotional child abuse, so no criminal charges will be filed." So, like, what would meet the criteria? Throwing baloney at him while they vote him off the island, "Survivor"-style? Oy vey.

Here are some blog entries about this story.

Alex is "Cool"

My Two New Heroes

The case of the very, very bad teacher

One last thing: Alex's mother heard him repeating "I'm not special" over and over again. I can't even comment on that, it's too sad.