We are fortunate in Joplin that we have never had to deal with the pervasive violence that is present in some big city schools. Today's Washington Post features an article on what is being done to combat gang influence in D. C. schools. You can read the article at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/28/AR2005082800922.html?referrer=email
Monday, August 29, 2005
Student journalists' freedom questioned
An Indiana case is bringing the issue of student journalists' rights to the forefront once more. Should administrators be allowed to censor student newspapers? Please read the article from the Indianapolis Star:
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050823/NEWS01/508230455/1006/NEWS01
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050823/NEWS01/508230455/1006/NEWS01
Columnist says American education is being left behind
New York Times columnist Bob Herbert says many Americans are not receiving a quality education and that the situation has turned into a crisis. Please read the column below:
Left Behind, Way Behind
By BOB HERBERT
First the bad news: Only about two-thirds of American teenagers (and just half of all black, Latino and Native American teens) graduate with a regular diploma four years after they enter high school.
Now the worse news: Of those who graduate, only about half read well enough to succeed in college.
Don't even bother to ask how many are proficient enough in math and science to handle college-level work. It's not pretty.
Of all the factors combining to shape the future of the U.S., this is one of the most important. Millions of American kids are not even making it through high school in an era in which a four-year college degree is becoming a prerequisite for achieving (or maintaining) a middle-class lifestyle.
The Program for International Assessment, which compiles reports on the reading and math skills of 15-year-olds, found that the U.S. ranked 24th out of 29 nations surveyed in math literacy. The same result for the U.S. - 24th out of 29 - was found when the problem-solving abilities of 15-year-olds were tested.
If academic performance were an international athletic event, spectators would be watching American kids falling embarrassingly behind in a number of crucial categories. A new report from a pair of Washington think tanks - the Center for American Progress and the Institute for America's Future - says an urgent new commitment to public education, much stronger than the No Child Left Behind law, must be made if that slide is to be reversed.
This would not be a minor task. In much of the nation the public education system is in shambles. And the kids who need the most help - poor children from inner cities and rural areas - often attend the worst schools.
An education task force established by the center and the institute noted the following:
"Young low-income and minority children are more likely to start school without having gained important school readiness skills, such as recognizing letters and counting. ... By the fourth grade, low-income students read about three grade levels behind nonpoor students. Across the nation, only 15 percent of low-income fourth graders achieved proficiency in reading in 2003, compared to 41 percent of nonpoor students."
How's that for a disturbing passage? Not only is the picture horribly bleak for low-income and minority kids, but we find that only 41 percent of nonpoor fourth graders can read proficiently.
I respectfully suggest that we may be looking at a crisis here.
The report, titled "Getting Smarter, Becoming Fairer," restates a point that by now should be clear to most thoughtful Americans: too many American kids are ill equipped educationally to compete successfully in an ever-more competitive global environment.
Cartoonish characters like Snoop Dogg and Paris Hilton may be good for a laugh, but they're useless as role models. It's the kids who are logging long hours in the college labs, libraries and lecture halls who will most easily remain afloat in the tremendous waves of competition that have already engulfed large segments of the American work force.
The report makes several recommendations. It says the amount of time that children spend in school should be substantially increased by lengthening the school day and, in some cases, the school year. It calls for the development of voluntary, rigorous national curriculum standards in core subject areas and a consensus on what students should know and be able to do by the time they graduate from high school.
The report also urges, as many have before, that the nation take seriously the daunting (and expensive) task of getting highly qualified teachers into all classrooms. And it suggests that an effort be made to connect schools in low-income areas more closely with the surrounding communities. (Where necessary, the missions of such schools would be extended to provide additional services for children whose schooling is affected by such problems as inadequate health care, poor housing, or a lack of parental support.)
The task force's recommendations are points of departure that can be discussed, argued about and improved upon by people who sincerely want to ramp up the quality of public education in the U.S. What is most important about the report is the fact that it sounds an alarm about a critical problem that is not getting nearly enough serious attention.
Left Behind, Way Behind
By BOB HERBERT
First the bad news: Only about two-thirds of American teenagers (and just half of all black, Latino and Native American teens) graduate with a regular diploma four years after they enter high school.
Now the worse news: Of those who graduate, only about half read well enough to succeed in college.
Don't even bother to ask how many are proficient enough in math and science to handle college-level work. It's not pretty.
Of all the factors combining to shape the future of the U.S., this is one of the most important. Millions of American kids are not even making it through high school in an era in which a four-year college degree is becoming a prerequisite for achieving (or maintaining) a middle-class lifestyle.
The Program for International Assessment, which compiles reports on the reading and math skills of 15-year-olds, found that the U.S. ranked 24th out of 29 nations surveyed in math literacy. The same result for the U.S. - 24th out of 29 - was found when the problem-solving abilities of 15-year-olds were tested.
If academic performance were an international athletic event, spectators would be watching American kids falling embarrassingly behind in a number of crucial categories. A new report from a pair of Washington think tanks - the Center for American Progress and the Institute for America's Future - says an urgent new commitment to public education, much stronger than the No Child Left Behind law, must be made if that slide is to be reversed.
This would not be a minor task. In much of the nation the public education system is in shambles. And the kids who need the most help - poor children from inner cities and rural areas - often attend the worst schools.
An education task force established by the center and the institute noted the following:
"Young low-income and minority children are more likely to start school without having gained important school readiness skills, such as recognizing letters and counting. ... By the fourth grade, low-income students read about three grade levels behind nonpoor students. Across the nation, only 15 percent of low-income fourth graders achieved proficiency in reading in 2003, compared to 41 percent of nonpoor students."
How's that for a disturbing passage? Not only is the picture horribly bleak for low-income and minority kids, but we find that only 41 percent of nonpoor fourth graders can read proficiently.
I respectfully suggest that we may be looking at a crisis here.
The report, titled "Getting Smarter, Becoming Fairer," restates a point that by now should be clear to most thoughtful Americans: too many American kids are ill equipped educationally to compete successfully in an ever-more competitive global environment.
Cartoonish characters like Snoop Dogg and Paris Hilton may be good for a laugh, but they're useless as role models. It's the kids who are logging long hours in the college labs, libraries and lecture halls who will most easily remain afloat in the tremendous waves of competition that have already engulfed large segments of the American work force.
The report makes several recommendations. It says the amount of time that children spend in school should be substantially increased by lengthening the school day and, in some cases, the school year. It calls for the development of voluntary, rigorous national curriculum standards in core subject areas and a consensus on what students should know and be able to do by the time they graduate from high school.
The report also urges, as many have before, that the nation take seriously the daunting (and expensive) task of getting highly qualified teachers into all classrooms. And it suggests that an effort be made to connect schools in low-income areas more closely with the surrounding communities. (Where necessary, the missions of such schools would be extended to provide additional services for children whose schooling is affected by such problems as inadequate health care, poor housing, or a lack of parental support.)
The task force's recommendations are points of departure that can be discussed, argued about and improved upon by people who sincerely want to ramp up the quality of public education in the U.S. What is most important about the report is the fact that it sounds an alarm about a critical problem that is not getting nearly enough serious attention.
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Laptops replacing textbooks in Colorado town
Textbooks are a thing of the past in one Colorado town. Read the CNN Student News story at:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/08/19/no.textbooks.ap/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/08/19/no.textbooks.ap/index.html
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Is public education free?
We always hear that in the United States children are entitled to a free public education. In this day and age, however, that "free" education often includes fees for all kinds of activities and supplies. Read more in this article from the Chicago Daily Herald:
Line between fees and tuition ‘as clear as mud’
By Emily Krone
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Monday, August 22, 2005
“The state shall provide for an efficient system of high quality public educational institutions and services. Education in public schools through the secondary level shall be free.”
— Illinois Constitution, Article X, Section I
Illinois public schools are “free” in the same way that all men are created “equal.”
That is, they’re not.
In school districts across the state, parents pay band fees, book fees, lab fees, tech fees, supply fees, athletic fees and — just for showing up — registration fees.
“It’s not really as free and appropriate education as we’re supposed to provide,” acknowledged Ron Kazmar of Students First Illinois, an advocacy group for increased state funding of public schools.
Illinois courts have ruled school fees do not violate the free schools provision of the 1970 state constitution.
Courts have held that schools may charge participation fees so long as they do not charge “tuition.”
But school boards have found the line between fees and tuition is murky — and often arbitrary.
Registration fees, for example, do not equal tuition in Illinois. Neither do fees for such mandatory materials as textbooks and science labs. Nor do fees for extracurricular activities — even those that bear a striking resemblance to curricular activities.
Elusive definitions
The confusion over band fees in Cary Elementary District 26 illustrates just how murky the distinction between fees and tuition can be.
A lawyer from the state board of education advised District 26 that its band fees amounted to tuition because they covered the salary and benefits of the band teachers — prohibited under Illinois school code.
A lawyer for the district, however, told the board the fees were legal if band was an extracurricular activity.
The board, then, scrambled to determine — a month after the school year ended —whether band was or was not part of the previous year’s curriculum.
Ultimately it labeled band extracurricular because it met mostly before school and did not count toward a student’s grade point average.
Thus, District 26 charged parents for a school-sponsored activity taught by district employees hired exclusively to teach band. But according to Illinois School Code, the district did not charge tuition.
“It’s about as clear as mud,” Andrea Gorla, the district’s chief financial officer, said at the time.
Other school districts are walking the same fine line. In Fox River Grove District 3, band is considered curricular and is free, but jazz band, which meets after school, costs $50.
Gorla said she has fielded calls from several administrators in other districts concerned their fees might violate the free schools provision.
In the minority
The fee structure of Fox Valley districts would violate school code in most states.
Illinois is one of only nine states without a free textbooks provision. Forty-one states and Washington, D.C., prohibit districts from charging fees for the use of textbooks.
The Idaho Supreme Court, for example, reasoned textbook fees violate the free school provision of the Idaho Constitution because “textbooks are necessary elements of any school’s activity.”
The same could be argued of extracurricular activities such as student council or math club.
Indeed, California courts have ruled the imposition of fees for educational activities, be they curricular or extracurricular, violates the constitutional free school guarantee.
The Illinois Directors of Student Activities, composed of administrators and activity directors from across the state, lists as its “guiding principle” that extracurricular activities should be considered “integral to education” rather than “peripheral to a school’s main mission.”
Fees undermine that philosophy, said Scott Smith, assistant professor for sports management at Central Michigan University, who has studied the effects of pay-to-play on high school athletics.
He said high school athletics should be considered “co-curricular” rather than “extracurricular” because they instill values and skills as important as those taught in the classroom.
“Now that we’re at the point where parents are paying, more and more high school sports may get to look more like … Little League and community teams. If we go that way, does it make sense to even keep them school-sponsored? This could be the beginning of looking at high school athletics a different way,” Smith said.
Fees over taxes
The Cary-Grove High School newsletter lists its registration fee as “the cost of doing business.”
Most parents seem inclined to agree.
Fee hikes caused barely a ripple in St. Charles Community Unit School District 303, spokesman Tom Hernandez said.
Parents in Plainfield Consolidated School District 202 “understood it was necessary” for the district to raise taxes, said Ron Kazmar of Students First, who also sits on the District 202 school board.
And residents in Fox River Grove District 3 indicated at public meetings before the 2004 tax referendum they would rather make all extracurricular activities self-funded in exchange for a more modest increase in property taxes.
The public preference for fees over taxes may have been reinforced by the April publication of a Daily Herald series on tax-rate increases, which showed they were neither simple nor cheap.
The series showed how 25 suburban school districts collected $204 million more over the past five years than most voters were told they would have to pay.
The difficulty of the tax-increase process, and the need for more money, has pushed nearly every Illinois district to charge for textbooks, despite a state statute that allows residents to override a school board and vote to provide free textbooks to students.
“Even though I am offended by the textbook fees, I am unlikely to start a petition drive,” said Doug Jaffray, a parent in DuPage County’s Indian Prairie School District 204. “I’m sure that the school board is counting on me to do nothing.””
Line between fees and tuition ‘as clear as mud’
By Emily Krone
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Monday, August 22, 2005
“The state shall provide for an efficient system of high quality public educational institutions and services. Education in public schools through the secondary level shall be free.”
— Illinois Constitution, Article X, Section I
Illinois public schools are “free” in the same way that all men are created “equal.”
That is, they’re not.
In school districts across the state, parents pay band fees, book fees, lab fees, tech fees, supply fees, athletic fees and — just for showing up — registration fees.
“It’s not really as free and appropriate education as we’re supposed to provide,” acknowledged Ron Kazmar of Students First Illinois, an advocacy group for increased state funding of public schools.
Illinois courts have ruled school fees do not violate the free schools provision of the 1970 state constitution.
Courts have held that schools may charge participation fees so long as they do not charge “tuition.”
But school boards have found the line between fees and tuition is murky — and often arbitrary.
Registration fees, for example, do not equal tuition in Illinois. Neither do fees for such mandatory materials as textbooks and science labs. Nor do fees for extracurricular activities — even those that bear a striking resemblance to curricular activities.
Elusive definitions
The confusion over band fees in Cary Elementary District 26 illustrates just how murky the distinction between fees and tuition can be.
A lawyer from the state board of education advised District 26 that its band fees amounted to tuition because they covered the salary and benefits of the band teachers — prohibited under Illinois school code.
A lawyer for the district, however, told the board the fees were legal if band was an extracurricular activity.
The board, then, scrambled to determine — a month after the school year ended —whether band was or was not part of the previous year’s curriculum.
Ultimately it labeled band extracurricular because it met mostly before school and did not count toward a student’s grade point average.
Thus, District 26 charged parents for a school-sponsored activity taught by district employees hired exclusively to teach band. But according to Illinois School Code, the district did not charge tuition.
“It’s about as clear as mud,” Andrea Gorla, the district’s chief financial officer, said at the time.
Other school districts are walking the same fine line. In Fox River Grove District 3, band is considered curricular and is free, but jazz band, which meets after school, costs $50.
Gorla said she has fielded calls from several administrators in other districts concerned their fees might violate the free schools provision.
In the minority
The fee structure of Fox Valley districts would violate school code in most states.
Illinois is one of only nine states without a free textbooks provision. Forty-one states and Washington, D.C., prohibit districts from charging fees for the use of textbooks.
The Idaho Supreme Court, for example, reasoned textbook fees violate the free school provision of the Idaho Constitution because “textbooks are necessary elements of any school’s activity.”
The same could be argued of extracurricular activities such as student council or math club.
Indeed, California courts have ruled the imposition of fees for educational activities, be they curricular or extracurricular, violates the constitutional free school guarantee.
The Illinois Directors of Student Activities, composed of administrators and activity directors from across the state, lists as its “guiding principle” that extracurricular activities should be considered “integral to education” rather than “peripheral to a school’s main mission.”
Fees undermine that philosophy, said Scott Smith, assistant professor for sports management at Central Michigan University, who has studied the effects of pay-to-play on high school athletics.
He said high school athletics should be considered “co-curricular” rather than “extracurricular” because they instill values and skills as important as those taught in the classroom.
“Now that we’re at the point where parents are paying, more and more high school sports may get to look more like … Little League and community teams. If we go that way, does it make sense to even keep them school-sponsored? This could be the beginning of looking at high school athletics a different way,” Smith said.
Fees over taxes
The Cary-Grove High School newsletter lists its registration fee as “the cost of doing business.”
Most parents seem inclined to agree.
Fee hikes caused barely a ripple in St. Charles Community Unit School District 303, spokesman Tom Hernandez said.
Parents in Plainfield Consolidated School District 202 “understood it was necessary” for the district to raise taxes, said Ron Kazmar of Students First, who also sits on the District 202 school board.
And residents in Fox River Grove District 3 indicated at public meetings before the 2004 tax referendum they would rather make all extracurricular activities self-funded in exchange for a more modest increase in property taxes.
The public preference for fees over taxes may have been reinforced by the April publication of a Daily Herald series on tax-rate increases, which showed they were neither simple nor cheap.
The series showed how 25 suburban school districts collected $204 million more over the past five years than most voters were told they would have to pay.
The difficulty of the tax-increase process, and the need for more money, has pushed nearly every Illinois district to charge for textbooks, despite a state statute that allows residents to override a school board and vote to provide free textbooks to students.
“Even though I am offended by the textbook fees, I am unlikely to start a petition drive,” said Doug Jaffray, a parent in DuPage County’s Indian Prairie School District 204. “I’m sure that the school board is counting on me to do nothing.””
Friday, August 19, 2005
Should school start in September?
A movement is afoot to push back the start of school to September. Read the MSNBC story at:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8874502/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8874502/
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Columnist says children of rich should also serve in Iraq
The following column, written by New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, ran in today's paper. He suggests that it is young men and women from poor and middle class families who are fighting and, in some cases, dying in Iraq. He suggests that the rich should do their duty, also:
You have to wonder whether reality ever comes knocking on George W. Bush's door. If it did, would the president with the unsettling demeanor of a boy king even bother to answer? Mr. Bush is the commander in chief who launched a savage war in Iraq and now spends his days happily riding his bicycle in Texas.
This is eerie. Scary. Surreal.
The war is going badly and lives have been lost by the thousands, but there is no real sense, either at the highest levels of government or in the nation at large, that anything momentous is at stake. The announcement on Sunday that five more American soldiers had been blown to eternity by roadside bombs was treated by the press as a yawner. It got very little attention.
You can turn on the television any evening and tune in to the bizarre extended coverage of the search for Natalee Holloway, the Alabama teenager who disappeared in Aruba in May. But we hear very little about the men and women who have given up their lives in Iraq, or are living with horrific injuries suffered in that conflict.
If only the war were more entertaining. Less of a downer. Perhaps then we could meet the people who are suffering and dying in it.
For all the talk of supporting the troops, they are a low priority for most Americans. If the nation really cared, the president would not be frolicking at his ranch for the entire month of August. He'd be back in Washington burning the midnight oil, trying to figure out how to get the troops out of the terrible fix he put them in.
Instead, Mr. Bush is bicycling as soldiers and marines are dying. Dozens have been killed since he went off on his vacation.
As for the rest of the nation, it's not doing much for the troops, either. There was a time, long ago, when war required sacrifices that were shared by most of the population. That's over.
I was in Jacksonville, Fla., a few days ago and watched in amusement as a young woman emerged from a restaurant into 95-degree heat and gleefully exclaimed, "All right, let's go shopping!" The war was the furthest thing from her mind.
For the most part, the only people sacrificing for this war are the troops and their families, and very few of them are coming from the privileged economic classes. That's why it's so easy to keep the troops out of sight and out of mind. And it's why, in the third year of a war started by the richest nation on earth, we still get stories like the one in Sunday's Times that began:
"For the second time since the Iraq war began, the Pentagon is struggling to replace body armor that is failing to protect American troops from the most lethal attacks by insurgents."
Scandalous incompetence? Appalling indifference? Try both. Who cares? This is a war fought mostly by other people's children. The loudest of the hawks are the least likely to send their sons or daughters off to Iraq.
The president has never been clear about why we're in Iraq. There's no plan, no strategy. In one of the many tragic echoes of Vietnam, U.S. troops have been fighting hellacious battles to seize areas controlled by insurgents, only to retreat and allow the insurgents to return.
If Mr. Bush were willing to do something he has refused to do so far - speak plainly and honestly to the American people about this war - he might be able to explain why U.S. troops should continue with an effort that is, in large part at least, benefiting Iraqi factions that are murderous, corrupt and terminally hostile to women. If by some chance he could make that case, the next appropriate step would be to ask all Americans to do their part for the war effort.
College kids in the U.S. are playing video games and looking forward to frat parties while their less fortunate peers are rattling around like moving targets in Baghdad and Mosul, trying to dodge improvised explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades.
There is something very, very wrong with this picture.
If the war in Iraq is worth fighting - if it's a noble venture, as the hawks insist it is - then it's worth fighting with the children of the privileged classes. They should be added to the combat mix. If it's not worth their blood, then we should bring the other troops home.
If Mr. Bush's war in Iraq is worth dying for, then the children of the privileged should be doing some of the dying.
You have to wonder whether reality ever comes knocking on George W. Bush's door. If it did, would the president with the unsettling demeanor of a boy king even bother to answer? Mr. Bush is the commander in chief who launched a savage war in Iraq and now spends his days happily riding his bicycle in Texas.
This is eerie. Scary. Surreal.
The war is going badly and lives have been lost by the thousands, but there is no real sense, either at the highest levels of government or in the nation at large, that anything momentous is at stake. The announcement on Sunday that five more American soldiers had been blown to eternity by roadside bombs was treated by the press as a yawner. It got very little attention.
You can turn on the television any evening and tune in to the bizarre extended coverage of the search for Natalee Holloway, the Alabama teenager who disappeared in Aruba in May. But we hear very little about the men and women who have given up their lives in Iraq, or are living with horrific injuries suffered in that conflict.
If only the war were more entertaining. Less of a downer. Perhaps then we could meet the people who are suffering and dying in it.
For all the talk of supporting the troops, they are a low priority for most Americans. If the nation really cared, the president would not be frolicking at his ranch for the entire month of August. He'd be back in Washington burning the midnight oil, trying to figure out how to get the troops out of the terrible fix he put them in.
Instead, Mr. Bush is bicycling as soldiers and marines are dying. Dozens have been killed since he went off on his vacation.
As for the rest of the nation, it's not doing much for the troops, either. There was a time, long ago, when war required sacrifices that were shared by most of the population. That's over.
I was in Jacksonville, Fla., a few days ago and watched in amusement as a young woman emerged from a restaurant into 95-degree heat and gleefully exclaimed, "All right, let's go shopping!" The war was the furthest thing from her mind.
For the most part, the only people sacrificing for this war are the troops and their families, and very few of them are coming from the privileged economic classes. That's why it's so easy to keep the troops out of sight and out of mind. And it's why, in the third year of a war started by the richest nation on earth, we still get stories like the one in Sunday's Times that began:
"For the second time since the Iraq war began, the Pentagon is struggling to replace body armor that is failing to protect American troops from the most lethal attacks by insurgents."
Scandalous incompetence? Appalling indifference? Try both. Who cares? This is a war fought mostly by other people's children. The loudest of the hawks are the least likely to send their sons or daughters off to Iraq.
The president has never been clear about why we're in Iraq. There's no plan, no strategy. In one of the many tragic echoes of Vietnam, U.S. troops have been fighting hellacious battles to seize areas controlled by insurgents, only to retreat and allow the insurgents to return.
If Mr. Bush were willing to do something he has refused to do so far - speak plainly and honestly to the American people about this war - he might be able to explain why U.S. troops should continue with an effort that is, in large part at least, benefiting Iraqi factions that are murderous, corrupt and terminally hostile to women. If by some chance he could make that case, the next appropriate step would be to ask all Americans to do their part for the war effort.
College kids in the U.S. are playing video games and looking forward to frat parties while their less fortunate peers are rattling around like moving targets in Baghdad and Mosul, trying to dodge improvised explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades.
There is something very, very wrong with this picture.
If the war in Iraq is worth fighting - if it's a noble venture, as the hawks insist it is - then it's worth fighting with the children of the privileged classes. They should be added to the combat mix. If it's not worth their blood, then we should bring the other troops home.
If Mr. Bush's war in Iraq is worth dying for, then the children of the privileged should be doing some of the dying.
Boston Globe writes about Parent Connect systems
The Joplin R-8 School District has had Parent Connect at the high school level for the past several years and at the middle school level the past two years. Apparently, most school districts still do not have a way for parents to check their children's grades via Internet. Schools in the Boston area are trying it, according to this Boston Globe article:
http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2005/08/14/parents_can_learn_grades_eating_habits_through_school_web_sites/
http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2005/08/14/parents_can_learn_grades_eating_habits_through_school_web_sites/
School uniforms are the new trend
School uniforms is the subject of a CNN article. They seem to be becoming more and more popular. You can read about it at:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/12/style.rules/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/12/style.rules/index.html
Friday, August 12, 2005
Should students have more time to eat lunch?
The Boston Globe had an interesting article earlier this week about the problems with students not having enough time to eat lunch. You can read the article at:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/08/06/school_lunches_are_no_picnic/
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/08/06/school_lunches_are_no_picnic/
Student wins $250,000 in verbal bullying lawsuit
A student who had to put up with verbal abuse throughout high school sued and won $250,000. Read the article at:
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/12368032.htm
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/12368032.htm
Monday, August 08, 2005
Jonesboro killer to be released
Seven years after he went on a rampage at Jonesboro High School, killing four people, Mitchell Johnson will be a free man.
Read the story at:
http://www.katv.com/news/stories/0805/250160.html
Read the story at:
http://www.katv.com/news/stories/0805/250160.html
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Changes made to blog
I didn't realize until tonight that people have to register to leave comments on this blog. I have changed that. Anyone who wishes to leave a comment can do so now without having to register.
Springfield School Board limits soft drinks
The Springfield Board of Education struck new deals with pop vendors limiting the times soda can be sold to students and requiring separate machines with healthy drinks to be installed. You can read KYTV's story at:
http://www.ky3.com/news/1767852.html
http://www.ky3.com/news/1767852.html
Evolution or intelligent design?
The battle over whether to teach evolution or intelligent design in public schools continues with most taking one side or the other and President Bush saying the other day that both sides should be taught.
The following story was published today in The New York Times:
WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 - A sharp debate between scientists and religious conservatives escalated Tuesday over comments by President Bush that the theory of intelligent design should be taught with evolution in the nation's public schools.
In an interview at the White House on Monday with a group of Texas newspaper reporters, Mr. Bush appeared to endorse the push by many of his conservative Christian supporters to give intelligent design equal treatment with the theory of evolution.
Recalling his days as Texas governor, Mr. Bush said in the interview, according to a transcript, "I felt like both sides ought to be properly taught." Asked again by a reporter whether he believed that both sides in the debate between evolution and intelligent design should be taught in the schools, Mr. Bush replied that he did, "so people can understand what the debate is about."
Mr. Bush was pressed as to whether he accepted the view that intelligent design was an alternative to evolution, but he did not directly answer. "I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," he said, adding that "you're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, and the answer is yes."
On Tuesday, the president's conservative Christian supporters and the leading institute advancing intelligent design embraced Mr. Bush's comments while scientists and advocates of the separation of church and state disparaged them. At the White House, where intelligent design has been discussed in a weekly Bible study group, Mr. Bush's science adviser, John H. Marburger 3rd, sought to play down the president's remarks as common sense and old news.
Mr. Marburger said in a telephone interview that "evolution is the cornerstone of modern biology" and "intelligent design is not a scientific concept." Mr. Marburger also said that Mr. Bush's remarks should be interpreted to mean that the president believes that intelligent design should be discussed as part of the "social context" in science classes.
Intelligent design, advanced by a group of academics and intellectuals and some biblical creationists, disputes the idea that natural selection - the force Charles Darwin suggested drove evolution - fully explains the complexity of life. Instead, intelligent design proponents say that life is so intricate that only a powerful guiding force, or intelligent designer, could have created it.
Intelligent design does not identify the designer, but critics say the theory is a thinly disguised argument for God and the divine creation of the universe. Invigorated by a recent push by conservatives, the theory has been gaining support in school districts in 20 states, with Kansas in the lead.
Mr. Marburger said it would be "over-interpreting" Mr. Bush's remarks to say that the president believed that intelligent design and evolution should be given equal treatment in schools.
But Mr. Bush's conservative supporters said the president had indicated exactly that in his remarks.
"It's what I've been pushing, it's what a lot of us have been pushing," said Richard Land, the president of the ethics and religious liberties commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. Dr. Land, who has close ties to the White House, said that evolution "is too often taught as fact," and that "if you're going to teach the Darwinian theory as evolution, teach it as theory. And then teach another theory that has the most support among scientists."
But critics saw Mr. Bush's comment that "both sides" should be taught as the most troubling aspect of his remarks.
"It sounds like you're being fair, but creationism is a sectarian religious viewpoint, and intelligent design is a sectarian religious viewpoint," said Susan Spath, a spokeswoman for the National Center for Science Education, a group that defends the teaching of evolution in public schools. "It's not fair to privilege one religious viewpoint by calling it the other side of evolution."
Ms. Spath added that intelligent design was viewed as more respectable and sophisticated than biblical creationism, but "if you look at their theological and scientific writings, you see that the movement is fundamentally anti-evolution."
The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, called the president's comments irresponsible, and said that "when it comes to evolution, there is only one school of scientific thought, and that is evolution occurred and is still occurring." Mr. Lynn added that "when it comes to matters of religion and philosophy, they can be discussed objectively in public schools, but not in biology class."
The Discovery Institute in Seattle, a leader in developing intelligent design, applauded the president's words on Tuesday as a defense of scientists who have been ostracized for advancing the theory.
"We interpret this as the president using his bully pulpit to support freedom of inquiry and free speech about the issue of biological origins," said Stephen Meyer, the director of the institute's Center for Science and Culture. "It's extremely timely and welcome because so many scientists are experiencing recriminations for breaking with Darwinist orthodoxy."
At the White House, intelligent design was the subject of a weekly Bible study class several years ago when Charles W. Colson, the founder and chairman of Prison Fellowship Ministries, spoke to the group. Mr. Colson has also written a book, "The Good Life," in which a chapter on intelligent design features Michael Gerson, an evangelical Christian who is an assistant to the president for policy and strategic planning.
"It's part of the buzz of the city among Christians," Mr. Colson said in a telephone interview on Tuesday about intelligent design. "It wouldn't surprise me that it got to George Bush. He reads, he picks stuff up, he talks to people. And he's pretty serious about his own Christian beliefs."
The following story was published today in The New York Times:
WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 - A sharp debate between scientists and religious conservatives escalated Tuesday over comments by President Bush that the theory of intelligent design should be taught with evolution in the nation's public schools.
In an interview at the White House on Monday with a group of Texas newspaper reporters, Mr. Bush appeared to endorse the push by many of his conservative Christian supporters to give intelligent design equal treatment with the theory of evolution.
Recalling his days as Texas governor, Mr. Bush said in the interview, according to a transcript, "I felt like both sides ought to be properly taught." Asked again by a reporter whether he believed that both sides in the debate between evolution and intelligent design should be taught in the schools, Mr. Bush replied that he did, "so people can understand what the debate is about."
Mr. Bush was pressed as to whether he accepted the view that intelligent design was an alternative to evolution, but he did not directly answer. "I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," he said, adding that "you're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, and the answer is yes."
On Tuesday, the president's conservative Christian supporters and the leading institute advancing intelligent design embraced Mr. Bush's comments while scientists and advocates of the separation of church and state disparaged them. At the White House, where intelligent design has been discussed in a weekly Bible study group, Mr. Bush's science adviser, John H. Marburger 3rd, sought to play down the president's remarks as common sense and old news.
Mr. Marburger said in a telephone interview that "evolution is the cornerstone of modern biology" and "intelligent design is not a scientific concept." Mr. Marburger also said that Mr. Bush's remarks should be interpreted to mean that the president believes that intelligent design should be discussed as part of the "social context" in science classes.
Intelligent design, advanced by a group of academics and intellectuals and some biblical creationists, disputes the idea that natural selection - the force Charles Darwin suggested drove evolution - fully explains the complexity of life. Instead, intelligent design proponents say that life is so intricate that only a powerful guiding force, or intelligent designer, could have created it.
Intelligent design does not identify the designer, but critics say the theory is a thinly disguised argument for God and the divine creation of the universe. Invigorated by a recent push by conservatives, the theory has been gaining support in school districts in 20 states, with Kansas in the lead.
Mr. Marburger said it would be "over-interpreting" Mr. Bush's remarks to say that the president believed that intelligent design and evolution should be given equal treatment in schools.
But Mr. Bush's conservative supporters said the president had indicated exactly that in his remarks.
"It's what I've been pushing, it's what a lot of us have been pushing," said Richard Land, the president of the ethics and religious liberties commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. Dr. Land, who has close ties to the White House, said that evolution "is too often taught as fact," and that "if you're going to teach the Darwinian theory as evolution, teach it as theory. And then teach another theory that has the most support among scientists."
But critics saw Mr. Bush's comment that "both sides" should be taught as the most troubling aspect of his remarks.
"It sounds like you're being fair, but creationism is a sectarian religious viewpoint, and intelligent design is a sectarian religious viewpoint," said Susan Spath, a spokeswoman for the National Center for Science Education, a group that defends the teaching of evolution in public schools. "It's not fair to privilege one religious viewpoint by calling it the other side of evolution."
Ms. Spath added that intelligent design was viewed as more respectable and sophisticated than biblical creationism, but "if you look at their theological and scientific writings, you see that the movement is fundamentally anti-evolution."
The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, called the president's comments irresponsible, and said that "when it comes to evolution, there is only one school of scientific thought, and that is evolution occurred and is still occurring." Mr. Lynn added that "when it comes to matters of religion and philosophy, they can be discussed objectively in public schools, but not in biology class."
The Discovery Institute in Seattle, a leader in developing intelligent design, applauded the president's words on Tuesday as a defense of scientists who have been ostracized for advancing the theory.
"We interpret this as the president using his bully pulpit to support freedom of inquiry and free speech about the issue of biological origins," said Stephen Meyer, the director of the institute's Center for Science and Culture. "It's extremely timely and welcome because so many scientists are experiencing recriminations for breaking with Darwinist orthodoxy."
At the White House, intelligent design was the subject of a weekly Bible study class several years ago when Charles W. Colson, the founder and chairman of Prison Fellowship Ministries, spoke to the group. Mr. Colson has also written a book, "The Good Life," in which a chapter on intelligent design features Michael Gerson, an evangelical Christian who is an assistant to the president for policy and strategic planning.
"It's part of the buzz of the city among Christians," Mr. Colson said in a telephone interview on Tuesday about intelligent design. "It wouldn't surprise me that it got to George Bush. He reads, he picks stuff up, he talks to people. And he's pretty serious about his own Christian beliefs."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)