Students who blog and who read online news are more likely to appreciate the value of the First Amendment, according to a new book.
From the Knight Foundation website:
High school students who blog, who read online news sources and who chat online regularly are more likely to understand and support their First Amendment rights, according to a new book based on the largest survey conducted on the subject.
Kenneth Dautrich and David Yalof, authors of Future of the First Amendment: The Digital Media, Civic Education and Free Expression Rights in the Nation’s High Schools, presented the key findings at a launch of the book during the Unity ’08 journalism convention.
The book is based on the Future of the First Amendment surveys the authors conducted on behalf of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The initial 2004 survey, the first of its kind for high school students, found that three-fourths of U.S. teens surveyed don’t know or don’t care about the First Amendment. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, of the press, of religion, of assembly and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
With additional information from the 2006 survey, the authors explored the impact of digital media and recent advances in information technology on students’ appreciation of the First Amendment. Their results find a positive correlation between using online news sources and blogs and supporting the forms of free expression protected by the First Amendment. Among the many findings:
Frequent users of online news sources were 12 percent more appreciative of their First Amendment rights than those who don’t get news online.
Students who blog to publish their own content show even higher levels of support.
And 73 percent of chat-room users agree that music lyrics should be allowed, even if deemed offensive, compared with 65 percent of those who don’t use chat rooms.
The authors conclude that a deeper education in both civics and digital technology can help students learn to appreciate the First Amendment.
Dautrich, associate professor of public policy at the University of Connecticut, and Yalof, associate professor of political science at the University of Connecticut, authored the book along with colleague Mark Hugo Lopez, a research assistant professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland.
The Knight Future of the First Amendment survey questioned more than 100,000 high school students about their knowledge of and opinions on the First Amendment. The 28-question survey portrayed general feelings of “ignorance, lethargy and agnosticism” in high school students when it came to the five freedoms of the First Amendment.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Mississippi school board bans teachers from texting with students or being friends through social networking sites
Though a Mississippi school board did not have any evidence to support non-professional behavior by teachers with students, it has forbidden teachers to text message with students or to allow them to be friends through social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook.
From Associated Press:
From Associated Press:
A new school district policy in southern Mississippi prohibits teachers from texting or communicating with students through Internet social network sites such as MySpace.
The Lamar County school board approved the policy earlier this month after becoming concerned that casual contact between teachers and students would be unprofessional.
"The only intent is to limit the personal communication between teachers and students," Superintendent Ben Burnett told The Hattiesburg American newspaper. "We don't need to let it cross the line between professional and personal communication."
Burnett said the policy won't keep teachers or students from creating profiles on sites such as MySpace or Facebook, which allow users to share personal information and communicate over the Web.
"This just keeps them from communicating socially through those kinds of means," Burnett said.
No incident led to the policy, which was enacted at the suggestion of the school board attorney. The board has yet to set penalties for violating the policy.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Small Town News author talks about writing first book
I recently uncovered a 2006 television interview I did with Springfield journalist Ron Davis. The first half of the interview centered around the writing of my first book, Small Town News, and how it was inspired by students in my creative writing classes at Diamond Middle School.
Schools need different approach to stop bullying
The common approach to curtail bullying in schools has been to try to stop the bullies.
That approach is wrong, according to psychologist Izzy Kalman. Schools need to teach students how do deal with bullies:
That approach is wrong, according to psychologist Izzy Kalman. Schools need to teach students how do deal with bullies:
Creating a world where everyone is nice to each other is unrealistic, Kalman writes. People tease other people because they enjoy watching them get upset. The more upset the "victim" gets, the more fun it is to tease him or her. So rather than encourage children to report bullying and then punish bullies, educators need to teach children not to be victims. The keys to that, according to Kalman, are to learn not to let bullies upset you and to treat bullies like friends so they become friends.
If that sounds unrealistic, Kalman says he has taught children how to do just that through counseling and role-playing. He also has anecdotes from others who have used his approach successfully. Kalman argues that society often has more to fear from victims than bullies -- in school shootings in the U.S. such as the one at Columbine High School in 1999, the shooters were not bullies -- they were students who had been harassed and felt like victims.
Florida schools requiring middle school students to pass core classes to reach high school
It is no secret that many middle schools and junior high schools do not require students to pass in order to continue to high school.
Florida has enacted a new law which requires students to pass core classes in order to move on to ninth grade:
BY NIRVI SHAH
Miami Herald
July 8, 2008
Failing English, math, science or social studies classes in middle school never kept Florida students from moving on to high school in the past.
That's not the case anymore.
Beginning this fall, a Florida law enacted two years ago will require all students to pass their core subjects in middle school in order to be promoted to the ninth grade.
The tougher standards have already forced tens of thousands of middle school students around the state, including those in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, to enroll in remedial programs during the school year and during summer school.
The law, approved in 2006, was part of the work of a statewide middle school reform task force that wanted to make sixth, seventh and eighth grades more meaningful and ensure that more middle school students were truly prepared for high school. It applied to sixth-graders in 2006. Last year, seventh-graders were added to the list.
Under the old rules, ''they could fail in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade and they could go on to the next grade,'' said Carle Shaw, principal of Attucks Middle School in Hollywood.
Now, if a student at Shaw's school earns an F in any grading period, they forgo some of their time in elective classes for the next marking period reviewing the material in the failed class to make sure they understand it and move their grade to a D -- the minimum to go to high school. Or they go to summer classes.
GETTING MOTIVATED
At Pines Middle School this summer, soon-to-be seventh-grader Leyla Borges started the summer with a 35 percent on a science exam -- an F. She finished with a 90 percent -- an A.
Leyla, 12, said she skipped school enough this year to fail science and didn't heed her mother's advice to stay focused. She found that focus in Peter Colman's summer science class and said she's actually interested in the subject now. ''I wouldn't mind learning more about it,'' she said.
Shaw and other principals prefer getting kids help during the school year. Students shouldn't get used to thinking they can fail a class during the school year and make it up in three weeks over the summer, said Joel Smith, who oversees middle schools in Broward.
Nearly one in 10 of the district's 26,000 sixth- and seventh-graders were eligible for the summer classes. About 2,100 enrolled.
''What you didn't get in the year you're not really going to get in three weeks,'' he said. ``You want to make lifelong learners rather than just have them recover a course in three weeks.''
Not all of the summer students who finished classes Thursday will end up with the credit made up. If they haven't mastered the skills, they'll have to keep working for the credit, Smith said.
Students who fail one or two classes in middle school -- including English, math, social studies and science -- can still be promoted from one grade to the next as long as they fail no more than two classes. But they could get locked out of ninth grade without remedial work.
State and local education administrators hope that when this group of students advances to high school, dropout and graduation figures will improve. Florida's graduation rate is 72 percent, and it was just 66 percent in Broward and 64 percent in Miami-Dade County last year.
Many of the students who bring the graduation rate down drop out in ninth grade.
''Ninth grade's the toughest year for the students in Florida,'' said Mary Jane Tappen, the state's deputy chancellor for curriculum, instruction and student services. ``The whole purpose is to try to help with that.''
High schools already have enacted many reforms to keep ninth-grade students engaged and in school, said Chip Osborn, principal of Hollywood Hills High. Many schools separate freshmen from upperclassmen, give them unique schedules and pair them with mentors.
REQUIRED CLASSES
And while middle school students could move on to high school even without passing some of their classes, high school students can't earn diplomas without a fixed number of credits, Osborn said.
''You need four credits in English, four credits in math, three credits in social studies,'' Osborn said. The courses required of middle school students must also have a point, he said.
Broward Superintendent Jim Notter looks forward to seeing the effect of middle school reforms on high schools.
Although Broward scaled back on most summer school programs years ago, the district came up with about $400,000 to pay for middle school classes to give as many students as possible the chance to get to high school on time.
''I believe it's one of those reforms that was much needed,'' he said.
Florida has enacted a new law which requires students to pass core classes in order to move on to ninth grade:
BY NIRVI SHAH
Miami Herald
July 8, 2008
Failing English, math, science or social studies classes in middle school never kept Florida students from moving on to high school in the past.
That's not the case anymore.
Beginning this fall, a Florida law enacted two years ago will require all students to pass their core subjects in middle school in order to be promoted to the ninth grade.
The tougher standards have already forced tens of thousands of middle school students around the state, including those in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, to enroll in remedial programs during the school year and during summer school.
The law, approved in 2006, was part of the work of a statewide middle school reform task force that wanted to make sixth, seventh and eighth grades more meaningful and ensure that more middle school students were truly prepared for high school. It applied to sixth-graders in 2006. Last year, seventh-graders were added to the list.
Under the old rules, ''they could fail in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade and they could go on to the next grade,'' said Carle Shaw, principal of Attucks Middle School in Hollywood.
Now, if a student at Shaw's school earns an F in any grading period, they forgo some of their time in elective classes for the next marking period reviewing the material in the failed class to make sure they understand it and move their grade to a D -- the minimum to go to high school. Or they go to summer classes.
GETTING MOTIVATED
At Pines Middle School this summer, soon-to-be seventh-grader Leyla Borges started the summer with a 35 percent on a science exam -- an F. She finished with a 90 percent -- an A.
Leyla, 12, said she skipped school enough this year to fail science and didn't heed her mother's advice to stay focused. She found that focus in Peter Colman's summer science class and said she's actually interested in the subject now. ''I wouldn't mind learning more about it,'' she said.
Shaw and other principals prefer getting kids help during the school year. Students shouldn't get used to thinking they can fail a class during the school year and make it up in three weeks over the summer, said Joel Smith, who oversees middle schools in Broward.
Nearly one in 10 of the district's 26,000 sixth- and seventh-graders were eligible for the summer classes. About 2,100 enrolled.
''What you didn't get in the year you're not really going to get in three weeks,'' he said. ``You want to make lifelong learners rather than just have them recover a course in three weeks.''
Not all of the summer students who finished classes Thursday will end up with the credit made up. If they haven't mastered the skills, they'll have to keep working for the credit, Smith said.
Students who fail one or two classes in middle school -- including English, math, social studies and science -- can still be promoted from one grade to the next as long as they fail no more than two classes. But they could get locked out of ninth grade without remedial work.
State and local education administrators hope that when this group of students advances to high school, dropout and graduation figures will improve. Florida's graduation rate is 72 percent, and it was just 66 percent in Broward and 64 percent in Miami-Dade County last year.
Many of the students who bring the graduation rate down drop out in ninth grade.
''Ninth grade's the toughest year for the students in Florida,'' said Mary Jane Tappen, the state's deputy chancellor for curriculum, instruction and student services. ``The whole purpose is to try to help with that.''
High schools already have enacted many reforms to keep ninth-grade students engaged and in school, said Chip Osborn, principal of Hollywood Hills High. Many schools separate freshmen from upperclassmen, give them unique schedules and pair them with mentors.
REQUIRED CLASSES
And while middle school students could move on to high school even without passing some of their classes, high school students can't earn diplomas without a fixed number of credits, Osborn said.
''You need four credits in English, four credits in math, three credits in social studies,'' Osborn said. The courses required of middle school students must also have a point, he said.
Broward Superintendent Jim Notter looks forward to seeing the effect of middle school reforms on high schools.
Although Broward scaled back on most summer school programs years ago, the district came up with about $400,000 to pay for middle school classes to give as many students as possible the chance to get to high school on time.
''I believe it's one of those reforms that was much needed,'' he said.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
MySpace mom puts house on market
The mother who created a fake MySpace account that led to a teenager's suicide has put her house on the market and is preparing to move out of Dardenne Prairie, MO, according to an article in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
trial.
Prosecutors allege that Drew defrauded MySpace by violating the company's Terms of Service when she used false information to create a MySpace account for a fictitious boy named Josh Evans.
Thomas P. O'Brien, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, claims jurisdiction in the case because MySpace is located in Beverly Hills, near Los Angeles.
The MySpace hoax led to the 2006 suicide of 13-year-old Megan Meier, who lived four houses down the street from Drew.
The Drews' home was listed last week for $234,900. They bought it in April 2005 for $188,900, according to county records. The Drews made the purchase with the assistance of Megan's mother, Tina Meier, who at the time worked as a real estate agent.
Another neighbor, Christie Kriss, also wants the Drews to leave.
"I can't wait for them to be gone," Kriss said. "We hope she stays in California for like the next 20 years."
Drew faces a maximum 20 years in prison, but her attorney has told the Journal that if he does his job well she won't spend a day in jail.
Another neighbor, 18-year-old Blaine Buckles, said Tuesday he was glad the Drews are trying to leave.
"I don't really like living next door to them," he said.
Buckles attempted to revive Megan the night she ran up to her bedroom closet and hanged herself after receiving hurtful messages on MySpace from the fictitious Josh Evans. She died the next day.
Drew appeared briefly in court Monday. Neither she nor her attorney spoke to reporters following the hearing. She posted a $20,000 signature, or non-secured, bond, meaning she did not have to provide cash or property to be free pending
Monday, June 16, 2008
Decision reversed on high school newspaper
Last week, I ran an item about a high school principal's decision to shut down the school newspaper following an article and photo about flag burning. That decision has been reversed:
By Rob Rogers
Redding.com
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Shasta Union High School District officials reversed themselves Friday, saying they'll allow Shasta High to keep its journalism class and continue to publish the school's newspaper, the Volcano.
"I'm absolutely thrilled," said junior Amanda Cope. "It's excellent to have the paper back."
Cope, who was set to take over as editor-in-chief this fall, called Mike Stuart, district superintendent, earlier in the week, asking for a chance to prove she and the students she recruited could make the Volcano a serious, respectable publication.
"I volunteered an assurance that we would be legitimate and professional," she said.
Stuart said she made her case.
"We're going to give her that shot," he said.
The Volcano was shut down two weeks ago amid controversy after the paper ran a photo of a student burning an American flag and an editorial defending the practice.
Shasta High Principal Milan Woollard said that the decision to shut down the paper was based on financial issues and already had been made when the photo and editorial ran. He said the incident “cemented” his decision to shutter the Volcano.
The extra class section will cost about $13,000. Woollard said the challenge now is figuring out how to secure a faculty adviser.
Stuart said at this point it’s not known if Judy Champagne, the Volcano’s longtime adviser, will return to the job in the fall.
Champagne would say only that she’s pleased with the district’s decision to honor Cope’s hard work putting a staff together.
“I think it’s great news,” she said.
Stuart said Cope has the school year to build up the program. Then, school officials will look to see if class size and interest in the paper is enough to justify its continued existence.
Cope is confident she can do it. She plans to broaden the paper’s coverage to include articles and features that represent the varying interests of the student body — including international human rights and major test dates at the school.
Enterprise and Foothill high schools shut down their student newspapers a few years ago after their class enrollment dwindled, Stuart said. If students at Shasta High can’t generate enough interest during the next school year, the Volcano will exist only online, Stuart said.
West Valley High School in Cottonwood announced it would shut down its school paper, The Eagle Examiner, this fall for lack of interest. The school had only eight students enrolled for the class for August, Principal Karl Stemmler said.
It was a tough blow for the school. The Examiner is known as one of the best high school newspapers in the state, having won three George H. Gallup awards — one of the highest honors given in high school journalism.
However, the paper has been shut down before. In 2005, class enrollment dwindled and the paper was put on hiatus, only to be started up again the next year.
Stemmler said if interest returns and enough students sign up next year, the school will publish again.
“We’ll bring it back,” he said.
Cope worked hard to secure what she thought were enough students to fill the class at Shasta before the news of the closure came. She said she specifically sought out students who would bring professionalism and intelligence to the paper with the goal of “revolutionizing” the Volcano.
Stuart said now they have the chance to prove themselves.
“We’ll see how the kids do,” he said.
By Rob Rogers
Redding.com
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Shasta Union High School District officials reversed themselves Friday, saying they'll allow Shasta High to keep its journalism class and continue to publish the school's newspaper, the Volcano.
"I'm absolutely thrilled," said junior Amanda Cope. "It's excellent to have the paper back."
Cope, who was set to take over as editor-in-chief this fall, called Mike Stuart, district superintendent, earlier in the week, asking for a chance to prove she and the students she recruited could make the Volcano a serious, respectable publication.
"I volunteered an assurance that we would be legitimate and professional," she said.
Stuart said she made her case.
"We're going to give her that shot," he said.
The Volcano was shut down two weeks ago amid controversy after the paper ran a photo of a student burning an American flag and an editorial defending the practice.
Shasta High Principal Milan Woollard said that the decision to shut down the paper was based on financial issues and already had been made when the photo and editorial ran. He said the incident “cemented” his decision to shutter the Volcano.
The extra class section will cost about $13,000. Woollard said the challenge now is figuring out how to secure a faculty adviser.
Stuart said at this point it’s not known if Judy Champagne, the Volcano’s longtime adviser, will return to the job in the fall.
Champagne would say only that she’s pleased with the district’s decision to honor Cope’s hard work putting a staff together.
“I think it’s great news,” she said.
Stuart said Cope has the school year to build up the program. Then, school officials will look to see if class size and interest in the paper is enough to justify its continued existence.
Cope is confident she can do it. She plans to broaden the paper’s coverage to include articles and features that represent the varying interests of the student body — including international human rights and major test dates at the school.
Enterprise and Foothill high schools shut down their student newspapers a few years ago after their class enrollment dwindled, Stuart said. If students at Shasta High can’t generate enough interest during the next school year, the Volcano will exist only online, Stuart said.
West Valley High School in Cottonwood announced it would shut down its school paper, The Eagle Examiner, this fall for lack of interest. The school had only eight students enrolled for the class for August, Principal Karl Stemmler said.
It was a tough blow for the school. The Examiner is known as one of the best high school newspapers in the state, having won three George H. Gallup awards — one of the highest honors given in high school journalism.
However, the paper has been shut down before. In 2005, class enrollment dwindled and the paper was put on hiatus, only to be started up again the next year.
Stemmler said if interest returns and enough students sign up next year, the school will publish again.
“We’ll bring it back,” he said.
Cope worked hard to secure what she thought were enough students to fill the class at Shasta before the news of the closure came. She said she specifically sought out students who would bring professionalism and intelligence to the paper with the goal of “revolutionizing” the Volcano.
Stuart said now they have the chance to prove themselves.
“We’ll see how the kids do,” he said.
Missouri woman pleads not guilt in MySpace harassment case
Earlier this year, students in my communication arts classes at South Middle School discussed the case of a Missouri woman who opened a MySpace account, masqueraded as a teenage boy, and drove a 13-year-old girl to commit suicide. At the time, no charges had been filed against the woman.
Since then, federal charges have been filed against the woman and she pleaded not guilty today:
Since then, federal charges have been filed against the woman and she pleaded not guilty today:
Lori Drew, accused of helping create a fake MySpace profile and using it to harass a 13-year-old Dardenne Prairie girl who later killed herself, pleaded not guilty this morning in federal court in Los Angeles.
The pleas were expected and a minor milestone leading up to what the real battle will be in the case – whether prosecutors' use of a law normally used to target computer hackers will work in a cyber bullying case.
Megan Meier, who struggled with depression, hung herself in her bedroom Oct. 16, 2006 , shortly after receiving this message: “The world would be a better place without you.” Megan thought it was from “Josh Evans,” a 16-year-old boy with whom she'd developed an online relationship, but officials said the boy was a creation of Drew and others designed to find out what Megan was saying about Drew's daughter, who was a former friend of Megan.
Drew's indictment on a felony conspiracy charge and three charges of illegally accessing MySpace computers was handed down last month. U.S. Attorney Thomas O'Brien said then that Drew and unnamed “co-conspirators” violated MySpace's rules and terms of service by using false information to set up the Josh account.
They then used that account to “harass” Megan, O'Brien said.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
More schools separating the sexes
There is an old saying- Everything that is old is new again and that appears to be what is happening in education.
An article in today's Wsshington Post explores a return to separating the sexes at schools:
An article in today's Wsshington Post explores a return to separating the sexes at schools:
With encouragement from the federal government, single-sex classes that have long been a hallmark of private schools are multiplying in public schools in the Washington area and elsewhere. By next fall, about 500 public schools nationwide will offer single-sex classes, according to the National Association for Single Sex Public Education, based in Montgomery County. That's up from a handful a decade ago. The approach is especially attractive to some struggling schools in the market for low-cost reform.
The 2002 No Child Left Behind law cites single-gender classes as one "innovative" tool to boost achievement. But anti-discrimination laws banned widespread use of such classes, allowing them only in certain instances, such as sex education lessons. A change in federal regulations in 2006 gave schools more flexibility, allowing boys and girls to be separated as long as classes are voluntary and "substantially equal" coeducational classes are offered.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Principal kills student newspaper over flag-burning photo
A Redding, Calif. principal has shut down the high school newspaper for the upcoming school year after publication of a flag-burning photo. The following article is from the Redding Record Searchlight:
By Rob Rogers
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
The adviser calls it sabotage, the principal finds it embarrassing and the superintendent is offended.
The students see it all as a matter of freedom of speech.
Shasta High published its last issue of the Volcano, the student newspaper, before the end of classes last week with an image on the front page of a student burning the American flag and an editorial inside defending the practice.
"The paper's done," said Milan Woollard, Shasta High principal. "There is not going to be a school newspaper next year."
Shasta had been looking at cutting the paper already -- funds are tight as the school anticipates receiving fewer state dollars from Sacramento this fall, Woollard said.
"This cements that decision," he said.
Judy Champagne, the Volcano's faculty adviser, is upset that some of the students decided to use the newspaper as a platform to engender controversy during the last week of school. Planned for the paper was coverage of Shasta's prom and announcements of scholarship recipients and other news.
Those items made the paper, she said. The editorial and image of flag burning were added at the last minute.
"I think that the students were sabotaging what should have been a positive last issue," shesaid. "I think it's very sad that we're not going to have a paper."
Upsetting to Champagne, who's been the newspaper's adviser for years, is what she called a lack of news judgment from some of the students on staff. While flag burning may be a salient national issue, nothing has happened in the north state to make it a current, local issue.
Until now.
"I thought it was bad journalism," she said.
The editorial, written by Connor Kennedy, who graduated Friday, explained that a person has the right to burn the flag, that it's protected speech under the first amendment. Kennedy did not return a phone call made to his home Monday.
Administrators at the school and district level said students have a right to run the photo and print the editorial under the same right.
But all of them called it poor judgment.
"I think that they misused it (their freedom of speech)," Champagne said. "I think this was a game for them."
Mike Stuart, Shasta Union High School superintendent -- a U.S. Army veteran and paratrooper -- said just because the students have a right to defend and run the image doesn't mean the administration has to approve of it.
"Personally I find it offensive," he said. "Especially the last newspaper of the year. It's like a parting shot."
Stuart said it showed the students' immaturity.
"I think it was especially self-indulgent," he said. "I don't like it at all."
Kennedy, who won an award from the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution earlier this year for an essay he wrote, was president of Shasta's student union and helped organize a demonstration on campus last fall to protest the high school's decision to combine its junior and senior prom and the vote that led to the decision.
He and other students successfully argued the matter in front of the school board and forced Shasta administrators to hold a campuswide revote on the issue.
Woollard said he believes Kennedy and other students placed the photo and editorial in the paper simply to get a reaction. And it's what they've got, he said.
"I'm just embarrassed that the thing was ever done," he said.
Friday, June 06, 2008
Columnist complains about grinding and freak dancing
Teen dances are turning into sex shows, according to syndicated columnist Brent Bozell:
Bozell concludes by writing the following passage:
The freak-dancing wars are a symptom of a larger disease. In too many schools, parents and principals and chaperones are letting the inmates run the asylum. What should be a strict, clean, carefully observed behavior code is being challenged and ultimately rejected by students -- spoiled punks -- emboldened enough to defy and intimidate the adults who would enforce those codes. What's left is a tacky event where teenagers dress in expensive tuxedos and gowns and dance like they weren't wearing any clothes at all.
On the website Slate a few years ago, twentysomething author David Amsden attended a prom in Rockville, Md., as a journalist to observe the modern customs. It wasn't pretty. "Most, however, are dancing in a style you could call Rap Video Imitation Gone Wrong: the girls back into the boys, who proceed to lift up the girls' dresses in a way they apparently think is subtle, but in reality is anything but. Then they try, and fail, to move to the beat." One girl's dress was hiked up so far the author could see her bellybutton ring.
Bozell concludes by writing the following passage:
I simply refuse to believe that a school principal cannot issue a mandate -- yes, a mandate -- declaring that any student participating in this kind of behavior would summarily be dismissed from school. Period. Ah, but you can hear the Wobble-Knees already. What, specifically, is this kind of behavior? How do we distinguish between sexy dancing and sexual dancing? How do we know it's indecent, never mind obscene? Are there regulations banning it? If not, who are we to impose our morality on others? The hand-wringing would be endless -- embarrassingly, nauseatingly endless.
And you parents out there who condone this activity: You disgust me. If I were chaperoning one of these dances and a boy attempted to perform this kind of lewd activity on my teenage daughter, I'd have a solution. I wouldn't ask him please not to simulate anal sex on her. I wouldn't refer him to the contract he signed at school. I'd beat the stuffing out of him.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Teen job market is weak this summer
A New York Times article describes this summer's job market for teens as "weak":
School is out, and Aaron Stallings, his junior year of high school behind him, wanders the air-conditioned cocoon of the Woodland Hills Mall in search of a job.
Mr. Stallings, 18, says he has been looking for three months, burning gasoline to get to the mall, then filling out applications at stores selling skateboard T-shirts, beach sandals and baseball caps. He likes the idea of working amid the goods he covets. But so far, no offers.
“I’m going to go to Iraq and get a job,” he says acidly. “I hear they’ve got cheap gas.” He grins. “I’m just playing. But I’ve been all over, and nobody’s hiring. They just say, ‘We’ll call you tomorrow.’ And no one ever calls back.”
As the forces of economic downturn ripple widely across the United States, the job market of 2008 is shaping up as the weakest in more than half a century for teenagers looking for summer work, according to labor economists, government data and companies that hire young people.
This deterioration is jeopardizing what many experts consider a crucial beginning stage of working life, one that gives young people experience and confidence along with pocket money.
Little more than one-third of the 16- to 19-year-olds in the United States are likely to be employed this summer, the smallest share since the government began tracking teenage work in 1948, according to a research paper published by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. That is a sharp drop from the 45 percent level of teenage employment reached in 2000.
The rates among minority young people have been particularly low, with only 21 percent of African-Americans and 31 percent of Hispanics from the ages of 16 to 19 employed last summer, according to the Labor Department.
(New York Times photo)
Final episodes of "The Paper" set for tonight
The final episodes of MTV's "The Paper," a program about the ups and downs of a high school newspaper are scheduled to air today at 9 and 9:30 p.m.:
Complete episodes are available at MTV.com.
"The Paper" chronicles the staff of the Circuit, the student newspaper at Cypress Bay High School in Weston, Fla. The first episode introduced us to a half dozen new seniors who all wanted the top job of editor-in-chief for the year. The chosen one: Amanda. And they all hate her.
Fortunately, "The Paper" is cleverly edited and quite lively. That first episode was more "The Office" than "The Apprentice." It's a documentary, not a game show; there's no prize awarded in the final episode. So none of the characters seems to have an agenda or to be playing too much to the cameras --except the often hilarious moments when Amanda is alone, performing impressions to herself or philosophizing to her dog.
These are teenagers, anyway. (What outside world?) And they're normal teens, at that -- this is not "Laguna Beach." These kids have pimples and run for student leadership and worry about their schoolwork and talk behind each other's backs. OK, so last week's episode showed three of the guys at a spa exfoliating before the homecoming dance. Maybe MTV paid for that, or maybe that's what 17-year-old geeks do in south Florida. The beauty of "The Paper," though, is that most of its moments have a ring of truth I'm not sure I've yet encountered in reality TV.
Complete episodes are available at MTV.com.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Blogging encourages teen writing
The same Pew Research study that alarmed many about the effect text messaging and instant messaging are having on writing also included some positive information about teen bloggers. The blogging phenomenon is encouraging writing among teens:
Teen bloggers, however, write more frequently both online and offline, the study says..
Forty-seven percent of teen bloggers write outside of school for personal reasons several times a week or more, compared with 33 percent of teens without blogs. Sixty-five percent of teen bloggers believe that writing is essential to later success in life; 53 percent of non-bloggers say the same thing.
Bradley A. Hammer, who teaches in Duke University's writing program, says the kind of writing students do on blogs and other digital formats actually can be better than the writing style they learn in school, because it is better suited to true intellectual pursuit than is SAT-style writing.
"In real ways, blogging and other forms of virtual debate actually foster the very types of intellectual exchange, analysis, and argumentative writing that universities value," he wrote in an op-ed piece last August
Monday, April 28, 2008
Teachers gone wild on the internet
Today's Washington Post features an article on young teachers who do not have the common sense to be careful with what they post on their Facebook and MySpace pages:
Facebook and MySpace can be wonderful sites for teachers, if used properly. When they are used in the fashion described in this article, it makes you wonder about whether these teachers belong in the classroom influencing young people.
One Montgomery County special education teacher displayed a poster that depicts talking sperm and invokes a slang term for oral sex. One woman who identified herself as a Prince William County kindergarten teacher posted a satiric shampoo commercial with a half-naked man having an orgasm in the shower. A D.C. public schools educator offered this tip on her page: "Teaching in DCPS -- Lesson #1: Don't smoke crack while pregnant."
Just to be clear, these are not teenagers, the typical Internet scofflaws and sources of ceaseless discussion about cyber-bullying, sexual predators and so on. These are adults, many in their 20s, who are behaving, for the most part, like young adults.
But the crudeness of some Facebook or MySpace teacher profiles, which are far, far away from sanitized Web sites ending in ".edu," prompts questions emblematic of our times: Do the risque pages matter if teacher performance is not hindered and if students, parents and school officials don't see them? At what point are these young teachers judged by the standards for public officials?
Facebook and MySpace can be wonderful sites for teachers, if used properly. When they are used in the fashion described in this article, it makes you wonder about whether these teachers belong in the classroom influencing young people.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Experts divided on text messaging/instant messaging as writing
A just-published study by the Pew Foundation shows wide disagreement among experts about whether text messaging and instant messaging are helpful or damaging to writing:
As someone who has taught English to teens for the past nine years, I find I agree with those who don't see text messaging and instant messaging as the death of all writing. At first, when I began to see the LOLs and TTYL in messages from students, I nearly panicked about the possibility for erosion of writing skills, but that is not taking place. I liken it to people who learn to write or speak in more than one language. I see few students who try to insert text messaging language into formal papers or formal language into text messaging.
There are always negative people who see each development in our culture as the end of mankind.
Let me know what you think.
Some see it as a sign that young people are interested in the written word and simply need to be encouraged to expand their endeavors into more serious topics.
"I think it’s quite exciting to see so much writing going on in any form," said Richard Sterling, chairman of the advisory board of the National Commission on Writing. "It leads people to other parts of the spectrum."
Others say the tech-flavored style – heavy on horrid punctuation and shortcuts such as "LOL," for laugh out loud — encourages bad habits while contributing nothing to improved writing skills.
To think otherwise would be the same as suggesting that 18th Century telegraph operators were improving their own writing skills, said Michael Bugeja, director of Iowa State University’s Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication.
"I don’t even want to hear such nonsense," Bugeja said.
As someone who has taught English to teens for the past nine years, I find I agree with those who don't see text messaging and instant messaging as the death of all writing. At first, when I began to see the LOLs and TTYL in messages from students, I nearly panicked about the possibility for erosion of writing skills, but that is not taking place. I liken it to people who learn to write or speak in more than one language. I see few students who try to insert text messaging language into formal papers or formal language into text messaging.
There are always negative people who see each development in our culture as the end of mankind.
Let me know what you think.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Snow day call become internet firestorm
A phone call made by a teenager to a school district administrator's telephone asking why school had not been cancelled after three inches of snow fell has become a firestorm on the internet.
The following article comes from the Washington Post:
By Michael Alison Chandler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Snow days, kids and school officials have always been a delicate mix.
But a phone call to a Fairfax County public school administrator's home last week about a snow day -- or lack of one -- has taken on a life of its own. Through the ubiquity of Facebook and YouTube, the call has become a rallying cry for students' First Amendment rights, and it shows that the generation gap has become a technological chasm.
It started with Thursday's snowfall, estimated at about three inches near Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke. On his lunch break, Lake Braddock senior Devraj "Dave" S. Kori, 17, used a listed home phone number to call Dean Tistadt, chief operating officer for the county system, to ask why he had not closed the schools. Kori left his name and phone number and got a message later in the day from Tistadt's wife.
"How dare you call us at home! If you have a problem with going to school, you do not call somebody's house and complain about it," Candy Tistadt's minute-long message began. At one point, she uttered the phrase "snotty-nosed little brats," and near the end, she said, "Get over it, kid, and go to school!"
Not so long ago, that might have been the end of it -- a few choice words by an agitated administrator (or spouse). But with the frenetic pace of students' online networking, it's harder for grown-ups to have the last word. Kori's call and Tistadt's response sparked online debate among area students about whether the student's actions constituted harassment and whether the response was warranted.
Kori took Tistadt's message, left on his cellphone, and posted an audio link on a Facebook page he had created after he got home from school called "Let them know what you think about schools not being cancelled." The Web page listed Dean Tistadt's work and home numbers.
The Tistadts received dozens more calls that day and night, Dean Tistadt said. Most were hang-ups, but at one point, they were coming every five minutes -- one at 4 a.m., he said. At the same time, his wife's response was spreading through cyberspace.
Within a day, hundreds of people had listened to her message, which was also posted on YouTube. A friend of Kori's sent it to a local television news station, and it was aired on the nightly news program. As of yesterday, more than 9,000 people had clicked on the YouTube link. Hundreds of comments had been posted on the Facebook and YouTube pages, largely about what constitutes proper and polite requests for public information from students.
One Oakton High School student said in a posting yesterday that the crank calls to the Tistadts' home were out of line but that Kori's call was appropriate. "I am not happy that [Dean Tistadt] gambled multiple times with our safety just so we might have a bit more knowledge crammed in our heads at school," he wrote.
A Westfield High School student agreed: "thank God someone stood up for us at last!"
Some were just as adamant the other way. A student from James Madison High School in Vienna wrote: "It's called a home phone number for a reason. My dad is a physician and I can't tell you how irritating it is to get calls at all hours of the night from people who think they are entitled to immediate attention . . . leave the poor guy alone."
Kori, a member of the Lake Braddock debate team who said his grade-point average is 3.977, said his message was not intended to harass. He said that he tried unsuccessfully to contact Dean Tistadt at work and that he thought he had a basic right to petition a public official for more information about a decision that affected him and his classmates. He said he was exercising freedom of speech in posting a Facebook page. The differing interpretations of his actions probably stem from "a generation gap," he said.
"People in my generation view privacy differently. We are the cellphone generation. We are used to being reached at all times," he said.
Kori explained his perspective in an e-mail yesterday to Fairfax County schools spokesman Paul Regnier. Regnier said, also in an e-mail, that Kori's decision to place the phone call to the Tistadts' home was more likely the result of a "civility gap."
"It's really an issue of kids learning what is acceptable and not acceptable. Any call to a public servant's house is harassment," Regnier said in an interview.
Kori said that he was called into the principal's office to discuss the matter but that he was not punished.
Candy Tistadt did not return phone messages, but Dean Tistadt credited Kori for having the "courage of his convictions to stand up and be identified." He also credited him for causing the high volume of crank calls, not to mention considerable grief and embarrassment for his wife.
"This has been horrible for her," he said, adding that he and his wife both learned a hard lesson about the long reach of the Internet.
The following article comes from the Washington Post:
By Michael Alison Chandler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Snow days, kids and school officials have always been a delicate mix.
But a phone call to a Fairfax County public school administrator's home last week about a snow day -- or lack of one -- has taken on a life of its own. Through the ubiquity of Facebook and YouTube, the call has become a rallying cry for students' First Amendment rights, and it shows that the generation gap has become a technological chasm.
It started with Thursday's snowfall, estimated at about three inches near Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke. On his lunch break, Lake Braddock senior Devraj "Dave" S. Kori, 17, used a listed home phone number to call Dean Tistadt, chief operating officer for the county system, to ask why he had not closed the schools. Kori left his name and phone number and got a message later in the day from Tistadt's wife.
"How dare you call us at home! If you have a problem with going to school, you do not call somebody's house and complain about it," Candy Tistadt's minute-long message began. At one point, she uttered the phrase "snotty-nosed little brats," and near the end, she said, "Get over it, kid, and go to school!"
Not so long ago, that might have been the end of it -- a few choice words by an agitated administrator (or spouse). But with the frenetic pace of students' online networking, it's harder for grown-ups to have the last word. Kori's call and Tistadt's response sparked online debate among area students about whether the student's actions constituted harassment and whether the response was warranted.
Kori took Tistadt's message, left on his cellphone, and posted an audio link on a Facebook page he had created after he got home from school called "Let them know what you think about schools not being cancelled." The Web page listed Dean Tistadt's work and home numbers.
The Tistadts received dozens more calls that day and night, Dean Tistadt said. Most were hang-ups, but at one point, they were coming every five minutes -- one at 4 a.m., he said. At the same time, his wife's response was spreading through cyberspace.
Within a day, hundreds of people had listened to her message, which was also posted on YouTube. A friend of Kori's sent it to a local television news station, and it was aired on the nightly news program. As of yesterday, more than 9,000 people had clicked on the YouTube link. Hundreds of comments had been posted on the Facebook and YouTube pages, largely about what constitutes proper and polite requests for public information from students.
One Oakton High School student said in a posting yesterday that the crank calls to the Tistadts' home were out of line but that Kori's call was appropriate. "I am not happy that [Dean Tistadt] gambled multiple times with our safety just so we might have a bit more knowledge crammed in our heads at school," he wrote.
A Westfield High School student agreed: "thank God someone stood up for us at last!"
Some were just as adamant the other way. A student from James Madison High School in Vienna wrote: "It's called a home phone number for a reason. My dad is a physician and I can't tell you how irritating it is to get calls at all hours of the night from people who think they are entitled to immediate attention . . . leave the poor guy alone."
Kori, a member of the Lake Braddock debate team who said his grade-point average is 3.977, said his message was not intended to harass. He said that he tried unsuccessfully to contact Dean Tistadt at work and that he thought he had a basic right to petition a public official for more information about a decision that affected him and his classmates. He said he was exercising freedom of speech in posting a Facebook page. The differing interpretations of his actions probably stem from "a generation gap," he said.
"People in my generation view privacy differently. We are the cellphone generation. We are used to being reached at all times," he said.
Kori explained his perspective in an e-mail yesterday to Fairfax County schools spokesman Paul Regnier. Regnier said, also in an e-mail, that Kori's decision to place the phone call to the Tistadts' home was more likely the result of a "civility gap."
"It's really an issue of kids learning what is acceptable and not acceptable. Any call to a public servant's house is harassment," Regnier said in an interview.
Kori said that he was called into the principal's office to discuss the matter but that he was not punished.
Candy Tistadt did not return phone messages, but Dean Tistadt credited Kori for having the "courage of his convictions to stand up and be identified." He also credited him for causing the high volume of crank calls, not to mention considerable grief and embarrassment for his wife.
"This has been horrible for her," he said, adding that he and his wife both learned a hard lesson about the long reach of the Internet.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Another community bans internet harassment
Two articles have been posted on this blog in the past week about the situation in St. Charles County, Mo., in which a teenage girl committed suicide as a result of a fictional internet boyfriend created by a former friend's mother.
Since that incident occurred in November 2006, the community in which it took place has passed a law outlawing internet harassment. Another community, nearby Florissant, has followed suit, according to an article in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Since that incident occurred in November 2006, the community in which it took place has passed a law outlawing internet harassment. Another community, nearby Florissant, has followed suit, according to an article in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
The Florissant City Council voted unanimously Monday night to add harassment over the Internet to the city's definitions in its anti-harassment ordinance, saying it "is important to recognize a new form of harassment that has developed with extensive Internet usage in our society."
Councilman Tim Lee said he introduced the harassment measure at the behest of the mayor. It allows for up to six months in jail and a fine for violators and goes into effect in 10 days.
"It makes a statement," Lee said. "We're not going to tolerate this kind of thing in the city of Florissant."
The expanded definition of harassment follows a similar measure passed last week in Dardenne Prairie, where Internet harassment is now a misdemeanor a year after a 13-year-old girl killed herself there.
When her parents went public earlier this month with their claim that Megan Meier hanged herself after becoming upset about messages received from a fictitious MySpace account created by neighbors, the story made news — and brought outrage nationwide.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Columnist favors year-round schools
In a column in today's Los Angeles Times, Charles Fleming says he favors the concept of year-round schools:
By Charles Fleming
November 25, 2007
This winter, for the first time in years, my two daughters will experience vastly different winter breaks. Katie is a senior at North Hollywood High, which has just reverted to a traditional school schedule. She will be out of school from Dec. 14 to Jan. 7. Frankie is a junior at John Marshall, on the "A Track" of a nontraditional, year-round schedule. She'll be out of school from Dec. 21 to March 3. March 3!
Katie will spend her break at home, finishing college applications and studying for exams. Frankie will spend hers with family friends in Paris, eating pain au chocolat and studying at the Alliance Francaise. Which one sounds better to you?
The Los Angeles Unified School District's year-round school schedule was designed to reduce student overcrowding. Using some weird algorithm of occupancy, the "multitrack" plan eliminated traditional downtimes such as spring break and summer vacation and kept classrooms full for 51 weeks of the year -- leaving rooms vacant only during the last week of December. Experts say the program increased total classroom occupancy by 50% without requiring any new classroom construction. There are currently 199,000 kids -- 29% of the district's students -- going to school on 141 multi-track campuses, according to the LAUSD.
On this schedule, A Track kids like Frankie study from late August to late June, with a big break in January and February and a somewhat shortened summer vacation. Similarly, C Track kids study from early July to late April, with a big break in November and December, and B Track kids take up what's left over, attending school all year except for two long breaks, from late August to late October and late February to late April. Kids on the year-round schedule also have a slightly longer school day than other kids -- but in the end, their school year is 17 days shorter.
Now, however, most campuses are phasing out year-round schooling, and all will have done so by 2012. Education experts seem to agree that year-round schools are an effective stopgap measure at best, but are otherwise unacceptable. Many, noting that Los Angeles has more multitrack schools than New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami and Houston combined, have written that year-round schools produce lower grades, lower attendance and higher dropout rates.
As a parent, then, I am supposed to applaud Katie's return to the traditional school schedule and to wish Frankie were on it too. Most parents I know hate the year-round schedules. They want their kids in school from September to June, and out in summer, with a traditional winter recess for the holidays and a traditional spring break for Palm Springs and Cabo.
I don't. I think the year-round schedule, and especially the A Track, is terrific.
Both of my daughters, in addition to taking summer family vacations, working summer jobs and enjoying the traditional summer hang-time with friends, have gotten excellent value out of their winter breaks, or "intersessions." Katie used one year's holiday to go on an extended class visit to Spain and still had time to squeeze a semester's worth of "health and life skills" into a slightly more intensive six-week class during the intersession -- like attending summer school in the winter. The next year, she toured college campuses in Washington, Oregon and Northern California and still had time to prepare for a tae kwon do black-belt examination in the spring. (She passed.)
Frankie did something similar, eliminating her health and life skills requirement by taking an intersession course at Belmont High one year and fulfilling a physical education requirement by taking yoga at Los Angeles City College another. She still had time to do a driver's training course in advance of her 16th birthday. (She got her license.)
There have been other A Track attractions too. The earlier fall semester start means final exams come before the winter holiday break, not after, so the holidays aren't ruined by studying for -- or not studying for, but worrying about -- finals. The longer school day also means longer class times, which means more time to concentrate on individual subjects. (My daughters surprised me by listing that as an attribute.)
It's not just my kids. One of Frankie's friends spent last winter in China with his father. Another will spend this winter living with an Argentine family and studying Spanish in Buenos Aires. Several of Katie's friends took internships at Universal Studios during last year's intersession, while others attended intersession music classes on campus or scheduled daylong rehearsals for the school's spring performance of "Guys and Dolls." Another friend spent the winter in San Francisco working on a theater production of a musical written by her parents. She also exhibited her art at a gallery show during the same period.
The system isn't flawless, of course. My daughters have complained that year-round occupancy means no downtime for maintenance of the school. Classrooms, cafeterias and bathrooms that are never empty don't get cleaned, painted or repaired often enough. Because the tracks are divided by ZIP Code, both girls say, the tracks get Balkanized along ethnic lines. B Track at Marshall, for instance, draws from a heavily Armenian area and becomes heavily Armenian, while C Track draws from a Latino neighborhood and is more heavily Latino. That shouldn't matter, but when students from one track return to find kids from the other track sitting at "their" lunch tables, territorial squabbling and fighting break out.
The girls also complained that some teachers refused to treat the winter break as a real break, assigning homework and research and scheduling tests for the first day back at school. (Katie spent part of last winter reading "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." I failed to see a problem in this.) Other teachers, however, accompanied their students on intersession trips to Europe.
Of course, not every family can pay for the kid who wants to go abroad, or arrange activities or supervision for the one who wants to stay home. Families with young children, especially, find a paucity of day camps and day-care programs in January and February. As a work-at-home dad for most of my daughters' school years, I have often wondered how single, working parents work around L.A. Unified's scheduling oddities like "professional development days," "pupil-free days," "shortened days," "minimum days" and "reverse minimum days." I don't know how those parents manage having their A track kids out of school for two months in the middle of winter.
But I know what it's meant to me. Because my wife is a teacher and I am self-employed, we've all had our summers free for long family vacations. And this winter, I'll visit the Louvre and Le Deux Magots and hang out in Paris with Frankie, and not miss the traditional school schedule at all.
(Charles Fleming is an adjunct professor of journalism at the USC Annenberg School for Communication. He is coauthor of the recently published nonfiction book "My Lobotomy.")
By Charles Fleming
November 25, 2007
This winter, for the first time in years, my two daughters will experience vastly different winter breaks. Katie is a senior at North Hollywood High, which has just reverted to a traditional school schedule. She will be out of school from Dec. 14 to Jan. 7. Frankie is a junior at John Marshall, on the "A Track" of a nontraditional, year-round schedule. She'll be out of school from Dec. 21 to March 3. March 3!
Katie will spend her break at home, finishing college applications and studying for exams. Frankie will spend hers with family friends in Paris, eating pain au chocolat and studying at the Alliance Francaise. Which one sounds better to you?
The Los Angeles Unified School District's year-round school schedule was designed to reduce student overcrowding. Using some weird algorithm of occupancy, the "multitrack" plan eliminated traditional downtimes such as spring break and summer vacation and kept classrooms full for 51 weeks of the year -- leaving rooms vacant only during the last week of December. Experts say the program increased total classroom occupancy by 50% without requiring any new classroom construction. There are currently 199,000 kids -- 29% of the district's students -- going to school on 141 multi-track campuses, according to the LAUSD.
On this schedule, A Track kids like Frankie study from late August to late June, with a big break in January and February and a somewhat shortened summer vacation. Similarly, C Track kids study from early July to late April, with a big break in November and December, and B Track kids take up what's left over, attending school all year except for two long breaks, from late August to late October and late February to late April. Kids on the year-round schedule also have a slightly longer school day than other kids -- but in the end, their school year is 17 days shorter.
Now, however, most campuses are phasing out year-round schooling, and all will have done so by 2012. Education experts seem to agree that year-round schools are an effective stopgap measure at best, but are otherwise unacceptable. Many, noting that Los Angeles has more multitrack schools than New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami and Houston combined, have written that year-round schools produce lower grades, lower attendance and higher dropout rates.
As a parent, then, I am supposed to applaud Katie's return to the traditional school schedule and to wish Frankie were on it too. Most parents I know hate the year-round schedules. They want their kids in school from September to June, and out in summer, with a traditional winter recess for the holidays and a traditional spring break for Palm Springs and Cabo.
I don't. I think the year-round schedule, and especially the A Track, is terrific.
Both of my daughters, in addition to taking summer family vacations, working summer jobs and enjoying the traditional summer hang-time with friends, have gotten excellent value out of their winter breaks, or "intersessions." Katie used one year's holiday to go on an extended class visit to Spain and still had time to squeeze a semester's worth of "health and life skills" into a slightly more intensive six-week class during the intersession -- like attending summer school in the winter. The next year, she toured college campuses in Washington, Oregon and Northern California and still had time to prepare for a tae kwon do black-belt examination in the spring. (She passed.)
Frankie did something similar, eliminating her health and life skills requirement by taking an intersession course at Belmont High one year and fulfilling a physical education requirement by taking yoga at Los Angeles City College another. She still had time to do a driver's training course in advance of her 16th birthday. (She got her license.)
There have been other A Track attractions too. The earlier fall semester start means final exams come before the winter holiday break, not after, so the holidays aren't ruined by studying for -- or not studying for, but worrying about -- finals. The longer school day also means longer class times, which means more time to concentrate on individual subjects. (My daughters surprised me by listing that as an attribute.)
It's not just my kids. One of Frankie's friends spent last winter in China with his father. Another will spend this winter living with an Argentine family and studying Spanish in Buenos Aires. Several of Katie's friends took internships at Universal Studios during last year's intersession, while others attended intersession music classes on campus or scheduled daylong rehearsals for the school's spring performance of "Guys and Dolls." Another friend spent the winter in San Francisco working on a theater production of a musical written by her parents. She also exhibited her art at a gallery show during the same period.
The system isn't flawless, of course. My daughters have complained that year-round occupancy means no downtime for maintenance of the school. Classrooms, cafeterias and bathrooms that are never empty don't get cleaned, painted or repaired often enough. Because the tracks are divided by ZIP Code, both girls say, the tracks get Balkanized along ethnic lines. B Track at Marshall, for instance, draws from a heavily Armenian area and becomes heavily Armenian, while C Track draws from a Latino neighborhood and is more heavily Latino. That shouldn't matter, but when students from one track return to find kids from the other track sitting at "their" lunch tables, territorial squabbling and fighting break out.
The girls also complained that some teachers refused to treat the winter break as a real break, assigning homework and research and scheduling tests for the first day back at school. (Katie spent part of last winter reading "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." I failed to see a problem in this.) Other teachers, however, accompanied their students on intersession trips to Europe.
Of course, not every family can pay for the kid who wants to go abroad, or arrange activities or supervision for the one who wants to stay home. Families with young children, especially, find a paucity of day camps and day-care programs in January and February. As a work-at-home dad for most of my daughters' school years, I have often wondered how single, working parents work around L.A. Unified's scheduling oddities like "professional development days," "pupil-free days," "shortened days," "minimum days" and "reverse minimum days." I don't know how those parents manage having their A track kids out of school for two months in the middle of winter.
But I know what it's meant to me. Because my wife is a teacher and I am self-employed, we've all had our summers free for long family vacations. And this winter, I'll visit the Louvre and Le Deux Magots and hang out in Paris with Frankie, and not miss the traditional school schedule at all.
(Charles Fleming is an adjunct professor of journalism at the USC Annenberg School for Communication. He is coauthor of the recently published nonfiction book "My Lobotomy.")
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Community fights back in MySpace suicide case
A few days ago, Room 210 Discussion offered a post on a St Louis-area community that was outraged by the suicide of a teenager following her cyberspace relationship with a fictitious boy named Josh.
The backlash of the St. Charles Journal article that started the controversy continues and it has reached nationwide, including an article in the Los Angeles Times, which tells how the community is fighting back against the adult whose MySpace prank led to a teenager girl's death:
The backlash of the St. Charles Journal article that started the controversy continues and it has reached nationwide, including an article in the Los Angeles Times, which tells how the community is fighting back against the adult whose MySpace prank led to a teenager girl's death:
After their daughter's death, Tina and Ron Meier begged their other neighbors to keep the story private. Let the local authorities and the FBI conduct their investigations in privacy, they pleaded.
But after waiting for criminal charges to be filed against Drew, neighbors learned that local and federal prosecutors could not find a statute applicable to the case.
This community's patience has dried up. The furious neighbors -- and in the wake of recent media reports, an outraged public -- are taking matters into their own hands.
In an outburst of virtual vigilantism, readers of blogs such as RottenNeighbor.com and hitsusa.com have posted the Drews' home address, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and photographs.
Dozens of people allegedly have called local businesses that work with the family's advertising booklet firm, and flooded the phone lines this week at the local Burlington Coat Factory, where Curt Drew reportedly works.
"I posted that, where Curt works. I'm not ashamed to admit that," said Trever Buckles, 40, a neighbor whose two teenage boys grew up with Megan. "Why? Because there's never been any sense of remorse or public apology from the Drews, no 'maybe we made a mistake.' "
Local teenagers and residents protest just steps from the Drews' tiny porch. A fake 911 call, claiming a man had been shot inside the Drew home, sent law enforcement officers to surround the one-story, white-sided house. People drive through the neighborhood in the middle of the night, screaming, "Murderer!"
The Drews, who have mounted cameras and recording devices onto the roof of their house to track the movements of their neighbors, declined to comment for this article.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)