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[Items relating to the situation of contemporary
young people]
TOO MUCH PARENT INVOLVEMENT?
(September, 2003) Dorothy Rich, founder and president of
the nonprofit Home and School Institute, MegaSkills Education
Center in Washington DC, www.MegaSkillsHSI.org,
writes that when parents coach and support their kids,
the balance is right, but when they become a player themselves
and
do it for their children, parent involvement lines are
being crossed. This article can be found at:
www.educationnews.org/too-much-parent-involvement.htm
TRUST AND SCHOOL SIZE
(September 2003) The American School Board Journal 's article, “The
Road to Trust,” www.asbj.com/current/coverstory.html,
describes a disconnect between the public and their schools,
stemming from school consolidation that has created huge
school districts and huge schools. They assert that
the large size of schools has led to a “shrinkage of
public participation in school governance,” which is
bad for student learning and bad for the relationship between
the
general citizens and public schools.” They stated "it
has been a long time since education felt like a public
enterprise.”
COUCH KIDS
(September 7, 2003) The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky,
printed an article about teens who might sleep in alleys,
but are not homeless, asking if these young people, of
which there seem to be many, are a new Lost Generation.
www.courier-journal.com/features/2003/09/20030907.html.
FLORIDA FOSTER KIDS RECEIVE MIND DRUGS
(September 12, 2003) The Palm Beach Florida Post, summarized
a report by a Florida Statewide Advocacy Council who reviewed
the files of 1,180 children, most in therapeutic foster
homes. They found a majority had been given psychotropic
medication, with 44 percent of those having no record of
a medical examination in the file. These included more
than a dozen younger than 6, and a baby, “given drugs
for depression, schizophrenia and other mental disorders.”
HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT RATES UNDERSTATED
(September 16, 2003) The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2003/09/17/education/17GRAD.html,
reports a study by Jay P. Greene of the Manhattan Institute,
stating that education officials often fudge the numbers
of dropout rates; the actual dropout rate is much higher
than official statistics indicate.
SURVEY SHOWS GIRLS PASS BOYS IN EDUCATION
(September 16, 2003) The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2003/09/17/education/17REPO.html,
reports a survey released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (O.E.C.D.) in Paris France
that shows “most O.E.C.D. countries young women are
now more likely than young men to obtain first degrees
from university-level institutions.” In addition, “at
15, girls were better readers than boys in every one of
the 43 countries that took part in a 2000 study.” The
Washington Times covered the same report in their Sept.
22-28 edition, also pointing out: “American high
school students are trailing teens from 14 leading European
and Asian countries in reading, math and science.” They
also stated that the United States paid “$20,358
annually for each student in public schools and colleges,” or “5
percent of [the United States'] gross domestic product,
compared with $8,065 in Japan and $6,118 in Korea, or 3.6
percent and 4.3 percent of their GDPs, respectively.”
PREPARED FOR COLLEGE
(September 17, 2003) EducationNews.org, reports a Manhattan
Institute for Policy Research at www.educationnews.org/study-finds-only-32.htm that concludes only 32% of U.S. High School graduates are
qualified to attend a four-year college.
PARENTS DEMAND SCHOOLS THAT WORK
(September 19, 2003) Insight Magazine, www.insightmag.com/news/466895.html,
reports an increasing number of parents look to private
schools to give them the education they want for children.
They point out that private schools are no longer “elite,” and
that “every socioeconomic sector has parents clamoring
to get their kids out of government schools and into alternatives,” which
is driving the Bush administration’s attempt to pass
a voucher demonstration program.
ILLINOIS TO REMOVE 130 CHILDREN
(September 20, 2003) The Charleston South Carolina Post and
Courier carried an Associated Press story that the state
of Illinois will remove about 130 children from the Maryville
Academy’s City of Youth Residential Center in suburban
Des Plaines. The Academy “has been under scrutiny
for its handling of a suicide and two alleged sexual assaults.” www.charleston.net/stories/092003/wor_20troubled.shtml.
SYMPOSIUM OF ADOLESCENT BRAIN
(September 22, 2003) The Jewish Social Service Agency of
Metropolitan Washington (JSSA) is sponsoring The Developing
Adolescent Brain: Effects on Behavior, Cognitive Development,
and Learning, featuring Jay Giedd, M.D., Kurt W. Fischer,
Ph.D. and Anu Lukk, LCSW-C at the National 4-H Center in
Chevy Chase, Maryland, on October 27, 2003. For more information
301-816-2682, www.jssa.org, orsymposium@jssa.org.
C.O.R.E. GROWS
(September 22, 2003) Heidi Goldsmith, Founder and Executive
Director of the Coalition for Residential Education (CORE),
202-496-9189, www.residentialeducation.org, heidi@residentialeducation.org,
reports the organization is actively in the process of
creating quality standards for residential education programs.
She also reports that “88% of all seniors graduating
from CORE member programs” have been accepted into
college, compared with only 62% of the general population.
She also reports that England is “drawing up plans
that will put thousands of their ‘children in care’ into
boarding schools, as an alternative to foster care.”
SINGLE SEX PUBLIC SCHOOLS GROWING
(September 22, 2003) The Houston Chronicle, www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/2114008 in a story titled “Where the Boys Are: After rocky
start, educators encouraged single-sex school will succeed,” referring
to a new public charter middle school in Houston, Texas. “Hailed
as the area’s first single-sex public school for
children outside an alternative education program,” it
is part of a nationwide growth of single sex schools, according
to Leonard Sax, president of the National Association for
Single Sex Public Education.
PRIVACY CONCERNS
September 25, 2003) The Google Search Engine has instituted
a feature that by typing the phone number and area code
of any person or business, it will not only bring up the
name and address of the person with that phone number,
but provide links to a map to that address. To test this,
go to www.google.com and type in your phone number, with
the dashes. The privacy implications can be of great concern.
If you click on the telephone by your name in the search,
we are informed you can delete that map function.
AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION ON FOSTER CHILDREN
(October 1, 2003) According to a Press Release from the American
Bar Association (ABA) www.abanet.org,
at their Fall conference in Pittsburgh, the Young Lawyers
Division (YLD)
www.abanet.org/yld,
will provide “lawyers
with public service opportunities focusing on the unmet
legal needs of children.” The YLD’s public
service project, “One Child One Lawyer,” will
feature sessions at their conference “designed to
train lawyers to represent the interests of children in
court proceedings by serving as guardians ad litem, will
provide the benefits of a permanent home by facilitating
pro bono
adoptions and guardianships, and will create school-based
legal clinics to ensure that pressing legal issues do not
prevent
teenagers from completing their education.”
STUDY REVEALS U.S. HOMEWORK IS EASY LOAD
(October 1, 2003) A study released by the Brown Center on
Education Policy at the Brookings Institution and the RAND
Corporation, titled, “A New Report Reveals That Homework
in the United States is an Easy Load,” www.brookings.edu/comm/news/20031001brown.htm concludes, “the
great majority of students at all grade levels now spend
less than one hour studying on a
typical day—an amount that has not changed substantially
in at least twenty years.” Even in high school, they
found that only a third of 17-year-olds spend an hour or
more a day on homework.
TOO FEW GO TO COLLEGE
(October 2, 2003) The Atlanta Journal in an article, “Too
few go to college, reports say,” www.ajc.com/news/content/news/1003/02college.html,
refers to a report released yesterday by the federal Department
of Education and the state-sponsored Education Commission
of the States, stating that “the United States, once
first in the world, now ranks 11th in college participation
leading to a bachelor’s degree.” Sandra Ruppert,
who directed the study, said “It may be that it no
longer holds true that each succeeding generation [of Americans]
will be better educated than the one that preceded it.”
AUTISM CONFERENCE
(October 2, 2003) the Autism Society of America will have
their 2004 National Conference & Exposition, “Soaring
to New Heights,” in Seattle, Washington on July 7-10.
Proposals for presentations are due Friday, November 7,
2003. More information can be found at www.autism-society.org.
CATHOLIC PARENTS BALK AT SEX-ED PROGRAM
(October 6, 2003) The World Net Daily reported many parents
are outraged at the “personal safety training” sex-education
programs adopted by several Catholic Church dioceses, claiming
it was “designed by prostitution advocates.” For
more information, go to www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=34939.
VIRGINIA SPECIAL NEEDS RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS IN DOUBT
(October 6, 2003) The Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49050-2003Oct5.html,
reports, “Budget Shortfall Threatens to Consolidate
Sister Schools for Deaf and Blind.” The two state-funded
speciality residential schools cost about $63,000 per child
each year, and legislators are debating whether
to merge them as a cost saving measure.
DIVORCE CULTURE ‘HARMING
PUPILS’
(October 6, 2003) Reported in the BBC News, news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/3169444.stm, “Graham
Able, chairman of the private schools’ Headmasters'
and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC), praised the
traditional family unit.” Able's article, “Divorce
Culture ‘ Harming Pupils’,” asserts, “pupil
care must be improved in an effort to overcome modern society’s ‘selfish
and self-indulgent attitudes'.” He also said, “adolescent
boys in particular suffered if both mother and father were
not in the household.”
TEACHERS FLEEING THEIR JOBS FASTER
(October 7, 2003) The Christian Science Monitor, www.csmonitor.com/2003/1007/p13s01-lecl.html,
warns that teachers are leaving teaching earlier in their
careers than ever before. |
