C.H.E.F. FIGHTS OBESITY (June 29, 2005) PRNewswire reported the Comprehensive Health Education Foundation (C.H.E.F.), developer of a widely used prevention curricula in the United States, announced the launch of its new FUEL series, to help fight the childhood obesity epidemic. Designed for kids, ages 10-18, FUEL is an “edgy, upbeat and powerful series that empowers youth” with topics of media literacy, self-esteem, body image, healthy eating, nutrition, physical activity and positive activism. More...
CHILDREN DISCONNECTED FROM NATURE (July 2005) PRNewswire reported the current generation of children treats nature as an afterthought, spending less time interacting with family and the environment. "Simple outdoor experiences have a profound impact on a child's development," said Nancy Rosenow, Executive Director, Dimensions Educational Research Foundation. Dimensions research shows there is significant evidence to prove children, including those with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), benefit from nature in a variety of areas including heightened powers of observation and creativity, and increased ability to concentrate. More....
INCREASES IN PRIVATE TUTORING SERVICES (July 17, 2005) The Oregonian reported that go-getter parents who want the very best for their kids, have driven tutoring into a $4 billion industry. For-profit tutoring centers are opening at an unprecedented rate across the country. Portland-area parents in record numbers are paying $20-$45 or more per hour. More...
U.S. CHILDREN HEALTHIER THAN EVER (July 20, 2005) MSNBC reported that the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics found that according to parents about 83 percent of children are in very good or excellent health. The report for the first time included mental health statistics that indicated 2.7 million children have emotional or behavioral problems with twice as many being boys. More...
SUMMER CAMP: ART, GAMES, THERAPY (July 20, 2005) MSNBC reported the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s six-week Summer Treatment Program, The Camp, is one of a growing number nationwide to provide intense behavioral therapy for children in a summer day camp setting. “It addresses a lot of important areas of daily life,” said Bart Hodgens, camp director and a clinical psychologist at the university. “The children are developing social skills, problem-solving skills, academic skills, and we also spend a lot of time on recreation.” More...
PRISON TIME FOR TEEN THREATS ONLINE (July 22, 2005) The Macomb Daily News reported Andrew Paul Osantowski, 18, was sentenced by Circuit Judge Matthew Switalski to serve a prison term ranging from 30 months to 20 years for making a threat of terrorism and use of a computer in furtherance of a terrorist threat. The also sentenced the youth to two years consecutively for felony use of a firearm. The judge appeared to view him more as a troubled teen with a chance to turn his life around than a sociopath terrorist. The sentence issued is far less than the nine-year minimum prosecutors recommended. More...
CHEERLEADING RISKIER THAN OTHER SPORTS (July 23, 2005) The Desert Morning News reported that a report by the Utah Department of Health Violence and Injury Prevention Program indicated more Utah high school students are injured in cheerleading than any other sport. Six years of data showed an average of 92 cheerleading injuries are reported to the Utah Department of Health each year, but those numbers are probably much higher because Utah does not require injuries to be reported. More...
TEEN WEB USE NEARLY UBIQUITOUS (July 28, 2005) eSchool News online reported the Pew Internet & American Life Project’s new survey indicates Internet use is nearly ubiquitous for today's teens. Of those youngsters surveyed, 87 percent said they use the Internet, which presents broad implications for educators, who must re-evaluate their teaching methods to ensure they are relevant for a new generation of students. Although nearly 9 out of 10 kids ages 12-17 have Internet access, only 66 percent of adults currently use the Internet. More...
BOMB SUSPECT SENTENCED TO WILDERNESS CAMP (July 28, 2005) The Doylestown Patriot reported Juvenile Court Judge, Kenneth G. Biehn, sentenced a local youth to a 30-day wilderness program, TresslerCare Wilderness Program in Cumberland County. Central Bucks East High School student Travis Biehn allegedly made a bomb threat against classmates. While searching the youth’s home, police found fuses, canisters, 23 pounds of potassium nitrate and a website he created where he talked about bombs and provided details for ordering bomb-making materials through the internet. More...
STATE FAILS KIDS AT CJTS (August 2005) The Office of the Child Advocate reported the 1998 suicide at Long Lane School resulted in the August 28, 2001, opening of the Connecticut Juvenile Training School (CJTS). Connecticut opened CJTS to ensure the safety and treatment for troubled youths and transferred the boys committed to State custody at Long Lane School to CJTS. In November 2001, the Office of the Child Advocate visited CJTS after complaints and a site visit revealed numerous deficiencies. They concluded the Department of Children and Families had failed in its obligation to the children at the CJTS. On August 1, 2005, the Hartford Courant reported Gov. M. Jodi Rell said "It is increasingly clear that the programs at CJTS are not working. As a leader, I cannot fail these young men again. As a leader, I cannot allow the failure of this institution to continue.” More...
CFS INITIATES “A START” (August 2005) In their August News Updates, the University of Florida reported that Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law and the Department of Child and Family Studies are co-sponsoring a multi-disciplinary taskforce, Alliance for the Safe, Therapeutic and Appropriate use of Residential Treatment (A START), to research a growing number of reports from youth, families and the public media on the exploitation, mistreatment and abuse of youth in unregulated, private residential treatment programs. For more information about A START, please contact Allison Pinto, PhD, 813-974-9179. More...
FIRST ANNUAL SPIRIT RECOVERY CONFERENCE (August 2005) The US Journal Training, Inc. announced they will hold the first Spirit Recovery weekend Conference on October 14-16, 2005. The event is co-sponsored by The Ranch, Renaissance Malibu, Bayside Marin, Sierra Tucson and Pine Grove Next Step. Continuing Education credits are available. For reservations, call 310-458-6700 before September 14, 2005, or to register online visit www.usjt.com or call 800-441-5569.
STILL MOUNTAIN’S VISION QUEST (August 2005) Gregory Martin, Still Mountain Wilderness Center, Teasdale UT, 435-425-3645, announced they are hosting a Vision Quest on October 1-9. Vision Quests at Still Mountain consist of nine days of ceremonies, group processes and meditations, including the three-day and night solo-fast. There will be meetings prior to the quest, as well as afterwards - exact dates to be scheduled. The cost of the vision quest is $525, which includes all in-field meals, group/ individual facilitation and the pre & post meetings.
FEW FOSTER CHILDREN GRADUATE (August 2, 2005) The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported only 14 percent of foster children completed high school last year by age 18. The state must raise the graduation rate by 20 percent within two years to comply with a recent lawsuit settlement with a child advocacy group. More...
BOARD, TEACHERS CLASH OVER ONLINE DEGREES (August 4, 2005) eSchool News online reported officials in the suburban Detroit school district said, two teachers who earned doctorates online from a Mississippi school do not deserve their pay raises because the university that awarded them degrees is not accredited. Jennifer Fox and Aileen Thorington say they believe their degrees and the institution that issued them are legitimate. They also argue that their district, the Huron School District in Wayne County, MI, had approved their studies earlier. The teachers attended college at Jackson, MS based Cambridge State University. This conflict is just an example of what is sure to become an increasingly thorny issue for school leaders, as more and more educators enroll in online degree programs for recertification or career advancement. More...
MIND OF AMERICA'S YOUTH TODAY (August 5, 2005) The Vanity Fair website announced it is hosting an essay contest asking the question, “What is on the minds of America's youth today?” All entries must be received by midnight E.D.T. on September 30, 2005. Essays must be e-mailed to EssayContest@vf.com as a Microsoft Word document or as an Adobe Acrobat .pdf file. For complete details visit their website.
LEARNING REQUIRES SENSES AND EMOTIONS (August 6, 2005) Posted on LewRockewll.com, Steve Bertucciis, director of the Western Civilization Foundation's Great Books Program for high school students, wrote an opinion article where he confronted the fundamental question of "how” will education be different for those who believe that acquiring knowledge, or information, is the goal of education. His concern is with the order of learning. For the very young, education is appropriately more about a rich sensory/emotional life. As students grow older, the mode of schooling becomes more intellectual, more abstract. More...
PARENTS ACT TO RECLAIM SUMMER (August 6, 2005) The New York Times reported thousands of parents are organizing to reclaim their children’s summer break. With some county schools starting as early as July 22, parents are demanding change from state legislatures. A petition and e-mail drive last year in North Carolina led to a new law that public schools cannot start before August 25. Wisconsin set its start date as any time after September 1. Beginning next year in Minnesota, public schools cannot open before Labor Day. This year, a bill to push the start date to late August failed in the Georgia legislature, but supporters vowed to fight on. More...
SPECIAL ED PARENTS MUST BE EXPERTS (August 7, 2005) The Beaumont Enterprise News reported parents with special needs children often lie awake at night, arguing with themselves or each other about the best course of action for their children. Parents must become experts in their child's disability and be willing to stand their ground. Anita Watson, director of special education for Beaumont Independent School District, said not all parents get exactly what they want for their children. More...
CREATIVE DROPOUT PREVENTION (August 8, 2005) The Ashville Citizen-Times reported up to one-third of students who began ninth grade in 2001-02 didn’t graduate this year, according to estimates by the National Center for Education Statistics. Both Buncombe and Asheville City schools have joined a nationwide high school reform effort to reverse this trend. More...
BEING 13 (August 8, 2005) Time Magazine reported on what it is like to be 13. TIME set out to study what life at 13 is like in 2005, what has changed and what hasn't, what helps 13-year-olds and what haunts them--and where they see themselves headed. More...
NEW YORK'S SMALL SCHOOLS SHOW PROMISE (August 8, 2005) The New York Times reported on the progress of dozens of new small schools opening this year in New York City. The creation of these small schools is an antidote to the alarmingly high dropout rates. Principles, parents, students, teachers and city education officials agree on one point: that 5,000 9th graders in small schools are better off in the smaller schools. This is an archived story available for purchase through the New York Times website.
GRADE IMPROVEMENT SLIGHT IN UK (August 8, 2005) The Independent, a United Kingdom newspaper, reported that national curriculum test results show that 11-year-olds leaving primary school with the ability to read, write and do their arithmetic at the required level by next year are nowhere near the 85 percent goal set by the Government. There is a question of whether the Government will even meet the target it set for 2002 of 80 percent in English and 75 percent in math. More...
DHR POLICIES, PRACTICES ON TRIAL (August 8, 2005) The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta, GA, reported that the state Department of Human Resources will be judged in the court of public opinion and at the trial of its six employees who are charged with murder in death of a 13-year-old boy who was allegedly restrained for over an hour on April 20, 2005. According to the story, the counselors charged with the murder at the state-run Appalachian Wilderness Camp in Cleveland, GA, insist they were doing what they were trained to do with an unruly kid. But state child protection officials claim they neither permit nor condone such restraints. For additional stories on this subject
ATTENTION TO DEPRESSION (August 9, 2005) Inside Higher Ed News reported The American Psychiatric Association is beginning a “Healthy Minds, Healthy Lives” public information campaign aimed at helping college students recognize the signs of mental illness and seek treatment. The college-focused effort is based on the idea that traditional college-age students need special attention during this key transition point in their lives. More...
EARLY PUBERTY NOT FACTOR IN OBESITY (August 12, 2005) The Washington Post reported that researchers from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, say the belief that girls who start menstruating before age 12 will be overweight later in life is unfounded. "These findings are significant because they show us where our efforts should focus: childhood obesity," said Aviva Must, the study's lead author. The report was based on data from the Newton Girls Study, which followed 700 girls from the small Massachusetts city beginning in 1965. More...
NOT READY FOR COLLEGE (August 17, 2005) The New York Times reported about half of this year's high school graduates have the reading skills they need to succeed in college, and even fewer are prepared for college-level science and math courses, according to a yearly report from ACT, which produces one of the nation's leading college admissions tests. The report, based on scores of the 2005 high school graduates who took the exam, some 1.2 million students in all, also found that fewer than one-in-four met the college-readiness benchmarks in all four subjects tested: reading comprehension, English, math and science. More...
SURVEY RAISES QUESTIONS (August 17, 2005) The Indianapolis Star reported that an Indiana University study showed surprisingly high number of teenagers fear for their safety at school, believe teachers don't care about them and feel their classes lack demanding challenges. Researchers said the student responses were unexpected and concluded that American high schools should re-evaluate their priorities and examine how they communicate with students. The study questioned more than 80,000 students in 19 states, including Indiana. More...
SCHOOLS LACK ABILITY TO CONTROL CRISES (August 21, 2005) The Boston Globe reported Massachusetts regulations require all staff must receive yearly training in techniques to defuse problem behaviors in publicly funded schools. Of the 170 schools regulators visited since the rules went into effect in 2001, 65 failed to comply, often neglecting to provide staff training or to provide parents with copies of school policies. More... ARIZONA GOV. PROPOSES NATIONAL SCHOOL PLAN (August 23, 2005) The Arizona Republic reported Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano unveiled a national plan for education reform that includes universal preschool for children across the country, a standardized curriculum for all 50 states, full-day kindergarten and year-round schools. The governor said much of the plan is about getting children ready for the 21st-century job market and concluded that American students need substantially more time in the classroom to compete with children in other countries. More...
UTAH CHARTER SCHOOLS GROWING (August 23, 2005) Deseret Morning News reported about 12,000 students (about 5,000 new) will fill the classrooms of charter schools. Utah Charter schools have been growing rapidly since 1998; 36 charter schools will operate in Utah this year with 11 being new. They generally are smaller schools with smaller class sizes than traditional schools, and many have a specific emphasis, said John Broberg, state charter school director. More...
MUSLIM SCHOOLS ASKED TO RENOUNCE VIOLENCE (August 23, 2005) News Interactive, a News Corporation company, reported Muslim schools in Australia are on notice to denounce terrorism as part of a wider effort to stamp out homegrown extremism. Muslim communities will also be encouraged to train clerics locally, rather than seek them from overseas, to reinforce Australian values of tolerance and harmony within Islamic communities. The summit also discussed how to promote tolerance and prevent extremism in Australia's 29 Islamic schools, while allowing the schools to manage their own affairs. More...
MORNING STAR SUED (August 24, 2005) The Spokesman Review, Spokane, WA, reported that Morning Star Boys Ranch, Spokane, WA, is being sued by two former residents, including one who served as its ‘poster boy,’ alleging that they were sexually abused by counselors in separate incidents in the 1960s and ‘80s. On August 31, 2005, the Spokesman published a follow-up story that said approximately 15 former students held a press conference to show their support for the program. More...