DISENGAGEMENT AND LOATHING
IN HIGH SCHOOL
(June 2003) The results of a study
asking 70 students to keep journals of their experiences
in school was printed in Educational Horizons, produced by
Pi Lambda Theta. With 50 out of 52 journals returned using
the words “boring” and “stupid,” the
authors pointed out even top academic students had this reaction.
Reporting that they endured their classes “to attain
marks that would qualify them for particular colleges,” they
shared the common complaint that “uninterested teachers
refused to deviate from the textbook or enliven instruction
with example, discussion, or outside materials.”
LAWSUIT TO BAN OREO COOKIES
(June 11, 2003) Columnist Walter Williams
writes about a California lawsuit to ban Oreo cookies from
children in California, claiming “trans fat is so dangerous
that our children should be protected from it.” The
author asserts this is part of a trend whose precedent was
set by the Los Angeles Unified School District’s banning
of soft drinks at the district’s schools to improve
the children’s health, the lawsuits against fast food
restaurants “responsible for obesity,” and the “successes
of the anti-tobacco campaign premised on the idea that individuals
are not responsible for their eating choices.” [more...]
LINK BETWEEN TIME IN DAY CARE AND
AGGRESSIVENESS
(July 15, 2003) According to the Washington
Times, the Early Child Care and Youth Development study by
the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
(NICHD) concluded there is a slight correlation between the
time young children spend in day care and aggressive or disobedient
behaviors. Other important factors that influenced the results
are the quality of the day care, and most importantly, the
mother’s sensitivity to the child. This is a longetudenal
study started in 1991 of 1,000 children. [more...]
MEDITATION AT CHARTER SCHOOL SUCCESSFUL
(June 18, 2003) Education Week, June
18, p. 3, reported a study conducted by University of Michigan
researchers at Nataki Talibah Schoolhouse, a Detroit charter
school. It concluded that students using Transcendental Meditation
as a nonreligious technique, show a “significantly
higher elevation in positive emotional state”.
DISABLED VALEDICTORIAN SKIPS GRADUATION
(Jun 19, 2003) The Philadelphia Daily
News reported that Blair Hornstine, a student who the federal
court had ordered the school district to recognize as valedictorian,
and was labeled academically as disabled, has decided to
skip graduation ceremonies. According to a statement on her
behalf, “...The hostile environment at the school has
traumatized Blair both physically and emotionally, to the
point that she cannot and will not attend the graduation
ceremonies.” [more...]
DYSLEXIA RESEARCH
(July 20, 2003) Time Magazine reviews
the problem of Dyslexia and modern research about why some
students struggle so with reading. It states, “a growing
body of scientific evidence suggests there is a glitch in
the neurological wiring of dyslexics that makes reading extremely
difficult for them....The most successful programs focus
on strengthening the brain’s aptitude for linking letters
to the sounds they represent.... Some studies suggest that
the right kinds of instruction provided early enough may
rewire the brain so thoroughly that the neurological glitch
disappears entirely.” [more...]
MUNCHAUSEN SYNDROME CHALLENGED
(July 22, 2003) Barbara Bryan, Communications
Director of the National Child Abuse Defense & Resource
Center, Roanoke, Virginia, 540-345-1952, BHBryan@aol.com,
issued a press release reporting results of legal challenges
to use of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSP) which asserts
that an assertive mother is the cause of a child’s
problems and mother and child should be separated for the
good of the child. [more...]
STUDY FINDS 2.6% INCREASE IN U.S.
PRISON POPULATION
(July 27, 2003) The nation’s
prison population grew 2.6 percent last year, the largest
increase since 1999, according to a study by the Justice
Department, despite a small decline in serious crime in 2002.
It also came when a growing number of states facing large
budget deficits have begun trying to reduce prison costs
by easing tough sentencing laws passed in the 1990’s,
thereby decreasing the number of inmates. Also, 10.4 percent
of black men ages 25 to 29, or 442,300 people, were in prison
last year, compared to 2.4 percent of Hispanic men and 1.2
percent of white men in the same age group were in prison.
Several states, including Kansas and California, have new
laws mandating drug treatment rather than prison for nonviolent
drug offenses. Violent crimes are responsible for a 64 percent
increase in the number of men in state prisons from 1995
to 2001, and 49 percent of the increase in the number of
women in state prisons in those years, unusual because women
have generally been convicted of drug and property crimes.
In the federal prison system, which is now larger than any
state system, 48 percent of the growth in the number of prisoners
from 1995 to 2001 was accounted for by drug crimes and only
9 percent by violent crimes. [more...]
STUDY SAYS SOME CIGARETTES HAVE MORE "KICK" THAN
OTHERS
(July 28, 2003) A study by Oregon Health & Science
University researchers shows some brands of cigarettes delivering
a much more powerful nicotine “kick” than others.
Smoke from 11 brands of cigarettes was analyzed for free
base, a specific form of nicotine that passes quickly into
the bloodstream when inhaled, showing free base levels 25
to 35 times higher than the lowest-level cigarettes. The
study adds suspicions that manufacturers deliberately blend
tobacco to boost the addictive effect, though the tobacco
industry has long claimed to adjust tobacco only for taste,
not to increase nicotine potency. [more...]
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