Archive for the 'Education News & Issues' Category
June 3, 2006 @ 1:06 pm | Filed under: Education News & Issues
Last week the education blogs were abuzz over the suspension of a Pennsylvania sixth-grader for sharing Jolt caffeinated gum with a classmate. Administrators ruled that the gum violated the school’s drug policy, which forbids over-the-counter caffeine stimulants such as NoDoz, and 12-year-old Courtney Rupert was suspended for three days.
A three-day suspension seems rather excessive to me, but I’m all for holding a kid accountable for her actions. Jolt’s main selling point is its extra caffeine. The manufacturers of the gum, however, think Courtney got a raw deal: the company has announced that it is awarding her a thousand-dollar scholarship.
“Basically we’re going to try to reverse the karma of the universe. She got a bad deal. We decided to give her a good deal,” company co-founder Kevin Gass said Friday at a news conference to announce the “Chew More Do More” scholarships.
Of the 10 $1,000 scholarships to be awarded annually, Gass said one will be named for Courtney and will go to “someone unfairly victimized.”
Guess that’ll teach young Courtney a lesson!
HT: Chris O’Donnell.
May 28, 2006 @ 11:29 pm | Filed under: Education News & Issues
UPDATED to add: Semicolon’s List of 100 Things to Do This Summer. Not only has she come up with a terrific list, she includes links. It’s both supercalifraglistic and semicolonic.
George Mason University is going to waive the SAT requirement for some applicants—but not homeschoolers. Spunky is covering this and other testing issues.
Farm School’s Becky blogs about fun grammar books.
My hubby’s broken toe didn’t slow down the 4th Carnival of Children’s Literature!
This week’s Carnival of Homeschooling at Principled Discovery sparked a good discussion at BlogHer.
The nation’s education report card is out. Elementary school science scores are up; high school scores are down. The Education Wonks have the story.
Oz and Ends has some paper-saving advice for the publishers of Harry Potter—and some tips on avoiding those pesky pronoun problems as well. (HT: Fuse#8 Productions.)
Karen Edmisten keeps things in perspective.
My pal Mrs. Child gets Mary Ellen thinking about kids doing work.
Willa of Every Waking Hour gathers some posts about classical unschooling.
And hello! Square watermelons! (HT: Boing Boing.)
