Growing up, international walkout and why people say school is good (forum posts)

Why do adults say school is good?
International Walkout
"They want to grow up too fast"

2 weeks after Hurricane Ike, kids are still not in school

Since Hurricane Ike knocked out power at their elementary school two weeks ago, Jakin and Jared Cordova have been playing a lot of video games. For the 9- and 6-year-old brothers, it's awesome. For their mother, not so much. "We try to give them stuff to do reading-wise, do outside stuff, make them go to the park," a frustrated Natalie Cordova said. "They're still just playing video games a lot."
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Nine Children From One Family Abandoned at Safe Haven

The mother of nine kids left at an emergency room in Creighton University Medical Center died from a brain aneurysm 17 months ago, days after delivering the youngest child. The father, Gary Staton, dropped off the kids Wednesday night at 8 p.m., officials at the Department of Health and Human Services said. "I was with her for 17 years, and then she was gone. What was I going to do?" Staton said. "We raised them together. I didn't think I could do it alone. I fell apart. I couldn't take care of them."
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Teen Pees In Teacher's Drink, Police Say

Investigators said officers arrested the 13-year-old at Castle Rock Middle School on Friday, and he's now facing a felony charge. Castle Rock police said the victim was a woman who was teaching four eighth-grade boys Friday when one of them peed in her drink. The teacher walked into her class just in time to catch the boy zipping up and discovered urine in her plastic drink bottle, officers said.
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Struggles, teaching, time-management and more (forum posts)

The Human Struggle
Becoming a teacher...
school isn't al at fault
Time management is impossible
The Total Transformation (aka The Total Brainwashing)

Raising children and traffic lights (forum posts)

Illegal to raise your children. - Essentially the government is saying that it is illegal to keep your children home ~7 hours for around 180 days out of the year. If you decide not to let your kids go then a nice truancy officer knocks on your door and says you'll be fined and sent to court if you don't send them to school.
No Traffic Lights? - I read an article (can't remember where) on a town in Germany, or possibly the Netherlands, where they took down all the traffic lights and road signs. Vehicles and pedestrians both had equal right-of-way. Accidents were actually reduced.

Gunman opens fire at school, 9 dead

HELSINKI, Finland (AP) — A gunman opened fire at students at a vocational school for adults in western Finland on Tuesday before shooting himself, police said. Finnish media reported nine people were killed and the gunman was wounded. The shootings began just before 11 a.m. local time as about 150 students went to class in Kauhajoki, 180 miles northwest of Helsinki. Witnesses said panic broke out as the hooded gunman entered the school and began firing.
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New Study Suggests Social Networks May Be 'Educational'

Social networks like Facebook and MySpace have reputations as time–sucking procrastination tools, but a new study from the University of Minnesota suggests the opposite. Social networks build beneficial technological, creative and communication skills, the study says, leading the researchers to actually describe social networks with the adjective "educational," CNET reports.
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Burma's secret schools of dissent

While there are 54 officially recognized schools for Burmese refugees in Thailand bordering Burma, Mr. McLaughlin says countless more are run secretly by activists. A network of jungle schools exists in Burma, too, often hidden deep in the mountains along the Thai border or in territory held by ethnic rebels long engaged in war against Burma's junta. "In the secret schools in Burma, students tell their friends in government schools about political rights and challenge their preconceived notions of what the rest of the world is like," Shwe says. "In this way we hope that more people within Burma will learn about the true political situation of the country and one day act to change it."
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Study finds new anti-psychotics no better than generics for kids

Texas has spent nearly $300 million since 2003 on expensive anti-psychotic medications for poor children – drugs that cost more, have worse side effects in kids and are no more effective than older generics.
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Controversy, grades and midlife crises (forum posts)

What are some of your most controversial opinions?
Just thinking about recieving grades.
Mid-life crisis

Homeland Security, Sesame Style

When it comes to securing the homeland, who better to help you sleep at night than various characters from the popular children’s show, “Sesame Street" ... ?!? Seriously. In a move that will make Bush administration detractors bring back those duct tape jokes again, the Department of Homeland Security has partnered up with the famous children’s show.
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UK government issues death sentence on suicide websites

THE GOVERNMENT reckons laws on “suicide websites” are too lax and need rewriting before they do serious damage. In other words, ‘If we can’t make people financially secure and happy enough to not want to do themselves in, we can at least make it bloody difficult for them to do so!’
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Marietta School Bus Chaos Posted On YouTube

Parents are criticizing Marietta school officials after a video of a chaotic school bus ride was posted on YouTube. The incident began last Friday, when school officials said the driver pulled over to write up students who were being unruly. A cell phone camera captured students on the bus getting more upset, after the students claimed the bus driver refused to let them off. The students can be seen and heard on the video screaming for help. Students are also seen jumping off the bus through the emergency exit.
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Phoenix teacher resigns, accused of showing porn in class

The teacher had connected his personal computer to a projector screen for a photography lesson. He then assigned half the class to grab cameras and take pictures; the remaining students had an in-class assignment. That’s when the student said the teacher began viewing the videos. "He forgot the projector screen was turned on and he started watching porn and we were all just like sitting there shocked that he was watching this in front of the class," the student said. "He was just all into it, I don’t even think he was paying attention to us, he was just all in his computer."
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Mom steals daughter's identity to become cheerleader

A 33-year-old woman is accused of stealing her daughter's identity to attend high school and join the cheerleading squad. She allegedly attended practices, received a cheerleader's locker and went to a pool party at the coach's house.
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Principal Regrets Making Students View Poop

A Colorado Springs elementary school principal has apologized for making students look inside a soggy bag of human feces and urine. Peyton Elementary Principal Michael Auclaire said he wanted to make a point to the students because someone had been leaving human waste on the floor and toilet seats in a girl's lavatory generally used by fourth- and fifth-graders.
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Children aged eight enlisted as council snoopers

Children as young as eight have been recruited by councils to "snoop" on their neighbours and report petty offences such as littering, the Daily Telegraph can disclose. The youngsters are among almost 5,000 residents who in some cases are being offered £500 rewards if they provide evidence of minor infractions.
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Education, war and spreading the word (forum posts)

Education in the U.S.
The Avenger spread about 500 SS pamphlets at his school :)
feelings about war
My ubiquitous alternative to school

Homework answers and stuff

A bunch of new things: Answers to Homework Questions - This will attempt to convince you not to bother doing homework, but if you must do it, it will also tell you how to do it in the least painful way possible.
The Benefits of Homework (sarcasm) - A bunch of different ways that homework benefits students. Or doesn't. It depends on how you interpret it, really.
Homework Help & Answers forum - A new forum where you can get help with homework. This may or may not be permanent, it depends.

Scheduling screwup makes school start on Saturday

Albany High students arrived by car, foot and city bus. It almost looked like a regular school day, except it was Saturday. The high school opened this weekend, allowing students to pick up their course schedules after a problem with the school's scheduling system forced administrators to cancel the first two days of school last week.
Forum Post: People of SS, behold...Albany high schools
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Lawsuit: Girl raped after driver kicked her off school bus

According to the suit naming Thornton Township High School District 205, Kickert Bus Line and bus driver Nicole Dyer, the unnamed minor was on her way home from school July 11 when some students shot off fireworks on the bus. Dyer became upset and kicked all the students off the bus, leaving them to walk home. The unnamed girl walked about a mile through a "high-crime" neighborhood in south suburban Harvey, where three men kidnapped her, took her to an unknown location and "gang-raped her for hours," the suit claims.
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Boy, 13, bullied after losing his hair is banned from wearing a baseball cap to school

Since losing his hair to a serious illness as a young child, Dale Platts and his baseball cap have become inseparable. The New York Yankees hat has not only helped the 13-year-old to cope with the cruel taunts of other children, but also protects his head and lashless eyes from the sun. But the schoolboy has now been ordered to remove the cap after his school decided it went against its uniform policy.
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Holiday key to school standards?

Why do we persist in releasing pupils for the school holidays in August, when it is relatively cloudy, windy and wet, while cooping them up in exam halls when it is sunny, warm and dry?
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How Do You Discover Your Interests?

How do you find out what you're interested in? - You shouldn't feel bad when someone says you've "quit" something, especially your parents. My dad thinks I keep giving up on stuff. I disagree. I was merely investigating and after all that time, I became even more interested in what I liked than before because I discovered what I really loved to do.
Forum Post: Discovering your interests

In Texas School, Teachers Carry Books and Guns

“Our people just don’t want their children to be fish in a bowl,” said David Thweatt, the schools superintendent and driving force behind the policy. “Country people are take-care-of-yourself people. They are not under the illusion that the police are there to protect them.” Some residents and parents, however, think Mr. Thweatt may be overstating the threat. Many say they rarely lock their doors, much less worry about random drifters with pistols running amok at the school. Longtime residents were hard-pressed to recall a single violent incident there.
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Ohio teen fires gun in school hall; no one injured

A distraught student carrying more than 30 rounds of ammunition shot a handgun twice in his high school's hallway Tuesday and threatened to kill himself before two administrators persuaded him to surrender, police said. No one was injured at Willoughby South High School, northeast of Cleveland, Willoughby police Lt. Randy Sevel said.
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The war is not over

New poem: The war is not over, by 26:
It's that time of year again
To take your books
Go back to hell
They say you're learning, that's a lie
We did it last year
It didn't take us anywhere
... (more)

Love, life and dropping out (forum posts)

Love and dependency - When you love someone enough, I think it's natural to be somewhat dependent on them
Life - Is one long race. It's survival of the fittest.
Don't Drop Out - Obviously there are legitimate reasons to drop out, but if it's purely dislike of formal schooling, your best option is to remain in school.
I think I'm ready to quit. - I've been an A+ student for the entire duration of my time in school. Well, I'm going to be turning 18 soon and as far as I can tell, all of my work and sacrifice means exactly jack shit.