Article by Dr. Robert Epstein

It's called Let's abolish high school, and it's in the articles section. Go check it out. Also, all site updates will be posted on the blog from now on. :) Robert Epstein is a former editor in chief of Psychology Today, a contributing editor for Scientific American Mind, a visiting scholar at the University of California, San Diego, and the author of The Case Against Adolescence: Rediscovering the Adult in Every Teen.

Parents keep child's gender a secret

(June 29) - A Swedish couple's decision to keep their toddler's gender a secret is stirring debate, especially now that the parents are expecting a second child. "Pop" is 2 ½ years old, but so far only those who change the child's diapers know whether the youngster is a boy or a girl, TheLocal.se, an [...]
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Why bribery doesn't motivate in school

By: dreamer... In my attempts to motivate myself to do schoolwork, I've been trying to bribe myself-promising that if I get good grades, I can buy certain things for myself. But I've realized it's a faulty idea. Say, for example, I can buy myself a new video game if I get a B in math and [...]
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Aussie girl, 16, to sail around the world alone

BUDERIM, Australia (AP) - Jessica Watson stares out at the expanse of Pacific Ocean from the deck of her family home. The sun glistens off the calm sea and all appears tranquil. In September, Watson's experience of the ocean will likely be much different - she'll be attempting to become the youngest person to sail solo, [...]
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Teacher Accused of Branding Kid With Cross

The school board of a small central Ohio community voted Friday to fire a teacher accused of preaching his Christian beliefs despite staff complaints and burning the image of a cross on students' arms, according to the Associated Press.
Mount Vernon Middle School veteran science teacher John Freshwater has denies any wrongdoing, his attorney told the [...]
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Handcuffing and denial of water/food is okay

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga., June 25 (UPI) -- Charges were dropped Thursday against a Georgia woman who kept her teenage son in handcuffs while trying to perform an exorcism on him. Sandra Alfred, 46, of Lilburn came to the attention of local police when she reported her 15-year-old son as an unruly juvenile, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. She [...]
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Supreme Court Says Child’s Rights Violated by Strip Search

WASHINGTON — In a ruling of interest to educators, parents and students across the country, the Supreme Court ruled, 8 to 1, on Thursday that the strip search of a 13-year-old Arizona girl by school officials who were looking for prescription-strength drugs violated her constitutional rights. The officials in Safford, Ariz., would have been justified in [...]
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Teacher Accused of Branding Kid With Cross

The school board of a small central Ohio community voted Friday to fire a teacher accused of preaching his Christian beliefs despite staff complaints and burning the image of a cross on students' arms, according to the Associated Press.
Mount Vernon Middle School veteran science teacher John Freshwater has denies any wrongdoing, his attorney told the [...]
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Teen Group Sues West Palm Beach Over Curfew Law

A national youth rights group has filed a lawsuit against the city of West Palm Beach, claiming a teen curfew law is unconstitutional. Jeffrey Nadel, president and founder of the National Youth Rights Association of Southeast Florida, made the announcement Tuesday at 10:01 p.m., a minute after the curfew took effect. The ordinance bars anyone under the age of 18 from the downtown district without a parent after 10 p.m. on weeknights and 11 p.m. on weekends.Nadel said the curfew unfairly targets young people and violates their First Amendment rights.
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Principal Withholds Diplomas from Graduates After Silent Protest

Students at Liechty Middle School engaged in a silent protest during their graduation ceremony last week and it wound up costing them their diplomas. "The students turned their backs on graduation speaker Monica Garcia, LAUSD Board President, to express their displeasure to teacher layoffs and cutbacks," press materials explain. Principal Jeanette Stevens then decided to withhold the protesting students' diplomas. "The students had completed all their graduation requirements and were within their free speech protected rights."
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Film (The War on Kids) Probes Public Education in America

The award-winning feature documentary, THE WAR ON KIDS, launches a nationwide grassroots screening tour that will bring the debate about public education to dozens of campuses and communities nationwide. In 95 minutes, THE WAR ON KIDS exposes the many ways the public school system has failed children and our future by robbing students of all freedoms due largely to irrational fears.  Children are subjected to endure prison-like security, arbitrary punishments, and pharmacological abuse through the forced prescription of dangerous drugs.
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A Very Costly Kiss: Senior Denied Diploma

On Friday night, when the senior class was waiting to graduate, excitement began to grow. Students bounced a large inflatable rubber duck. The noise level rose. And then came "the kiss." When called, one student walked on stage to receive his diploma and blew a kiss to his family. The school administrator, clearly not the sentimental sort, sent the student back to his seat ... sans diploma.
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Parents could spy on kids' mobile phones

Parents may soon be able to read their children's text messages as part of a plan to give them more control over rapidly developing technologies. It is being billed as another tool in parents' armouries, but civil libertarians say if you need to pry into your kids' phones then you are not doing a good job as a parent. The technology could be rolled out in Australia by August but privacy issues loom as the main obstacle.
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Teen diagnoses her own disease in science class

For eight years, Jessica Terry suffered from stomach pain so horrible, it brought her to her knees. The pain, along with diarrhea, vomiting and fever, made her so sick, she lost weight and often had to miss school. Her doctors, no matter how hard they tried, couldn't figure out the cause of Jessica's abdominal distress. Then one day in January, Terry, 18, figured it out on her own.
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Booze, pot, and guns at daycare

A local couple is facing multiple charges after a shocking discovery at their home daycare business. Authorities confiscated a stash of guns, ammo, gallons of alcohol, marijuana, and moonshine early Saturday morning from Johnnie and Judy Wilson's home business. "People have a right to live in their residence and operate a business, but to have these types of items in their residence with children around is very disturbing," ALE agent Kenneth Simma said.
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Students arrested in Portage for food fight

Police arrested five students after a food fight during lunchtime at Portage High School. The teens were led from the school in handcuffs Tuesday after yogurt and taco salad flew across the cafeteria. The mother of one of the teens, Wendy Mitchell, thinks the school overreacted by calling police. So does Lee Ann Vesley, whose son Ryan Hayes was also involved. Vesley says she’s upset they were arrested and now have $172 tickets for disorderly conduct.
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Class hanging

A student who fell with a noose around his neck during a mock class hanging that was arranged by teachers has enraged Australian authorities. The high school student fell from a table while fellow students, under the supervision of a teacher, were photographing a staged hanging as part of an English class project.
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Education sector is lucrative as well as recession proof

With thinning demand for real estate and growing cash constraints, many developers are now looking at thriving sectors. They are divesting in non-core businesses such as education with a conviction that it’s a recession-proof sector. Experts believe that the reason behind this shift is a widening demand-supply gap in education sector. It may also be a rational expansion into a different category for developers who have land banks as well as means to raise infrastructure. High rate of return on investment coupled with huge demand-supply gap is attracting realtors to this sector, who will be comfortable setting up the required infrastructure.
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ADHD treatment causes young boys to develop breasts

A drug used to treat ADHD children is causing concern in the United States. It is called Risperdal and it is supposed to be used primarily for adults with sever psychological problems. But last year it was prescribed more than 6.5 million times. The side effects include young males developing female sex organs. Nineteen-year-old John was just seven when he began taking Risperdal for ADD. Even though the FDA approved the drug only for adult patients who were psychotic, John's doctor and others widely prescribed it to kids for less severe behaviour problems. Once taking Risperdal, John's mum says he became aggressive, sleepy, and developed bowel problems. But the biggest shock came when he was 14 and started developing women's breasts.
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"Kill Piper" cartoon threatens Spanaway sixth-grader

A Spanaway mother says she's horrified by a cartoon video -- posted online -- that showed several ways to kill her sixth-grade daughter. The cartoon was made off school grounds by some of her daughter's classmates, girls aged 11 and 12. Titled "Top Six Ways to Kill Piper," it includes depictions of girls shooting her, making her commit suicide, poisoning her and even pushing her off a cliff. Beth Smith tells KING5-TV the cartoon was set to a Hannah Montana song called "True Friend" and posted on YouTube.
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Girl makes own library with books banned in school

Some school banned a bunch of books, so this girl took copies of them and checks them out to other classmates like you would at a real library. - "I go to a private school that is rather strict. Recently, the principal and school teacher council released a (very long) list of books we're not allowed to read. I was absolutely appalled, because a large number of the books were classics and others that are my favorites."
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Irish Reform Schools: Thousands Beaten, Raped

More than 30,000 children deemed to be petty thieves, truants or from dysfunctional families _ a category that often included unmarried mothers _ were sent to Ireland's austere network of industrial schools, reformatories, orphanages and hostels from the 1930s until the last church-run facilities shut in the 1990s. The report found that molestation and rape were "endemic" in boys' facilities, chiefly run by the Christian Brothers order, and supervisors pursued policies that increased the danger. Girls supervised by orders of nuns, chiefly the Sisters of Mercy, suffered much less sexual abuse but frequent assaults and humiliation designed to make them feel worthless.
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Boy, 4, walks home from Pittsburgh school midday

Pittsburgh school officials are trying to figure out how a 4-year-old boy slipped away from his preschool in the middle of the school day and walked to his home about a mile away. The boy's mother, Markeya McCary, says her son told her he left because someone tried to lock him in a closet. School officials are investigating that claim and trying to figure out how the boy was able to slip away from school.
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Insight and Critical Thinking

New Article: Insight and Critical Thinking
Knowledge should be based on individual findings. Memorization doesn't help students understand the material. I've grown up to the teaching of "get a good grade, go to good college, get a great job, be happy" speech. Repeated over and over again, it's almost impossible to talk about the reason for getting good grades without even touching upon it. Every time I score badly on a test, the vision of unhappiness suddenly pops into mind. Why is that? Why is it that we don't allow our selves to fail (at the very least, why is it that I don't allow myself to fail)? People fail all the time, people make mistakes all the time, if we don't make mistakes, then shouldn't humans be classified as "computers"? [...]

Ohio Christian school tells student to skip prom

A student at a fundamentalist Baptist school that forbids dancing, rock music, hand-holding and kissing will be suspended if he takes his girlfriend to her public high school prom, his principal said. Despite the warning, 17-year-old Tyler Frost, who has never been to a dance before, said he plans to attend Findlay High School's prom Saturday. Frost, a senior at Heritage Christian School in northwest Ohio, agreed to the school's rules when he signed a statement of cooperation at the beginning of the year, principal Tim England said. The teen, who is scheduled to receive his diploma May 24, would be suspended from classes and receive an "incomplete" on remaining assignments, England said.
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