Saturday, April 09, 2005

SHOOTING THE MESSENGER

The color red has become an issue for school officials across the country. Some schools have now put red on the blacklist for marking students' work. At Daniels Farm Elementary School in Trumbull, Conn., teachers are no longer grading papers in red ink. Parents complained that students get stressed out by red ink. Blue and other colors are now being used. Red has become so symbolic of negativity that some principals and teachers across the country are not touching it.

Joseph Foriska, the principal of Thaddeus Stevens Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pa., has instructed his teachers to grade with colors with more "pleasant-feeling tones" so that their instructional messages do not come across as derogatory or demeaning.

Top pen and marker manufacturers -- including Bic, Pilot Pen and Sanford, which produces Papermate and Sharpieare -- are making more purple pens in response to rising rising demand. The companies say principals and teachers are largely driving that demand.

The disillusionment with red is part of broader shift in grading, said Vanessa Powell, a fifth-grade teacher at Snowshoe Elementary School in Wasilla, Alaska. "It's taken a turn from 'Here's what you need to improve on' to 'Here's what you've done right,"' Powell said. "It's not that we're not pointing out mistakes, it's just that the method in which it's delivered is more positive." Her students, she said, probably would tune out red because they are so used to it. So she grades with whatever color -- turquoise blue, hot pink, lime green -- appeals to them.

Source





THE DRUG WAR IS EVERYWHERE

As random police checks are introduced to the Scottish Highlands, there are fears that Britain's drug culture has taken root even in the remotest areas

For the 1,700 inhabitants of Kingussie, there is normally little to gossip about other than the latest new neighbours from England, attendance levels at the local line-dancing classes and the next bingo tea for the village shinty club. This week the tiny community, on the banks of the River Spey and between the Cairngorm and Monadhliath mountains, is being forced to confront a topic that is threatening to tarnish its image as a remote Highland idyll: drugs. The 393 pupils at Kingussie High School are to be subjected to random drug checks by police sniffer dogs.

Two other nearby schools are likely to follow suit after the Northern Constabulary gave warning that, even in one of Europe's last great wildernesses, the area used to film the television drama Monarch of the Glen, the smoking of cannabis "is replacing a cigarette behind the bike shed".

Although the use of police sniffer dogs has already been trialled in inner-city schools in England, the decision to replicate this in the Highlands has sent shockwaves across Scotland, where Kingussie High is the first school to introduce the practice.

An English resident, who asked not to be named but who has been living in Kingussie since 1998, said: "It may not look like the kind of place where there would be drugs, but it's going on here, just like everywhere else. You hear all sorts of stories."

Although Kingussie High School does not have a history of drug problems, there have been rumours that cannabis is being smoked in the grounds and some pupils have started to experiment with hard drugs. One community worker told The Times that several local youths were being treated for drug misuse, while there had been an increasing number of seizures in the area.

More here

When will people realize that prohibition never works?

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

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