GOSSIP, GAFFES & MISCELLANY: June 2008 Archives

I came across this short entry in the blog of Ezra Klein, associate editor at lefty political mag The American Prospect, wherein he relates that the eighth-grade students (his stepsister among them) being promoted onto high school in a ceremony that he attended were presented with "a sample college application, complete with essay and resume forms."

"This, the principal said, was to get the kids thinking about what types of questions colleges would ask, so they could plan out their high school years accordingly."

Interesting idea! It of course incited multiple and myriad opinions from commenters to Klein's blog, some giving props to the unnamed school who did so and others lambasting the action.

What do you think? Let me know anytime.

Last week we got an email from a reader wondering why no local news agencies had reported that Manhattan Beach's Mira Costa High School had suffered one or more fatalities (he wasn't sure the number) and seen one of its own students arrested in relation with whatever incident caused the death.

We hadn't heard anything about it, so I called over to Manhattan Beach PD, who quickly cleared it up: The day our worried reader heard of this hubub on his scanner was the very day local agencies and the school had teamed up on a drill run meant to hammer home what awfulness can result from drunk driving by simulating such a tragedy on campus.

The drill is called Every 15 Minutes and has become a popular program on high schools across the country. We ended up running a short "Ask Us" column wherein I informed the aforementioned reader and anyone else who may have been worried that the "fatality" was faux and the student was "arrested" for show.

Apparently the same sort-of recent event went too far down in Oceanside, where in El Camino High School's spin on the program many kids didn't know ahead of time that it was a simulation and positively freaked when police came on campus to report the drunk-diving deaths of a few of their peers.

A short chunk from an Associated Press story on the controversy:

"Classmates wept. Some became hysterical."

"A few hours and many tears later, though, the pain turned to fury when the teenagers learned that it was all a hoax, a scared-straight exercise designed by school officials to dramatize the consequences of drinking and driving."

"As seniors prepare for graduation parties Friday, school officials in the largely prosperous San Diego, California, suburb are defending themselves against allegations that they went too far."

"At school assemblies, some students held posters that read, "Death is real. Don't play with our emotions."

What do you think? Did they go too far or is shock and temporary trauma an effective way to teach the lesson without kids actually having to learn it the true hard way?

Write me anytime with your thoughts.

In my endless quest to find interesting education-flavored nuggets for you all to digest, I now and then stumble across other blogs in the genre, whether wonk-written or teacher-penned or student-run or otherwise.

Today's discovery (on the recommendation of my go-to ed blog, This Week In Education) is of the latter category.

Dubbed Students 2.0, it appears to be authored by about 9 different students from different states (and in one case from another country) and has of late touched on topics from philosophy to experiential learning to something called mini-term (wherein the student's school offered four-day sessions that encouraged teachers to "teach their passion).

One of their most recent posts, though, by a girl named Lindsea, addresses a concept being called edupunk, which she says is "sweeping the edublogosphere" and defines as "DIY education." She cites examples, courtesy of Wikipedia, including Legos, chalk and Moodle and trends like "students teaching their teachers how to use technology."

So apparently anything that at all turns traditional notions of education on its head qualifies as part of the edupunk movement.

Any edupunks lurking around here in the South Bay? If so, give a shout and let's talk. I'm going to continue my research herein, but as I just ran across this new-to-me-term, I wanted to toss the concept out there for y'all to nosh on until I can report back with more.

This story from the San Francisco Chronicle I think will prove interesting to many folks here, in light of recent losses at the polls by Hermosa Beach and Centinela Valley school districts.

I don't want to say too much, because you must find out for yourself. But here's just one teaser: Reporter Jill Tucker's lede goes like this: "Students in Alameda are getting a real life lesson this month of an old civics adage: Every vote counts."

Intrigued? Go read it, I say! Immediately!

So I've been away for a bit ... not away away, as in out of town and not at work, but away from the blog for most of the last couple weeks, so slammed have I been with stories and other things.

But suddenly, at the end of last week, I get an email from someone in Westchester (David, thank you, David) reminding me it had been several days since I've posted and all the sudden it hit me: There actually are people who read this thing!

And so I resolved to get back on track, starting today.

New items to come shortly, peeps, swear!