New Moon - Kids Warned Not to Skip School for Vampire Movie

Vampire fans on both sides of the Team Edward/Team Jacob fence got a little lesson in what it means to be responsible last week.  Orange County school administrators reminded teens that they belonged in class last Friday — the day New Moon hit the big screen — and not in a movie theater.

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Canadian Parents Win Homework Battle

That headline might be a little misleading.  The parents in question didn’t win the battle with their children over doing their daily homework.  No, these parents went to court to have their children declared legally exempt from being assigned homework in the first place.

Sherri and Tom Milley are lawyers in Calgary, Alberta.  After years of doing daily battle with their oldest son over his reluctance to do homework, they had had enough. When their two younger children, Spencer, 11, and Brittany, 10, began giving them similar fits over homework, the Milley’s decided to do something about it.   Continue reading »

Principal Camps Out on School Roof

Students in a Michigan elementary school were all eager to get to school last Thursday morning–they wanted to see how their principal had fared after spending the night on the school roof.

To reward students for meeting their school’s fundraising goals, Principal Bill Cain camped out on the school roof overnight. Continue reading »

Are Your Kids Jewish? Are You Sure?

This week the British courts took on the question of who is Jewish, and who gets to decide. In doing so, they set off a storm of controversy and raised some awkward issues for schools and families.

Responding to a lawsuit brought by a student and his family, the court decreed that a Jewish school cannot exclude a student simply because his mother is not Jewish. Instead, they are requiring the school to determine which students qualify as “Jewish” based on self-identity and religious practice. Continue reading »

Who’s Smarter: Kids or Dogs?

Recently a commenter asserted that raising a child is identical to raising a dog. “Both can be encouraged to good behavior through rewards and discouraged from bad behavior through punishment.”  “Both demand enthusiastic praise and consistant (sic) (non-angry) discipline.” “Just like a dog, you must put a plastic cone on a child’s head to keep them from chewing on their butt.” Okay, I made that last one up. Or did I?

Many took umbrage with the commenter’s remarks, but I (always the scientist) decided to put them to the test. Over a weekend I pitted my three-year-old against our 1 ½ year old border collie to once and for all resolve the question: who is smarter, a toddler or a dog? Here are the competitors.

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Sure, Kid, We Can Talk About Anything. Except Math.

When my daughter informed she would be not be homeschooling after all, one of the many little sighs of relief I exhaled was that I wouldn’t have to teach her algebra, or even addition.

As a bright kid, I was always “gifted” at math, but that didn’t mean I liked it. By the time I hit high school, I’d gotten the message that being good with numbers wasn’t cool for a girl, so I shirked it. When it came time to go to college, I chose a school that did not require any math classes.

Now my stepson is 15, and I can’t even read his math homework, let alone help him solve it.

Happily, I saved my kids from a lifetime of math cluelessness by marrying a professional nerd who teaches math and physics at a university. In our house, he is the math department.

When Lisa Belkin broached this topic over on Motherlode, commenters pointed out the gender disparity between men and women around math. Lisa’s family, like mine, is headed by a math averse mom and a math friendly dad.

I’m trying to do more math for the girls’ sake. I want my girls to grow up knowing women can do just as much math as men. But let’s be real: I can pull this off now because the oldest one is 5. She is hard at work learning to count to 100. When she starts bringing home differential equations, she is going straight to Daddy.

Two recent studies show that most American parents are a lot like me when it comes to math homework: clueless and uncomfortable. One commissioned by Intel shows that parents feel more equipped to talk about sex and drugs with their kids than math and science. Another, by Sylvan Learning, found that more than 6 out of 10 parents are not confident that they can solve their kids’ math homework in middle and high school.

Those jitters about math homework translate to kids, who start to feel nervous about the subject themselves. Math is increasingly important for higher education and professional fields, but most adults rate it as the most challenging subject taught in school.

For good reason. Less than 40% of eight and fourth graders are “proficient” or better at grade-level math skills. Clearly our kids could use some help with their math homework.

Do you help your kids with their homework? Does the thought of having to go through high school algebra again give you the shivers? If we can’t help our kids learn math, who can?

Photo: tracy_the_astonishing

School Suspends Teen for Cancer Fundraiser

I cannot possibly begin to imagine what it must be like to be a teenager whose father is dying from cancer.  I don’t know how a teenager could possibly deal with that — most teens have enough trouble just dealing with puberty and school and learning to drive and so on.  Fifteen-year-old Emily Pridham decided to shave her head to raise money for cancer research and to show support for other cancer patients.  “Basically my way of coping is to try and help other people going through the same thing,” she said.  So what could possibly be wrong with that?
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Obama: Energy Future Depends on Kids’ Skills

A seemingly ever-increasing population, hooked on iPods, cellphones, and GPS systems, with big-screen televisions in every room, along with the requisite complement of DVD players, DVR’s, and video game systems, uses a lot of power — and that demand is only going to grow.  The three R’s — reduce, reuse, and recycle — can only go so far in assuaging the need for energy.  Clearly, we are going to continue to need to develop new ways of generating power.  What those ways will be are anyone’s guess, but where the ideas will come from is clear — from the scientists of the future.  That’s why Michelle Obama wants states to improve science and mathematics education.
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The Myths of Gifted Children

Every parent thinks their kid is a genius. But for some people, their kids actually are far above the norm. They’re not just good in school — as a matter of fact, sometimes they are not good in school at all. Instead, they fall into the category of “gifted children.”

Actually, the idea that “gifted children do very well in school” is one of many myths about gifted children. Continue reading »

Help in the Hunt for the Perfect College

Your university-bound genius has tackled the SATs and has a GPA that’s nothing to sneeze at.  Now comes the hard part:  finding the perfect college.  You’ve pored over all the well-known guides and narrowed your choice down to an unmanageable 50 or 60 schools.  Sure, name brand universities and an accessible location are a nice start, but how will you know which school will be the right fit for your kid?  Will she be happier at College A or College B?  Help is available at InsideCollege.com. Continue reading »