Tag Archives: school

Spanking in School

I attended Catholic school back in the 70s, so being hit by a ruler-wielding nun was nothing out of the ordinary. These days I highly doubt many parents would warmly embrace Sister Rose Fatima’s choice of discipline. Just ask parents in Chicago. According to a new investigative report by the CBS affiliate in the Windy City, teachers, coaches and other school administrators have allegedly beaten hundreds of public school students. The report goes on to say that corporal punishment in Chicago public schools is more widespread than most people realize. For the record, beating kids in school is illegal. Still, … Continue reading →

Colorado Making it Easier to Support Kids in School

Have you ever requested time off from work to address your child’s educational needs only to be denied? Apparently it happened one too many times to parents in Colorado, and now state lawmakers have designed a bill to help moms and dads take time off from work to deal with school-related events. The bill recently won preliminary approval in the Colorado House, but it still requires a final House vote before heading to the Senate. Unfortunately, for the bill’s authors it was watered down to apply only to companies with 50 or more workers and restricts what school-related events parents … Continue reading →

Are You a Teacher’s Worst Nightmare?

In Japan, they’re called “monster parents,” and now teachers there have a new way of dealing with them. You might know a few monster parents yourself. They’re hard not to notice. Typically, they are the moms and dads who are constantly complaining and making unreasonable demands on schools and teachers. Most of them are overbearing, pushy, and some of them go as far as threatening educators. But, instead of fighting back with their fists, teachers in Japan are taking a new training course to learn how to deal with these pushy parents without resorting to physical violence. Japan’s Ministry of … Continue reading →

Pink Haired Student Gets the Boot and College Co-eds Make the Most of Bad Weather

Strep throat and the flu have been going around, but that’s not what has kept 11-year-old Natasha Rzanca out of Sawyer Elementary School for more than a week. The Michigan fifth-grader isn’t sick nor has she been suspended. Rather, the reason for her extended absence from school has to do with the color of her hair. The mini fashionista decided to dye her hair pink and now she’s dealing with the consequences of her actions. According to reports, school administrators were less than pleased with Natasha’s new look (her mother didn’t mind the color) and demanded that she remain at … Continue reading →

A School By Any Other Name

What’s a six letter word for the place your children go each day to learn important life lessons? It’s not a trick question. The answer is SCHOOL. Unless, of course, you live in the United Kingdom. Students attending Watercliffe Meadow Primary in Sheffield, UK no longer attend “school.” Rather, educational leaders there have decided to refer to their building as a “place of learning.” According to news reports, the head teacher of Watercliffe Meadow Primary recently confirmed that administrators dropped the word “school” from the place of learning’s name. Watercliffe Meadow leaders explained the decision this way: “We decided from … Continue reading →

Education Blog Month in Review: November

By November, students have settled in to the routine of school. The month of November brought with it lots of education news, from sex education and ethics in the classroom to upcoming policy changes that may affect when some students graduate. Check here to review any important posts that you may have missed. November 3rd Schools Required to Improve Dropout Rates Last month, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings announced a new set of regulations that are aimed at making high schools accountable for high school drop out rates. November 7th New Plans to Graduate Kids in 10th Grade The last two … Continue reading →

Parental Playback

From eating at the kids’ table on Thanksgiving to penning that first letter to Santa, discussing the “brain freeze” some administrators in New York had when banning scarves from school, to wondering how it is that tens of thousands of Internet users could sit by and watch a teenage boy kill himself in front of his web cam—it’s been quite a week here in the PARENTS blog. If you missed any part of it, now is your chance to get caught up: November 17th—–Countdown to Christmas: The Letter to Santa. My young daughter completed her letter to Santa this week. … Continue reading →

School Scarf Controversy = Irate Parents

And people wonder why some parents and school administrators are constantly at war… Parents in Montgomery, New York are fuming over a recent decision by school leaders to ban high school students from wearing scarves. Last time I checked it was November and the temperatures were plummeting, not rising. That said you would think most reasonable adults would be encouraging kids to bundle up. Apparently, not in Montgomery. According to news reports, the school board (allegedly comprised of highly educated adults) initiated the ban after a boy wore a scarf to school and it was interpreted as a form of … Continue reading →

Types of Distance Learning Education

Distance learning or distance education is sometimes also considered home schooling. And while the two can overlap, they are really two different things. Usually home schooling is considered as instruction at home with a parent or tutor(s) and not associated with a school. With distance education, there is usually an outside instructor (as part of a formal school) that gives lessons, grades assignments and tests and sometimes interacts real time with a student, depending on the type of distance learning education course. This is the teacher mediated option (TMO), although the independent study option (ISO) is also considered distance learning. … Continue reading →

Anatomy of A Frugal Kid

If you dissect a frugal kid, what do all of the parts look like? Don’t worry, this isn’t some creepy Halloween story. In fact, it is just a way of taking a look at how we typically live our frugal life and how it doesn’t take a lot of spending for the care and feeding of a typical kid who is healthy and happy. I’ll take my eldest son as an example, on a typical morning waiting for the school bus. Head In his head are already thoughts of his holiday wish list. He says that he is thinking about … Continue reading →