Ho Ho Ho. What Do You Want for Christmas.. The Swine Flu?

At a mall near my grandparents house in Michigan, there is always a large Christmas display in the weeks leading up to Christmas. As expected, children line up to tell Santa what they want for Christmas, a harmless tradition that brightens a child's day.

Last weekend, I was at this mall but since it was before Thanksgiving, Santa was not yet there and no children were waiting to sit on his knee. But soon, thousands of children would line up to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas. As we passed the tree and seat where Santa would sit, my mom shared with me something she had heard on the news earlier that morning. Due to the H1N1 epidemic, sitting on Santa's lap is not favorable this holiday season. Because his suit is not washed every day and Santas are in constant contact with children all throughout the holiday season, the spread of germs easier. This puts both Santas and visiting children at high risk for getting the virus.

I couldn't help but laugh. This is such an innocent tradition that many kids will be unable to partake in this year due to fear of the flu. But is this kind of alarm necessary? Do we have reason to be this worried? I understand that H1N1 is a highly contagious strain of the flu, but are we being overprotective and worrying too much?

How Did They Get In?

I'm sure many of you have heard about Tereq and Michelle Salahi, the couple that crashed the White House state dinner on Tuesday night. According to Would-be Reality TV Stars Crash Obama Party, the couple was not on the guest list, but still managed to make it through the White House security and mingle in the same room as the other 300 plus guests in attendance. This being said, the couple was screened for weapons before entering, and therefore posed a minimal threat to President Obama and the other guests. 

Earlier this year in a preliminary interview for "The Real Housewives of DC," Michelle Salahi said, "President Obama has made it very accessible for anyone to visit the White House, so that's like a big thing right now." She and her husband proved this to be true on Tuesday night when they crashed the party. 


But I'm left to wonder how the Salahis were able to do this. The White House is one of the most secure places in America; It has to be for the President and his family to safely live there. But if it's one of the most efficiently guarded places in America, how can there be a large enough flaw in security that the Salahis were able to enter without difficulty? Is the President really safe? How does this mistake reflect on our country as a nation?

Is Facebook Blurring Boundary Lines?

Tuesday afternoon, I had a conversation with my 11-year old brother about his day at school. We pretty much have these conversations daily and they never sieze to be entertaining. You see, his teacher (I'll call her Ms. Smith for privacy purposes) refers to herself as "Smith-zilla," often saying things like, "I didn't drink enough coffee this morning, so don't upset me or Smith-zilla will come out of her cave."

This being said, her teaching tactics aren't exactly conventional. But on Monday, my brother told me that over the weekend, Ms. Smith had sat down at her computer with a list of her 6th grade students and searched each one on Facebook. While looking, she found that one of her students did have a Facebook page. Since the page wasn't blocked or protected, she was able to read this student's wall-to-wall conversations and look at her pictures even though the two of them were not friends. Then on Tuesday morning, she confronted this student and shared what she had learned about her personal life.

At first I thought this was out of line and not something a teacher should be doing. But the more I thought about it I realized that she wasn't technically doing anything wrong. Teachers have rights to Facebook, as do students, so there isn't anything preventing teachers doing this, but should there be? Is this a morally wrong thing for teachers to do or do teachers have the right to do this? Is it an infringement on students' privacy?

The moral boundaries over the years have been so blurred that there is little separating teachers and students. I remember my mom telling me that when she was a kid, she didn't even know her teachers' first names. Now, students and teachers interact through social networking tools. This is how much our society has evolved over one generation.

Is a Pencil a Weapon?

I was flipping through the Chicago Tribune on Sunday morning and I saw an article about an 11 year old boy who poked a classmate in the knee with a pencil. Harmon Dehnert, who suffers from severe ADHD, was expelled from his school until next fall for this "act of violence." As to why he was expelled, the Plainfield Community Consolidated School District 202 board (in Plainfield, Pennsylvania) "unanimously decided Harmon used the pencil as a weapon and expelled him on Oct. 26."

I understand that this school is trying to protect their students from weapons and violence, but I think this punishment is harsh and unnecessary. All kids make mistakes, and I think Harmon made a small mistake that was blown out of proportion. First of all, his ADHD had a huge impact on this situation-- Harmon does not have someone monitoring his actions in class, and his ADHD is a known cause for his lack of focus and periodic outrages in the classroom. This being said, this incident could have easily been prevented if there was a teacher helping him stay on task in class.

Had Harmon been carrying or using a more threatening "weapon," I think this punishment would have been appropriate. The father of the poked child says that his son is fine, but asks the question, "what if it had been his eye instead of his knee?" I think there is a big problem with this argument as the basis of Harmon's expulsion. Yes, it could have been his eye, but it wasn't. The school board is overlooking what actually happened and instead focusing on what could have happened. But if you apply this idea of "what could have happened" to the whole school, anyone could poke another's eye out, and therefore everyone- not just Harmon- poses a danger. For this to be a logical argument, pencils would have be seen as weapons throughout the school, not just in this particular situation.

Due to the basis of Harmon's expulsion, I think this article raises an interesting question, one that is relevant now in a time of frequent school shootings and acts of violence at school. Do you think Harmon's punishment is fair? What constitutes a weapon? And more importantly, what constitutes an act of violence?

Running Away from the Economy

In a lot of ways, the current economic issues in the US haven't significantly changed my life in any way, and because of that, it's hard for me to understand and relate to other teens that are struggling. However, after reading a New York Times article titled "Running in the Shadows: Recession Drives Surge in Youth Runaways," I became aware of just how greatly many American teenagers are being affected by the economy.

Since the economy has taken a turn for the worse, the number of children leaving their homes for life on the street has increased drastically. For some parents, the inability to provide for their families financially has put increasing pressure on their children, creating an unstable living environment. "Foreclosures, layoffs, rising food and fuel prices and inadequate supplies of low-cost housing have stretched families to the extreme, and those pressures have trickled down to teenagers and preteens." For many of the Medford, Oregon teenagers interviewed in this article, these pressures create a burden that they are unable to carry. For them, this means that living on the streets is easier than living at home. On the streets, these kids aren't affected by the ups-and-downs of the economy the same way and they don't have to rely on others (like their parents) to create a stable living environment. They can create stability for themselves.

Fourteen-year old Betty Snyder is now living in a local park with other runaways. Here, she has the support of others who understand her situation, support that was lacking before she left home. As to why she ran away, she says "I'm just tired of it all, and I don't want to be in my house anymore. One month, there is money, and the next month there is none. One day, [my mom] is taking it out on me and hitting me, and the next day she is ignoring me. It's more stable out here." For moms like Betty's, providing for their children has become increasingly difficult as the economy worsens, driving kids like Betty to run away from their homes and fend for themselves.

Yes, we are all suffering from the economy, but clearly some people are impacted more than others. I think it's sad they had to resort to this option, but given the circumstances, these kids have worked so hard to remove themselves from their families and create lives for themselves regardless of the limitations the economy put on them. Although many of these runaway kids, including Betty, seem content with life on the street, they often have to resort to illegal activity (like selling drugs) to earn money. This being said, there's a good chance they could get caught, and it's only a matter of time before their newfound freedom from economic struggle is compromised. In trying to protect their freedom, what can we do for these kids? How can we help them? Can we help?

Politics in the Classroom

Today I attended a session of All School Forum, which is a group of New Trier students, faculty, and parents that get together once a month to discuss various topics relating to school. The topic of this afternoons discussion was "Politics in the Classroom." Following this discussion, I was able to conclude that people feel very differently about this issue. Some people feel very strongly that teachers remain unbiased towards their political stances in the classroom, while others feel that teachers should express their political opinions as a means of discussion.

Going in to this discussion, I had not previously given it a lot of thought. Personally, I think that it's okay for teachers to share their political views with the class as long as they do not impose their values on their students. But at the same time, knowing that your teacher doesn't support a certain political stance gives more students the confidence to talk about their own political views without feeling that they are being judged by someone superior to them-- their teacher. In my modern world history class last year, my teacher was very adamant about not sharing her political views with the class. However, her apparent lack of an outward political stance helped propel political discussions in class. As a group of students, we were able to share our own political views with one another and have debates that revolved around politics. Since our teacher didn't support either side of the arguments, she was able to be an objective voice of reason, asking questions that pertained to both sides of the discussion. This helped to guide discussions in a way that I think is more helpful and educational than if she had supported one side of the discussion over another.

Do your teachers often express their political views in class? Do you think that it's appropriate for teachers to share their political views with their students? How does doing so (or not doing so) effect what we learn as students? If you're interested, read Mr. Bolos' blog post about this issue.

Experience is Education

I recently read a New York Times article titled A Moo-Moo Here and Better Test Scores Later. This article talked about Harlem Success Academy, an urban New York school that is trying to better educate kindergardeners about rural life. According to this article, these efforts are being made to help students score higher on New York State's english and math standardized tests, which students begin taking in third grade. Apparently, there are many questions on these tests that relate to or are asked in the context of farming, which is something that many urban students are unfamiliar with. By taking fieldtrips to farms and familiarizing them with typical farm life and activities, the students are able to make better connections, ultimately increasing their test scores when they take the tests in third grade and beyond.

Near the end of the article, it talked briefly about how some people feel that these field trips come at the cost of other learning opportunities, and that they are unnecessary. Having talked a lot about opportunity cost in class this year, I thought this was a relevant argument. When I was a freshman, my english class talked a lot about the phrase "experience is education," which I believe to be true. Abagail Johnson, a teacher at Harlem Success Academy, shares this view point. "'[Children] are good at reciting and remembering things,' she said, 'but they can’t make the connection unless you show it to them.'" If this is the case, and experience is education, then experiencing farm life is essential for children to understand it. And if they understand it, they will do better on New York State's standardized testing in the future, which is the goal of the fieldtrips. This may come at the cost of other learning opportunities, but so do all educational fieldtrips. It doesn't sound unnecessary to me.

Do you think that the efforts taken to familiarize these children with farm living is unnecessary? What is the opportunity cost of this experience? Do you agree with the statement "experience is education"?