A Financial Reward for Putting Off College?

Getting paid to not go to college? That is what I thought at first when I looked at this article. However really what they are saying is that many institutions are beginning to encourage students to take a year off before they start college and do some sort of public service. Some schools are giving finical benefits to students who do this and others are simply helping to provide the public service opportunities.
Dickinson College, in Carlisle PA, promotes offers $10,000 in credit towards tuition for every year of full-time public service, with a cap at four years, or $40,000. Many universities prefer that you do your work through Americorps. This corporation for national and community service will provide $4,725 for a year of full-time service. Many universities then match that.
Princeton University encourages students to take a year off and apply for their Bridge Year program where they match students up with host families in Ghana, India, Peru, or Serbia. This program had 54 students apply for it and only 20 were accepted. Overall schools are saying that they want students to broaden students’ perspectives before they start working toward their careers.
I think this is a very interesting idea. Many students would gain a lot from this experience and it just might help some students “grow up” a bit before their start trying to figure out what they want to do with their life. With our economy in crisis it is also a good way to save money without having to join a form of military branch. I think if schools want this type of thing to be successful they should advertise it more. I have never heard of it before this article. I think it would have been something fun and would have been a great learning experience for me.

http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/a-financial-reward-for-putting-off-college/

Post-Columbine Programs Help Prevent Rampages

Even though experts agree there is no certain way to prevent another school shooting many schools are taking steps to prevent rampages. Jeff Daniels, a counseling psychologist at West Virginia University studies schools that have dealt with school shootings and observed what types of programs they now have in place to make sure it does not happen again. Some of the things you will see now is a lot of respect for students and for teachers. Before school it is not uncommon to see teachers and students visiting in the cafeteria. School officials have effectively communicated to students the difference between snitching and getting help in a crisis situation. Along with taking rumors seriously, anti-bulling programs, and staff training, these schools feel they are making their schools safer. Colorado has developed a Safe2Tell tip line that covers threats to safety. Some LA schools have developed Safe School Ambassadors programs to help student empower themselves to keep communication open with each other and watch for signs of threatening situations. Even though many educators are feeling they are making the step in the right direction some teachers say that it still only takes one kid. My comment to that is how many of those one kids did these actions stop? School shootings do not have to be something that we have to except and deal with. We need to do everything we can to make our schools safer and why anyone would not want to do that is beyond me. Not only are we teaching our children skills that they can use when they are in the school but also when they are older in the real world. These are life skills. In our school district we stress life skills in elementary school of flexibility, cooperation, and trustworthiness. These skills don’t have to stop when you get to junior high. They just change and become more of things that kids should be educated about. It is better to talk about things upfront then be caught in a situation.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-04-13-columbine-effects-schools_N.htm

Facing Deficits, Some States Cut Summer School

Florida, North Carolina, Delaware, California and Washington are only a few of the states that are struggling with their school budgets this year. These districts are trying to find ways to make things work and one of them is cutting the summer school programs. The federal stimulus law is giving $100 billion dollars to public education and many educational leaders are urging schools to use that money to keep schools open in the summer. Not all school districts are in the “hurt bag.” Some schools are using the stimulus money to fund full-day summer school at the low performing schools. During these days the kids do math and reading but also are exposed to science, gym, and outdoor activities. When school districts are looking to cut programs many districts see summer school as a “frill.” Let’s hope this budget cut does not come to haunt these districts when they see their assessment results in the fall.
After reading this article I was very surprised to see that some districts have to cut programs completely. Currently, I am teaching summer school at a school that has a program that is not necessarily for low achieving students but anyone who is interested in maintaining skills over the summer. In the past, this program has been very fun and hands on as far as learning. Teachers now say they are disgusted because it is getting to be more paper and pencil. This year our school district took some of the federal stimulus money and bought an actual summer school reading curriculum for us to use. It is a very nice program but I also feel that it is a little too intense for summer school. The kids have been really great about it and have not complained. The feeling from our district was that they wanted to see test scores improve and to do that they wanted to see if the kids who were in summer school will improve more than the kids who were not exposed to this reading curriculum. Personally, I think that by cutting programs completely you are opening up a new can of worms. Many students who would normally come to summer school will receive little if any education this summer and regression will take place. I hope I am wrong but I think the answer here is to cut back time or funds instead of cutting completely.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/education/02school.html?_r=1&ref=education