Green Jello Hotdish

Ah, sexual education curriculum in the public schools.  Few things stir up the level of impassioned debate as much as that sentence alone.

Today’s paper is reporting on a proposed change in MPS aimed at drastically cutting the birth rate among teenagers in the city by starting with a comprehensive sex education curriculum in fourth grade.  To that, I say bravo.  (Although the proposal is far from implementation — it still must receive the seal of approval of the Board of Ed. and teachers trained.)

I vaguely remember, in eighth grade health, discussion about the reproductive system.  In tenth grade, although I was in a different school district, our school promoted an abstinence-only curriculum formed around materials produced by James Dobson of Focus on the Family.  (And yes, I attended public schools.)

Questions weren’t welcomed or addressed.  Topics such as homosexuality, contracting STDs, and the specifics of practices other than intercourse were relegated to the sidelines, and the official policy of the school district was that teachers were not allowed to discuss such subjects with the students, even if the students brought the questions up themselves.

Check out that article again, especially the sidebar: the first bullet point says it all.

A little under half of Wisconsin’s high-schoolers have had sex, according to the state’s 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

I remember that video in tenth grade.  “Not everyone’s having sex,” it said.  You’re the only one who is thinking about it, you dirty, dirty teenager.

Sticking your head in the sand doesn’t work.  When schools withhold valuable, preventative, comprehensive information from their students, the schools are failing to provide the necessary education for success.  We have myriad problems in this country surrounding parenting, childhood and adolescent development.  We absolutely need to work on ensuring children are raised in stable, two-parent households.  We definitely need to ensure parents have the tools and resources necessary to raise their children, fulfilling their end of the bargain.  But part of that toolbox is compulsory education, and we need to be certain our public education systems aren’t leaving the future generation in the dark, simply because we as a society are uncomfortable with the subject material.

According to this recent survey, 22% of high-ranking military officers oppose lifting Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell to boost troop levels. The results are being downplayed by those who characterize the officers as disconnected from the rank-and-file.

That, however, isn’t my concern. Frankly it doesn’t surprise me — nor do I think it proves anything.

What is frightening is that in the same survey, a whole 38% believe the solution is reinstating the federal draft. Out of the survey pool of 3,400, that means roughly 1,290 — more than one-third — believe conscription is preferred to allowing LGBT people to serve openly in the military.

Ugh.

The Wisconsin Legislature endorsed online, virtual academies in a draft measure that would provide state funding and keep their keyboards open in the fall, overruling an earlier circuit court decision to shutter the institutions. Teachers unions are crying foul, but for everyone else this is a win-win. The academies win in being allowed to stay open, the students win in being afforded more choice in their educational path, the public wins in being assured of unified standards just as any other public educational institution, and society gets to keep fighting over whether or not online schools are really schools.

OK so that last part is just like anything else.

The last episode of Frontline on PBS dealt with the rise in social media and social networking on the Internet and its affects on the high school class of 2007. I want to preface this with something: it was the first time I have ever watched an after-school special about the Internet that didn’t make me want to pull my hair out through the whole thing. The alarmist tone was muted, and while other generations may not understand the coming-of-age generation’s use of the Internet and think that it replaces important social values, it was extremely useful and well done. You can watch the full episode from PBS’ website, but do know it is 60 minutes.

Change is good. Change means we are human. (Change for the sake of change is annoying, but…) It means we are alive. Our instinct is to explore and discover, and part of that means that we need to evolve. Whether one dislikes the ongoing development of technology or loves it, ultimately it is irrelevant. The world won’t stop because you long for an earlier time — like when students learned in rows of desks, looked at a chalkboard and chanted off multiplication tables with their instructor.

This is by far the most bizarre story of the day year.

I don’t know why I’ve gotten hung up in the news about the NASA MESSENGER program. Its Macworld week — and visions of MacBook Airs should be floating in my head, but instead its space.

Once they said space was the final frontier, and indeed it still is. After colonizing the world, taming the West (and leaving it to grow wild again), the only thing we have left to explore is space.

Exploration is good. It proves we are alive. Our intelligence is what sets us apart from the rest of the creatures of the world, so it is only appropriate that we continue to push the limits.

I don’t know much about Mercury. Don’t let that fool you — I don’t know much about the rest of the planets, either, and that includes our own. My father is the space and science nerd. He grew up watching the first space trips, and even today I know he’s probably watching NASA TV at home in the family room, much to the displeasure of anyone else wanting a crack at the television. Space travel was something for his domain; I didn’t want anything to do with it.

Yet today, when so many other things in the news could be taking up space in my mind (like the primary in Michigan, or video rentals on iTunes), I keep tuning in only for reports about the MESSENGER mission. I zone out until the moment NASA officials come on and clap and cheer for the radio connection that takes 80 minutes to travel to Earth at the speed of light.

I’m reminded of an episode of The West Wing, when Galileo V is lost in space. President Bartlet goes out on the portico and waits for the sky to “speak to us.” He spent most of the episode harassing C.J. about her lack of enthusiasm, only for her to discover an intrigue, a curiosity about all it is we don’t know. I feel like C.J. today. And now I can’t wait until we know more.

The Waukesha Board of Education has announced a proposal to reconfigure two elementary schools in their district to grade grouping, rather than traditional enrollment boundaries. The theory, they say, is to allocate resources in a more efficient manner while controlling class sizes and being more “child-focused.”

Having benefited from a variety of educational settings — including traditional schools within attendance boundaries, or “neighborhood schools,” mixed-grade classrooms (both as cohort clusters, where first through third grades were in “pods” with the same students, as well as experiencing fourth and fifth grades in the same mixed-grade classroom), grade groupings in middle school and a comprehensive high school with a magnet program — my inclination is that the Waukesha plan will be met with success. As the article points out, libraries and other resources are targeted toward a specific enrollment and much of the wide age gap of bullying on the playground is squelched.

That’s not the question I have: what is with Wisconsin and K-8 schools? Milwaukee’s covered with them. In Minnesota, and I’d venture to say most places, a metropolitan tradition is for K-5 in elementary, 6-8 in middle and 9-12 in high schools. Variations include pre-K and K, 1-3, 4-5, 5-8, etc, but for the most part the “standard” is used. In rural areas with smaller populations and enrollments, a K-6 and 7-12 split is the de facto standard.

But K-8? That’s a huge gap to have in one school. Even splitting that up K-3, 4-8 is huge. I can’t imagine being an 8th grader in school with 4th graders, or vice versa. At my middle school, we had 5th graders in self-contained classrooms on the third floor, while 6-8 operated as the “middle school.” (Originally, the younger students were moved to the building to deal with overcrowding at the nearby elementary school. Subsequently, a district overhaul resulted in shuttering one elementary school and consolidating to single elementary, middle and high schools, and now even 4th graders are at CJMS.) But just by having the 5th graders in the building, it brought a certain “kid” element that caused strife, especially with the 6th graders.

Did the middle school concept skip Southeastern Wisconsin?

This article is so bad, yet sooooo funny.

“You say on your form that you’re not a fan of homosexuals,” Nickerson said.

“That I’m a racist,” Ellis interrupted.

“I’m frequently found to be a liar, too. I can’t really help it,” Ellis added.

“I’m sorry?” Nickerson said.

“I said I’m frequently found to be a liar,” Ellis replied.

“So, are you lying to me now?” Nickerson asked.

“Well, I don’t know. I might be,” was the response.

Ellis then admitted he really didn’t want to serve on a jury.

“I have the distinct impression that you’re intentionally trying to avoid jury service,” Nickerson said.

“That’s true,” Ellis answered.

So being a racist, homophobic liar may not quite get you out of jury duty so much as it will get you charged with contempt.

England starts its smoking ban tomorrow.

I never thought I would see an English smoking ban in my lifetime. It’s bizarre.

Yet another reason I’m glad I don’t live in northern Minnesota anymore.