http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-504498.mp3
Albany, NY – THE BLUEPRINT FOR MY GIRLS , Pt. 2 of 2 -
With drugs, foul language and violence all over the media, how can
teachers and parents foster positive self-images for their students
and children? The U.S. Department of Education recently updated
its brochure called, Character Education - Our Shared Responsibility.
To successfully implement character education, the department
encourages schools to:
1. Take a leadership role to bring staff, parents and students together.
2. Provide staff training.
3. Form a partnership with parents and the community.
4. And provide opportunities for school leaders, teachers, parents,
and community partners to model exemplary character traits and
social behaviors.
We introduced Yasmin Shiraz to you last week. Shiraz has already
been doing many of these same things through her school workshops
around the country. And now has put her guidelines into her own book
called, The Blueprint For My Girls.
Glenn Busby reports. (11:19)
**(Attention Program Directors. For more details, the website given
listeners at the end of the above story is: www.yasminshiraz.net.
EDUCATION HEADLINES AND UPDATES
- It's that time of year when colleges are sending out those decision letters
to applicants. Students are nervously watching their mailbox to find out if
they've been admitted to the college of their choice. The College Board
now admits to miscalculating the SAT scores of at least 4-thousand
students who took the test last October. Most of the affected students
received a lower score than they actually earned, with some scores off by
as much as 200 points. Many college admissions officials are now having
to reconsider decisions that were based on those faulty scores. The
College Board plans to refund those affected their test registration
fees and the cost of sending the scores to colleges.
- In a surprise to many court observers, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that the federal government can withhold federal funds from colleges that bar or restrict military recruiting on campuses.
- A new study says the number of north American colleges with endowments topping 1-billion dollars has increased by nine, to 56 schools. The University
of Toronto became the first Canadian institution to amass 1-billion in American dollars. Oxford and Cambridge Universities in England are believed to be the only other non-U.S. schools with endowments that size. Harvard is the largest with a reported 25-billion dollars. Yale is next at 15-billion.
- In other news from Canada, Simon Fraser University in British Columbia,
is moving ahead with controversial plans to set up a joint for-profit prep
school with an Australian company. The university claims the school will
help increase the number of international students...make recruiting easier
and more cost-effective...and increase retention of those students into
higher education.
- In our Intelligent Design watch segment, the Ohio State School Board
has dealt another major blow to I.D. advocates. The Board voted to revise
the state's academic content standards that encouraged students to
critically analyze the established biological science of evolution. As part
of the same action, the Ohio Board also did away with a state approved
lesson plan for teachers from two years ago, that critics said falsely suggest
that mainstream scientists harbored doubts about evolution. Meanwhile, the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, which supports the teaching of Intelligent Design and other alternatives to evolution called the Board's action a
gag order on science and a dogmatic approach to education.
Dr. Karen Hitchcock reports. (3:10)
WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH / ADA BYRON LOVELACE -
In this week's Women's History Month profile, Actress Kate Mulgrew, (internationally known for her role as Captain Kathryn Janeway in
Star Trek Voyager ) narrates the story of Ada Byron Lovelace, who
was dubbed the princess of parallelograms. Lovelace is reported to
have invented how to count on a computer a century before that
technology was created.
Kate Mulgrew narrates. (2:00)
**(Attention Program Directors. If you would like to hear all
26 of these two-minute historical profiles, just go to our
special website: www.womeninscience.org, and visit the
series HER-STORY THEN. )**
WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH ON THE INTERNET -
To complete our recognition of Women's History Month, we found
this essay from Professor John Cech that reviews the many Internet
sites where you can learn more about the vast achievements of
women. Dr. John Cech is the Director of the University of Florida's
Center for Children's Literature and Culture.
Dr. John Cech comments. (2:19)