Stockholm University plans to launch a fast-track teaching course in a bid to counteract the shortage of qualified science teachers in Swedish schools. … Read More
Border schools in Mexico adjust to influx of English-speaking students
Schoolchildren scamper across the border to waiting parents in the Mexican town of Palomas in May 2009.(Tony Avelar/The Christian Science Monitor/File) Elementary students at Lamberto Hernández School in this northern Mexican city were long gone by the time teachers sat down recently to learn…
Gas attack fears as 74 Afghan school girls examined for poisoning
Local officials said the girls became ill after noting a gas smell in the air at their school, Bibi Maryam, in the Taluqan, the capital of the Takhar Province, about 250 kilometers north of the Afghan capital Kabul.The girls were taken to hospital and although most were released after being treated, some are still in a critical condition, Dr. Jamil Frotan, the head of the hospital, told Reuters on Sunday evening.“We have already sent samples of their blood to the Ministry of Public Health and it will soon become clear what the reason for their illness was,” Frotan said.Sulaiman Moradi, The Takhar governor’s spokesman, said “enemies of the government and the country” were to blame and said the aim was to stop the girls going to school.No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but there have been numerous substantiated cases of mass poisonings of schoolgirls by elements of Afghanistan’s ultra conservative society who remain opposed to female education. The Taliban are just one section of a highly conservative society sharing such beliefs. The suspected poisoning comes three days after more than a dozen students fell ill at another girl’s high school in Talugan. The incident also remains unexplained.Four poisoning attacks in girls’ schools in Takhar between May and June last year, prompted local officials to order the head teachers to stay at school until late, to test the water for contaminates and for staff to search the grounds for suspicious looking objects.Takhar has been a hotbed of criminal activity and militancy since 2009, with the Taliban and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan highly active in the province.Since the Taliban were ousted in 2001 females have returned to schools especially in Kabul.Afghan women have won back basic rights in education, voting and employment since 2001, but fears remain that these gains could be traded away as western forces prepare to leave the country in 2014 and the Afghan government seeks peace talks with the Taliban. … Read More
16 of the NRA’s frightening police-state “solutions” for our schools
The NRA doesn’t just want to put armed teachers, armed guards and volunteer vigilantes in schools to prevent more school shootings. It wants to turn schools into veritable prisons, where security staff patrol and lockdown schools, and indentify and spy on problem students and employees, according to an NRA-sponsored report that included model legislation to allow such measures.The National Federation of Teachers and well-known civil rights advocates slammed the report, issued by former GOP congressman and Department of Homeland Security official Asa Hutchinson. They said militarizing schools with more guns was not the answer to gun violence. Nor was putting more police into schools, particularly in communities of color. That only increases hostilities for students, not safe learning environments.Continue Reading… … Read More
NRA report calls for armed guard in every US school
The 225-page ‘National School Shield Initiative’, announced by former Republican Congressman Asa Hutchinson at a press conference on Tuesday, puts forward eight recommendations it says would bolster school security nationwide. The suggestions in the report include a special training program that would prepare school resource officers (SRO) how to respond in crisis situations, changes in state laws that would permit SROs to carry firearms on school property, enhanced coordination between law enforcement agencies and schools on security issues, and federal and NRA-sponsored resources to facilitate those requirements. The single recommendation that has triggered outrage among the anti-gun crowd – coming as it does after the Sandy Hook school shooting, which claimed 26 lives, 20 of them children – is that armed security officers would be stationed inside of every school. Hutchinson defended that position, saying that the presence of armed school personnel would reduce the number of fatalities and casualties.”We looked at the technology of the schools, we looked at the interior and an exterior doors, access controls, architecture and design of the schools. And then we look at the armed officers whether it’s an SRO, which is a school resource officer, to the staff that may be armed or considering being armed,” he said. “And obviously, we believe they make a difference in the various layers of security that add to school safety.” The report also envisions allowing school teachers to carry guns in the classroom – but only those who express an interest in being qualified for such a responsibility.”Let me emphasize, this is not talking about all teachers,” he said. “Teachers should teach. But if there is a personnel that has good experience and has an interest in it, and is willing to go through this training of, again, 40 to 60 hours that is totally comprehensive, then that is an appropriate resource that a school should be able to utilize.” Hutchinson cited the report’s findings, saying that SROs would be required to undergo 40-60 hours of training, as well as an extensive background check. He estimated the cost of the nationwide program at about $800-1,000 per person. While the report does not recommend a specific number of armed SROs per school, each should have “at least one.” If there armed personnel in the school, it will save lives, he added. Although the NRA says that it respected the independence of this task force in the course of its work, the report’s conclusions mirror those of Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s chief executive and executive vice president, who made an emotional plea for armed guards in America’s schools.”If it’s crazy to call for putting police and armed security in our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy,” LaPierre said in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press. “I think the American people think it’s crazy not to do it. It’s the one thing that would keep people safe.” “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” he added. Laura Murphy, director of the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office, said in a statement that the proposal “includes potentially radical elements, including getting the federal government in the business of supplying arms to teachers, without any evidence that doing so would make children safer.”"It is important to create a culture of trust between students and teachers, and arming teachers is the antithesis of that, especially in the 19 states where corporal punishment is still allowed in schools,” Murphy said. “We are concerned about the potential civil liberties implications this proposal could have for students, who all too often are funneled from schools into the criminal justice system. We hope the NRA addresses these concerns and that Congress will reject any proposal that militarizes our schools.” In the aftermath of Sandy Hook, President Barack Obama pledged gun control legislation would be a “central issue” of his second term. The suggested measures include an assault weapons ban, a ban on high-capacity magazines, and universal background checks for gun owners. Those measures, however, have come up against a formidable wall of opposition from Republican lawmakers, many of whom advocate strongly on behalf of the NRA. The move by the White House also sparked massive hoarding of weapons. The latest figures released by the FBI show that 2,495,440 routine background checks were performed in January of this year. That is the second-highest number since records began in 1998, and is exceeded only by the numbers for December 2012, which it hit a peak of 2,783,765. Meanwhile, amid this heated national debate, the NRA says it hasn’t yet decided on its position regarding the report’s findings.”We need time to digest the full report,” the NRA said in a statement. “We commend Asa Hutchinson for his rapid response in the aftermath of the Newtown tragedy, and we are certain the contributions he and his team have made will go a long way to making America’s schools safer.” … Read More
Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis on Fighting School Closures
Chicago Teachers Union President discusses defending Chicago’s Public Schools … Read More
More than 130 arrested during Chicago schools protest
People carried banners with slogans like ‘Strong Schools, Strong Neighborhoods’ and ‘Protect Our Children,’ calling for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s resignation.”We’re signaling that there is going to be a large and determined movement that will use the tactics of civil disobedience and direct action in order to keep these schools open,” Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey, who was among those arrested, told the Guardian. Emanuel and school chief Barbara Burd-Bennett said that schools are being closed because they are half-empty and failing academically.At a rally before the march, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis called the closings “injustices” and vowed to file lawsuits. He addressed the protesters in a speech, urging them not to give up: “On the first day of school you show up at your real school, don’t let these people take your school.”Making a stop in front of the City Hall, the protesters chanted “Save our Schools,” and called for Emanuel’s ouster. More than 100 held a sit-in protest in the middle of the street, and continued chanting until police cleared them from the area.“We need the mayor to invest in our schools, not take them away ,” a grandmother of two students said. “We need our schools for the safety of our children .”A group of Chicago ministers also went to City Hall on Wednesday to deliver a letter asking Emanuel to halt the closings. Chicago officials have claimed that the move will save the budget nearly $560 million over the next 10 years in capital costs, and an additional $43 million per year in operating costs.Nearly 30,000 students, the majority of who range from Kindergarten to 8th grade students, will be affected by the closings.Critics argue that the closings disproportionately affect minority neighborhoods and will uproot kids who need a stable and familiar learning environment. They also worry that students will have to cross gang lines to get to a new school, and that the vacated buildings will be blight on already-struggling communities.There are also concerns that hundreds of school staffers will be left jobless.Opponents of the plan will get another chance to argue their case at a series of public meetings to be scheduled for the coming weeks, though the Chicago Board of Education, whose members are all appointed by Emanuel, is expected to approve the closings in late May. The closings would take effect beginning at the start of the 2013-2014 school year. Around 100 schools in Chicago have already been closed since 2001; the overwhelming majority of students affected by those closings were black. … Read More
