Should Schools Limit Internet Access?

By Tracy Brickman, Intern, Fall 2011

The debate over banning certain books, and even films, from being taught in schools is nothing new to the world of education. Recently, however, a new debate has been thrown into the mix—should schools, namely those at the high school level and below, have the power to ban (block) certain websites from being used within their walls? This year the American Association of School Librarians organized their first ever Banned Websites Awareness Day, an offshoot of the American Library Association’s annual Banned Books Week, to confront just that issue.

As more and more schools across the country embrace online technologies, both students and parent/teacher leaders, such as those at Silver Creek High School in Longmont, CO, have begun to weigh the pros and cons of limited Internet access at school. Recently, students at Silver Creek High held a graffiti debate (wherein they wrote their thoughts on sheets of paper and then hung the paper on a wall in their library) on the issue and came up with some great arguments both for and against website blocking that provide us with some food for thought.

It’s no surprise that many students, and teachers too, are against blocking access to certain websites. One of the biggest gripes that students and school librarians have against website blocks are the difficulty they often pose to conducting research, especially on controversial issues such as weapons or drugs. Many argue that social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, do in fact have the potential to provide learning opportunities. Educators often share valuable resources and learning tools through personal blogs or in YouTube videos, and some form groups within Facebook to help their students easily share information.

Despite the many benefits afforded by using the Internet as a research and study tool, it does pose a number of threats that need to be closely considered and students and teachers alike recognize this fact. Blocking sites with unfavorable content insulates students from information that could be deemed unsuitable and some argue that students already spend enough time online while at home and should spend time at the library while school is in session.

No matter which way the debate goes, this issue could provide a valuable dialog between students, teachers, parents and caregivers. It offers a platform to teach students how to use the Internet safely and smartly and hopefully encourages a dialogue about censorship and freedom of speech, which is something that all parties can benefit from.

Senior Citizens and Musical Training

By Jorge Cortes, Intern, Fall 2011

People tend to think about a child’s development as something that can be improved in the relative short term. If something happens to a child at age 5, it can certainly affect them when they’re 25. But what about when they’re 65, 75 and 85? Can early benefits or hindrances affect someone late into his or her 80s? The American Psychological Association (APA) says yes.

Recently, the APA performed the first-ever study on the benefits of musical training during childhood on the cognitive abilities of 70 healthy adults ages 60 to 83. The participants were divided into three groups: those who never had any musical training, those who had one to nine years of musical training and those who had had more than ten years of musical training. The results showed that it did not matter if the subjects currently played their musical instruments or not; as long as the participant started playing an instrument around the age of 10, when a child’s brain is still developing. If the participant had done this, they are shown to have increased cognitive abilities. And not surprisingly, the longer they trained, the better the results.

What’s interesting is that this is the first study of its kind. In a time where diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia are heightened and in the public eye, it makes me wonder if more researchers should be looking into cognitive studies like this one.

Should We Teach Through Film?

By Kaitlin Loss, Editorial Assistant

During my senior year of high school, I took a one-semester required class on United States government. I knew from the first day that it was going to be an easy class; after all, I had spent most of the last 11 years of my education learning how the U.S. government worked. After the first week, I determined that my eleven-year-old sister could probably do the homework. What I wasn’t planning on was that we spent much of the semester with the TV turned on. No, we weren’t watching CNN or C-SPAN or even FoxNews.

My U.S. Government teacher was a big fan of the documentary series 30 Days. Sure, some of the episodes were relevant—like the one where the man who spent his days standing at an intersection holding up signs that protested gay rights was sent to San Francisco to live with a homosexual couple. But then there was the episode in which a Wall Street worker had to live in a self-sustaining compound. Oh, and not to mention the three class periods solely devoted to the Chris Rock movie Head of State.

Fortunately, this was a rarity in my education. I had many teachers who used films as ancillary materials in order to more effectively get students to understand concepts or events. My English class followed up the novel To Kill a Mockingbird with the amazing Gregory Peck film. My Global History teacher underscored a lesson on immigration in the early twentieth century with Far and Away.

It’s always an exciting day when you walk into a classroom and see the TV in the front of the room, plugged in and ready to go. Sometimes, it’s genuinely difficult to understand a concept without some sort of context. Movies help provide that context. Movies create characters and situations that students can latch on to and relate back to the concepts from their textbooks.

While I don’t believe that movies should be used as a substitution for textbooks and lesson plans, they can definitely be helpful in focusing students’ attention and helping them see the bigger picture of what they’re learning. Names and dates and vocabulary words can often pass by in a blur. But a good movie sometimes stays with us for a long time. If a personal story can help drive home a point that a textbook could only skim the surface of, then why shouldn’t teachers use them as ancillary materials?

While I can’t tell you anything new I learned in my U.S. Government class (except for the fact that I will never again watch Head of State), I can still remember the movies I watched in other classes that helped underscore what my teacher couldn’t always say. Sometimes, the silence after the teacher turned off The Diary of Anne Frank was enough.

Involving Parents in Students' Education

By Jorge Cortes, Intern, Fall 2011

A lot of parents are very busy. Sometimes they’re too busy to really be involved in their children’s education. I’m pretty sure my dad has only met about a handful of my high school teachers and only remembers the ones I constantly complained about. And he just has one job. What about the parents that work two or three jobs to support their family? How can they get involved in their children’s education when it’s hard just to spend time with them at home? One school decided to bring the teachers to the homes.

The Urban Assembly School for Applied Math and Science (A.M.S.) has a program where they visit future students at their homes in South Bronx a month before classes start in the fall. A group of about 3 or 4 teachers set up appointments with their future students. They bring the students their uniforms so that the students can practice putting them on and feel pride at being part of A.M.S.—what it represents and where wearing the uniform will lead them. They also answer any questions that the parents may have. “Is it safe to walk from the school to the bus stop after dark?” one mother asked. Other parents echo the question, along with some others: "Is there an after-school program?" (Yes, until 4:30 p.m.) "Does the school serve breakfast?" (Yes, at 7:50 a.m.) "Is there a football team?" (No, but there is soccer). And they have the students sign a learning agreement as a sign of their commitment to the school and their education. They also require future students to read part of the agreement out loud in their homes to their parents and future teachers:

I will be respectful to everyone.

I will ask for help when I need it and offer help to others.

I will wear our school uniform every day.

If they don’t find the family right away, they keep trying to locate them. I can’t think of many schools that “hunt” down families for appointments about their child’s education. It speaks to a type of dedication that you don’t generally see these days. And the teachers actually keep the parents updated throughout the year! They schedule more appointments throughout the year with the parents to discuss the student’s progress. Principal Ken Baum believes it’s critical for families to be involved in education. To Mr. Baum, these early visits are a key factor in a statistic he likes to cite: 63 of the 72 seniors in A.M.S.’s first graduating class last spring received Regents diplomas, and 50 of them are headed to four-year colleges, including Cornell, Boston University, Mount Holyoke, and campuses all across the State University of New York system. The parents themselves are ecstatic about the visits. One mom kept saying, “No one has ever done that to us before.”

More Money, Less Energy

By Rachel Amico, Fall 2011 Intern

When I was in high school, I remember the lights being on all the time, never shutting down the computers, and enduring sweltering temperatures through the whole winter. While this allowed my school to be bright, active, and warm, energy expenditure made up a large portion of the school’s budget.

But recently, according to the New York Times, schools are beginning to see the light—figuratively that is. With the growing momentum of “green” movements, schools are attempting to minimize their energy consumption through creative and efficient means. Turning lights off in unused classrooms, shutting off rooftop exhaust valves, evaluating the energy used in swimming pools and cafeteria ovens, replacing old fixtures with energy saving models, using solar panels, and—in the case of Mount Sinai School District on Long Island, NY—appointing an “Official Energy Manager” to police the halls of the schools, are all methods working wonders for the budget and the environment.

The appointing of an Energy Manager has reduced Mount Sinai’s utility costs by 30% since 2007, and simply keeping an eye on expenditure in New Jersey’s Holmdel Township has cut gas and electric by about half since 2009, saving $1 million annually. In addition to cutting costs, the benefits to the environment are equally impressive. The Holmdel Township schools use 3.5 million fewer kilowatts of power, and 240,000 less therms of heat annually.

Recognizing the benefits these practices create for schools, the Bloomberg administration in New York City created a month-long competition in which the schools that voluntarily decreased energy usage were awarded $100,000.

By being more energy-conscious, large schools can save, and occasionally earn, money to be better spent on improving class materials and quality of education for students while also helping reduce the energy consumption that affects global warming. Because schools are comprised of large buildings that foster hundreds of people at a time, their positive impact—especially when united—can be great.

If more schools around the country (and other large establishments) begin to monitor their energy following the examples of Mount Sinai and Holmdel Township, everyone—including students, administrators, and our ever-so-fragile atmosphere—will benefit immensely.

If you’re passionate about the environment and want to try “greening up” your school or school district, check out The Green Schools Alliance. The organization provides a “toolkit” of ideas and suggestions on how to improve energy conservation, while also hosting competitions and events for schools across the country to participate in.

Recess for Everyone!

By Tracy Brickman, Fall 2011 Intern

I may no longer be able to recite the Gettysburg Address from memory and I doubt I still remember the finer details of Lewis and Clark’s great expedition, but one important lesson I do remember from my elementary school days is the proper strategy for picking team members for a game of Red Rover. And I bet I’m not the only one! Recess was an important part of my school day not only because I got to spend time having fun with my friends, but also because it allowed me to get outside and, though I was unaware of it at the time, experience the many benefits of physical activity. For that very reason, today some Chicago public schools, starting at the preschool level, are working towards re-introducing recess into their school day.

Over a decade ago, Chicago public schools removed recess from their day, in favor of a 20-minute lunch period for students and lunch at the end of the day for teachers. Now, however, along with the Chicago Department of Public Health’s push to have students spend less time in front of a screen and more time being active, parents and advocacy groups are working to include a 90-minute recess period in students’ days. Starting in November, only 60 minutes or less out of the school day can be spent on computers or watching TV, while at least 60 minutes will be spent in physical activity.

At the moment, this push for a longer recess period is only occurring at the preschool level. However, the hope is that encouraging children to be active early on will have a positive impact later in students’ lives. Like so many other areas across the country, Chicago is a city riddled with childhood obesity and obesity-related diseases, and parents and teachers alike hope that measures taken now will help reinforce and promote healthy lifestyle choices. In addition to lengthening recess, many schools will not serve milk that has more than a 1% fat content and will only serve 100% juice. 

Although not every school or district may be too keen on the idea of taking away from active learning time, this incentive is something that schools should seriously consider. In light of the obesity epidemic troubling Americans of all ages, schools need to start teaching healthy lifestyle choices to their students, and promoting more physical activity during recess is a great place to start. Not only will students get moving, reducing the risk of conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol, but also they’ll have fun and expand upon their social skills in doing so.

Bestselling, Brand-Name Authors

By Kaitlin Loss, Editorial Assistant

My mother loves to read Nora Roberts and Danielle Steel novels. They’re all pretty much the same in terms of plot and I’m not entirely sure how she keeps track of which ones she’s read as opposed to which ones she hasn’t. But every time I’m with her in a bookstore, she always picks up the latest one and scans the jacket before claiming that it sounds good.

Authors such as Roberts and Steel—not to mention bestseller list mainstays like Stephen King and James Patterson—have made a pretty good living churning out books that sell millions of copies, almost despite what their content matter is. People flock to booksellers to pick up the latest novel by their favorite author often before they even know what the book is about.

And it’s not just contemporary adult authors either. I’ll be the first to admit that I’d read anything J.K. Rowling writes, even if it was on a subject I wasn’t terribly interested in. She, like King, Patterson, Steel, and others, has become more of a brand than a writer. She will sell books solely because of her name.

Sure, these authors are brands for a reason: people enjoy their work enough to keep coming back for more. And while this is true in other forms of entertainment, it seems to be more pronounced with books. The New York Times bestsellers list often looks the same from week to week, with the same names always appearing, even with different titles attached. Readers find an author—or brand—that they like, and they stick with him or her no matter what, the same way people have their favorite brand of shampoo or coffee.

Just like the movie industry needs big-name stars for their feature films, the publishing industry needs these brand-name authors for their bestselling books. After all, how are we supposed to have the great debate over who will be the next J.K. Rowling if there is no J.K. Rowling in the first place?

Writing From Beyond the Grave

By Jorge Cortes, Publishing Intern

Have you ever wondered if you continued to read Harry Potter because it was a novel written by J.K. Rowling or because it was a Harry Potter novel? What if she had been forced to stop writing while the series was still ongoing and gave her blessing to another author to continue her work? Would you still read it?

While that didn’t happen to Rowling, for other authors the answer has been a resounding “yes.” There has been a trend developing in which new authors, known as continuators, take over an ongoing series when the original author dies or becomes otherwise unable to continue writing. And while some critics are against the idea, it appears that most fans continue to buy the books. For example, The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan is a very popular fantasy series with a very devoted fan base. When Jordan passed away in 2007—as he was writing the final book of the series—it seemed as if it would be left incomplete.

Enter Brandon Sanderson. A longtime fan of the series and fellow author, Sanderson was asked by Jordan’s widow, Harriet McDougal, to finish what her late husband started. And what Jordan intended to be the final book ended up becoming three. And how did Jordan’s devoted fans react? The last six books in the series have all reached the number one spot on the New York Times bestsellers list. Two of those books are considered to have been cowritten by Sanderson and Jordan.

Obviously not all continuators are so successful. Many of them have a difficult time trying to respect the author’s wishes and adapt the characters to be their own. Despite these potential struggles, it seems as though different authors are continuing more series. Ian Fleming’s James Bond is set to appear in a new novel this year called Carte Blanche. Jeffery Deaver will become the second American to act as a continuator for the series. And perhaps one of the most famous continuators, Eric Van Lustbader, continues his work on Robert Ludlum’s Bourne series with the July release of The Bourne Dominion.

And we may be seeing more of this trend in the future. Stieg Larsson, author of the bestselling Millenium trilogy, left behind an almost-completed rough draft for a fourth book—and maybe even enough material for a fifth or sixth—when he died in 2004. His life partner may own the computer files that contain the partial manuscript, but it’s anyone’s guess if Lisbeth Salander will appear in a new book and continue to live on alongside James Bond and Jason Bourne.