TV: Faked Home Address Got Omar Out Of East Flatbush

Michael Kenneth Williams (the actor who played Omar Little on The Wire) grew up in East Flatbush but went to Westinghouse House school. 

His mom “didn’t want me going to my zone school, so she doctored the address on my form,” says Williams in this New York Magazine article (Life After 'The Wire').

Cartoon: Bart's Blackboard

"I do not have power of attorney over first graders" (Bart's Blackboard)

Kids: Second Teen 'Sexting' Suicide Story

About two weeks after she returned to school, a counselor observed cuts on Hope's legs and had her sign a "no-harm" contract, in which Hope agreed to tell an adult if she felt inclined to hurt herself, her family says. The next day, Hope hanged herself in her bedroom. She was 13.

---

Her death is the second in the nation in which a connection between sexting and teen suicide can clearly be drawn. (St. Petersburg Times)

Schools: Best (Worst) Parent Letter Ever?

Be thankful this guy doesn't have kids are your school.  Gawker posts about a completely over the top letter written by a high priced Wall Street parent to his son's private Houston high school (here).  Jocks just want to dress as cheerleaders and make fun of non-heterosexuals, I guess.

Atlantic Magazine: Nurturing "Orchid" Children

"A provocative new theory of genetics asserts that the very genes that give us the most trouble as a species, causing behaviors that are self-destructive and antisocial, also underlie humankind’s phenomenal adaptability and evolutionary success. With a bad environment and poor parenting, orchid children can end up depressed, drug-addicted, or in jail—but with the right environment and good parenting, they can grow up to be society’s most creative, successful, and happy people." (The Science of Success)

Old Book Titles: "Sometimes I Hate School"

"My daughter writes this book every weekday morning; every afternoon it unravels with stories of strange snacks and funny boys who do the boy-ey-est things."  (Three Weeks In - Sweet Juniper)

Cartoon: "Greetings, Earthling."

Cartoon: Raising The Bar For Everyone...But Parents (& Kids)

Slate

Sidwell Admissions Director Makes "Most Powerful" List

Sidwell admissions director Josh Wolman makes it onto GQ's new "most powerful in DC" list, albeit at number 50 (out of 50). 

Acceptance rate:
"14 percent."

Increase in applicants since Obama girls enrolled:
"25 percent."

Types of people who write recommendations on behalf of applicants: babysitters, Hebrew-school teachers, music instructors, Little League coaches, Clintons.

Number of teary parents he consoles:
"Oh, I can't even put a number on that."

The 50 Most Powerful People in D.C.

Public Service: "Never Send Nude Photos To Anyone."

That's the tag line for this somewhat racy new PSA, which admonishes teens to "think before you text."

  

Video: Creepy Thriller About Boarding School Life

Not that real life isn't creepy enough these days:

Via Videogum

Cartoon: Too Much Homework (Too Little Chasing Frogs)

"I'm sorry, Billy, but Johnny's got four hours of homework tomorrow, there's soccer plus...."

Video: "Principal" Colbert's Startling Lack Of Sympathy

Got a few minutes?  Rolling Stone magazine digs up some footage of Stephen Colbert playing an unsympathetic principal talking to parents about their pet-torturing son:

"It's classic Colbert how unfazed he can appear when calling a 10 year old a "selfish incorrigible monster with a heart made out of shit and splinters." (Before the Report)

Cartoon: The 21st Century Rationale For Boarding School

Caption:  I swore I wouldn't make the same mistakes with my children as my parents did with me."

CARTOON: The Modern Back To School Sale

Notebooks, rulers, pencils, backpacks, protractors, ... and Ritalin.

 Via Slate

CARTOON: Not Everything Is A "Teachable Moment"

via Slate

VIDEO: Who Needs Good Grades, Anyway?

Bill Cosby lays it all out for his son, who thinks that bad grades are all that he needs to be "regular people." Advice From Dr. Cliff Huxtable Jezebel

1984

SCHOOLS: Wraparound Services

Maybe it doesn't have to be either/or, after all.  The summer issue of the AFT's American Educator takes a look at what schools can do (and are doing) to provide or at least coordinate the provision of wraparound services for low-income students.  It also doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg, the magazine tells us, profiling efforts in Cincinnati, Corpus Christi, and New York City. 

BAD IDEAS: A Futures Market For Poor Children

This op ed by Daniel Epstein from a recent Washington Post (Using Market Forces to End Education Inequity) features what may be the single worst idea I've ever heard for addressing the diminished life opportunities that come with being born into poverty:

"What if that toddler had something to offer investors? If she could sell a percentage of her future income in exchange for a coupon to receive child care and if the government offered tax credits to investors to compensate them for the decreased social cost that they finance, investors might compete to pay for her education."

Epstein gets credit for bold and creative thinking, which I'm all for.  But maybe we could just revamp the health care system instead, or do something simple like provide low-cost high quality child care to poor parents.

NOTES: Obama Writes Excuse Note -- Again

On Thursday, President Obama wrote a note excusing 10 year old Kennedy Corpus from missing her last day of school:

This wasn't the first time Obama had pulled the note-writing stunt, however.He's done it at least once before -- in April 2008 -- and it didn't work (Excuse Note Doesn't Convince School Officials).

CAMPERS: Show Some Separation Anxiety

Ditto for parents -- you're supposed to look sad about it, too.
From last week's New Yorker.

COLBERT: Give To "Military-Serving Public Schools"

Thanks to Stephen Colbert, you can now donate to "military-serving public schools," which I think he said means schools with 50 percent or more parents in the military, organized by military branch (Army, Navy, etc.).  As usual, I admire DonorsChoose's creativity in always coming up with new schemes and angles, while at the same time I'm a little bit creeped out.  Imagine if the Stimulus bill put them in charge of giving out the education bailout money. 

PARENTING: What To Do When Parents Give Up?

There's a chilling scene in last night's PBS NewsHour segment on truancy prevention efforts in New Orleans, when cameras follow probation officers to the home of a 2nd grader who's missed a lot of school.

Standing outside the doorway, the officers and the parent talk about who's really responsible for making sure the child goes to school -- the parent or the kid. You may be surprised at just how candid that parent is about what she thinks needs to happen next.

You can watch or read the whole segment here, or see a few frames of the confrontation (with captions) below.  The parent is off camera behind the doorway.

TRENDS: What About Schools Gentrification Passes By?

There's a big public high school in the middle of downtown Park Slope, one of the most gentrified parts of Brooklyn.  Outside on the street, it's all Ugg boots and strollers and fleece and "didn't I see you down at the Inauguration?"

Inside the building, however, the kids are mostly black and brown.  They come from other, less affluent parts of the borough.  They throng in noisy teenage groups outside the school before and after class, and then go home. It's a totally different world.

This is just the most recent example I've seen of a phenomenon that defies the conventional wisdom, which is that schools necessarily all gentrify along with their neighborhoods. 

To be sure, many do.  The elementary school down the hill is filled to the brim with the children of white, college-educated parents who dominate the neighborhood.   But it seems like at least one or two schools in gentrifying neighborhoods don't get lifted up by the arrival of new parents. 

Gentrification isn't all good, to be sure, but getting left out isn't all good either.  These schools often lose neighborhood kids whose parents move away, and the funding that goes along with it. They start getting more kids from outside the neighborhood -- overflow kids with fewer neighborhood connections (and parents who can attend event and support kids).  Poverty funding goes down but it's not immediately replaced by enrichment or special program dollars.  It seems like they're in an eddy.

The point of all this is to note that neighborhood gentrification isn't monolithic, nor necessarily a bad thing.  It's certainly not a rare thing.  But very little attention seems to get paid to helping schools figure out how to deal with changes in student demographics, parent expectations, and funding streams they may experience. Making schools reinvent the wheel each time seems la shame.  Ditto for new parents who gentrify a neighborhood and sometimes have heartbreakingly frustrated experiences negotiating the neighborhood schools. 

CARTOONS: There's A Graduation For Everything These Days

From a recent New Yorker:

"But you can't miss her second-grade first- semester graduation!"

I'm loving the New Yorker Digital Reader (and the free ScreenHunter 5.0)

PARENTS: "They Tried To Teach My Baby Science"

The Core Knowledge Blog has this and more at Comic Relief.

MONEY: How Parental Fears Might Shade Views Of Roland Fryer

Thanks to Alan Gottlieb at the Schools for Tomorrow blog for tracking down the embeddable version of the Roland Fryer interview from Monday night's Colbert Report.  You can check it out here:  Colbert interviews the bribe king.

It's curious and troubling that some people are so quick to deride Fryer's ideas as "bribery" when they could just as easily be labeled as rewards, incentives, or -- !! -- allowance. 

The payments are an otherwise-unlikely graduation present, doled out in little increments over time.  They're the cell phone minutes that would usually come from a parent who buys a family plan or rewards a child for taking out the trash. 

That it, assuming that anyone really makes their kids do chores anymore. Part of me thinks that the strong reaction against Fryer's ideas is really about middle- and upper-middle-class parents' fears about having spoiled (ruined?) their own children by giving them too much.

PHELPS: ADHD, Principal Mother, Cover Of Sports Illustrated

Michael Phelps, Sports Illustrated's athlete of the year, has ADHD according to his mother, a Baltimore school principal. 

That's all I need to run these shots of the bare-chested Phelps, who was just named SI's athlete of the year, and his predecessor, Mark Spitz. 

Happy Wednesday, y'all!

PRIVATES: Why It Matters How Private Schools Are Doing

The New York Times reports that local private schools are claiming to be just fine, thank you very much -- contrary to rumors of parents pulling their kids out in droves or asking for scholarships (Private Schools Say They’re Thriving in Downturn).  The schools have had to send out letters to jittery parents and donors, however, and the Times helpfully collects and posts them online. 

You may think you don't care, but imagine what would happen if the economy really got bad enough that private school parents did actually start returning to the public system in large numbers.  For starters, there'd be a lot of upset public school parents.  The private parents would want into the best schools and programs, which are already overcrowded and competitive. Districts would struggle to serve these new, demanding families.  Ultimately, it might be for the better, but it's not something that would happen easily. 

Anyone out there seeing folks leave the privates, or giving public schools a second?  Tell us all about it.