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Archive for the 'Schools' Category
The Banning of Tag
Hard to believe growing up without playing tag. Seem to remember spending lots of time running around chasing my friends (and no one ever got hurt). If they keep cutting back on ways to for kids to have fun and get some exercise, the childhood obesity problem may get even worse.
ATTLEBORO, Mass. - Tag, you’re out! Officials at an elementary school south of Boston have banned kids from playing tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chase game during recess for fear they’ll get hurt and hold the school liable.
Recess is “a time when accidents can happen,” said Willett Elementary School Principal Gaylene Heppe, who approved the ban.
While there is no districtwide ban on contact sports during recess, local rules have been cropping up. Several school administrators around Attleboro, a city of about 45,000 residents, took aim at dodgeball a few years ago, saying it was exclusionary and dangerous.
Afordable Tutoring
Hmmm.. I’m really stumped on this one. I have to admit I was surprised to see parents hiring tutors in India. But then again, as the below article states, these kids are doing amazingly well in school, as oppposed to American’s.
Yes, it is hard to see more jobs go overseas, but in this case I almost see how the benefits outweigh this. How many parents can actually afford $40- $100 an hour to help their kids learn? I get a panic attack everytime I think about my daughter (now 14 months) asking me to help her with her homework! Sure, the first years should be a snap, but Algebra, Physics - SCARY!
Maybe something like this will help motivate American schools, teachers and others to work wtih kids at a bit of a “discounted” rate for the families who really need the help. Otherwise, I don’t see how the rest of us can keep up.
U.S. homework outsourced as “e-tutoring” grows
By Jason Szep Thu Sep 28, 10:43 AM ET
BOSTON (Reuters) - Private tutors are a luxury many American families cannot afford, costing anywhere between $25 to $100 an hour. But California mother Denise Robison found one online for $2.50 an hour — in India.
“It’s made the biggest difference. My daughter is literally at the top of every single one of her classes and she has never done that before,” said Robison, a single mother from Modesto.
Her 13-year-old daughter, Taylor, is one of 1,100 Americans enrolled in Bangalore-based TutorVista, which launched U.S. services last November with a staff of 150 “e-tutors” mostly in India with a fee of $100 a month for unlimited hours.
Taylor took two-hour sessions each day for five days a week in math and English — a cost that tallies to $2.50 an hour, a fraction of the $40 an hour charged by U.S.-based online tutors such as market leader Tutor.com that draw on North American teachers, or the usual $100 an hour for face-to-face sessions.