School Survival

The headmaster of an Edinburgh school where pupils have gone back to using fountain pens said they helped to raise academic performance.The writing policy at Mary Erskine and Stewart's Melville Junior School in Edinburgh means children a young as seven are using the pens.Bryan Lewis, the school's head teacher, said the practice helped boost youngsters' […]

SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said Monday that the U.S. higher education system is the envy of the world but primary and secondary schools are failing to adequately prepare students for college.In an interview with The Associated Press, Gates said the experience of being a parent of three kids -- ages […]

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- New Zealand's high school students will be able to use "text-speak" -- the mobile phone text message language beloved of teenagers -- in national exams this year, officials said.Text-speak, a second language for thousands of teens, uses abbreviated words and phrases such as "txt" for "text", "lol" for "laughing out […]

I updated the Feedback page... had a backlog of about a year's worth of emails and guestbook entries that I needed to put up there with the rest :)[link]

A SCHOOL headmaster was branded a killjoy yesterday after he ordered pupils to stop HUGGING each other.Steven Kenning told teens to quit embracing because it made them late for lessons.He said hugging could be deemed "inappropriate" and "victims" could be hugged against their will.The barmy rule was posted on the website of Callington Community College, […]

It takes more than a lunch lady to run today's public school cafeterias. It takes a logistics expert.Take Rome's West End Elementary, where two classrooms of students charge into the lunchroom every five minutes, load their trays up with corn dogs, steak nuggets and fresh fruit and pile into cashier Lydia Galego's line.Galego, though, has […]

Politics has become a game for a group of California college students who have launched an online video game, "Fantasy Congress," in the lead-up to next month's U.S. congressional elections.The game, officially launched on Monday, is a new spin on the popular online fantasy sports games where players chose a team of real-life players and […]

For the first time in a generation, public schools have won broad freedom to teach boys and girls separately, stirring a new debate about equality in the classroom.The Education Department on Tuesday announced rules that will make it easier to create single-sex classes or schools, a plan that's been expected for almost three years.The move […]

A high school principal received a six-day suspension and a letter of reprimand for giving one of his students a wedgie.Eric Messerli pulled a Park High School senior's soccer jersey over his head and yanked upward on the waistband of the boy's underwear at a soccer game October 5. Other school officials said he was […]

A suburban Fort Worth, Texas, school district has halted a program teaching students to attack a gunman if he invades a classroom, administrators said Wednesday.The district will continue to train students in how to respond to life-threatening situations but no longer will show them how to take down an attacker, spokesman Richard Crummel said.Robin Browne, […]