School Survival

I have always kicked butt in school. Without even trying. I kicked butt because on the first day of kindergarten someone told me that if I could do well here, if I could slay this dragon we call “formal education”, my reward would be success and happiness for all the days of my life.

(June 29) - A Swedish couple's decision to keep their toddler's gender a secret is stirring debate, especially now that the parents are expecting a second child. "Pop" is 2 ½ years old, but so far only those who change the child's diapers know whether the youngster is a boy or a girl, TheLocal.se, an […]

By: dreamer... In my attempts to motivate myself to do schoolwork, I've been trying to bribe myself-promising that if I get good grades, I can buy certain things for myself. But I've realized it's a faulty idea. Say, for example, I can buy myself a new video game if I get a B in math […]

What's a kid gotta do to get an "F" these days?At a growing number of middle schools and high schools across the country, students no longer receive failing marks when they fail. Instead, they get an "H" - for "held" - on their report cards, and they're given a chance to rectify their poor performance […]

The raising of the school leaving age to 15 over 50 years ago could go some way to reducing dementia rates in the elderly, a study has suggested.A Cambridge University team compared the mental abilities of elderly people, and found those born after the change fared better.They say that further changes to the school leaving […]

Savana Redding still remembers the clothes she had on - black stretch pants with butterfly patches and a pink T-shirt - the day school officials here forced her to strip six years ago. She was 13 and in eighth grade.An assistant principal, enforcing the school's antidrug policies, suspected her of having brought prescription-strength ibuprofen pills […]

A Schoolteacher's Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling: John Taylor Gatto's Weapons of Mass Instruction focuses on mechanisms of familiar schooling that cripple imagination, discourage critical thinking, and create a false view of learning as a by-product of rote-memorization drills. Gatto's earlier book, Dumbing Us Down, put that now-famous expression of the title […]

by Kirby I'm sure most students have been bored at school or dreaded the thought of going, but most have not seriously considered whether or not it is necessary. This makes it hard for us to explain to them the uselessness of school because people have mental inertia for things they don't question. It takes […]

Bullies may actually enjoy the pain they cause others, a new study using brain scans suggests.The part of the brain associated with reward lights up when an aggressive teen watches a video of someone hurting another person, but not when a non-aggressive youth watches the same clip, according to the University of Chicago study, published […]

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word "teenager"? For many, it is not positive.Teenage rebellion has become commonplace, and our culture has responded by expecting less and less of teenagers. But is teenage rebellion inevitable, or are there new ways of thinking that could address the problem? Responsibility for […]