Time “Criminalizing Home Schoolers”

The following Time article sheds light on the recent Second District Court of Appeals in Los Angeles ruling. In part, the article states:

“Parents of the approximately 200,000 home-schooled children in California are reeling from the possibility that they may have to shutter their classrooms — and go back to school themselves — if they want to continue teaching their own kids. On Feb. 28, Judge H. Walter Croskey of the Second District Court of Appeals in Los Angeles ruled that children ages six to 18 may be taught only by credentialed teachers in public or private schools — or at home by Mom and Dad, but only if they have a teaching degree. Citing state law that goes back to the early 1950s, Croskey declared that “California courts have held that under provisions in the Education Code, parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children.” Furthermore, the judge wrote, if instructors teach without credentials they will be subject to criminal action.”

NPHS Musical “South Pacific”

North Platte High School students’ hard work and practice is paying off as they perform their musical “South Pacific.” The amazing cast has been working since December to share a wonderful performance of the Rogers and Hammerstein classic. One of the great cast members is my own Hannah Hokanson!!!

The musical is directed by Leah Purdy and performances are March 7th and 8th at 7:30 p.m. and March 9th at 2:00 p.m. in the North Platte High School Performing Arts Center. Read the following newspaper article for more information: “High School prepares South Pacific“

“One” by Nigel Pickard

It has been a bit but my cousin Nigel Pickard published his first novel titled One. This is not a shameless plug, and I have not been asked to publicize his book at all!

“One is the story of Sol and Kate Roberts, and their struggle to come to terms with their son’s autism. A love story, a coming-of-age novel and an exploration of the austic condition, this is a moving, thought-provoking and sometimes very funny debut novel.” I invite you to get a copy as it is excellent reading.

The Simple Truths of Service Movie…

Click the following link to watch the inspirational “The Simple Truths of Service Movie“

$125,000 Teacher Salary…

The New York Times:  “At Charter School, Higher Teacher Pay”

“A New York City charter school set to open in 2009 in Washington Heights will test one of the most fundamental questions in education: Whether significantly higher pay for teachers is the key to improving schools.

The school, which will run from fifth to eighth grades, is promising to pay teachers $125,000, plus a potential bonus based on schoolwide performance. That is nearly twice as much as the average New York City public school teacher earns, roughly two and a half times the national average teacher salary and higher than the base salary of all but the most senior teachers in the most generous districts nationwide.”

A Foldable Car!?!

Scientists at MIT have devised a foldable car! This Yahoo! article from Reuters states: “Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have devised just such a vehicle, a futuristic “City Car” that could even drive itself. Once at your destination, the vehicle’s computers would, at the press of a button, look for a parking spot behind others like itself, then fold roughly in half so you could stack it there as you would a shopping cart.”

The article goes on to say: “The vehicle hasn’t yet been built. But a miniature mock-up version has gone on display at a campus museum, and there are plans to build a full-scale model this spring. The dozen or so engineers and architects on Mitchell’s team are confident their computer-generated work is on target. They feel their golf cart-sized vehicle could provide a novel solution to the chronic traffic congestion afflicting cities across the United States, Europe and Asia — not to mention pollution and energy use, since it would run on a rechargeable battery, the researchers say. On the drawing board, their two-seater is roughly half the size of a typical compact automobile and a little smaller than the Smart car made by Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz.” Amazing!!!

Storage

As technology marches on the industry continues to push the limits of storage. The following articles introduce the TeraDisk a CD/DVD that can hold 1 terabytes of data and the Holographic Versatile Disc that can hold 3.9 terabytes!!! Amazing!