I Speak of Dreams

CEDU Closing: Pete Talbott's Background

TeleSpectrum Worldwide Inc. in 2000 named Pete Talbott Chairman of the Board.  It is privately held so I am guessing that MCD had a position in TSW.

Boyish horseplay or Sexual Abuse?

When does "boyish horseplay" become sexual abuse?  When does hazing go too far?  What are the obligations of private school leaders -- faculty, administration,  board-- to children who say,  "you say hazing, I say abuse" ?

I don't have any answers, I just have questions.

Sarpy Sam Wins Cat Blogging Forever

The Montana Rancher's cat Biscuit retires the Cat Blogging Prize forever.

Independent School Governance

Why did CEDU close abruptly?  Why are so many of the therapeutic schools for-profit?  Why does the

How are for-profit schools different than not-for-profit schools?  Could a not-for-profit organization handled things differently?    What's the difference between an independent school and a proprietary school?

Changing A Culture

There's a tacit agreement in Blaine County  between kids, parents, and cops:  we'll just sort of look the other way about underage drinking.   The package stores contribute to the problem.

Right now it could be seen as an invisible sign at the entrance to our Valley that says: Underage drinking is OK here – just don’t get caught and “soft drug” use will be winked at.

Popular Culture and....

My daughter goes to a school where values are explicitly taught and modelled -- I am happier and happier we chose The Priory. 

This last week, I've heard about:

• a party that some high-school freshmen (from another independent school)  left en masse because no beer was available;
• a fracas over fifth grade graduation: one mother was incensed because her daughter's dress was "stolen" -- another girl was going to wear the identical dress;
• parents withdrawing a child from school because the child was caught cheating (the withdrawal was in protest of the school's policy and the parents are threatening litigation because the punishment threatens the child's admission to a competitive college).

The Anchoress overheard this:

The message that is being put out there, and consumed, continually, is that a girl’s value and self-worth is completely tied into how sexual and forward she is. And their moms, are - unfortunately - falling down on the job, or not thinking, themselves. I heard a few mothers talking, recently, about the sorts of clothes available to young girls. One mother thought they were trampy - the other mother (of an 8 year old!) said, “my daughter has a great little body, why shouldn’t she show it off?”

Because she's eight, you idiot. Because she has a right to a childhood.  Because you want her to value her mind.  Because you want her to have the right to have boundaries.

The latest CSI -Miami had an otherwise admirable character "toothing" (textmessage cruising) and "hooking up" with a woman he didn't even know, for an open-air  knee-trembler. 

David Brooks seems to think you can present as a constantly-ready-for-sex vixen and still have inner purity....I'm saying he has never been an adolescent girl. 

And now there's this:

College Is Not For Everyone

I spent time over the weekend with a friend who works for a California community college.  Her take is that today's high school graduates--the ones who go on to community colleges  have the skill set that entering high school freshmen had in 1974.    The second part is that it is fundamental skills -- reading and math -- that are the problem.

There are lots of different answers, but Ronda Wilensky says, forget making everyone college-capable.  One size has never fit all:

Let us revamp high school ... so that a diploma means all students are truly ready for the postsecondary technical training and education that the majority of jobs demand.

Zero Tolerance Consequences

One consequence: what to do with expelled high school kids? Blaine County, Idaho,  has one idea.

E-911 in Blaine County

In 2003  there was some infighting... over getting e911 established.  A problem (perhaps unique to Blaine County)  is that development has happened faster than emergency responders can keep track of.

Andrew Kroon, 24, Natural Causes

[added 09/02/05]

Kroon's '05 death found to be natural

The Connecticut chief medical examiner's office has determined that Berkeley senior Andrew Kroon's death last spring was caused by cardiomegaly, an enlarged heart, said Lorraine Siggins, the chief psychiatrist at University Health Services.

[added 05/20/05] My deepest condolences to his friends and family. 

From the reporting on Kroon's memorial service:

"Even if he didn't have a smile on his face, he was always putting a smile on someone else's face," Ghoshal said. "That's the best way to remember him. He had a way of putting everyone else at ease."

But friends and acquaintances said finding a single adjective for Kroon is impossible. Few who met Kroon ever forgot him.