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Reverse Selfie: Social Media's Impact on Girls' Self-Esteem | Dove

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Erik Trautmann / Hearst Connecticut Media

HARTFORD - An old issue - to have later school start times across the state studied by the Department of Education - was the subject of a public hearing Friday.

Supporting the establishment of a working group to study issues relating to school start times, specifically to allow middle-and-high school students more sleep time received backing at the hearing.

"We are one of only four states that have an average school start time before 7:45 a.m.," Marty Isaac told the Education Committee.

Isaac, who sits on the Board of Finance in Trumbull, said it was too late for his children, but not for others.

"My presence here today is to not advocate for my children - it's too late for them. So why am I here? I'm here today because the data is so abundantly clear regarding start times - that we are harming children by starting school so early," Isaac said.

Connecticut has some of the earliest school start times in the country, according to a recent report.

Isaac credited Rep. David Rutigliano, R-Trumbull, for proposing a bill to establish a working group to look at best practices.

"After listening to the science, it is quite clear, our students would benefit with later start times," Rutigliano said.

Isaac said it's a health issue.

"I was in this room in October of last year when Dr. Maria La Russo spoke to this committee in detail about the impact of school start times on adolescent mental health. She is not alone. The AMA, the CDC, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Pediatricians have all issued statements stating middle and high schools should not start before 8:30 a.m."

Isaac added that the issue is urgent.

"The question should be how we should make this happen - not if we can make this happen," he said. "Recognize that a partial movement to say 8 a.m. is not acceptable. That is akin to finding exposed asbestos in a school and removing only a portion of it. Yes, the situation would be better than before the remediation - but would not be deemed an acceptable solution."

Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona was sympathetic but warned of the unintended consequences.

"We are also aware of the growing evidence from a variety of studies regarding the impact of student learning when it comes to start times," Cardona said. "However, there are larger implications that must be taken into consideration outside of the scope of work that is outlined in this bill."

Teacher contracts and bus schedules could be impacted by switching school start times, Cardona said.

"Traffic patterns and volume throughout the day would also need to be taken into consideration for timing purposes. We do not believe there could ever be a one size fits all solution to the issue of schools start times for the entire state," Cardona said. "What works in one area, will invariably not work in another. We are also concerned about the impact this will have on staff time and resources within the Department, which are already stretched."

Cardona said as always, his department would be very willing to meet with the chairs, or the proponents of the bill.

The issue of school start times has continued to be one that bubbles to the top as an issue in many Connecticut towns. In recent years the town of Guilford has joined a small group of Connecticut towns that have moved their school start times later to allow kids more sleep.

While multiple studies have shown that starting school later is a good idea to allow students more sleep the issue, in the words of Guilford Board of Education Chairman William Bloss, "is the most difficult issue I've faced in my years on the school board."

Bloss said the time change impacts after-school employment for high school students, child care, sports, other after-school activities such as arts or music, and participation in programs at magnet schools.

Over a decade ago, the town of Wilton switched start times at its middle and high schools from 7:35 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. for students in grades 6 to 12. Elementary school students in Wilton switched to the earliest time start slot - 7:35 a.m.

And in the 2017-18 school year Greenwich went to later start times for high school and middle school students after a lengthy study of the issue.

Besides those two and Guilford, school officials in Bridgeport, Cheshire, Ridgefield, Westport, and West Hartford, among others, have held various levels of discussion about starting later.

While the high school start time in Guilford has moved to 7:40 a.m., the hope by proponents was, and still is, to move it even later, targeting 7:55 a.m. as an eventual goal.

One of the biggest advocates in Guilford for later school start times was Dr. Craig Canapari, a parent and director of the Yale Pediatric Sleep Center.

In his practice, he treats teens whose biggest problem is a lack of sleep, Canapari said, which can lead to anxiety, depression, poor impulse control, emotional problems, and decreased motivation.

Canapari said sleep deprivation increases the likelihood of car accidents, which is the biggest cause of death for teens.

The National Sleep Foundation found that research shows the natural tendency for teenagers is to stay up late at night and wake up later in the morning. This research indicates that school bells that ring as early as 7 a.m. in many parts of the country stand in stark contrast with adolescents' sleep patterns and needs.

Evidence suggests that teenagers are indeed seriously sleep deprived. A recent poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation found that 60 percent of children under the age of 18 complained of being tired during the day, according to their parents, and 15 percent said they fell asleep at school during the year.

Local school officials believe changing school start times might be easier accomplished if the state took the lead.

As the mother of three, and as a former school board member, state Sen. Christine Cohen, D-Guilford, knows a thing or two about sleep-deprived students.

"As a former Board of Education member in Guilford, and as the mother of three school-aged children, I can tell you from firsthand experience that, yes, kids need their sleep if they are to perform well in school and if they are to maintain some sort of emotional and behavioral equilibrium throughout the day," Cohen said. "I served on the Guilford Board of Education's School Start Times Task Force. The science is there. The biology of adolescent sleep is well-known. Now all we need to do as a society is to recognize the benefit of later school start times and act on it. Change is always difficult, but our priorities must rest with the mental health and well-being of our youth."

HB 5217 directs the Commissioner of Education to establish a working group to study issues relating to school start times, including: the effect of the start time of school instruction on child growth and development; whether there is a correlation between school start times and educational outcomes and student productivity; the feasibility of implementing a uniform school start time in Connecticut; and whether any other states have implemented a mandatory school start time requirement.

The working group must include members who represent school boards, superintendents, teachers, administrators, and the parents of students. Its report would be due by Jan. 1, 2021.

Cohen said it's important that any later school start time be implemented state-wide in order to standardize school bus transportation routes, dining hours, athletic practices and games, after-school clubs and activities, after-school jobs, and homework schedules.

The Education Committee has until March 23 to vote on the bill.

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CT lawmakers push for later school start times

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HARTFORD - An old issue - to have later school start times across the state studied by the Department of Education - was the subject of a public hearing Friday. Supporting the establishment of a working group to study issues relating to school start times, specifically to allow middle-and-high school students more sleep time received backing at the hearing.

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In the United States, the average This time varies, though, depending on the state. Except for eight outlying states, each state's average start time is between 7:45 a.m. and 8:15 a.m.

Other start time factors include the location of the school district and the school type. For example, 54% of high schools in the suburbs start before 8:00 a.m. By contrast, over half of charter high schools start after 8:00 a.m., and high schools with fewer than 200 students begin around 8:15 a.m on average. (This study did not include data on private schools.)

Data on average middle school start times is less recent and does not include public charter or private schools. When assessed by the CDC for the 2011-2012 school year, the average start time at This is slightly later than high schools. The middle school start times varied widely, too, depending on the state. This study also noted the start time for combined middle and high schools; the average was 8:08 a.m.

Both the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that both middle and high schools begin Both organizations want to ensure students get adequate sleep so that they are alert and prepared to learn at school.

Biology plays a large factor in the sleep cycles of children and adolescents. Around the beginning of puberty, most adolescents experience later sleep onset and wake times, also called "phase delay". This phase delay can shift the body's internal clock back by up to two hours. As a result, the average teenager cannot fall asleep until 11:00 p.m. and would do best waking up at 8:00 a.m. or even later.

A later school start time helps accommodate this biological need. Overall care for sleep hygiene, such as having a good night's sleep and following back-to-school sleep tips, can also help adolescents regulate their sleep.

Other factors that affect student sleep are . American middle and high school students often take on various extracurricular activities - such as sports, clubs, and jobs - which often extend into the evening hours. High school students also have more homework, late-night technology use, and fewer parent-set bedtimes, all of which may cause students to stay up later than is appropriate for getting adequate sleep.

Countless studies have shown that early school start times are associated with students getting less sleep, which negatively affects student academic performance. Students with less sleep have difficulty paying attention in class and are likely to have lower grades. They may also experience irritability and fatigue.

Other concerns with early school start times and the resulting insufficient sleep include:

Increased likelihood for participating in risk-taking behaviors, such as bullying and fighting.

Greater chance of unhealthy behaviors including alcohol and drug use and tobacco smoking.

National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. Higher risk of athletic injury View Source .

An increase of depressive symptoms including suicidal ideation.

Increased risk of motor vehicle accidents.

A lack of sleep also has long-term physical and mental health consequences. Poor quantity and quality of sleep can lead to health concerns such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity.

Later school start times support the biological needs of adolescents; they increase the amount of sleep adolescents get. Other benefits of later start times include:

Improved attendance at school.

Decreased tardiness.

American Psychological Association (APA) APA is the leading scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States, with more than 121,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students as its members. Better student grades View Source .

Fewer occurrences of falling asleep in class.

Reduced irritability and depressive symptoms.

Fewer disciplinary issues.

16.5% decrease in the teenage crash rate National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information The National Center for Biotechnology Information advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information. A decline of motor vehicle crashes. One study showed a View Source after the school start time was pushed back one hour.

Disadvantages of Later School Start Times

While there are numerous benefits of later school start times, there are a few possible negative outcomes:

Scheduling conflicts. These may arise for athletic and academic competitions against schools with earlier start times and therefore an earlier dismissal.

Transportation challenges. Later start times will likely mean more busses on the road later in the day; this could create more traffic and increase travel delays.

Childcare. Some families rely on older students to care for younger siblings after school; this may be more difficult if high schools dismiss later than elementary or middle schools.

However, these problems can likely be solved with flexibility and thoughtful planning.

If you are concerned about a too-early start time for your child's school, consider contacting your school board or other educational leaders to discuss delaying school start time.

Learn more about our Editorial Team

References

1. Consensus Conference Panel, Watson, N. F., Badr, M. S., Belenky, G., Bliwise, D. L., Buxton, O. M., Buysse, D., Dinges, D. F., Gangwisch, J., Grandner, M. A., Kushida, C., Malhotra, R. K., Martin, J. L., Patel, S. R., Quan, S. F., Tasali, E., Non-Participating Observers, Twery, M., Croft, J. B., Maher, E., ... Heald, J. L. (2015). Recommended amount of sleep for a healthy adult: A joint consensus statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 11(6), 591-592.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25979105/

2. Wheaton, A. G., Jones, S. E., Cooper, A. C., Croft, J. B. (2018). Short sleep duration among middle school and high school students - United States, 2015. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 67, 85-90.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6703a1.htm?s_cid=mm6703a1_w

3. Sawyer, H., Taie, S., & Westat. (2020, February). Start Time for U.S. Public High Schools. The Institute of Education Sciences.
https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2020/2020006/index.asp

4. Wheaton AG, Ferro GA, Croft JB. School Start Times for Middle School and High School Students - United States, 2011-12 School Year. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2015;64(30);809-813.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6430a1.htm

5. Adolescent Sleep Working Group; Committee on Adolescence; Council on School Health. School start times for adolescents. Pediatrics. 2014 Sep;134(3):642-9.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25156998/

6. Wheaton AG, Chapman DP, Croft JB. School Start Times, Sleep, Behavioral, Health, and Academic Outcomes: A Review of the Literature. J Sch Health. 2016 May;86(5):363-81.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27040474/

7. Watson NF, Martin JL, Wise MS, Carden KA, Kirsch DB, Kristo DA, Malhotra RK, Olson EJ, Ramar K, Rosen IM, Rowley JA, Weaver TE, Chervin RD; American Academy of Sleep Medicine Board of Directors. Delaying Middle School and High School Start Times Promotes Student Health and Performance: An American Academy of Sleep Medicine Position Statement. J Clin Sleep Med. 2017 Apr 15;13(4):623-625.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28416043/

8. The American Psychological Association. (2014). Later School Start Times Promote Adolescent Well-Being., Retrieved January 26, 2021 from
https://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/school-start-times.pdf

9. Danner F, Phillips B. Adolescent sleep, school start times, and teen motor vehicle crashes. J Clin Sleep Med. 2008 Dec 15;4(6):533-5.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19110880/

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How Would Later School Start Times Affect Sleep? | Sleep Foundation

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Experts recommend middle and high schools begin no sooner than 8:30 a.m. Later school start times will increase adolescent sleep and improve their performance.

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The West Hartford school board is officially throwing its support behind later school start times.

The Board of Education voted five to one to back a resolution that calls for state lawmakers to require middle and high schools statewide to start at 8:30 a.m. or later.

That caused a bit of a celebration for those who have been working for years to bring about that kind of change.

"I'm really thrilled. I'm so grateful," said Sarah Raskin of West Hartford. "I feel like tonight's vote indicates that the board recognizes how important this issue is."

Supporters believe students would benefit by not having to get to middle or high school around 7:30 a.m. like they do now in West Hartford.

"I witnessed the impact first hand on my teens who have trouble falling asleep at a reasonable hour, a grownup reasonable hour. So getting up at 6:30 is just brutal," said Mary Fleischli of West Hartford.

In November 2018, the board tabled a plan to change the times here.
That followed criticism which was echoed on Wednesday from the increased cost to a wish to keep things as they are.

"Somehow everyone in this room survived getting up early for school," said Chris Torino of West Hartford.

While opponents questioned the timing and purpose of the resolution, proponents pointed out the potential benefits of a statewide approach versus going alone, including the impact on after school activities.

Though for some the fight here goes on.

"While I appreciate the push on the statewide level and I think there are a lot of good arguments for that I also don't want us in West Hartford to be waiting for that change to happen," said Raskin.

There has been talk among some state lawmakers about requiring later start times.

They argue it also leads to students being more successful at school.

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West Hartford School Board Backs Statewide Later School Start Times

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The West Hartford school board is officially throwing its support behind later school start times. The Board of Education voted five to one to back a resolution that calls for state lawmakers to require middle and high schools statewide to start at 8:30 a.m. or later.

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If later school start times are better, why aren’t they more popular?

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Germantown, Tenn., schools changed their start times last year, but not everyone is convinced the outcome was worth the extra expense.

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In some cases, social media may enhance well-being (Credit: Getty Images)

What the science suggests so far about the impact of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram on your mental well-being.

#LikeMinded

A special series about social media and well-being

This month, BBC Future is exploring social media's impact on mental health and well-being - and seeking solutions for a happier, healthier experience on these platforms. Stay tuned for more stories, coming soon...

Share your tips for a happy life on social media with the hashtag #LikeMinded on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

This story is featured in BBC Future's "Best of 2018" collection. Discover more of our picks.

Three billion people, around 40% of the world's population, use online social media - and we're spending an average of two hours every day sharing, liking, tweeting and updating on these platforms, according to some reports. That breaks down to around half a million tweets and Snapchat photos shared every minute.

With social media playing such a big part in our lives, could we be sacrificing our mental health and well-being as well as our time? What does the evidence actually suggest?

Since social media is relatively new to us, conclusive findings are limited. The research that does exist mainly relies on self-reporting, which can often be flawed, and the majority of studies focus on Facebook. That said, this is a fast-growing area of research, and clues are beginning to emerge. BBC Future reviewed the findings of some of the science so far:

People use social media to vent about everything from customer service to politics, but the downside to this is that our feeds often resemble an endless stream of stress. In 2015, researchers at the Pew Research Center based in Washington DC sought to find out if social media induces more stress than it relieves.

In the survey of 1,800 people, women reported being more stressed than men. Twitter was found to be a "significant contributor" because it increased their awareness of other people's stress.

But Twitter also acted as a coping mechanism - and the more women used it, the less stressed they were. The same effect wasn't found for men, whom the researchers said had a more distant relationship with social media. Overall, the researchers concluded that social media use was linked to "modestly lower levels" of stress.

The presence of a phone affects the quality of conversation, some studies suggest (Credit: Getty Images)

In 2014, researchers in Austria found that participants reported lower moods after using Facebook for 20 minutes compared to those who just browsed the internet. The study suggested that people felt that way because they saw it as a waste of time.

A good or bad mood may also spread between people on social media, according to researchers from the University of California, who assessed the emotional content of over a billion status updates from more than 100 million Facebook users between 2009 and 2012.

Bad weather increased the number of negative posts by 1%, and the researchers found that one negative post by someone in a rainy city influenced another 1.3 negative posts by friends living in dry cities. The better news is that happy posts had a stronger influence; each one inspired 1.75 more happy posts. Whether a happy post translates to a genuine boost in mood, however, remains unclear.

Researchers have looked at general anxiety provoked by social media, characterised by feelings of restlessness and worry, and trouble sleeping and concentrating. A study published in the journal Computers and Human Behaviour found that people who report using seven or more social media platforms were more than three times as likely as people using 0-2 platforms to have high levels of general anxiety symptoms.

That said, it's unclear if and how social media causes anxiety. Researchers from Babes-Bolyai University in Romania reviewed existing research on the relationship between social anxiety and social networking in 2016, and said the results were mixed. They concluded that more research needs to be done.

Social media mimics many of the rewards of games and play, which can pose an attractive lure (Credit: Getty Images)

While some studies have found a link between depression and social media use, there is emerging research into how social media can actually be a force for good.

Two studies involving more than 700 students found that depressive symptoms, such as low mood and feelings of worthlessness and hopelessness, were linked to the quality of online interactions. Researchers found higher levels of depressive symptoms among those who reported having more negative interactions.

A similar study conducted in 2016 involving 1,700 people found a threefold risk of depression and anxiety among people who used the most social media platforms. Reasons for this, they suggested, include cyber-bullying, having a distorted view of other people's lives, and feeling like time spent on social media is a waste.

However, as BBC Future will explore this month in our #LikeMinded season, scientists are also looking at how social media can be used to diagnose depression, which could help people receive treatment earlier. Researchers for Microsoft surveyed 476 people and analysed their Twitter profiles for depressive language, linguistic style, engagement and emotion. From this, they developed a classifier that can accurately predict depression before it causes symptoms in seven out of 10 cases.

Researchers from Harvard and Vermont Universities analysed 166 people's Instagram photos to create a similar tool last year with the same success rate.

Humans used to spend their evenings in darkness, but now we're surrounded by artificial lighting all day and night. Research has found that this can inhibit the body's production of the hormone melatonin, which facilitates sleep - and blue light, which is emitted by smartphone and laptop screens, is said to be the worst culprit. In other words, if you lie on the pillow at night checking Facebook and Twitter, you're headed for restless slumber.

Last year, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh asked 1,700 18- to 30-year-olds about their social media and sleeping habits. They found a link with sleep disturbances - and concluded blue light had a part to play. How often they logged on, rather than time spent on social media sites, was a higher predictor of disturbed sleep, suggesting "an obsessive 'checking'", the researchers said.

The researchers say this could be caused by physiological arousal before sleep, and the bright lights of our devices can delay circadian rhythms. But they couldn't clarify whether social media causes disturbed sleep, or if those who have disturbed sleep spend more time on social media.

One of the worst times to use social media may be just before bed (Credit: Getty Images)

Despite the argument from a few researchers that tweeting may be harder to resist than cigarettes and alcohol, social media addiction isn't included in the latest diagnostic manual for mental health disorders.

That said, social media is changing faster than scientists can keep up with, so various groups are trying to study compulsive behaviours related to its use - for example, scientists from the Netherlands have invented their own scale to identify possible addiction.

And if social media addiction does exist, it would be a type of internet addiction - and that is a classified disorder. In 2011, Daria Kuss and Mark Griffiths from Nottingham Trent University in the UK have analysed 43 previous studies on the matter, and conclude that social media addiction is a mental health problem that "may" require professional treatment. They found that excessive usage was linked to relationship problems, worse academic achievement and less participation in offline communities, and found that those who could be more vulnerable to a social media addiction include those dependent on alcohol, the highly extroverted, and those who use social media to compensate for fewer ties in real life.

Women's magazines and their use of underweight and Photoshopped models have been long maligned for stirring self-esteem issues among young women. But now, social media, with its filters and lighting and clever angles, is taking over as a primary concern among some campaigning groups and charities.

Social media sites make more than half of users feel inadequate, according to a survey of 1,500 people by disability charity Scope, and half of 18- to 34-year-olds say it makes them feel unattractive.

A 2016 study by researchers at Penn State University suggested that viewing other people's selfies lowered self-esteem, because users compare themselves to photos of people looking their happiest. Research from the University of Strathclyde, Ohio University and University of Iowa also found that women compare themselves negatively to selfies of other women.

Selfies may have downsides for the viewer (Credit: Getty Images)

But it's not just selfies that have the potential to dent self-esteem. A study of 1,000 Swedish Facebook users found that women who spent more time on Facebook reported feeling less happy and confident. The researchers concluded: "When Facebook users compare their own lives with others' seemingly more successful careers and happy relationships, they may feel that their own lives are less successful in comparison."

But one small study hinted that viewing your own profile, not others, might offer ego boosts. Researchers at Cornell University in New York put 63 students into different groups. Some sat with a mirror placed against a computer screen, for instance, while others sat in front of their own Facebook profile.

Facebook had a positive effect on self-esteem compared to other activities that boost self-awareness. Mirrors and photos, the researchers explained, make us compare ourselves to social standards, whereas looking at our own Facebook profiles might boost self-esteem because it is easier to control how we're presented to the world.

In a study from 2013, researchers texted 79 participants five times a day for 14 days, asking them how they felt and how much they'd used Facebook since the last text. The more time people spent on the site, the worse they felt later on, and the more their life satisfaction declined over time.

But other research has found, that for some people, social media can help boost their well-being. Marketing researchers Jonah Berger and Eva Buechel found that people who are emotionally unstable are more likely to post about their emotions, which can help them receive support and bounce back after negative experiences.

Overall, social media's effects on well-being are ambiguous, according to a paper written last year by researchers from the Netherlands. However, they suggested there is clearer evidence for the impact on one group of people: social media has a more negative effect on the well-being of those who are more socially isolated.

In some cases, social media may enhance well-being (Credit: Getty Images)

If you've ever been talking to a friend who's pulled their phone out to scroll through Instagram, you might have wondered what social media is doing to relationships.

Even the mere presence of a phone can interfere with our interactions, particularly when we're talking about something meaningful, according to one small study. Researchers writing in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships tasked 34 pairs of strangers with having a 10-minute conversation about an interesting event that had happened to them recently. Each pair sat in private booths, and half had a mobile phone on the top of their table.

Those with a phone in eyeshot were less positive when recalling their interaction afterwards, had less meaningful conversations and reported feeling less close to their partner than the others, who had a notebook on top of the table instead.

Romantic relationships aren't immune, either. Researchers at the University of Guelph in Canada surveyed 300 people aged 17-24 in 2009 about any jealousy they felt when on Facebook, asking questions such as, 'How likely are you to become jealous after your partner has added an unknown member of the opposite sex?'.

Women spent much more time on Facebook then men, and experienced significantly more jealousy when doing so. The researchers concluded they "felt the Facebook environment created these feelings and enhanced concerns about the quality of their relationship".

In one survey of 1,800 people, women reported being more stressed by social media than men (Credit: Getty Images)

In a study involving 600 adults, roughly a third said social media made them feel negative emotions - mainly frustration - and envy was the main cause. This was triggered by comparing their lives to others', and the biggest culprit was other people's travel photos. Feeling envious caused an "envy spiral", where people react to envy by adding to their profiles more of the same sort of content that made them jealous in the first place.

However, envy isn't necessarily a destructive emotion - it can often make us work harder, according to researchers from Michigan University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. They asked 380 students to look at "envy-eliciting" photos and texts from Facebook and Twitter, including posts about buying expensive goods, travelling and getting engaged. But the type of envy the researchers found is "benign envy", which they say is more likely to make a person work harder.

A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine last year surveyed 7,000 19- to 32-year-olds and found that those who spend the most time on social media were twice as likely to report experiencing social isolation, which can include a lack of a sense of social belonging, engagement with others and fulfilling relationships.

Spending more time on social media, the researchers said, could displace face-to-face interaction, and can also make people feel excluded.

"Exposure to such highly idealised representations of peers' lives may elicit feelings of envy and the distorted belief that others lead happier and more successful lives, which may increase perceived social isolation."

It's clear that in many areas, not enough is known yet to draw many strong conclusions. However, the evidence does point one way: social media affects people differently, depending on pre-existing conditions and personality traits.

As with food, gambling and many other temptations of the modern age, excessive use for some individuals is probably inadvisable. But at the same time, it would be wrong to say social media is a universally bad thing, because clearly it brings myriad benefits to our lives.

We'll be exploring this tension more over the next month, in a series of articles and videos in our special series #LikeMinded - and hopefully providing solutions that could help us all live a happier, healthier digital life.

If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called "If You Only Read 6 Things This Week". A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Capital, and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.

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What the science suggests so far about the impact of platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram on your mental well-being.

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Hughes, C. A., Ruhl, K. L., Schumaker, J. B., & Deshler, D. D. (1995). The assignment completion strategy. Lawrence, KS: EDGE Enterprises.

Hughes, C. A., Ruhl, K. L., Rademacher, J. A., Schumaker, J. B., & Deshler, D. D. (1995). Quality quest planner. Lawrence, KS: Edge Enterprises.

Hughes, C. A., Maccini, P., & Gagnon, J. C. (2003). Interventions that positively impact the performance of students with learning disabilities in secondary general education classrooms. Learning Disabilities: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 12(3), 32-44.

Lenz, B. K., Ehren, B. J., & Smiley, L. R. (1991). A goal attainment approach to improve completion of project type assignments by adolescents with learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 6, 166-176.

O'Melia, M. C., & Rosenberg, M. S. (1994). Effects of cooperative homework teams on the acquisition of mathematics skills by secondary students with mild disabilities. Exceptional Children, 60, 538-548.

Otto, W. (1985). Homework: A meta-analysis. Journal of Reading, 28, 764-766.

Paschal, A., Weinstein, R., & Walberg, H. (1984). The effects of homework on learning: A quantitative synthesis. Journal of Educational Research, 78, 97-104.

Polloway, E. A., Foley, R. M., & Epstein, M. H. (1992). A comparison of the homework problems of students with learning disabilities and nonhandicapped students. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 7, 203-209.

Putnam, M. L., Deshler, D. D., & Schumaker, J. B. (1993). The investigation of setting demands: A missing link in learning strategy instruction. In L. Meltzer (Ed.), Strategy assessment and instruction for students with learning disabilities: From theory to practice (pp. 325-354). Austin, TX: PRO-ED.

Rademacher, J. A., Deshler, D. D., Schumaker, J. B., & Lenz, B. K. (1998). The quality assignment routine. Lawrence, KS: Edge Enterprises, Inc.

Rademacher, J. A., Schumaker, J. B., & Deshler, D. D. (1996). Development and validation of a classroom assignment routine for inclusive settings. Learning Disability Quarterly, 19, 163-178.

Rosenberg, M. S. (1989). The effects of daily homework assignments on the acquisition of basic skills by students with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 22, 314-322.

Sah, A., & Borland, J. H. (1989). The effects of a structured home plan on the home school behaviors of gifted learning-disabled students with deficits in organizational skills. Roeper Review, 12, 54-57.

Salend, S. J., & Gajria, M. (1995). Increasing the homework completion rates of students with mild disabilities. Remedial and Special Education, 16, 271-278.

Salend, S. J., & Schliff, J. (1989). An examination of the homework practices of teachers of students with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 22, 621-623.

Trammel, D. L., Schloss, P. J., & Alper, S. (1994). Using self-recording , evaluation, and graphing to increase completion of homework assignments. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 27, 75-81.

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A review of the research on the effective use of homework for students with learning disabilities suggests that there are three big ideas for teachers to remember: (1) the best use of homework is to build proficiency in recently acquired skills or to maintain skills previously mastered; (2) homework should be individualized; and (3) teachers should evaluate homework and provide detailed feedback to students.

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The value of homework has long been debated in the education world - but now, the discussion has become even more complicated in the era of the coronavirus pandemic.

Researchers have long found that there is less to homework than many might think; they have found that it has little to no effect on test scores in elementary school and a marginal positive effect in the later grades. That was when kids were in school for classes and went home to do homework.

But now, school for millions of students means working at home doing school work all day, because school buildings are closed to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus and its disease, covid-19. That raises the question: How feasible is it to ask kids to do even more work in the same environment, especially for kids who live in environments not conducive to studying?

The closing of schools this past spring as the pandemic hit put a new focus on issues of equity, racism and access to education technology and the Internet. Now that many, if not most, school districts are not holding in-person teaching for the start of the 2020-21 school year, or not for all students, those issues are ever more urgent.

ASCD, an education organization of more than 110,000 members - superintendents, teachers and others from countries around the world - looked at the homework issue in its newsletter, ASCD Express. Below is one of the pieces in the package.

(ASCD, founded as the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, now focuses not just on curriculum but also on other parts of the educational process, including professional development, leadership and capacity building.)

The post below was written by Denise Pope, a co-founder of Challenge Success and a senior lecturer at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education, where she specializes in student engagement, curriculum studies, qualitative research methods and service learning.

(Challenge Success is a nonprofit organization that works with teams of educators, parents and students at schools to identify problems and implement best practices and policies in areas such as curriculum, assessment, homework, school schedule, and a healthy school climate.)

Pope is the author of " Doing School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Students," and co-author of " Overloaded and Underprepared: Strategies for Stronger Schools and Healthy, Successful Kids."

Pope's article was originally published in the Aug. 27 issue of ASCD Express that focused on whether and how homework works today. ASCD Express is a free email publication for K-12 educators. I am using the article with permission.

Why this superintendent banned homework -- and asked kids to read instead

By Denise Pope

For students and educators participating in distance learning these days, it may be hard to distinguish homework assignments from any kind of school-assigned work that is done at home.

In fact, between March and June 2020, "homework" varied considerably: Some schools assigned weekly packets of work to be completed at home in lieu of any online lessons, while other schools decided to eliminate "homework" altogether for students who participated in online lessons for several hours each day. Though we conducted the following research on homework prior to the pandemic, our findings offer implications for all kinds of assignments done at home - both during remote learning and once students return to classrooms.

In a student survey conducted over the last decade (from 2009 to 2020) by Challenge Success, a nonprofit that I co-founded based on my research at Stanford University's Graduate School of Education, we asked over 200,000 middle and high school students from high-performing schools, "Right now in your life, what, if anything, causes you the most stress?"

One of the most common responses was one word: "Homework."

The cultural narrative about homework generally focuses on how much homework students are doing. It's treated as a Goldilocks problem: When is it too little? When is it too much? When is it just right?

Having too much homework is certainly part of the problem when it comes to student stress levels. In fact, of the more than 50,000 high school students that Challenge Success surveyed from October 2018 to January 2020, 56 percent of students said they had too much homework. In that same sample, students reported doing an average of 2.7 hours of homework per weeknight and 3.0 hours on weekends.

However, the amount of homework alone doesn't tell the whole story. The type of homework students receive can also be a source of stress, our survey shows. For instance, when students perceive homework to be boring or repetitive, or if they feel it is too advanced or confusing, they are likely to be stressed, regardless of the amount of assigned work. In addition, students are often stressed about how well they do on their homework, particularly because homework completion and quality are usually factored into students' course grades.

Given the stress from homework that so many students report, we updated our previous homework white paper with an extensive review of the current literature on homework and its benefits. Based on this review, we found that the relationship between time spent on homework and academic achievement is nuanced and complex.

In elementary school, there is very little, if any, evidence that time spent on homework in most subject areas has a positive effect on achievement. (A notable exception is reading for pleasure, which is associated with achievement. One 2013 study found that the influence of reading for pleasure is powerful for children's cognitive development, especially in terms of vocabulary.)

In middle and high school, there is a slight positive relationship between time spent on homework and grades and test scores in the recent research. However, those benefits are complicated by various factors and limitations, including whether the homework was interesting to the students, how much effort they put into it, and the level of difficulty and purpose of the assignment. Furthermore, several studies found diminishing returns on the value of homework once a student exceeds a certain amount of time spent on it.

To make homework work for students and educators, we recommend taking a close look at the quality and purpose of the assignments by asking five questions. These questions apply whether learning is happening primarily at school, at home, or a hybrid of the two.

Do students understand the purpose and value of the assignment? When students perceive homework as busy work, meaningless, or of little value to the teacher, they are less likely to complete it and may become less interested in learning and in school in general. Educators can increase engagement by clarifying the purpose of the work and allowing students to choose which problems to do or which topics to research. Teachers can also allow students to stop when they believe they understand the concept.

Will all students be able to do the task independently? It is challenging to design homework assignments that meet every child's academic and developmental needs, but students are more likely to disengage when an assignment feels either too hard or too easy. Teachers can use a variety of formative assessment strategies, such as student check-ins and daily exit tickets to strive for the "just-right" challenge for each student and ensure that homework can be done without help from parents or tutors - especially because not all students have the resources to get outside help.

Is this assignment better done in class versus as homework? Some activities can't be done effectively or efficiently in class or during synchronous online learning, such as reading a book chapter to prepare for class discussion or interviewing a community member for an oral history project. These tasks might be better to assign as homework or during asynchronous learning. Skill practice, such as learning when and how to apply algorithms in math or parsing difficult text passages, might be more effective during class, where teachers can clarify misunderstandings and provide feedback and coaching.

How much time should this assignment take? If you are going to assign homework, consider how much time the assignment should take and recommend an appropriate cut-off time for students without penalty. Suggested time limits should be based on the purpose of the assignment as well as student age and ability. Having students start the assignment in class or during synchronous learning will help you estimate how long it may take different students to do and if they need help. Remember that students may have homework from several classes each night, so try to coordinate large assignments and assessments with other teachers when possible and offer lenient late policies or "homework passes" when workload or home obligations are heavy.

What kind of feedback should I provide on the homework? Grading homework is tricky. Some students who don't turn it in or do it incorrectly may have organizational issues or other reasons beyond their control, and others may have relied on outside help to correct the work. If you do choose to grade the homework, make sure you provide actionable and timely feedback on assignments and offer students opportunities to revise and resubmit. Aim to return graded assignments prior to an upcoming assessment so students can learn from their mistakes, and make sure your comments are specific enough for students to make corrections. For example, instead of just marking something as incorrect, add a comment asking a student to show their work, or explain that they need to add more supporting evidence to a paragraph to strengthen their claim.

As educators consider the changes they need to make to their curriculum and pedagogy this fall, particularly how to make up for lost learning over the spring and summer and how to prioritize essential skills and understandings, the questions above can help streamline assignments, increase student engagement, and alleviate some of the stress that so many students are experiencing right now.

To further explore the research mentioned above and to see more tips for designing effective homework, [teachers] can download the Challenge Success homework white paper.
References
Cooper, H. (1989). Synthesis of research on homework. Educational Leadership, 47(3), 85-91.

Cooper, H. (2007). The battle over homework: Common ground for administrators, teachers, and parents. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Sullivan, A. & Brown, M. (2013). Social inequalities in cognitive scores at age 16: The role of reading. Centre for Longitudinal Studies. Retrieved from https://cls.ucl.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/CLS-WP-2013-10.pdf

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Perspective | Does homework work when kids are learning all day at home?

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Are schools across the country going too far by banning homework? According to child and adolescent family therapist Darby Fox, yes.

"It's like an ultimate reaction. There is a point to homework and the right amount really is age appropriate," Fox said Friday on "CBS This Morning."

Elementary school students have an average of around 4.5 hours of homework a week, while high schoolers get an average of about 7.5 hours, according to the Wall Street Journal and Department of Education. The National Institute of Mental Health says more than 30 percent of teenagers experience some kind of anxiety, and homework is a major contributing factor.

"I think the current thing about getting rid of homework is about anxiety and trying reduce that. It should be about learning. We should be able to hit a medium," Fox said.

"Very young kids really - sometimes they like the idea that they have something industrious to do at home, and there's no harm in that. But they need time to just play and explore and become kind of curious," Fox added. "As we get older, fourth grade, you can have 45 minutes, an hour - up in through high school, 2.5 hours is appropriate, 3 hours. But schools have really taken it way too far."

She blamed the "race to get amazing resumes, the best test scores."

"But that has escalated almost directly with mental health problems, anxiety, depression," Fox said.

While parents might see sports or socializing as an important part of students' lives, Fox pointed out that's still a scheduled activity.

"What I'd really love to see is more time for kids to have nothing to do, unstructured time so that they have to figure it out on their own. And that's the most important thing they should be exploring," Fox said.

If your child is overwhelmed, Fox advised parents to let schools and teachers know.

"If there's not an appropriate response, follow it to the next level. Is it the principal or whoever is the next in command. Usually that might issue - that might alarm us that there's some kind of learning disability or processing problem if it's really overwhelming or the teachers are just simply giving too much work," she said.

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Are schools across the country going too far by banning homework?

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Are schools across the country going too far by banning homework? According to child and adolescent family therapist Darby Fox, yes. "It's like an ultimate reaction. There is a point to homework and the right amount really is age appropriate," Fox said Friday on "CBS This Morning."

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— -- More than 550 students at a Massachusetts elementary school will have less to carry home in their backpacks this year.

There will be no homework.

Kelly Elementary School in Holyoke has banned homework for the year with the intention of giving students all the instruction and extra help they may need during the school day.

"We want kids to go home tired; we want their brains to be tired," Jackie Glasheen, principal of the school, whose kindergarten through 8th-grade students are nearly all poor and Hispanic, told ABC News. At home, she said, "we want them to engage with their families, talk about their school days and go to bed."

Glasheen and the team of teachers who came up with the idea to end homework are among a growing number of U.S. educators and parents questioning the value of having children do schoolwork at home.

A Texas elementary school teacher last month drew wide attention by eliminating homework.

Brandy Young, 2nd-grade teacher at an elementary school in Godley, wrote parents in a letter shared widely on social media, that after "much research over the summer," she would not assign any homework except for uncompleted classwork.

"Research has been unable to prove that homework improves student performance," she wrote in the letter handed to parents at a meet-the-teacher night Aug. 16.

"Rather, I ask that you spend your evenings doing things that are proven to correlate with student success," she wrote. "Eat dinner as a family, read together, play outside and get your child to bed early."

Kelly Elementary School eliminated homework under circumstances uncommon in most schools.

Beginning this fall, nearly all schools in the Holyoke district, which has among the lowest standardized test scores in Massachusetts, are extending their school days by two hours. Elementary school students now go to school from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., instead of the previous 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Principal Glasheen said her school surveyed its teachers, parents and students before implementing the homework ban.

"The toughest stakeholder group was the teachers," she said. "Some of them felt [students] need that extra practice. They need that extra work."

But Glasheen said the longer school days will give students more instructional time.

"Face time with a teacher ... is going to impact their learning more than doing skill-and-practice work at home," she said.

Not many schools are lengthening their school days by as much as the Holyoke district. But even without the longer days, a number of educators and researchers say homework is more of a hindrance than a help to students.

Author and education researcher Alfie Kohn says homework routinely produces frustration, exhaustion, family conflict, a loss of time for other activities and diminished excitement about learning.

"In classrooms and schools where little or no homework is assigned, results have been extremely positive in terms of students' academic performance as well as their attitudes about learning," Kohn told ABC News. "'No homework' should become the default, with homework assigned only on those days when there is compelling reason to believe that a given assignment will benefit most students."

Kohn, whose books include "The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing," said research has failed to demonstrate any benefit to assigning homework, at least until students are in high school.

But Robert Pondiscio, senior fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education policy think tank in Washington, D.C., said the question of homework's value is not cut-and-dried. Pondiscio, who is also an adviser at Democracy Prep, a New York City charter school network, said homework may have a greater benefit for low-income students than affluent students.

"I still think we're in a situation in this country where we have a far greater problem of expecting too little -- not too much -- of kids, and homework falls into that," Pondiscio told ABC News.

The benefits of assigning homework also depend on what you want it to achieve, Pondiscio said. Homework may not lead to a higher grade on a test within six months, he said, but it can encourage behaviors and foster skills that yield long-term benefits such as practice in time-management

"Whenever I hear 'homework doesn't work,' my first response is, 'Well what do you want homework to do?'" Pondiscio said. "We always want to press the easy button in these discussions, and there isn't one."

Kelly Elementary School Principal Glasheen has heard from some critics of her school's homework ban who echo Pondiscio, telling her, "'You're letting kids off the hook,'" she said.

But she's also gotten support. The far-flung responses she's received suggests how widespread is the debate over homework's value.

"I have heard from principals from southern California, Dallas, Brazil," she said.

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Amid Growing Debate About Homework, One School Bans It

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More than 550 students at a Massachusetts elementary school will have less to carry home in their backpacks this year. There will be no homework. Kelly Elementary School in Holyoke has banned homework for the year with the intention of giving students all the instruction and extra help they may need during the school day.

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In July 2017, families in Marion County, Florida, got some surprising news about the school year ahead. "Traditional homework as we know it will disappear, at least for elementary students," school superintendent Heidi Maier said in a voice message to parents. "Instead of working on classroom assignments at home, we want students reading," she said.

More than 20,000 students attend the county's 31 elementary schools. Dara Mehr, a fifth grader, is one of them. Last year, Dara had two or three hours of homework a night. "I would have 12 math questions and six or seven pages of work to do for reading," she told TIME for Kids.

Now Dara's only homework is to read for 30 minutes. She enjoys having more time for activities like painting and playing video games. But her mom, Kayla Mehr, misses last year's assignments. "The kids knew that once they finished those worksheets, they were done," she says, referring to Dara and her sister, Neveah, a second grader. "Sometimes, getting them to sit down and read for 30 minutes is a challenge."

Around the country, in states from Florida to Vermont to California, elementary schools are experimenting with a no-homework policy. Superintendent Maier and other school leaders say the new policy is based on research. Studies have shown that homework does not grades or test scores in elementary school.

Paula Fass is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of The End of American Childhood. She points out that disagreement over the value of homework is not new. "There's been over homework ever since schooling became a requirement," she says.

Support for homework has gone up and down through the years (see "Homework History"). "In the 1900s, a lot of parents thought that homework just occupied children's time [when] they could be doing chores," says Fass. More than a century later, many still question the role that homework should have in kids' lives.

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Finding a Balance

Harris Cooper is a professor at Duke University and the author of The Battle over Homework. He has analyzed more than 50 studies on homework. In his view, homework has a positive effect on achievement. "The effect gets larger as kids move through the grades. But even in the early grades, homework has a positive effect on simple skills." Examples include spelling and math facts.

The National Education Association and the National PTA suggest that students get 10 minutes of homework per grade, starting in first grade. Cooper supports this , known as the "10-minutes rule."

But he warns that homework can have a negative impact as well. "If there's too much of it or if it's too difficult, it can lead to frustration and to kids voicing concern about their abilities," he says. "And that's not a good thing."

Last year, Kelly Elementary School in Holyoke, Massachusetts, made headlines for eliminating homework. Jackie Glasheen, the principal at the time, told ABC News that she wanted kids to have more quality time with family. "We want them to engage with their families, talk about their school days, and go to bed," she said.

But this year, the school has a new principal, Isamar Vargas. Students in kindergarten through eighth grade have homework once again. But they receive only one assignment per day.

Vargas explained that the school takes a balanced approach. "We want to build responsibility and structure," she says. "But we don't want to take away the important time that children have with their families or practicing sports."

Kelly Elementary won't be the only school to experiment with its policies. "One thing you can know is that this is part of a long history of conflict over homework," says Fass, the Berkeley professor. "And that can be expected to continue."

Homework History

Attitudes toward homework have changed throughout U.S. history.

In the coming years, do you think support for homework will rise or fall?

MANSELL/LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES

Early 1900s: A number of school districts pass anti-homework . The goal? To cut down on students' having to memorize information, known as rote learning.

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1957: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik, the first satellite. The space race is on. Homework for math and science increases.

1966: The National Education Association suggests no homework in early grades and "limited amounts" in upper elementary.

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1983: President Ronald Reagan's Education Department releases a report on problems with schools. It creates pressure to get tough.

1990s: Global competition is on the rise. Support for homework in the U.S. is strong. Elementary students receive more homework than they had in the past.
Assessment: Click for a printable quiz. Teacher subscribers can find the answer key in this week's Teacher's Guide.

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In July 2017, families in Marion County, Florida, got some surprising news about the school year ahead. "Traditional homework as we know it will disappear, at least for elementary students," school superintendent Heidi Maier said in a voice message to...

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Young kids could be seeing mature content on TikTok. Here's how to keep them safe

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TikTok, popular with teens, is attracting a younger audience, who could be exposed to mature discussions, violence and profanity. How to help keep kids safe.

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Instagram rolls out new teen safety features

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Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. Typically held during the last week of September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community - librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types - in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.
Banned Books Week 2018 will be held September 23 - 29. The 2018 theme, "Banning Books Silences Stories," is a reminder that everyone needs to speak out against the tide of censorship.
By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship. The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) compiles lists of challenged books as reported in the media and submitted by librarians and teachers across the country. The Top Ten Challenged Books of 2017 are:

T he Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie
Consistently challenged since its publication in 2007 for acknowledging issues such as poverty, alcoholism, and sexuality, this National Book Award winner was challenged in school curriculums because of profanity and situations that were deemed sexually explicit.

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Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. Typically held during the last week of September, it highlights the value of free and open access to information.

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Jason Reynolds Named Honorary Chair of Banned Books Week 2021

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A school pastor in Nashville, Tennessee, removed "Harry Potter" books from the library of St. Edward School before school started in September, according to WTVF. He wrote in an email to parents that "The curses and spells used in the books are actual curses and spells; which when read by a human being risk conjuring evil spirits into the presence of the person reading the text."

It's not the first time books from the series have been banned. "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" made the list of the most challenged books in the 1990s even though the first book was only published in the US in 1999. "Harry Potter" books were also the most challenged books in the following decade, with complaints that they were "anti-family," violent, and Satanic.

Like "To Kill A Mockingbird," the book's language and depiction of African Americans has been controversial in schools. Bans on the book date back to one year after it was published, when it was called "trash and suitable only for the slums" in 1885.

"Of Mice and Men" was banned from use in classrooms at Skyline High School in Scottsboro, Alabama, in 1983 and in George County, Mississippi schools in 2002 because of the book's "profanity."

While "The Hate U Give" wasn't technically banned in Katy, Texas, the school district's superintendent removed it from the district's libraries while it was under review after a parent complained about the book's profanity. Critics said that removing the book while it was being reviewed was a violation of the district's review policies.

Author Angie Thomas tweeted her dismay.

"I'm saddened to hear that a school district in Texas banned # TheHateUGive , but I'm also empowered - you're basically telling the kids of the Garden Heights of the world that their stories shouldn't be told. Well, I'm going to tell them even louder. Thanks for igniting the fire."

Fifteen-year-old student Ny'Shira Lundy collected 4,000 signatures in support of the book. The district put the books back on library shelves, but students must have permission from a parent to check it out.

Complaints from the Fraternal Order of Police in Charleston County, South Carolina, also put the book under review at Wando High School due to what the group called its " indoctrination of distrust of police." The case is still pending.

"The Catcher in the Rye" has been challenged and removed from school reading lists many times since its publication in 1951 due to concerns of profanity, obscenity, and the fact that some felt the plot is " centered around negative activity ."

The earliest instance of the book being banned was 1960, when a teacher in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was fired for assigning the book to an 11th grade English class. The teacher was hired back after an appeal, but the book remained banned.

The book's place on Missoula, Montana, high school's list was challenged in 2009, but it was allowed to stay on the curriculum.

Bay County's Four middle schools in Bay County and three high schools in Panama City, Florida, banned "Animal Farm" in 1987, but the Bay County school board overturned the ban after 44 parents filed a suit with the district.

"Looking For Alaska" was the most challenged book of 2015 for "offensive language" and "sexually explicit content."

Green made a video on the YouTube channel he shares with his brother Hank responding to the ban.

"Teenagers are critically engaged and thoughtful readers," he said. "They do not read 'Looking for Alaska' and think 'I should go have some aggressively unerotic oral sex.' They also don't read 'The Outsiders' and think 'I should join a gang' or read 'Divergent' and think 'I should jump onto moving trains. So far as I can tell that kind of narrow prescriptive reading seems only to happen inside the offices of school superintendents."

Visit INSIDER's homepage for more.

More: Features Banned Items Books Evergreen story

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10 books that have been banned in schools

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A school pastor in Nashville, Tennessee, removed "Harry Potter" books from the library of St. Edward School before school started in September, according to WTVF. He wrote in an email to parents that "The curses and spells used in the books are actual curses and spells; which when read by a human being risk conjuring evil spirits into the presence of the person reading the text."

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Every year the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom compiles a list of books that the public or officials have sought to ban from library shelves. They say it's an annual snapshot of issues that concern Americans the most. Vinita Nair discusses this year's entries.

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TORRINGTON -- In some areas of this country, free speech and authors are being banned or challenged, infringing other Americans' rights to access information. The good news, however, is that public libraries in northwest Connecticut are strong advocates of penned literary works.

The Torrington Library launched its 2012 lecture series earlier this month, dedicating the next year to the most frequently banned and challenged authors. Each lecture will focus on a particular author's life and the banned or challenged books they have written, with the next installation April 5 focusing on J.D. Salinger, author of "Catcher in the Rye".

While area libraries have said they don't manage any banned books lists, nor have they removed literature from the shelves, a few can attest to book challengers.

"Here, we're so small, we rarely have that," Norfolk Library Director of Library Services Robin Yurán said of concerned residents. "We did have one instance where Hitler's biography was questioned."

Yurán said a parent went into the kids' section of the library "almost looking" for something to bring out.

When libraries like The Norfolk Library are greeted with people questioning literature, they have a systematic approach in making sure the greatest amount of books remain on library shelves. The interrogations begin with a discussion, Litchfield's Oliver Wolcott Library Director Ann Marie White said, then, if someone continues to have an issue, a form can be filled out.

Once a publication is challenged formally, it goes before a board of directors or other oversight committee, then a ruling is made.

In Winsted, the book " In the Middle of the Night: The Shocking True Story of a Family Killed in Cold Blood," a story revolving around the sexual assaults and brutal murders of Dr. William Petit's wife and daughters was the only one that caused some ruckus, Library Services Director of the Beardsly and Memorial Library Karin Taylor said. Even though it was never contested, Taylor encourages "parents to steer children away from books if there's something they don't like."

"Ninety-nine percent just want to talk and see no action," White said of Litchfield's library. "The library is for everyone. It has to include all opinions and thoughts."

"For me, personally," Torrington Library Program Coordinator Jessica Hodorski said, "I think the library is a place you can go to receive any information without restrictions. Just because I don't agree with an author doesn't mean it can't be there for other people."

Hodorski, who leads the banned books discussion at Torrington's library, said the response by the public has been "great" and "it's turned into more of a conversation" than a lecture.

In June, the discussion revolves around Harper Lee, writer of the famed "To Kill A Mockingbird," which nears the top of banned books lists, followed by Ernest Hemingway in August, Harry Potter series author J.K. Rowling in October and poet Allen Ginsberg in December.

For more information on the lecture series, visit the library's website at www.torringtonlibrary.org or call (860) 489-6684.

Reach Ricky Campbell by e-mail at rcampbell@registercitizen.com, on Twitter @rickycampbellRC, or by phone at (860) 489-3121 x343. Follow us online at registercitizen.com and on Twitter @RegisterCitizen.

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Banned books? Not in northwest Connecticut; Torrington Library continues lecture series

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TORRINGTON -- In some areas of this country, free speech and authors are being banned or challenged, infringing other Americans' rights to access information. The good news, however, is that public libraries in northwest Connecticut are strong advocates of penned literary works.

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Newman Trustees Undecided About Book Ban

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If you are already registered on our website, you can sign in by selecting your partner organization below, then entering your email address and password on the next screen.

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In the US more and more parents are pressing schools to withdraw books with bad language or sexual content. But should children's books be restricted in this way? There is a battle being fought in America over books. The skirmishes see concerned parents "challenge" books which are being used in schools.

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As we noted in this post, the Office for Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Association releases a yearly list of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books. While the titles vary slightly from year to year, the reasons for censoring material are consistent, and generally boil down to some combination of the following five, listed here in order of frequency:

SEX. In pretty much any form, sex between young adults - or the admission of sexual thoughts by a young adult - is a red flag for concerned parents, school administrators, and library patrons who worry that reading about sex will encourage children to think about, express interest in, or have sex. This extends to books like The Kite Runner, which depicts a rape, It's Perfectly Normal, which is a sex education guide for children and teens, My Mom's Having a Baby!, and Drama, for including LGBTIA characters.

UNSUITABILITY TO AGE GROUP. This is a vague, catch-all label, which explains why it's so popular. There's probably a legitimate argument to be made that Fifty Shades of Grey is unsuitable for some age groups. But the Captain Underpants series, which has made the Top Ten list five times since 2002 and features characters like talking toilets and wicked wedgie women, is definitely suited to an elementary school audience. (Not that we don't find talking toilets funny. But they're even funnier when you're six.) The real difficulty with labeling a book "unsuited to age group" is that children mature at different rates and bring different life experiences to their reading. Maybe your six-year-old is terrified of toilets and potty training was a nightmare. Or you think fart jokes are gross. That's okay! But there are a lot of grade schoolers out there whose lifelong bond to reading began with: "Meet George Beard and Harold Hutchins." At least one of them works at Powell's. Plus, as is the case with all five top reasons books are banned, "unsuited to age group" is an easy way to censor books about minorities (Nasreen's Secret School, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, George, etc.) without stating that as one's goal.

PROFANITY AND OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE. This category covers everything from expletives to racist terms, sexual dialogue or vocabulary, and language that references drug use, LGBTQIA issues, and any cultural claims or depictions that strike the challenger as offensive. Recent books challenged under this label include The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, The Hate U Give, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Eleanor and Park. It's worth pointing out that language is reliant on context: To Kill a Mockingbird is arguably an antiracist work that uses racist terms to communicate historical realities. Eleanor and Park uses vulgar language to show how difficult the main characters' home and school environments are. Another point, well made by Angie Thomas, who had to defend the use of the f-word in The Hate U Give, is that focusing on profanity allows people to ignore the larger, real-life issues at play in these works. As she noted, "There are 89 f-words in The Hate U Give; I know because I counted them.... And last year, more than 900 people were killed by police. People should care more about that number than the number of f-words."

LGBTQIA. Books by, about, and which reference the existence of people who identify within the LGBTQIA spectrum are often challenged, usually via charges of sexual content, offensiveness, and unsuitability to age group. A casual survey of the last 18 years of lists and statistics gathered by the OIF shows this to be one of the fastest growing challenge categories since 2000.

DRUG AND ALCOHOL USE. Last but not least, books that depict teen drug and alcohol use are frequently challenged, generally because people fear children will be inspired to experiment with illegal substances.

For more recommendations, original essays, and bookseller displays, check out our Banned Books resource page.

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The Big Five: Why Books Are Banned by Powell's Books

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As we noted in this post , the Office for Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Association releases a yearly list of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books. While the titles vary slightly from year to year, the reasons for censoring material are consistent, and generally boil down to some combination of the following five, listed here in order of frequency: SEX.

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Many people think that book censorship, challenges and book banning are things that happened in the distant past. That is certainly not the case. You may also remember all of the controversy about the Harry Potter books in the early 2000s.

Why Do People Want to Ban Books?

When people challenge books it is generally out of a concern that the contents of the book will be harmful to the reader. According to the ALA, there are four motivating factors:

The age level for which a book is intended does not guarantee that someone won't try to censor it. Though the emphasis seems to be on challenges to children's and young adult (YA) books some years more than others, attempts are also continually mounted to restrict access to certain adult books, often books that are taught in high school. Most complaints are made by parents and are directed to public libraries and schools.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

The Fight Against Book Censorship

When the Harry Potter books came under attack, a number of organizations joined together to establish Muggles for Harry Potter, which became known as kidSPEAK and focused on being a voice for kids in fighting censorship in general. KidSPEAK stressed, "Kids have First Amendment rights-and kidSPEAK helps kids fight for them!" However, that organization no longer exists.

For a good list of organizations that are dedicated to fighting book censorship, just take a look at the list of sponsoring organizations in my article about Banned Books Week. There are more than a dozen sponsors, including the American Library Association, National Council of Teachers of English, American Society of Journalists and Authors and the Association of American Publishers.

Parents Against Bad Books in Schools

PABBIS (Parents Against Bad Books in Schools), is just one of a number of parent groups around the country challenging children's and young adult books in classroom teaching, and in school and public libraries. These parents go beyond wanting to restrict access to certain books for their own children; they seek to restrict access for other parents' children as well in one of two ways: either by getting one or more books removed from the library shelves or having access to the books restricted in some way.

What Do You Think?

According to article Public Libraries and Intellectual Freedom on the American Library Association Web site, while it is important and appropriate for parents to oversee their children's reading and media exposure, and the library has many resources, including booklists, to assist them, it is not appropriate for the library to serve in loco parentis, making judgement calls appropriate for parents in terms of what their children do and do not have access to rather than serving in their capacity as librarians.

For More Information About Book Banning and Kids' Books

ThoughtCo addresses the issue in the article Censorship and Book Banning in America about the controversy surrounding the teaching of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in an 11th Grade American Literature class.

Read What Is a Banned Book? and how to save a book from banning by ThoughCo to learn how you can prevent book censorship.

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What You Should Know About Banning Kids' Books

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Many people think that book censorship, challenges and book banning are things that happened in the distant past. That is certainly not the case. You may also remember all of the controversy about the Harry Potter books in the early 2000s.

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The Harry Potter controversy has gone on, in one form or another, for years, particularly before the series ended. On one side of the Harry Potter controversy are those who say that J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books are wonderful fantasy novels with powerful messages for kids and the ability to make even reluctant readers eager readers. On the opposing end are those who say that the Harry Potter books are evil books designed to promote an interest in the occult, since Harry Potter, the hero of the series, is a wizard.

In a number of states, there have been attempts, some successful and some unsuccessful, to have the Harry Potter books banned in classrooms, and banned or under severe restrictions in school libraries. For example, in Gwinnett County, Georgia, a parent challenged the Harry Potter books on the grounds that they promoted witchcraft. When school officials ruled against her, she went to the State Board of Education. When the BOE confirmed the right of local school officials to make such decisions, she took her battle against the books to court. Although the judge ruled against her, she indicated she might continue her fight against the series.

As a result of all the attempts to ban the Harry Potter books, those in favor of the series also began speaking out.

kidSPEAK Speaks Out

American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, the Association of Booksellers for Children, the Children's Book Council, the Freedom to Read Foundation, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the National Council of Teachers of English, the PEN American Center, and the People for the American Way Foundation. What do these groups have in common?

They were all sponsors of kidSPEAK!, which was initially called Muggles for Harry Potter (because in the Harry Potter series, a Muggle is a non-magical person). The organization was dedicated to helping kids with their First Amendment rights. The group was most active in the early 2000s when the Harry Potter controversy was at its height.

Challenges and Support for the Harry Potter Series

There have been challenges in more than a dozen states. The Harry Potter books were number seven on the American Library Association's list of the 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990-2000, and they were number one on the ALA's Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009.

The End of the Series Generates New Views

With the publication of the seventh and final book in the series, some people began to look back over the entire series and wonder if it might not be a Christian allegory. In his three-part article, Harry Potter: Christian Allegory or Occultist Children's Books? reviewer Aaron Mead suggests that Christian parents should enjoy the Harry Potter stories but focus on their theological symbolism and message.

Whether or not you share the view that it is wrong to censor the Harry Potter books, they have value by giving parents and teachers the opportunity offered by the series to increase their children's interest in reading and writing and use the books to promote family discussions about issues that might otherwise not be discussed.

Reading all the books in the series will allow you to make an informed decision about the Harry Potter books for your children. Participate in Banned Books Week activities, educate yourself about your community's and school district's policies, and speak out as needed.

More About Book Banning and Censorship

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What's So Controversial About the Harry Potter Books?

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What is the Harry Potter controversy? The release of each Harry Potter book has been controversial, with challenges and book banning attempts.

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Experts say intense outdoor activities can help children increase focus and develop a better awareness of their surroundings

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Tony Hawk on the Dangers of Extreme Sports

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How frequently do sports injuries occur?

In the U.S., about 30 million children and teens participate in some form of organized sports, and more than 3.5 million injuries each year, which cause some loss of time of participation, are experienced by the participants. Almost one-third of all injuries incurred in childhood are sports-related injuries. By far, the most common injuries are sprains and strains.

Obviously, some sports are more dangerous than others. For example, contact sports such as football can be expected to result in a higher number of injuries than a noncontact sport such as swimming. However, all types of sports have a potential for injury, whether from the trauma of contact with other players or from overuse or misuse of a body part.

The following statistics are from the National SAFE KIDS Campaign and the American Academy of Pediatrics:

Injury rates:

More than 3.5 million children ages 14 and younger get hurt annually playing sports or participating in recreational activities.

Although death from a sports injury is rare, the leading cause of death from a sports-related injury is a brain injury.

Sports and recreational activities contribute to approximately 21 percent of all traumatic brain injuries among American children.

Almost 50 percent of head injuries sustained in sports or recreational activities occur during bicycling, skateboarding, or skating incidents.

More than 775,000 children, ages 14 and younger, are treated in hospital emergency rooms for sports-related injuries each year. Most of the injuries occurred as a result of falls, being struck by an object, collisions, and overexertion during unorganized or informal sports activities.

Where and when:

Playground, sports, and bicycle-related injuries occur most often among children between ages 5 and 14 years old.

The highest rates of injury occur in sports that involve contact and collisions.

More severe injuries occur during individual sports and recreational activities.

Most organized sports-related injuries (62 percent) occur during practice.

Types of sports and recreational activities

Consider these estimated injury statistics for 2009 from the Consumer Product Safety Commission:

Basketball. More than 170,000 children ages 5 to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for basketball-related injuries.

Baseball and softball. Nearly 110,000 children ages 5 to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for baseball-related injuries. Baseball also has the highest fatality rate among sports for children ages 5 to 14, with three to four children dying from baseball injuries each year.

Bicycling. More than 200,000 children ages 5 to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for bicycle-related injuries.

Football. Almost 215,000 children ages 5 to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for football-related injuries.

Ice hockey. More than 20,000 children ages 5 to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for ice hockey-related injuries.

In-line and roller skating. More than 47,000 children ages 5 to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for in-line skating-related injuries.

Skateboarding. More than 66,000 children ages 5 to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for skateboarding-related injuries.

Sledding or toboggan. More than 16,000 children ages 5 to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for sledding-related injuries.

Snow skiing or snowboarding. More than 25,000 children ages 5 to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for snow boarding and snow skiing-related injuries.

Soccer. About 88,000 children ages 5 to 14 were treated in hospital emergency rooms for soccer-related injuries.

Trampolines. About 65,000 children ages 14 and under were treated in hospital emergency rooms for trampoline-related injuries.

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default - Stanford Medicine Children's Health

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Stanford Medicine Children's Health Detailed information on sports injuries in children

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children's screen time nearly doubled during the pandemic - cnn

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Kids nearly doubled screen time during the pandemic, but there is something you can do about it

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Adolescents reported much higher screen times compared to pre-pandemic times, and it doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon, researchers found.

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The most popular social media apps are always changing, and it can be a challenge for parents to keep up. Currently, a video-sharing app called TikTok is one of the most prevalent, especially among teens.

Given the social app's rise in popularity - and recent media attention surrounding potential privacy concerns - many parents are probably wondering if TikTok is safe for their child. Like any social media app, TikTok can pose some risks to children and teens.

While every family may have different rules when it comes to technology, it's important for parents to be clear about those expectations with children. Learn why it's important to be aware of your child's online activities and how to encourage online safety in the digital age.

What are the dangers of TikTok for children and teens?

TikTok shares many of the same dangers as the wider Internet. For instance, there is always potential that your child will be exposed to age-inappropriate content like explicit lyrics, dangerous stunts or sexual content. If your child spends too much time on TikTok, it could also interfere with other things they should be doing for their development, like reading or playing outside.

Additionally, by using apps, it's important to be aware that you are sharing personal information, and that can come with some risks. One of the unique dangers of TikTok is how easily it allows users to create and share visual content.

Kids may not realize that when they put a video out, they are telling people on the Internet things about themselves. A video tells others what they look like, their age, sometimes where they live and other personal information.

The private message and comment features also allow potential predators to connect with your child while posing as a younger kid. They may use these features to build trust with your child, which could lead to physical danger. Even older children, who may be aware of general privacy risks, may act too impulsively when posting videos that could affect their future.

Lastly, some children may turn to social media apps like TikTok because they are seeking affirmation or praise online. If a video doesn't perform well or generates negative comments, this might lower their self-esteem and/or make them feel lonely. This is one way that too much time on TikTok may affect a child's mental health, just as too much time on the Internet can.

What is a safe age for TikTok?

While full use of TikTok is technically limited to ages 13 and up, children can easily get around that by putting in a false birthdate. Even though the app makers recommend that all users be older than 13, that doesn't automatically mean your teenager is ready for TikTok.

Age is just one factor. Every parent has to decide at what age it is safe for their child to access the Internet.

You should consider your child's level of responsibility, self-regulation and impulsivity. Keep in mind that even older teenagers are still developing self-regulation, so they still could post things on TikTok they later regret.

How can I keep my child safe on TikTok?

For younger children, parents can turn on parental controls so they can restrict what content children can view. However, don't just set the controls and never check in with your child again. If children delete the app and reinstall it, those controls will be gone. Parents should regularly check the app to ensure the controls are still in place.

For any age child, talk to them about setting their privacy controls as strongly as possible. You can create an account yourself to learn about what controls exist and how the app works. Just because you have an account does not mean you need to follow your child's account, but at least it can give you the knowledge and experience with the app to help your child set it up safely.

Talk to your child about the app's potential dangers, such as meeting random strangers or posting content they may regret. Have a conversation about what limits should be set on TikTok use, such as what kind of videos are okay to post and how often they can use it. With older children, you can have a conversation to agree on reasonable limits as well as reasonable consequences if the rules are broken. However, as the parent, you should have the final decision, even if your child is not pleased with the rules you feel are necessary to keep them safe.

When setting limits and rules, ensure your child knows there will be no negative consequences if they come to you with safety concerns.

As your child uses the app, you should stay up-to-date on their activity with it by showing a genuine interest in their TikTok videos.

Ask them to show you their favorite videos. Talk with them about what they enjoy about the app. Offer to help film videos for them. These are all opportunities to get a better feel for what they are doing while also giving them positive reinforcement for being responsible, safe, and maybe even creative or artistic.

You can also ask about any friends they've met online and what types of videos they share. These questions should be out of legitimate interest and not to pry into your child's privacy - unless, of course, you have reason for concern.

Though you should work with your child as much as possible to stay safe online, you can also choose to limit their access when worried about their safety. If you feel your child has posted something inappropriate or is not using TikTok safely, it's okay to remove their access to the app or, if necessary, switch out their smartphone for a simple flip phone.

At the end of the day, you are still the parent. Social media apps are a privilege and not a right for children. Your child's safety is the most important thing.

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Is TikTok Safe for Kids? - Children's Health

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The most popular social media apps are always changing, and it can be a challenge for parents to keep up. Currently, a video-sharing app called TikTok is one of the most prevalent, especially among teens. Given the social app's rise in popularity - and recent media attention surrounding potential privacy concerns - many parents are probably wondering if TikTok is safe for their child.

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Social Media and Fake News: Log in with Google to View

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Social Media and Fake News: Log in with Google to View

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Newsela | Real news reports on fake news as people try to figure out the difference

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Understanding the source is the first fake-news step.

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A little girl with pigtails and composure twirled in a pirouette with the rest of her classmates at Padonia International Elementary School, responding to a question from their teacher in Spanish.

"Cual es tu deporte favorito?" said teacher Christine Reier, asking her what her favorite sport is.

This is what learning Spanish looks like in one of Baltimore County's 10 elementary schools, where a foreign language is being taught for the first time this year. Starting in the fourth grade, students are immersed in the Spanish language several times each week. The format this day is a fast-paced activity, with not a word spoken by the teacher in English.

Only about a quarter of elementary schools in the nation teach a foreign language. Maryland doesn't require school systems to offer any foreign language instruction until middle and high school, and most Baltimore-area school systems don't offer a comprehensive language program at the elementary level.

But a renewed interest in teaching young children to speak a foreign language is catching on, driven by workplace forces and demand from parents.School systems have responded by offering Spanish and other popular languages in the early grades.

In the Baltimore area, a number of systems are beginning new programs.

Anne Arundel County teaches foreign languages in eight of its International Baccalaureate schools. Howard County is looking at two different means of delivering language instruction. Last year, it began exposing students to Spanish and Chinese in two schools, and this fall it started 30 minutes of daily Spanish instruction for children in kindergarten through fifth grade in six elementary schools.

About 4,000 Baltimore City elementary students are taking Spanish in 11 schools, with varying levels of intensity. Baltimore International Academy, a charter school, teaches five languages in an immersion model that teaches all subjects in the foreign language in kindergarten and first grade, then introduces English in reading and writing.

Carroll and Harford counties don't offer language in the early grades, although Harford has some after-school programs.

Parents who want their young children to learn a second language are one impetus behind the movement, saidMarty Abbott, executive director of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

"Elementary school parents across the country are starting to demand language programs in their schools," Abbott said. She said parents and administrators realize that with globalization, today's young children need to be prepared to converse in different languages. She noted that employers commonly advertise for workers who speak at least one language other than English and some are providing incentive pay if a worker learns a foreign language.

In comparison, students in many foreign countries routinely take a foreign language in the early grades and sometimes learn a third language, Abbott said.

Baltimore County Superintendent Dallas Dance led the push to provide young children with second language classes in his district. After a year of exploring different options, the county decided to teach Spanish to fourth-graders in 10 elementary schools, dubbed Passport schools.

During the pilot, students are taught by Reier or a second Spanish teacher one day a week for 35 minutes. The other days, the children work on a computer using a program the school system purchased, supervised by a classroom teacher.

Brian Schiffer, director of social sciences, fine arts and world languages for the Baltimore County school system, said the school system will evaluate the program after the first year to decide whether to expand it over the next several years to every school. It will remain at the Passport schools next year.

In Reier's class at Padonia, students stood up and moved, which Reier said would help their minds retain the vocabulary. She is focusing on spoken instruction this year, and plans to teach writing and reading the language toward the end of this year and in fifth grade.

"It is fun because you can communicate with other people, and when someone is speaking Spanish, you won't just be zoned out of the conversation," said 9-year-old Logan McCorkle, the girl who was twirling like a ballerina.

Tyler Harrington, 10, said he is happy to learn the language because some of his friends speak Spanish. He repeated Spanish words into a headset as he worked at the computer last week with the Spanish lessons.

"Spanish is hard to remember," he said. "That is why we do this computer work."

Vivek Patil, the father of 9-year-old Vedant, said his son has been so interested in his new Spanish classes that he has been working on Spanish lessons on the computer at home even though they haven't been assigned as homework.

"He is definitely happy with the program," he said.

Padonia Principal Melissa DiDonato has tried to introduce Spanish throughout the school this year. Spanish vocabulary words line the halls, pointing out the cafeteria, nurse's office and bathroom. There's an after-school book club where students read books in Spanish, and a school pledge is recited in Spanish and English during the morning announcements.

Parents have been excited about the possibilities, she said. Parents of second- and third-graders have been asking if the classes will still be available next year.

One-third of the students at the school are Hispanic. DiDonato said their parents have been just as enthusiastic about the instruction in Spanish because it strengthens their children's reading and writing skills in their first language.

The lessons also have given students who struggle to learn English the chance to excel and to provide leadership among their fellow classmates.

"They are definitely a group of students I am trying to think about," she said. "They are excited to speak their own language and they take pride in it."

Reier hopes her students complete Spanish I by the end of fifth grade so they can take Spanish II in sixth grade. Currently, foreign language instruction begins in seventh grade, so students could be two years ahead of today's graduating seniors if they decide to take a language all the way through high school.

"The younger you start the language, the more you acquire. I honestly feel that these fourth-graders pick it up faster than the seventh-graders," Reier said.

One barrier to offering foreign language instruction is the cost of adding staff, Abbott said.

To overcome that problem, some school systems offer dual immersion programs, a model in which students speak a foreign language in math and science classes, then switch to English for language arts and social studies classes. The math and science teachers must be fluent in Spanish and be able to conduct their classes in the language.

The model has benefits because the instruction is more intensive so students learn more - not just the foreign language but perhaps other skills as well.

Some studies suggest that early language instruction improves cognitive abilities in students. In one study, students in a Spanish immersion classroom did better in problem solving than students in a classroom without language instruction. Students taking Spanish weren't hindered in the development of their primary language.

Schiffer said the dual immersion model would have been difficult to implement at all 110 of the county's elementary schools.

Dance wanted every elementary student in the Passport schools to take a foreign language, so the system chose a model in which students have a Spanish teacher one day of the week and every school didn't have to hire a new teacher. Only two teachers have been needed to teach at the 10 schools. The cost is $70,000 a year.

Reier said she travels to a new school each day, teaching several classes of fourth-graders. Next year, she will be busier but will continue to handle all the fourth- and fifth-graders in five schools.

Students also receive 40 minutes of time on the computer each week.

Abbott said the computer model is an unusual one for children that young. She said students tend to learn the most when the foreign language teacher works with other teachers to reinforce the concepts from other classes.

Schiffer said the school system also plans to consider possible changes to the program.

"We are exploring a whole host of expansion options. We want to do a deeper study. We want to be judicious while getting it to as many students as we can," Schiffer said.

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In Baltimore area schools, young students are learning a foreign language

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A little girl with pigtails and composure twirled in a pirouette with the rest of her classmates at Padonia International Elementary School, responding to a question from their teacher in Spanish. "Cual es tu deporte favorito?" said teacher Christine Reier, asking her what her favorite sport is.

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Actively learning to play an instrument can help a child's academic achievement

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The benefits of a bilingual brain - Mia Nacamulli

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You don't hear much about Home Ec courses in schools these days. Even though many voices, from Anthony Bourdain to Slate, have called for its return, there's still the critique that teaching high-schoolers cooking, budgeting and basic household skills is like saying they should walk around in poodle skirts -- a "regressive" idea that doesn't have a place in the modern curriculum.

Yet the history of home economics isn't necessarily in line with the idea of miniature "Stepford Wives" who sew aprons in a daze. You know, a bit like this:

Quite the opposite. To home ec curriculum pioneers, the topic was considered a science.
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The creation of home ec is often attributed to Ellen Swallow Richards, a chemist and instructor at MIT, who paved the way for MIT's Women's Laboratory, which existed from 1876 to 1883 with a goal of advancing the scientific education of women at the Institution.

At the Women's Laboratory, Richards turned her scientific attention to the study of how to make home life more efficient. According to the Chemical Heritage Foundation, "Richards was very concerned to apply scientific principles to domestic topics -- good nutrition, pure foods, proper clothing, physical fitness, sanitation, and efficient practices that would allow women more time for pursuits other than cooking and cleaning."

Richards' philosophy -- that running one's home as efficiently as possible in order to make more time for things like, say, education -- might be surprising to those who still see home ec as being anti-intellectual. To Richards, home ec wasn't contrary to feminist principles. After all, she gathered other progressive women in 1899 to come up with academic guidelines for a fuller home ec curriculum that would "liberate" women from house work. The meetings, which occurred yearly in Lake Placid, New York until 1909, led to the formation of the American Home Economics Association. The group lobbied for increased funding for home economics programs. Richards was the president of the group until her death in 1911. (The American Home Economics Association was later renamed the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences and still exists today.)

But let's back up a second. Another guiding force behind the formal teaching of home economics was The Morrill Act of 1862, which led to the establishment of land-grant colleges in each state. These colleges, which offered both classical academic and practical courses, were open to women. "Domestic Science" courses were often on the agenda, specifically geared towards the wives of farmers, who were expected to run the household in addition to assisting in farm work.

It was a 1901 reading series by Martha Van Rensselaer specifically for the wives of farmers that lead to the formation of the New York State College of Home Economics at Cornell.

At Cornell, the curriculum had a more experimental direction. Famously, the school had "practice homes" and "practice babies." Each is exactly what you'd think they'd be. Students were tasked with taking care of an actual baby, sourced through an orphanage, in accordance to the latest in scientific theories of child rearing. After the school year was over, the babies would be put up for adoption. The first child arrived on campus in 1919.

Author Lisa Grunwald describes the environment in which practice babies were kept:

Bobby was only the second infant to come to the Cornell practice house. Like others who would follow him, he lived in a strange, artificial world: a nondescript apartment in which there were no favorite books on the bookshelves and no favorite clothes in the closet, and a baby in the nursery who could not have a favorite grown-up.

Cornell wasn't the only college to use orphaned infants as living, breathing lesson plans. By the 1950s, up to 50 institutions of higher learning incorporated "practice babies" into the home ec curriculum.

A glimpse into a midcentury home economics class.

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The post-World War II landscape presented a challenge for college-level home ec studies. During the Cold War, universities started to defund programs in favor of increasing budgets for science departments. The explosion of convenience foods made from-scratch cooking seem irrelevant. As college-level courses disappeared, those at the high school level lost their cache, as well. As Megan J. Elias writes in " Stir It Up: Home Economics in American Culture," home ec "became associated with dead-end high school classes for girls."

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Today, while home economics courses occasionally pop up in high schools, the language has changed. Instead of home ec, it's usually called something like "Family And Consumer Sciences." Even Richards' American Home Economics Association has been renamed the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences. While home ec's founders would love the "science" part of that title, they might wonder where the "home" went.

So, what now? We have a few ideas.

- Language matters. "Consumer Science" on its own has broader appeal than throwing "Family" into the mix. "Family" sounds like we're back in the "practice baby" days.
- Timing matters, too. A high school kid can handle learning how to make grilled cheese. But the student likely won't remember the in-depth lecture about interest rates, mainly because that's probably not part of his or her world yet. But in college, with student loan debts averaging in the high $20,000s, it's a great time to learn things like budgeting and basic business etiquette. Work in the "core" home ec classes from there: Managing laundry, meal planning and cooking.
- Don't make it part of the formal curriculum. Instead, treat it as informally as freshmen orientation.
- Change your attitude. The sooner we can accept that Home Ec isn't just for women, the sooner we can have students who have attain stronger life skills.

See Gallery

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Who Killed Home Ec? Here's The Real Story Behind Its Demise

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You don't hear much about Home Ec courses in schools these days. Even though many voices, from Anthony Bourdain to Slate, have called for its return, there's still the critique that teaching high-schoolers cooking, budgeting and basic household skills is like saying they should walk around in poodle skirts -- a "regressive" idea that doesn't have a place in the modern curriculum.

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I started my career teaching fourth grade. Each day, my students had 30 minutes for recess and I watched them play, scream, sprint, and laugh-all the things growing children should be doing. Recess provided a way to burn off energy, but it was also a time to build relationships. I played four square, tossed a football, and walked the perimeter of the playground with them. My students and I knew each other better because of recess.

Later, I began teaching middle school. The sixth graders had 15 minutes of recess-barely enough time to stretch their legs. And by the time they reached seventh grade, recess was a thing of the past.

Reduction in Recess

Recess ends after elementary school for many school districts. In our era of assessment and accountability, school districts look for ways to increase instructional time. Art, music, gym, and other "non-core" classes become expendable. Because these subjects are not typically under the microscope of state testing, they may be on the chopping block.

If these subjects are being cut, where does that leave recess? No one would argue the value of young children being able to run and play, but if we value movement and exercise in elementary school, why do we feel it's no longer necessary in middle school?

Why recess is important? Teachers and parents often forget how difficult it is to sit quietly all day. The older we get, the more sitting we do in school. By the time they reach middle school, most kids remain in their seats for the entire day. The active learning they experienced as elementary students is no longer the norm. Because of this, recess becomes even more important.

Making Recess Non-Negotiable

Five years ago, I helped develop a schedule for a new middle school in our district. The Delta Program is a small, democratic school where student voice, choice, and community are paramount. When I was asked about non-negotiables for our school, one of the first things I mentioned was recess.

We carved out thirty minutes each day for recess and have never looked back.

Our students value this time, and though eighth graders may not squeal with joy over a game of four-square, they still smile and laugh as they walk the perimeter of the field. However they spend their recess, no student is sitting for seven hours a day. It's just not healthy.

3 Common Myths About Recess:

Beyond enjoying recess, there are many reasons why recess should be an essential part of the day for middle school students. Here's why three of the reasons people use to justify taking recess away are simply not true.

1. Middle school gym class is enough.

Gym is different than recess. Physical education is important, but how the time is structured is determined by the teacher. It also involves standing and listening, while recess offers freedom of movement. And in districts where middle school gym class is still available, it's often an elective and many students don't even participate.

2. Kids need to spend school hours learning.

One definition of learning is acquiring knowledge through experience. Students have many experiences on the playground. They work through arguments and disagreements. They create, debate, and wonder. Just last week during recess, a group of middle school students organized a "Cardboard Olympics" and created events using only cardboard. They assigned judges, teams, and competed. There was laughter teamwork, and exercise. They were learning during recess.

3. Kids can exercise and play sports after school.

Some students participate in after-school sports, but many do not. Some families can't afford the cost of dance classes, football equipment, or other gear. And even for the kids who do play after-school sports, seven hours of continuous sitting each day is too long. In order to be able to focus on their work, they need breaks. They need movement.

How to Get Recess in Your School:

If your school doesn't offer recess, there are things we can still do to help get kids moving.

What teachers can do:

Build in a mandatory movement time during each class period. Take a mid-period break where everyone plays Simon Says, practices a yoga stretch, or walks around the building.

Get creative with lesson planning. If students are brainstorming for a writing activity, have them move to the four corners of the room, jotting down ideas on different whiteboards or posters.

Look into purchasing stability balls; these offer restless students the opportunity to move while working.

What Parents Can Do:

Establish an after-school routine, where kids engage in physical activity before sitting down to do homework or play video games.

Walk and talk. Instead of asking about their school day around the dinner table, hold the conversation during an after-dinner walk.

Take on a new exercise routine with your child. Sign up for a fitness class together, join the YMCA, or challenge yourselves with martial arts.

Regardless of our age, we all must get out of our seats, take breaks, and move. It's clear that if we want to nurture productive, alert, and healthy children, we need to make time in the school day for movement and exercise.

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Why Middle School Recess Should be Mandatory

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I started my career teaching fourth grade. Each day, my students had 30 minutes for recess and I watched them play, scream, sprint, and laugh-all the things growing children should be doing. Recess provided a way to burn off energy, but it was also a time to build relationships.

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Electives give students avenues for choice and can function as vehicles for core content standards.

©Shutterstock/Monkey Business Images

A vibrant elective program in middle and secondary schools should be considered just as precious as the core classes-after all, electives are the one or two periods a day that students have had a say in selecting. In a nationwide survey I conducted of sixth through 12th graders (for my most recent book), I asked what engaged them the most as learners. Across the nation, student choice ranked high in results. And according to education researcher Robert Marzano, choice "has also been linked to increases in student effort, task performance, and subsequent learning."

Yet this very quality-student choice-seems to be one of the factors that make electives vulnerable.

For many schools, budget cuts and an ebb and flow of educational funding are par for the course. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, "As of the current 2017-18 school year, at least 12 states have cut 'general' or 'formula' funding-the primary form of state support for elementary and secondary schools-by 7 percent or more per student over the last decade." In many cases, schools look to the classes they deem extras to be the first to fall.

For many, that means electives. However, I want to push back on this notion that electives are somehow expendable. In fact, some might argue they are just as vital as core content classes.

The Power of Connection

Students also reported in the nationwide survey I conducted that they need to be more connected to the adults on campus. We talk so much about differentiating students, but we need to differentiate teachers and schools too. It helps our students to connect with school if they learn that there are many diverse personalities on hand for them to learn from. Electives, many times, reflect the interests of the teachers that teach them as well as the students that choose them. This permits a student to automatically have a self-selected connection to the adult in the room.

The Journal of Educational Psychology recently reported that in a study of almost 400 students and their 25 teachers, researchers found that when teachers and students were given information about five similarities they shared, the knowledge helped improve student-teacher relationships and academic achievement.

Electives Support Core Classes

Electives can also do double duty as vehicles for core content standards. And teachers can help ensure that electives are not thought of as inferior to core classes by guaranteeing that they help carry the weight of teaching literacy along with core classes. Elective teachers can provide evidence of the learning happening by doing three key things:

1. Encourage annotation when students read texts related to the elective topic.

2. Utilize pre- and post-assessments to show growth in related informational reading comprehension.

3. Fold in writing and oral presentations to help students communicate the elective's content.

Yearbook, robotics, film society, photography, world languages, theater, speech and debate, music appreciation, and current events-all of these classes can tap into reading, writing, listening, and speaking. And all of them attract a variety of students while adding a self-selected layer of engagement to those students' learning of core standards.

I'd also like to make the push for electives to be more inclusive. I think it would help eradicate the myth of electives being nonessential if we dropped the grade-point average prerequisite and other requirements that grant students access. Student choice, after all, must be about the student, not the process of selection.

Elective programs can play a large role in our schools' goals in preparing our students for college and career. Being able to select classes reflects the same process that they will see again in college.

When Teachers Are Engaged

The fact is, while many consider electives the B story in a school, they can, in fact, set the tone for a campus and play a huge role in engagement. And because they are highly engaging, electives play a role in keeping our students on campus-especially those reluctant learners and ones who struggle academically.

The power of engagement, however, is not limited to students alone. Elective classes can serve a purpose to continue teachers' engagement as well. Feeling like you're burning out? Pitch a class that you want to teach, that you'd love to teach. Teach one that helps fuel your teaching flame. Teachers are helping to create master schedules that reflect a variety of interests-from gardening to digital storytelling. Create a class that helps lure students to learning in a way that engages you as well.

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Electives give students avenues for choice and can function as vehicles for core content standards. ©Shutterstock/Monkey Business Images A vibrant elective program in middle and secondary schools should be considered just as precious as the core classes-after all, electives are the one or two periods a day that students have had a say in selecting.

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"Sometimes we take for granted that kids know how to wash dishes," says Susan Turgeson, president of the Association of Teacher Educators for family and consumer sciences. "I never thought I was going to have to explain, step by step, how to put the drain plug in, the amount of soap to be used."

Yet in many family and consumer sciences (FCS) classes in the United States, once known as "home economics," teachers are instructing students in basics such as how to keep countertops clean or tell a teaspoon from a tablespoon. In 2010, the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act sought to address the rise of childhood obesity. But despite the renewed interest in showing children how to eat well, FCS classes haven't gained traction along with that movement.

These courses haven't gone away entirely, but their presence in schools is dwindling. In 2012 there were only 3.5 million students enrolled in FCS secondary programs, a decrease of 38 percent over a decade. Many blame an ongoing shortage of qualified teachers, while others worry that continued focus on testing, along with budget slashing, will make it hard to bring FCS electives back into the curriculum.

"Society couldn't get over the stereotype of the home economics teacher," says Gayla Randal, educational and program consultant for the Kansas State Department of Education, which is why the name was changed to family and consumer sciences. She says that the rise of testing and No Child Left Behind in public schools led to a dark time for home economics. "Anything that wasn't about a test score was scrutinized."
What is "women's work," exactly?
Though home economics started in the early 1900s as a way to professionalize domestic labor, giving women opportunities outside the home while simultaneously uplifting the value of "women's work" in society, by the 1960s the field had become a feminist pariah. As Megan J. Elias writes in Stir It Up: Home Economics in American Culture, figures like Betty Friedan "rejected outright the idea that housework could be fulfilling and implicitly condemned all projects that offered to help women find satisfaction in traditional housewivery."

While thinking of domestic labor as less important than professional careers - such as being a lawyer - is its own issue, there were real problems with midcentury home economics courses. There's the memory of girls being sent to learn about child care and cooking while boys took shop class - all in preparation to take on traditional gender roles in marriage.

"When my mom took her home economics courses in the 1950s, they learned every egg preparation there was," Turgeson says. "The reason for that was, they didn't know what kind of eggs their husband might want." In today's world, husbands are expected to make their own eggs, she adds. "When I'm teaching an egg unit, we're thinking about the function of an egg in the recipe." What do eggs do, what kind of nutrition do they provide, and how do you look at shelf after shelf of cartons and decipher through the labeling which kind is best to buy?

"There's a lot of fake news about nutrition, so we promote how to get good sourcing of information," Randal says of family and consumer sciences classes. Sustainable eating has become another important part of many FCS classes, which might now include subjects such as community gardening, composting and even hydroponics. As Turgeson says, "Those are things you would have never seen in a 1950s classroom."

FCS classes also commonly address personal finance, healthy relationships, how to balance work and home responsibility, and child development. "In the good old days you got that at home," says Megan Vincent, a FCS education specialist for the state of Montana. "But now you have two working parents ... these courses fill the gaps for what parents can no longer do."
Building confidence
Carol Werhan, an FCS educator and member of the board of the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, explains that cooking taught through FCS courses is more about having the confidence to experiment in the kitchen than becoming a trained chef. "People don't need to have perfection - you have to know what are the failures that are OK." Burnt edges can be cut off. Overcooked meat can still be served. "Just because you have a flop in the kitchen doesn't mean it needs to be brought up at the dinner table," Werhan says.

Sometimes the skills taught in FCS can be directly applied to a career, yet what the classes are really trying to do is create balance in students' lives. "Not everyone wants to be a chef or early childhood teacher or caregiver," Werhan says, explaining that FCS classes make for "a well-rounded, world-literate human being, which makes a great workforce and a great community."

Some states, such as Indiana and Pennsylvania, require some coursework in FCS in middle or high school. But it's often offered as an elective. Vincent says 100 of Montana's 170 high schools offers some type of FCS class. While it's no longer the case that the vast majority of students in these classes are female, Vincent does share that every FCS teacher in the state is currently female - though one male teacher will be starting in the fall. As of 2012, students in middle school were split evenly between boys and girls, while in high school only 35 percent of students were male. The change is likely because most FCS classes are entirely elective at the high school level. Participation levels, however, are still a huge shift from 1959, when only 1.3 percent of home economics students were male.
The search for teachers
Unfortunately, even when states might want to offer more FCS classes, a good teacher can be hard to find. According to a 2012 study headed by Werhan, "Over half of all states continue to have an issue with hiring adequate numbers of highly qualified FCS teachers." In Montana, some of the gaps in FCS education are being filled by organizations like Food Corps, which teach students about food and how it's grown and processed.

"Agriculture is our largest economy, and yet you still have students that don't know where our food comes from," Vincent says. This is changing for children in lower grades, who are starting to get this exposure, but many are still "coming up the pipeline" as Vincent says, and it's too early to tell what kind of effects this education will have.

It seems like one thing every FCS teacher will tell you is that their subject is one that, unlike calculus, students never wonder whether it will be relevant. "Wait five minutes in FCS, and you'll use this information later this week and later in life," Turgeson says. For some students, the classes are a break from their academics-heavy schedules and can be a place where lessons - say about fractions or chemistry - can sink in through exposure to those same concepts in the kitchen.

"Everything about FCS is really teaching resource management and employability skills, creative and critical thinking - we just do it through food," explains Turgeson.

Tove K. Danovich is a journalist based in Portland, Ore.

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Despite A Revamped Focus On Real-Life Skills, 'Home Ec' Classes Fade Away

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"Sometimes we take for granted that kids know how to wash dishes," says Susan Turgeson, president of the Association of Teacher Educators for family and consumer sciences. "I never thought I was going to have to explain, step by step, how to put the drain plug in, the amount of soap to be used."

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Journalism students at Howard University's school of communications were deeply engaged in this year's presidential campaign as Barack Obama and Mitt Romney battled for the White House. The students wrote widely about the candidates and the issues. Some traveled to Ohio, a key battleground state, and wrote about classmates who canvassed voters there as volunteers for the Obama campaign.

Others wrote about college students struggling to pay rising tuitions after their parents had lost jobs and homes to foreclosures. One student wrote about black Republicans who supported Romney and their status as double minorities - minorities within the Republican Party and among black voters who largely supported Obama. Throughout the year, students reported on the economic and social challenges that working people and poor communities were facing, issues that were being neglected by candidates singularly focused on the needs of the middle class.

And on Election Day, the students covered everything from problem-plagued polling stations to election night parties and spontaneous street festivities in front of the White House. The Root DC is publishing some of the students' work, starting with the story below by Tyleah Hawkins, a sophomore, about the impact of funding cuts to public school arts programs in poor communities.

Schools across the country have slashed their arts programs in the wake of major funding cuts by state governments struggling to balance their budgets during the economic downturn.

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, more than 95 percent of school-aged children are attending schools that have cut funding since the recession. Schools in wealthier neighborhoods that faced budget cuts were able to make up for their losses through private donations, while schools in impoverished neighborhoods have not.

As a result, schools in areas serving children from low-income families have reduced or completely cut their arts and music programs. These programs tend to be the first casualties of budget cuts in hard-pressed school districts already struggling to meet other demands of the academic curriculum, and they are rarely restored. Some school districts don't have much meat left to cut from arts programs that had already been reduced to bare bones after repeated funding shortfalls over many years.

"The cuts that have been occurring for the past couple of decades ... however, with this recession, many arts advocates such as myself do not have a clue when some programs will be brought back," said Narric Rome, senior director of Federal Affairs and Arts Education at Americans for the Arts, a national organization that promotes the arts. "The entire system is very unstable; teachers are laid off one school year and brought back the next, or most times not brought back at all. If we are lucky enough to bring these programs back, they won't be for a couple of years. Which means some students who are in school during these difficult economic times will completely miss out on the benefits of arts education."

Although arts and music programs tend to be seen as less important than reading, math or science, research has shown that arts education is academically beneficial.

"Low-income students who had arts-rich experiences in high schools were more than three times as likely to earn a B.A. as low-income students without those experiences. And the new study from the National Endowment reports that low-income high school students who earned few or no arts credits were five times more likely not to graduate from high school than low-income students who earned many arts credits," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a report titled "Arts Education in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools: 2009-10."

The arts have also proven to be a form of inspiration and expression for at-risk students, especially those in inner-city schools, and have been shown to improve their outlook on education.

According to a study titled "The Role of the Fine and Performing Arts in High School Dropout Prevention," by the Center for Music Research at Florida State University, "Students at risk of not successfully completing their high school educations cite their participation in the arts as reasons for staying in school. Factors related to the arts that positively affected the motivation of these students included a supportive environment that promotes constructive acceptance of criticism and one where it is safe to take risks."

Organizations such as ArtsEdSearch, an online clearinghouse that collects and summarizes high quality arts education research studies and analyzes their implications for educational policy and practice, have done private research about the issue. AEP Executive Director Sandra Ruppert said that the findings in the report point to the power of the arts to lead the way in helping every child realize success in schools

"This is especially true for underserved students who benefit most significantly from arts learning but are the least likely to receive a high-quality arts education," Ruppert said.

Research has also shown that arts education helps improve standardized test scores. A study done by The College Board, a nonprofit association that works to make sure all students in the American educational system are college-ready, found that students who take four years of arts and music classes while in high school score 91 points better on their SAT exams than students who took only a half year or less (scores averaged 1070 among students in arts educations compared to 979 for students without arts education.)

"Arts education gives children a place where they can express themselves and channel negative emotion into something positive. Students are well-rounded and required to be academically healthy in all subjects to perform. To be honest, what is learned in music education is truly immeasurable," said Barbara Benglian, the 2006 Pennsylvania state teacher of the year. Benglian has been teaching at Upper Darby High school in Drexel Hill, Pa., for nearly 40 years. Her school was one of the many schools at risk of losing their arts programs due to low test scores. However, the arts programs at the school were saved after parents, students and alumni organized petitions and protests rallies. Even Upper Darby alumnus and actress Tina Fey jumped on board to help save the arts program. Other schools around the country are not as fortunate.

Several Howard University students who participated in music and arts education in grade school and high school speak fondly of the positive effect it has had on their lives.

"In elementary school, music sparked my interest and led me to playing the trumpet. It gave me the opportunity to travel to places I otherwise would not have gone, and most importantly, helped me become more culturally accepting by broadening my musical horizons," said Joe Williams, a junior majoring in psychology. "Without music, I would not be as open as I am to learning about new people."

Nate Shellton, a sophomore, chose to dedicate his life to the arts by majoring in acting.

"I think it's absolutely outrageous that fine arts are the first to be cut in public schools," he said. "It says a lot about what is important to education in America. Because math and science is what is being tested, tests that determine a school's ranking is what is most important to the school, but the institutions' ranking is not necessarily what's in the best interest of the students as a whole person."

More from The Root DC

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A conversation with John Forte

A gift matched by none

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federal affairs and arts education at americans for the arts

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Less art and music doesn't mean better test scores

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Journalism students at Howard University's school of communications were deeply engaged in this year's presidential campaign as Barack Obama and Mitt Romney battled for the White House. The students wrote widely about the candidates and the issues. Some traveled to Ohio, a key battleground state, and wrote about classmates who canvassed voters there as volunteers for the Obama campaign.

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Does your school have music classes or programs? Have you ever been involved in one? If so, what was the experience like and what did you learn from it? If not, why not?

In " In New York High Schools, the Sound of Music Is Muted," Sam Bloch and Kate Taylor write:

... Musical opportunities are now concentrated in a small group of arts-focused schools, like the Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music, which require auditions, while students at most high schools in the borough have little opportunity to play music.

Music education in New York City schools faced challenges even before the breakup of the comprehensive high schools. During the fiscal crisis of the 1970s, schools laid off thousands of arts teachers. For years after, many schools relied on community groups, or in some cases the city's elite cultural institutions, to provide part-time music instruction, often through visiting artist programs.

Music programs were rebuilt in the 1990s, thanks in part to funding from the Annenberg Foundation, and to a dedicated arts funding stream known as Project Arts, established by Rudolph W. Giuliani. But the renaissance was short-lived. In the early 2000s, federal pressure from No Child Left Behind legislation led urban school districts to focus more heavily on math and reading instruction, to the detriment of arts classes. In New York City, Project Arts was dissolved, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg began breaking up the city's dropout factories.

The new, smaller schools have a hard time offering specialized programs, whether music or sports. Some principals say that, while they would like to be able to offer music programs, they have to prioritize core academic subjects.

Sandra Burgos, the principal of Astor Collegiate Academy, a school of 481 students on the second floor of the Columbus campus, said that she would love to hire a music teacher, but with limited resources - only 28 teachers and 17 classrooms - she feels it's more important to offer science, technology, engineering and math courses.

"That's where most of the jobs are going to be for this group of kids," she said.

In addition to lacking a teacher, the school doesn't have a soundproof room where students could play music. In the past, a computer teacher led a guitar club after school. But when that teacher left, the club ended, and the school's eight guitars are now locked in an equipment closet.

Nationwide, high school music participation has "stayed relatively stable over the last 20 years or so," said Mike Blakeslee, executive director of the National Association for Music Education. But there are significant variations between districts, with districts with more small schools and charter schools falling behind in music participation.

Students: Read the entire article, then tell us:

- In your opinion, is music a valuable part of the education experience? Do you think all schools should offer music programs? Or should funding go toward other areas, such as core academic subjects, sports or college counseling? Why do you think the way you do?

- Is music a priority at your school? How do you feel about this? Do you think your school should put more or less emphasis on the arts? Why?

- Do you think students should be required to take a music class at some point in their education? If so, what classes, until what grade and why? If not, why not?

- If money were no object at your school, which kinds of music classes would you want offered and why?
Related Lesson Plan: Students 13 and older are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public. Nine Teaching Ideas for Using Music to Inspire Student Writing

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Should All Schools Offer Music Programs?

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Does your school have music classes or programs? Have you ever been involved in one? If so, what was the experience like and what did you learn from it? If not, why not? In " In New York High Schools, the Sound of Music Is Muted," Sam Bloch and Kate Taylor write: ...

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Do you love to play sports? For many kids, there's nothing quite like the exercise and fun that come from being part of a team. Maybe you play baseball, basketball, football, or soccer. Perhaps you prefer softball or volleyball. No matter what sports you enjoy, there is fun to be had on a field or a court near you.

Some athletes take things to the next , though. Rather than playing traditional sports, they strike out on their own. No, we're not talking about bowling or jogging. We're talking about extreme sports!

What is an extreme sport? There's no set definition. For the most part, though, extreme sports are athletic activities involving one person that are dangerous in some way. Most extreme sports give athletes a rush of adrenaline . This is what drives many of them to take part.

What types of activities do most people call extreme sports? It's a long list! It includes skateboarding, surfing, bungee jumping, snowboarding, whitewater kayaking, mountain climbing, and ice climbing. Many would add BASE jumping, heli-skiing, BMX biking, bull riding, and cliff diving to the list. Even mountain biking, cave diving, ski jumping, speed skiing, and street luging are often called extreme sports.

Just thinking about many of those activities is enough to give most people goosebumps. That feeling of fear and is what drives many extreme sports athletes. They seek to test themselves in all sorts of death-defying ways. Many people also enjoy watching extreme sports. Their popularity has soared in recent years.

You may have seen extreme sports on TV or social media. Some of the athletes receive large sponsorships. Many companies want to link their brands with these thrill seekers. Some sponsorships allow extreme sports athletes to compete professionally.

The best extreme sports athletes can have long and profitable careers. But even the smallest mistakes in these sports can have major-even - consequences . Between 2000 and 2011, over four million injuries were caused by extreme sports.

Many of these injuries can be prevented. Unfortunately, the young people who are most likely to in extreme sports sometimes lack good judgment. The lure of Internet leads many to attempt things they're not ready for.

Extreme sports can be very dangerous. Never in an activity you haven't prepared for. If you think you would like to try an extreme sport, get advice from friends and family members first. You should also learn from experts in the sport. If you proceed, start small. Your safety is always what's most important.

CCRA.L.3, CCRA.L.6, CCRA.R.1, CCRA.R.2, CCRA.R.4, CCRA.R.10, CCRA.SL.1, CCRA.SL.2, CCRA.W.2, CCRA.W.4, CCRA.W.9, CCRA.L.1, CCRA.L.2

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Today's Wonder of the Day is extremely interesting!

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Extreme sports for kids are on the rise, with the continuing popularity and more technical tricks and stunts on skateboards and mountain bikes.

But some people worry that kids aren't mentally and physically prepared for this kind of risky play. MPR News host Kerri Miller examines the benefits and of extreme sports for kids.

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Extreme sports for kids are on the rise, with the continuing popularity and more technical tricks and stunts on skateboards and mountain bikes. But some people worry that kids aren't mentally and physically prepared for this kind of risky play. MPR News host Kerri Miller examines the benefits and of extreme sports for kids.

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Just off Spyglass Drive in Tehachapi, Calif., a small city about a hundred miles north of Los Angeles, a hulking steel lattice rises in the middle of a dusty landscape. The girders hold up one end of a suspended wooden road that swoops up the hillside underneath it like a smooth, caramel-colored roller coaster. The other end lies some 500 feet away, its top nine stories above its lowest dip.

One afternoon in April 2012, several boys and a man climbed into a camouflage-patterned dune buggy and drove uphill to the ramp's apex. There, the boys strapped on helmets and dressed themselves in kneepads, chest and spine protectors, hip pads, elbow pads and gloves. The oldest, a 13-year-old named Jett Eaton, dropped his skateboard and stepped on its tail, popping its front wheels into the air. He tipped his board over the platform's edge, then dropped into his run. Halfway down the length of the ramp, he reached a jump and soared over a 70-foot gap. On the other side, he resumed his descent toward the far end of the ramp, which curved up suddenly and launched him 40 feet above the ground, spinning furiously, before he crashed back down onto the ramp.

He was trying to complete a difficult trick known as the "nine" - attempting, in the three seconds he was airborne, to spin 900 degrees, or two and a half times, like a figure skater performing a double axel, while holding onto his board with both hands. Jett had been trying and failing to do the trick for months.

After three hours - and Jett's 13 unsuccessful attempts at the nine - Geoff Eaton said they were done. He was coaching them, and he didn't want anyone skating while tired. He had driven his two oldest sons, Jett and Jagger, who was 11, seven hours from Mesa, Ariz., that day to skate here, on one of only two permanent MegaRamps in existence.

The kids gathered at the bottom, tossing a football, sharing snacks and laughs. Jett, however, unbeknownst to the others, sneaked back up the MegaRamp to try the nine one more time. As he approached the jump over the gap, he wobbled, then slammed into the ramp. Everyone turned. "Call the copter!" Geoff yelled.

Even as childhood in America seems to become more and more circumscribed in the name of safety - as schools limit recess activities and remove threatening playground equipment, as critics inveigh against parents who let their children roam without supervision - kids participate in extreme sports at ever-younger ages. What were once simple pastimes, like riding bicycles and skateboards, have evolved into thrill-seeking pursuits and intense competitions whose goals include new tricks and surpassing what's thought to be possible. Jett Eaton was first invited to compete on the Mega-Ramp in the Big Air event at ESPN's X Games when he was 13; two of the top six finishers that year were under 16. In January, a snowboarder named Chloe Kim became the Winter X Games' youngest gold medalist, at 14. In July, Minna Stess, then 8, became the youngest girl to skate from the steepest section of the MegaRamp. The Icelandic snowboarder Benni Fridbjornsson, now 10, landed a flip when he was 7.

Vani Sabesan, an associate professor of orthopedics at Wayne State University School of Medicine and the lead author of a study on head and neck injuries in extreme sports, worries that kids aren't mentally ready for these activities. They tend to underestimate risk, and their parents can't always be trusted to keep them in check. She is especially concerned about adolescents who imitate things they see on TV or in videos, without proper training. "What we're seeing is a lot of kids thinking maybe they can do what these professional athletes can do," Sabesan says.

She also points out that youth participation in extreme sports tends to be unregulated. "Very rarely is it medically supervised," she says. "That makes it even more high risk." Nor has there been much research on which extreme sports, or which moves within them, are particularly hazardous to kids. "We don't even know what the injury rates are," Sabesan says.

The Norwegian research psychologist Ellen Sandseter, who has published two dozen papers on children and risky sports, describes herself as having been "a sensation-seeking child," phrasing she prefers to "thrill-seeking." She was lucky, she says, to have a father who took her skiing and mountain climbing. By the time she was a young adult, she noticed that parenting attitudes were changing, that fewer kids got the opportunities she did, and she resolved to investigate why.

In the 1990s, she says, a program introduced Norwegian teenagers with drug problems to sky diving and other extreme activities. After that, they committed fewer drug offenses, fared better in school and reported being happier. In a later study of 360 high schoolers, Sandseter and a colleague found that those who said their parents encouraged things like rock climbing and kayaking were less prone to criminal and antisocial behaviors like speeding, stealing and vandalism. "If you've grown up with a lot of experiences with risky play, this teenage period will be more manageable, you'll be more realistic in your risk assessment," Sandseter says.

Sandseter says that she let her son and daughter, now teenagers, climb very tall trees as grade schoolers and that her son now does back flips on skis. Over the years, he has developed a finely tuned kinesthetic sense for what his body can do safely, and he heeds warnings from coaches and peers. She believes that his skiing has made him generally more mature than most kids his age. But, she says with a sigh, "he is a frequent guest at the emergency room." He has broken his shoulder, forearm and wrist; split his head open; suffered a concussion.

I have two daughters, 7 and 9, who are thrill seekers. When our youngest was 3, she slid down our three-story spiral-staircase banister. She probably would have reached the bottom safely - she later told us she'd done it many times before - if someone hadn't happened by and startled her. Instead, she fell, breaking her collarbone. Last month, my eldest took a trip down a treehouse slide she had greased with bath soap and broke two bones in her foot. Both girls climb rock faces as high as 50 feet and are clamoring to go higher. My wife and I recently discovered they have a new favorite playground: our house's roof.

We don't want to Bubble-Wrap our daughters' childhoods. But we don't want them to seriously hurt themselves either. So we're stuck in the middle, questioning our choices.

After his crash on the MegaRamp, Jett Eaton was airlifted to the Level 1 trauma center in Fresno, 130 miles away. "I thought I lost him," Geoff Eaton told me recently. Jett suffered a fractured skull, bruised frontal lobes, a seizure and a concussion. When he left the hospital three days later, it was not clear if he would ever skate the MegaRamp again.

As a young child, Jett wanted to do motocross. His father discouraged that and steered him toward skateboarding, which Jett took up at 7. As his skating improved, Geoff built an increasingly elaborate skating facility near their home in Arizona and staffed it with elite coaches. Jett placed fourth in a major competition when he was 13, the age at which he was first invited to the X Games.

When I sat down with him, he had just finished a three-hour skating session. His T-shirt, from DC Shoes, one of his sponsors, was drenched in sweat. His left forearm was encased in a black cast for a broken wrist. I asked him why he kept at it, despite all the injuries. Jett says he has had about 10 concussions and five seizures, has broken six bones and has had his spleen punctured twice.

"I got my first skateboard for Christmas when I was 7, and my dad built me a small ramp in my garage, and ever since I've loved it," he said. "I couldn't stop getting on my skateboard." On good days, skateboarding is pure happiness. "And even when I'm feeling down or not skating too well, if I start skating with my friends, I can get pumped up that way." At the end of his workout, I saw Jett finally land a trick he struggled with for weeks, the "backside 180 nose grind" - in which the front truck of a skateboard slides along a curb - and his whole body went slack with satisfaction. His friends rushed up, and everyone exchanged fist bumps.

I asked Jett, who has returned to skateboarding's second-largest ramp, the "mini mega," if he will go back to the MegaRamp too. "Most likely I'll get back on it," Jett said.

His father is O.K. with that. "That's his choice, if he wants to do it again," Geoff says. "I'll never tell him no." He sees how hard Jett skates: five hours a day, five days a week. Some people might regard his parenting as crazy - even criminal. But where others may see only the injuries, Geoff believes he has helped his sons, now 16 and 14, find passion, identity, tight-knit peer groups. He says they eat right, sleep well and disdain alcohol and drugs. They apply the grit they've acquired through skating to their schoolwork.

"If you're going to live, you can't live behind a stop sign, taking no risk, and every time you want to do something that gets your heart beating, you decide that it's safer if you don't," he says. "That's not how I live. I don't want my kids living like that."

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Is It Wrong to Let Children Do Extreme Sports?

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Just off Spyglass Drive in Tehachapi, Calif., a small city about a hundred miles north of Los Angeles, a hulking steel lattice rises in the middle of a dusty landscape. The girders hold up one end of a suspended wooden road that swoops up the hillside underneath it like a smooth, caramel-colored roller coaster.

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What's the average age when kids get a social media account? | CNN

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About 56% of US youth have their own social media accounts, according to Common Sense Media. The average age when signing up for an account was 12.6 years.

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(iStock)

If you had a magic wand, would you ban your child from social media for as long as possible? If you said yes, you're not alone. Glennon Doyle, author of "Love Warrior" and a mom of three, recently tweeted that her kids aren't allowed on social media. And I've been hearing more about this approach as I work with schools across the country as the founder of the Social Institute, which promotes the positive use of social platforms. The effects of screen time and the risks associated with social media, whether bullying or meeting strangers, are serious enough for some parents to forbid it outright.

I understand that parents know their kids best and want the best for their kids. But beware of making social media a forbidden fruit. Here's why it's a bad idea to ban it - and what to do instead.

Kids will always be one step ahead

I speak with thousands of students across the country about social media, and they describe how ahead of the game they are compared with parents:

"All my friends talk about Fortnite at our school lunch table, but my parents don't know much about the game."

"My sister is up to a 350-day Snap streak, and my dad is clueless about why that's cool."

"My mom gave me permission to use Instagram, but she has no idea about my finsta." (A finsta is a second Instagram account teens use to hide from parents and share more honest photos and captions.)

"My parents regularly search my phone, but they don't know about my decoy app." (Kids download "decoy apps" like Calculator% and Audio Manager, neither of which calculates or controls volume. After entering a code, kids can hide their photos and videos, make secret calls and message people - all within the app.)

"I created an Instagram account, and my mom has no idea. Otherwise, she would freak out." (While most platforms require users to be at least 13 years old to create an account, anyone who wants to open an account needs only two things: Internet access and an email address.)

The lesson? Kids will never stop migrating to new apps that are foreign to parents. Banning social media just isn't realistic.

There's a positive side to social media

Headlines often focus on the pitfalls of social media, so benefits such as building relationships with friends and future employers, supporting causes, and joining movements are easy to overlook. Not only can students use social media to fuel their success, but they will be increasingly expected to do so. According to a 2017 study by CareerBuilder with more than 2,300 hiring managers, more than half won't interview someone they can't find online.

By teaching kids to use social media in a healthy way, parents can help them take charge of their online reputation and follow positive role models who can push them toward their goals.

Shared standards can strengthen a family

Unlike rules, which restrict negative behaviors, standards encourage positive behaviors and open, trusting relationships. Living up to high standards takes practice, and when a group of people - a family - agrees to live by the same standards, they keep each other accountable.

Take screen time. Adults often complain that teens look at their devices too much. In reality, according to a 2017 study by Common Sense Media, adults spend 26 minutes longer each day "with screen media" than children ages 8-18 (and more than 80 percent of it is "devoted to personal screen media"). Kids can't be what they can't see.

Defining your family's social standards is the first step toward using social media positively. (Kids will notice if you don't follow the same practices they've agreed to.) Help one another by agreeing on and signing a family social standards agreement. That's right, Mom and Dad sign, too.

What will you and your family prioritize before turning on Netflix?

When will everyone put their screens away? After 8 p.m.? When having a conversation? When driving (that means you, parents)?

How often will you update your passwords?

What are your standards for posting? Will you agree to not post embarrassing or inappropriate photos/videos of each other or other people?

These days, even elementary kids can join apps like YouTube Kids or Facebook Kids Messenger or play Fortnite (on multiplayer mode). Apps and multiplayer games are becoming a part of their childhood. And children of different ages need different amounts - and types - of guidance. With younger kids, you might use tools like Net Nanny or Bark to monitor their every move. But all kids benefit far more from a two-way conversation because it promotes an atmosphere of openness and trust.

When you huddle, discuss the "do's" of social media, not just the "don'ts." Replace "don't post anything you wouldn't want your grandmother to see" with "post what represents your character and values."

Let's empower our kids to fuel their potential by using social media. Yes, banning social media altogether would be easier - for you. Your child, however, would miss out.

Laura Tierney is founder of the Social Institute, which helps teach tweens and teens to use social media and technology in beneficial, positive ways.

Follow On Parenting on Facebook for more essays, news and updates, and join our discussion group here to talk about parenting and work. You can sign up here for our weekly newsletter.

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Perspective | Why it's a mistake to ban social media - and what to do instead

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If you had a magic wand, would you ban your child from social media for as long as possible? If you said yes, you're not alone. Glennon Doyle, author of "Love Warrior" and a mom of three, recently tweeted that her kids aren't allowed on social media.

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Teaching Kids to Be Smart About Social Media

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Before kids or teens hit "enter," make sure they know the rules when it comes to oversharing, teasing, posting personal info, and other online don'ts.

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Is Recess Important for Kids or a Waste of Time? Here's What the Research Says

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There's a running debate on whether recess at school is good for kids or a waste of time. Here's what experts have found

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Recess: Necessity or Nicety? | Education World

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Ready-to-Use FREE Resource: Recess: Necessity or Nicety? PLUS More Fun Classroom Activities!

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The start of a new school year means the return to daily homework, anoften dreaded task and the root of parent-student strifethat leaves some parents of elementary school students wondering if it's worth it. The answer, experts say, is complicated.

Some point to studies that find that appropriate take-home work in the right amounts can enhance younger students' learning and prepare them for a routine of studying as they get older. But others say homework has little to do with academic achievement in elementary school and can get in the way of other life experiences like spending time with family and much needed downtime for often over-scheduled kids.

"There's no one answer," said Susan Goldman, professor of psychology and education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and co-director of the UIC Learning Sciences Research Institute. Homework "has to be taken in the context of who are the kids, who are the teachers, what kind of instructional time do they have in school and what kind of support do kids have for getting work done."

"It's a complex kind of situation," Goldman added.

Homework isn't effective if the student doesn't understand the lesson during class time, she said. And often homework requires support at home, which isn't practical for all students, Goldman said. However, if the homework has a clear purpose to all involved - parents, teachers and students - the child can benefit.

While the benefits of homework continue to be debated, there are clear camps on each side: Some tout an often cited 10-minutes-per-grade-level- per-daystandard, while others shun homework altogether.

Education consultant James Gray instituted a no-homework policy at Hamilton Elementary School in Lakeview four years agowhen he was principal of the Chicago public school.

"My perspective changed a lot after I had my own kids," said Gray, whose two oldest children still attend Hamilton. He recalled a time when his daughter and wife were arguing about violin practice, reminding him of the family conflicts over homework time. While his daughter wasn't required to play violin, many students are required to do homework.

"It made me think a lot about what schools do to families," he said. "I heard from parents over the years about this massive fight that happens at night. It creates this antagonistic relationship between parent and child."

"It didn't seem worth it for what schools are trying to get out of homework," Gray added.

After researching and finding little evidence that primary-level students benefit academically from homework, Gray decided to do away with homework at Hamilton in 2014. At first the policy applied to kindergartners through second-graders. Then it expanded through fourth grade and remains in place at the school, even though Gray left at the end of the 2016-17 school year.

"Kids can become disenchanted with school easily," Gray said, explaining the additional family and relaxation time at night is actually better for young students.

"Learning happens all the time at home, whether you're cooking a meal, playing a game or reading a book," he said.

Gray's policy was well-received, he said. While he was expecting some backlash, it didn't come.

"Parents would tell me, 'We played Clue last night, and it was so nice to sit down for an hour,' or, 'My child sat down and read a book on his own without being prompted.'"

Gray said he heard from parents and educators in other schools in Chicago and across the country wanting to create their own no-homework policies.

"I'm hoping (Hamilton's policy) sticks around," he said.

But others say homework shouldn't go away completely, even for younger students.

Harris Cooper, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, has studied the correlation between homework and academic success. He said all students should have some homework, but the amount and type of homework should vary depending on age and developmental level.

Cooper said he believes in the 10-minutes-per-grade-level-per-daystandard. Too much homework can bore students and take away from other valuable experiences, like after-school clubs and playtime, he said.

"This is not rocket science," he said. "You may have brought home a pre-test for spelling on Thursday before you take a test on Friday, and you did better because you brought the pre-test home."

While homework is not a significant predictor of academic success in early grades, Cooper said, it does create good study habits that will help students as they get older

"Is (homework) going to cause a great leap in (students') achievement? No it is not," he said. "What it's really doing is shaping their behavior, so they begin to learn how to study at home."

Cooper said homework also provides an opportunity for parents to tune into their child's academic abilities and challenges. Instead of relying on a teacher to tell them, parents can see for themselves where their child might be struggling. It also can spark greater communication among parents, teachers and students, he said.

"With all young children, assignments should be short, simple and lead to success," he said.
kthayer@chicagotribune.com Twitter @knthayer
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Should kids have homework? The great debate.

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As back to school season looms, an age old question remains: Should kids have homework? The answer, experts say, is complicated.

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Newsela | Later start times, less homework to help students cope with stress

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To lessen students' stress, some Illinois high schools have moved back the start time and give less homework during breaks.