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Source: boston.com
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An 18-year-old Mississippi lesbian student whose school district canceled her senior prom rather than allow her to escort her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo said she got some unfriendly looks from classmates when she reluctantly returned to campus Thursday.

The district announced Wednesday it wouldn’t host the April 2 prom. The decision came after the American Civil Liberties Union told officials a policy banning same-sex prom dates violated students’ rights. The ACLU said the district not letting McMillen wear a tuxedo violated her free expression rights.

Ridiculous to cancel an entire prom because of an issue with two homosexual students that wanted to be each other’s dates. Besides the obvious violation of civil liberties, it sets a terrible example for the students. It also encourages students and parents to point blame at this one family, when it is in face the school district’s fault that the prom was cancelled. People need to be accepting of these kind of things.

Yeah, there was a memo sent out saying that dates had to be of the opposite sex, but Daryl Presgraves, a spokesperson for GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) says that this kind of rule “sends a message that these students shouldn’t be treated the same.” I agree with him, and I feel like most people I know do as well.

Source: boston.com
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A bill that would ban the sale of sugary drinks and junk food in school vending machines and school stores is gaining momentum in the Legislature, as Massachusetts combats a troubling rise in childhood obesity rates.

The House passed it in January, after nearly a decade of debate on similar bills that went nowhere. Now, Senate President Therese Murray has thrown her support behind the effort and is optimistic that members will embrace it in a scheduled Senate vote today.

Removing junk food offered in schools will not completely solve the problem. The bigger problem is that some schools spent so much time cutting physical education classes because of budget deficits. What we need to do, some way, somehow, is bring those classes back. If we get students moving for 45-60 minutes a day, childhood obesity rates will go down because they’re burning off all that food they’re eating while simultaneously having fun. I remember physical education being cut at my high school past 8th grade because of budget deficits – this left the high schoolers at Latin Academy with no movement of any sort – just six straight hours of either sitting in chairs, moving toward the next class, or eating lunch.

We need to encourage parents to engage their students in healthy exercise and also provide classes for students to exercise as well. Exercise should especially be stressed at the elementary school level (of course, the necessary accommodations and modifications will be made for children on IEPs) and classes containing such should be offered throughout grade school. Exercise is how we get students in shape.

Source: boston.com
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A looming budget deficit could lead to the closing of a significant number of Boston schools over the next two years and further reductions in staff, Superintendent Carol R. Johnson said yesterday.

Johnson, who is still working through the numbers with her staff, said she is making every effort to avoid closing schools for this fall, but was unsure if she could prevent it.

Budget deficits…why is that such a common trend these days? It’s unfortunate. Hopefully they can balance the budget without school closings of any sort. I trust that Superintendent Johnson will make the best decision for Boston Public Schools.

Source: New York Times
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For more than 2,500 years, mathematicians have been obsessed with solving for x. The story of their struggle to find the “roots” — the solutions — of increasingly complicated equations is one of the great epics in the history of human thought.

And yet, through it all, there’s been an irritant, a nagging little thing that won’t go away: the solutions often involve square roots of negative numbers. Such solutions were long derided as “sophistic” or “fictitious” because they seemed nonsensical on their face.

My girlfriend showed me this article – it’s a really good one and definitely a suggested read if you want a little closure about all that imaginary number stuff.

Source: boston.com
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CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. – Inside the front door to Central Falls High School, across the street from a boarded-up building, an archway is adorned with an unambiguous boast: “Through these halls pass the world’s best faculty and students.’’

It is a motto that rings false for the local school board, which recently voted to fire all of the school’s staff in a stunning move that made Central Falls a lightning rod in the polarizing debate over improving the country’s education system.

Painful consequences for a school that failed to perform well. Is it really everyone’s fault, though? Whose fault is it, really, when a school underperforms? Is it wholly that of the teachers? Is it wholly that of the administration? I feel like people usually point at the administration when schools perform badly, but bad teaching exists and is prevalent as well. I feel like firing an entire staff is a little drastic, though I don’t completely know the situation here. Perhaps it is necessary, though: replacing the entire staff starts the school over. It allows the superintendent to look for people who all share a similar mission and have similar goals and expectations in place for their students. A school with staff that share a common goal goes a long way toward helping students.

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