What is Your Favorite Place in Your House?

By KATHERINE SCHULTEN

For will.i.am of the Black Peas, it's his recording studio, while for skateboarder Tony Hawk, it's the custom skate park he built behind his house. Though few teenagers have spaces custom-built to suit their talents, everyone has a place in their home where they feel most comfortable. Where is yours, and why? You might browse this slide show for inspiration first.

In this weekend's Key Magazine, The Times asks various well-known people about their favorite spaces in their houses. Visit this slide show to see will.i.am, Tony Hawk, Judy Chicago, Todd Oldham, Gish Jen and others in their favorite spaces. Here's what will.i.am says about his:

"This is my brain, my factory, my laboratory, my sanctuary where I can go to be creative," says will.i.am of the recording studio in the Spanish-style 1920s house he has owned since 2005.

"The place is a haunted house," he adds. "Not a bad spirit, but there is an energy in the house. All the emotions that happen in a place are stored in the wood and the stone. They are sponges. New buildings don't feel like anything because they are made of dust, of plywood and things like that, which have no absorption. The emotions get sucked in and disappear. But older buildings absorb energy."

Students: Tell us where you feel most comfortable and happy in your house or yard and why. What about it suits you? What do you do there? If, like some of these celebrities, you could design a perfect "favorite space" in your house or yard to your specifications, what would it be like?

San Francisco bans Happy Meals

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

San Francisco lawmakers have given preliminary approval to a law that would prohibit fast-food restaurants from putting toys in children's meals unless they include fruits and vegetables and don't have too many unhealthy calories.

To see the rest of this story and to read students' comments about it, click the headline (above) or use this link:

http://tweentribune.com/content/san-francisco-bans-happy-meals

Responses to: School Sued Over Nose Piercing

"I teach, and my nose is pierced. It doesn't make any difference in the way I've been teaching for 18 years." – Cathy Dicenza

"Schools and teachers are blamed for everything. Why was the child not fined for distracting other students from learning?" – Julie Allen

"I am an educator. I have 5 tattoos. I once had 4 facial piercings. If I could wear my eyebrow rings, tongue ring and earrings I would. But I respect my school board that prohibits them." –Trever Forbes

"There is more at stake here than a nose piercing. In this case it is religion." – Rosemary Crouser

To see more and to share your opinion, click this link: http://tweentribune.com/sound_off

School Sued Over Nose Piercing

The American Civil Liberties Union claims in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that a North Carolina school violated the constitutional rights of a 14-year-old student by suspending her for wearing a nose piercing.

To see the rest of this story and to read students' comments about it, use this link:
http://tweentribune.com/content/school-sued-over-nose-piercing

How Would You Do in a ‘Free School’?

By HOLLY EPSTEIN OJALVO AND KATHERINE SCHULTEN

 

At the Manhattan Free School, students "do not receive grades, take tests or have to do anything, really, that they do not feel like doing." Teachers there believe that students learn best when they direct their own education, so though there are classes, students can play video games all day if they like. Would you want to attend a school like this? If not, why not? If so, what do you think you would do with your time? Do you agree that you learn best when you direct your own education? Why or why not?

In the column  "Play-Doh? Calculus? At the Manhattan Free School, Anything Goes," Susan Dominus writes:

At the Manhattan Free School, which opened in 2008 and follows a model that first gained fame at A. S. Neill's Summerhill School in England, educators believe that students learn best when they direct their own education. Classes are held, but if a student wants to play video games or model with Play-Doh all day, so be it — even if that student is, say, 17.

… "It comes down to trust," Ms. Werner said, "the trust that given time, they'll find their passions, and when they do, they'll be eager to learn."

Students and faculty members debate and vote on all matters of school policy, but the grown-ups are outnumbered: The school has two full-time teachers, and relies on parents and other volunteers who believe in the program to fill the gaps (including calculus, if a student were to want to learn it).

Students: Tell us how you think you would do in a school like this. What would you do all day? Are you self-motivated? Do you agree that "the flip side of freedom is responsibility"? What balance of freedom and structure do you think would benefit you best for the purposes of learning?

What Should the Punishment Be for Acts of Cyberbullying?

What Should the Punishment Be for Acts of Cyberbullying?

By KATHERINE SCHULTEN

 

This is the question an article in the Week in Review asks about the Tyler Clementi case. "Just how culpable is an online bully in someone's decision to end a life?" the article asks. Do you know about this case, and the Phoebe Prince case earlier this year? How tough should the punishment be for those who cyberbullied these students? Why? How do you think incidents like these could be prevented in the first place?

In "Bullying, Suicide, Punishment," John Schwartz discusses the complexities of the case and concludes:

Finding the right level of prosecution, then, can be a challenge. On the one hand, he said, "it's college — everybody is playing pranks on everybody else." On the other, "invading somebody's privacy can inflict such great distress that invasions of privacy should be punished, and punished significantly."

There is also the question of society's role. Students are encouraged by Facebook and Twitter to put their every thought and moment online, and as they sacrifice their own privacy to the altar of connectedness, they worry less about the privacy of others.

Teenagers "think that because they can do it, that makes it right," said Nancy E. Willard, a lawyer and founder of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use.

Impulsiveness, immaturity and immense publishing power can be a dangerous mix, she said. "With increased power to do things comes increased responsibility to make sure that what you're doing is O.K.," she said.

…That is why Daniel J. Solove, author of "The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor and Privacy on the Internet," said society needed to work on education.

"We teach people a lot of the consequences" of things like unsafe driving, he said, "but not that what we do online could have serious consequences."

Students: Tell us what you think about how punishment in this case and others like it should be handled. How much is the bully to blame, and how much responsibility should he or she bear for the consequences? Why? How do you think cyberbullying like this can be prevented in the first place? Do you think education, as Mr. Solove suggests above, is enough?