It seems that the President's address to schools is causing quite an uproar partly political and partly educational. You can read the text of his statement here. What I wish we would spend more time discussing is the time missing in school. Each and every day, there is time wasted in school for a series of reasons beyond the control of teachers. It is in this vein that I hear some people having issue with the Presidential address. Teachers have more and more to cover, in less and less time. You have a school day which can consist of only 4 hours, how do you cover everything that needs to be covered?

We must work harder at finding more time for teachers. This does not mean simply adding to the school day or year. Instead, we need to make sure we all leave the teacher's time alone and use other times for events, even seemingly important ones.

 One of my sons has gym today and it made me think of something, why do the kids have so little gym class any more? Is there a correlation between this and the rise in Obesity?

When I was in school, I will try not to make it sound like that was in the stone age or something, we had gym class each and every day. In many schools today, they are lucky to have it once a week. I know there are a lot of valid reasons for this, time for academic study, etc. However, I do not think this is something we can just toss out as a given. I believe we as parents have to start looking to support more time for gym, for the health of our children.

As seen a press release today,  the September 11th Education Trust has announced a new series of resources for educating the public about 911. It is amazing material, I hope you will check it out.

 New reports are out on SAT performance, as can be seen here, and the results are causing a stir. Overall scores are down, and the gap is widening between some of the ethnic groups.

A few people are already using the results of these reports to call for another complete overhaul of the educational systems, as with NCLB. Granted, it has been since 2002 that NCLB has been underway and there are a number of issues related to it, but can we take a step back for a moment. Instead of calling for another change, can we take our processes and make them more effective? Can we close the widening gaps between have and have nots in education?

Can we make sure the money is spent on the kids and their education directly, and not to the various special interests? It is not a matter of money, there is a lot of money spent on education. it is a matter of getting the money into the right places and holding everyone accountable, students, faculty, staff, administrators, and parents.  

The state of Ohio has published report cards on the schools in the state. You can see information on this process here. How much do parents know about their children's school and how much should they know?

Every parent should be asking how well their child's school is performing and the school should have a means to give that information quickly. If they do not, the state governments and local media have a large amount of data concerning schools. We all should hold our schools accountable.

Why you might ask? Simple, to make sure our kids are getting the best. Isn't that every parent's wish?

 Is there anything in the world like the first day of school? It is such a joy to see how excited kids, of all ages, are to get back to class.  It is amazing to see the youngest in line for the first ride on the bus. It is equally as exciting to see the College Freshmen about to embark on their new adventure.

It is my hope and prayer that each and everyone of us never forget the excitement that these kids have as they start their educational journeys. It is the responsibility of all of us to make sure they are equally as excited throughout their years in school.

 Now, I am someone that has had some "interesting" experiences in air travel. I could tell you about my 2 hour flight that took 36 hours for instance, but nothing I have ever experienced can top this one. As you can see here, 47 passengers, on a plane that holds 50, were forced to wait all night on the plane on a airport tarmac.

I know there has been a lot of discussion about a passenger's bill of rights, but if anyone one is against the idea, perhaps they need to hope they never experience what these folks went through.

 You have heard me before talking about gym class, and how different it has become. Going from gym everyday, that was the norm when I was in school to gym once at week at many places today. In fact, less than 1/3rd of schools today have gym every day.

However, in the less time, there are more injuries. As reported here, the number of emergency room trips taken by children from gym class is way up in comparison to the past. The question begs to be asked, why?

I can only give you my thoughts, but I believe that the lack of daily gym is hurting the development of many kids when it comes to coordination and healthy living. Too many kids are out of practice of out of shape and when they play football or other sports, they are more likely to be injured.

??? What do you think??

It is a proud moment for all of us in the College as our School of Nursing has received its largest federal grant, almost $1.5 million over 3 years, to support training for nurses in rural hospitals. This just one of the grants the nursing programs are currently operating with, this year alone the School of Nursing has received over $1.2 million in grant funding from a variety of sources.

I should also note that the undergraduate BSN program this fall will enroll 60% more students then the previous year. Our nursing programs continue to demonstrate they are one of the best in the nation.

Congratulations to Dr. Sue Schmidt, Director of the School, as well as to the entire nursing faculty, staff, and students.

 I have heard a lot of people discussing technology recently. With facebook, twitter, and other sites being the topics, it seems that there is an issue or fear arising daily. Now there is a new one for everyone to talk about. As you can see in this article, a women has been sued by the company that manages her apartment building for defamation based upon her "tweet" about mold in the apartment. 

Now I have heard of a lot of useful functions for twitter and its tweet, but on the other hand I have heard somethings that make you shake your head, (who really needs to know when someone is watching tv for instance?).  I have also heard about people whose homes were robbed when they had tweeted about being on vacation. But this is a first, a lawsuit about a tweet. I do not know how to feel about it, it is that new. However, one part of this article scares me more than anything with twitter, it is the statement of the manager of the apartment company: "We're a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization."

There is just so much wrong with that statement it can almost become a calling card for what is wrong with our legal system.

What do you think?