Keep Current Topics

Fall 2007

Japan is an island country in East Asia located in the Pacific Ocean. The characters that make up its name mean "sun-origin" which is why Japan is sometimes identified as the "Land of the Rising Sun."

Keep Current event in world history…

On September 22, 1862 President Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation, setting a date for the freedom of more than 3 million black slaves in the United States and recasting the Civil War as a fight against slavery.

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A Keep Current Issue

"You're It!"

An elementary school near Boston is the latest in the U.S. to ban students from playing tag, touch football or any other unsupervised chase games during recess. School officials fear that students could get hurt and that their parent would then sue the school for financial damages in court. According to one principal, recess is a time when accidents can happen. Other districts have banned tag because they say it may hurt self-esteem, particularly if one child is always "it". And in some, instead of allowing them at recess, tag and other chase games have been incorporated into regular physical education classes where students can be closely supervised.

But Charlene Burgenson of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education says tag is exactly the sort of activity that's appropriate for recess. She says tag and other chase games do not damage self-esteem but provide exercise that could help curb rising rates of obesity. They argue that playing tag is simply part of being a kid.

What do you think,"Should schools ban chase games?"

Think about this issue and then E-mail your opinion.

Another Keep Current Issue

Penmanship

At least 90 per cent of American children between the ages of 5 and 17 use a computer. As their typing skills improve, their writing or longhand skills are declining. Most primary grade teachers spend 10 minutes a day or less on penmanship. Some schools say it is a struggle to fit that in between teaching technology, foreign languages and other subjects. Others say our culture is now at a crossroads where we will permanently turn from the written word to the typed one. They say students need only learn how to block print.

But other academics say research indicates that students who have good penmanship skills produce longer, more complex compositions from the earliest grades. At one Maryland school, first graders who were given 15 minutes of instruction 3 times a week dramatically increased sentence construction skills, writing speed and complexity of thought. And beyond that, many people mourn the loss of a handwritten letter. They say there is a beauty and an individuality to longhand that should not be dismissed as simply old fashioned.

What do you think,"Is penmanship a thing of the past? "

Think about this issue and then E-mail your opinion.