School Statistics

NEW YORK MILLS, Minn. — The Minnesota organizers of the 2012 Great American Think-Off have named the four finalists who’ll square off in this year’s debate.

This year’s question asks whether humankind is inherently good or evil. Four finalists will debate the question June 9.

Two entrants will argue that people are essentially good. One is Marsh Murihead, who’s a poet, dentist and flight instructor from the Bemidji area. The other is Marie Anderson, a La Grange, Ill., woman who works part-time in two public schools.

Arguing that humankind is essentially evil are Ed DeLong, a World War II veteran from Virginia Beach, Va.; and writer Adam Bright, a graduate student in poetry at Syracuse University.

The contest is organized by the nonprofit New York Mills Regional Cultural Center in Minnesota.

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Britain’s two biggest unions are threatening strike action at 13 more primary schools against plans to force them to become academies.

The 13, all in Birmingham, have been singled out by Education Secretary Michael Gove as under-performing

However, Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “There is no evidence at all to support the notion that changing the status of a school will transform the educational attainment of its pupils.

“The majority of the school communities in Birmingham do not support this move.”

Chris Keates, general secretary of the National association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, added:  “The secretary of State has tried every trick in the book to persuade schools to become academies.

“Schools in Birmingham and all over the country are now facing unacceptable and unfair pressure to convert.”

The move follows decisions at both of the unions’ Easter conference threatening strike action over academy status.

Already teachers at Downhills primary school in Haringey, nerth London, are being balloted over the issue. 

The school failed an emergency Ofsted inspection ordered by Mr Gove earlier this year.  However, parents and teachers argue it is improving – having met the Government’s minimum target of 60 percent of pupils reaching the required standard in maths and English last year.

Mr Gove has singled out 200 primary schools which – for five years running –  have not met the minimum target for turning into academies.

He argues that those who oppose him are “enemies of promise”.

A section of the Linnaeus Arboretum at Gustavus Adolphus College will be dedicated and named the Charles & Harriet Mason Deciduous Woods at a public ceremony at 5 p.m. Friday, May 11, in honor of longtime Gustavus employees and Arboretum supporters Charles and Harriet Mason.

The Mason’s dedicated many years of their lives to serving Gustavus and nature. Charles taught biology at the College from 1967 to 1997 and brought great honor to Gustavus by earning the prestigious Charles A. Lindbergh Grant for his work with algae. Harriet was a stay-at-home mother who subsequently pursued a doctorate in botanical ecology at the University of Minnesota.

For many years, the Masons shared a vision of establishing an arboretum on campus that would serve as a place of learning and exploration for students and the St. Peter community. That dream became reality in 1973 when they planted the first seedlings on a parcel of land that would become the Linnaeus Arboretum. Charles was named the Arboretum’s first executive director in 1975 and Harried served as the coordinator of the Arboretum’s Melva Lind Interpretive Center from 1988 to 1998, when they both retired.

“Today the Linnaeus Arboretum is a unique and integral part of the Gustavus campus and the deciduous woods stand as a renewable testament to the Mason’s legacy,” said Dr. Cindy Johnson, current Executive Director of the Arboretum.

Friday’s dedication ceremony will include remarks from Johnson and President Jack R. Ohle as well as a dedication and blessing by Chaplain Rachel Larson. A ceremonial planting will conclude the dedication ceremony. Arboretum staff will host tours before the ceremony starting at 4 p.m.

The Linnaeus Arboretum at Gustavus is named for Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778), a Swedish botanist who is best known for his work shortening long Latin descriptive plant names to a simpler binomial nomenclature system. With 125 acres on the southwestern end of the Gustavus campus, the arboretum provides an environment to educate the mind, revive the spirit, exercise the heart, and delight in Minnesota’s natural history.

The arboretum was established in 1973 with the planting of tree seedlings on what had previously been agricultural land. The three major ecosystems found in Minnesota are represented in the arboretum, including the northern conifer forests, prairies of the south and west, and deciduous forests from central Minnesota. Formal gardens surround the Melva Lind Interpretive Center and include more than 100 species of cultivated trees introduced from other regions. The Coneflower Prairie, a new 70-acre tall grass prairie was recently developed on the west side of the arboretum and will be dedicated in September. The Linnaeus Arboretum is open during daylight hours throughout the year. The Melva Lind Interpretive Center is open weekdays during the school year, 8:30 a.m.-12 p.m., and by appointment.

Playing outside is necessary to release children’s energy, accumulated stress and tension. In this way, they will be more relaxed at home and in class. They will be able to sleep better at night too. Children need an outlet to express their accumulating energy. Parents have passed that stage, so they tend to forget that if children can not express or release their energy, they become frustrated, aggressive, and develop insomnia. And this is necessary for children of all ages. Buying kids trike is recommended even for children from 1-2 to 5 years.

Don’t forget about the problem of obesity. Growing boys are constantly hungry, and they will eat more food, and they like to eat a lot of snacks and drink sugary drinks. Snacking is especially dangerous for girls. On top of that, they like talking on the phone, watching TV and chatting with other girls on the computer. Girls must go outside, so they do not develop problems with obesity. While no parent needs to encourage girls to diet, they need to keep an eye on the development of their excess fat. And this problem can be solved if you buy a Puky trike, bike or scooter for your kid.

The last but not least purpose of playing outside is learning valuable social skills when they play outside with others. There are certain social skills and life experience that can not be gained on a video game, or behind a computer screen. These lessons can take place when children are interacting with each other, play games and meet new people. Children learn concepts such as tolerance and acceptance. While video games, television and computers are useful tools, they were never developed as a replacement of human interaction. Consider, there are certain skill sets and life lessons that can only be learnt when you interact and grow with other people.