Published on Feb 16, 2013
When a student shows up to school out of dress code, the guidance counselor discovers that his disheveled demeanor is because he is currently homeless and does not have a place to wash his clothes.
Is taking part in school sport just a matter of keeping fit, or are there more unexpected benefits? And what of those pupils who want to make a career out of sport do they also need a good education?
Olympic champions Carl Lewis and Ian Thorpe conquered the world in their chosen sports, swimming and athletics.
The two sporting heroes advocate sport on the school curriculum and recall their days in the classroom.
*Beating the bullies through sport*
Sports lessons can tackle the problems of bullying and bad behaviour in school helping young people channel aggression and anger into healthy competition. A project in the USA is leading the way and shows why which shows why playing games matters in school matters.
*Sowing the seeds of excellence in Senegal*
Basketball is the key for a better future. That’s the belief behind the Seeds Academy, based 70km from Dakar, the capital of Senegal. It is where teenagers come to practice their favourite sport, and prepare for what might be their future career. Sacrifice, rigour and discipline are the key values at this academy.
Published on Feb 17, 2013
Palestinian schoolchildren struggle with insufficient educational facilities and textbook censorship in their East Jerusalem neighborhood, according to a new report. Some say Israel should let Palestine handle schooling in the area. Linda Gradstein reports for The Middle Line.
Published on Jan 31, 2013
Student engagement is a goal in schools everywhere. A teacher in the Washington suburbs has found a way to engage and motivate students– by bringing rhythm and fun to mathematics. As VOA’s June Soh reports, the approach works well especially for students who speak English as a second language. Amy Katz narrates.
Published on Feb 2, 2013
A school in Washington DC is making a difference for young African-American girls. Many of their families live below the poverty line of $35,000 for a family of four, in communities where more than half of all students drop out before they reach high school. VOA’s Chris Simkins has more on how this special school is turning around the lives of girls.
Published on Oct 24, 2012 by VOAvideo
More than 7,000 girls in New York City become pregnant by the age of 17 each year. Nearly two-thirds have abortions. Now, some New York public high schools are expanding a program to provide birth control to students as young as 14 who request it. That expansion has become controversial with some parents. VOA’s Carolyn Weaver has more.
The percussionists in this Sao Paulo school band can’t hear the music.
Instead, they feel the vibrations from the drums and speakers.
Their teacher, Fabio Bonvenuto, started teaching deaf and hard-of-hearing pupils in 2005.
Called “Music of Silence”, the band also has hearing members.
And Bonvenuto says that combination has produced positive changes.
[Fabio Bonvenuto, Music Teacher]
“The first thing we noticed was the change in the (deaf) students’ social skills, since they began to interact more with others. They also learn to respect boundaries.”
Bonvenuto says the hearing-impaired process sound differently, but it’s all done in the same part of the brain.
The band even performs with other schools, which improves the kids’ confidence and amazes their parents.
[Fabio Bonvenuto, Music Teacher]
“The families get involved. Many parents walk up to me and say: ‘I didn’t know my child was capable of playing music. I didn’t know she was part of such a great project’.”
“Music of Silence” will hit its highest note in 2014 when the young musicians perform at the opening ceremony of the World Cup.
Afghanistan is trying to unify the country through a new national educational curriculum. But a lack of security, books, trained teachers and schools is making it very challenging. Sharon Behn reports from Kabul on the difficulties faced by Afghan students.
The Story of Menstruation is a 1946 10-minute animated film produced by Walt Disney Productions in 1946.
It was commissioned by the International Cello-Cotton Company (now Kimberly-Clark) and was shown to approximately 105 million American students in health education classes.
It was one of the first commercially sponsored films to be distributed to high schools. It was distributed with a booklet for teachers and students called Very Personally Yours that featured advertising of the Kotex brand of products, and discouraged the use of tampons, where the market was dominated by the Tampax brand of rivals Procter & Gamble.
The Story of Menstruation is believed to be the first film to use the word vagina in its screenplay. Neither sexuality nor reproduction is mentioned in the film, and an emphasis on sanitation makes it, as Disney historian Jim Korkis has suggested: “a hygienic crisis rather than a maturation event.”
Opens with a somewhat graphic view of a human cadaver.
Oct 24, 2011
Becoming a doctor takes many years of training at a medical school and tens of thousands of dollars in tuition. But anyone can get a taste of medical training, from real medical school professors, in just two months, for free, at a mini medical school in Denver.
