The Dream of Seeing Birds in the Wild

For this boy, what he loves include penguins, the outdoors, messing around on the computer, and of course Legos. When it comes to his beloved birds in the wild this first grader will get to see them early next month in Antarctica as they waddle on ice and feed their newly hatched chicks. Joined by his parents and an internationally known explorer and filmmaker, they will be heading off for a trip to the Antarctic Peninsula.

Children his age are not usually able to travel to a continent like this one. This kind of traveling even makes his friends want to celebrate the trip. That’s because the boy is taking his classmates at his school along. If all of them come too then the costs would skyrocket so what they have is an Internet linkup. Their live video coverage will also be accessible for students across the world.

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Growing Up Ethnic: Nationalism and the Bildungsroman in African American and Jewish American Fiction


Growing Up Ethnic examines the presence of literary similarities between African American and Jewish American coming-of-age stories in the first half of the twentieth century; often these similarities exceed what could be explained by sociohistorical correspondences alone. Martin Japtok argues that these similarities result from the way both African American and Jewish American authors have conceptualized their “ethnic situation.” The issue of “race” and its social … More >>

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This Week’s News: Youth in Transition

Education

Facing reality on dropouts may aid reform
Daily News, Los Angeles, CA – August 14, 2011
The California Department of Education made an announcement on Thursday that will have earthshaking impact on the entire state.  For the first time, it acknowledged the massive numbers of County Office of Education dropouts that have been largely invisible to the public. It also acknowledged the existence of the significant numbers of especially tragic dropouts who do not even complete middle school before dropping out.

» Read more: This Week’s News: Youth in Transition