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June 30, 2008

Some Colleges Offer Coed Dorms

Twenty-six years ago, when I was getting ready to begin college, my father became a bit preoccupied with what I felt was a very silly thought: he worried that the roommate my university would pair me up with would be male. I explained to him that this was not going to happen, that I was living on an all-female floor, that this was not even permitted at my university, but he still worried. "What if they make a mistake?" he asked. He nearly drove me nuts over it.

I hadn't thought about this in many years, but then my Dad visited in May, and we were discussing my daughter's departure and here it came again: "But what if they give her a boy roommate?" So I said "Dad! Not again! She is not going to have a male roommate, stop being silly! That simply does not happen!"

Okay, so I was wrong. Looks like my Dad was just a little ahead of his time. Check out: One boy, one girl -- one dorm room, from Cnn.com. Although colleges aren't randomly assigning males and females to be roommates, some are now giving students the choice to have different sex roommates on campus.

Posted by L.C. at 09:39 AM |
Filed under: News/Media/Studies | Parenting

June 24, 2008

Was There a Pregnancy Pact at a Mass. HS?

When I read the Time magazine article, Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High, I was pretty enthralled by the story. I started thinking about the teenager girls that are in my life, most getting ready to leave for college in August, working at coffee shops, going to the mall, having as much fun as they can this summer. Then I thought about these young women in Massachusetts, and what their futures would be like. I was never a single, teen mother, but I have two kids and I know how tough the early years of their lives can be. And the idea that they had a "pregnancy pact" intrigued me, in a very sad way.

But now, the story is getting more complicated. The school principal does not appear to be standing by the statements he supposedly made to Time, and the town's mayor is stating there may have been no pact at all. Check out this article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Mayor: No Proof of Pregnancy Pact. The principal doesn't seem to be talking to reporters anymore, but comments from a few of the pregnant girls' classmates suggest some of the pregnancies were intention and planned, in Time's Gloucester Pregnancy Plot Thickens.

Posted by L.C. at 08:01 AM | | Comments (0)
Filed under: News/Media/Studies | Parenting

June 17, 2008

School Uses Scare Tactics to Teach DUI Dangers

I can't think of anyone who doesn't feel that teenagers need to be taught the seriousness of driving under the influence. But I was stunned, as were many of my friends, when we read about how a high school in California went about trying to teach students that driving under the influence can kill. Check out DWI shock tactics at school defended - msnbc.com, to see how this school brought in police officers to tell students that some of their friends had been killed in accidents. And none of it was true.

Posted by L.C. at 09:38 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Filed under: Parenting

June 11, 2008

In the News

Time for another rendition of In the News! Here are the stories that caught my eye recently:

  • Bad tomatoes: Surely everyone has heard the news by now. Reports of a salmonella outbreak from tomatoes are everywhere. But is it really as bad as it seems? Check out this msnbc article, Did food sellers overreact to tomato scare?
  • Talk about a bad decision: In the article Tatum O’Neal released after NYC drug bust, also from msnbc, one of my favorite actresses from my childhood (who was a child herself when I was) gets busted trying to buy crack cocaine.
  • Finally, single moms get the hook-up: After so many nauseating episodes of shows like The Bachelor, Flavor of Love, Rock of Love, and other such reality dating shows, single moms are getting the chance to find love, as the world watches. Check out Single Moms Struggle to Find Mr. Right on the abc news site.
  • Then why are so many getting left behind?: Time magazine looks at the law that has many of my educator friends up in arms with No Child Left Behind: Doomed to Fail?
  • Cruelty reaches new heights: I can't even bring myself to watch the video that accompanies this story: Chilling video of hit-and-run accident released.

Posted by L.C. at 07:16 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Filed under: Reviews

June 03, 2008

Something in the Air?

I'm not sure what is going on lately, but my community seems to be surrounded by death. My daughter lost two friends a few weeks ago, then a local boy drowned at a water park, and a local girl died in a car accident just two days after graduating from high school. Then yesterday, dd and I were driving to a restaurant for dinner, and we came upon a horrific accident scene. One car was mangled, and the other not only mangled but all the windows were covered with sheets. We learned this morning that someone died in that accident.

These are just a few examples--there are more. It made me start to wonder how the friends and family members of those who pass away suddenly cope with the grief.

DD has coped pretty well with her friends' deaths, as have most in her group. But some of the teens are still in such pain they seem convinced it will never go away. I searched for information, and learned that there are two types of grief: normal and complicated.

wikipedia states:

Deaths such as suicides, murders, accidents, and other sudden and unexpected deaths can result in complicated grief due to the sudden shock. The surprise makes it difficult to integrate the "story" of the loss, so the person struggles with an initial task of simply believing that the loss has occurred. Variables surrounding the death such as expectedness, naturalness, presence of violence, ambivalence, degree of attachment, and others play into the presence of complicated grief.

No wonder these kids are hurting so much. Now dd and I can't seem to get that picture out of our heads. The accident scene from yesterday was a strange one. The second car ended up on a small hill, near a fast food restaurant. People were everywhere, just standing silently, looking. The grassy roadside was still dotted with people an hour later, looking shocked, wondering how it all happened. An apparent trip to a shopping center one evening ending like this.

Posted by L.C. at 01:18 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Filed under: General 40ish