No Child Left Behind

            The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was signed on January 8^th, 2002. It was signed by President George W. Bush, and was one of the first things his administration worked on when taking office. NLCB was implemented to improve reading and math test scores in school across the country.

            NCLB has brought more standardized state testing to public school, and only creates a competition for education funding, instead of trying to redistribute the money as equally as possible.

            Supporters of NCLB will say to someone that the tests and the higher expectation of students are improving. However, many teacher unions and students disagree.

            “In theory, NCLB is trying to provide schools with the support they need, but in practice it is not happening. Our schools need tailored solutions and committed supporters,” said Cindy Rivera, a student at Georgetown University.

            Deborah White, of About.com, says that NCLB has pressured teachers to teach how to do well on a test, rather than teaching with the goal of learning. It has forced teachers to change their curriculums to meet the material on these tests.

            Since standards and tests are written by states, each state can set oddly low standards. They do this only because if the students don’t meet their standards they will receive less funding from the federal government.

            These standards are not only for students as they are for teachers as well. NCLB has made higher standards for teachers. Teachers must pass a series of proficiency tests. In turn, this has created a shortage of teachers.

            NCLB is a major cause to the lack of knowledge students obtain in public schools. Public high schools are supposed to prepare students for college, but NCLB limits what can be taught and makes no room for any preparation for the “real world” after high school.  

Teen Marijuana Abuse

John Smith, age 17 [not his real name] is a typical high school senior at Marple Newtown Senior High. Smith spends his days going to school, having dinner with the family, and going out with his friends. The only difference between Smith and other students is that while others are taking their biology tests, he is prowling the hallways waiting to meet his next customer.

            “Dirty money is the easiest money to make, but it’s a high risk,” Smith says. “I know some teachers are just itching to spot me in the act.”

From September till now, Smith says he has made more than $3000 selling marijuana, and he won’t stop there.

“College… I don’t know what I want to do yet, but I know how I’m paying for it,” he says, laughing.

            Smith says that the only reason he started to sell was purely for free marijuana. Now that he has seen how much someone can make dealing, he doesn’t know if or when he will stop dealing.

Smith is not alone in the quest to get high.

According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, in 2009, 32.8 percent of 12^th graders have used marijuana and 26.7 percent of 10^th graders have used.

 “In fact, studies show that heavy marijuana use impairs a teen's ability to concentrate and retain information,” Dr. Larry S. Fields, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians said. “And this is especially problematic during these peak learning and testing years.”

Now more than ever studies are being done to the brain, rather than just intellectually and physically. The teens that started smoking marijuana at an early age and still had a developing brain could potentially be more vulnerable to neuropsychological deficits, including verbal skills, experts say.

            Surveys done in 2009 by the Centers for Disease Control show those students who smoke marijuana have a lower intelligence lever and lower scores in school. Sixty six percent of students who have ever used marijuana mostly get grades of D’s and F’s. Twenty one percent have average grades of mostly A’s. Out of the students who are currently using, 48 percent have D’s and F’s, and only 10 percent have A’s.

Many experts say all roads lead to marijuana acting as a “gateway drug.” Stanton Peele a psychologist says, “Alcohol and cigarettes along with marijuana don't guarantee, but only make it more likely, that some will use harder drugs.”

            Some principals, faculty, and board members are working to get rid of the drugs in their schools.

“Lockdown” programs and other programs mandate strict rules and restrictions for the students, so they cannot use or distribute drugs on school grounds.

Private and charter school rules apply outside school grounds as well, so if a student is smoking a cigarette at Wawa, he could face serious consequences, such as suspension or expulsion.

            A new initiative by the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign hopes to educate teens and parents about the risks of smoking marijuana. Mothers Against Drunk Driving are also fighting for their kids to stay away from the drugs and alcohol. They believe that if someone is driving under the influence of marijuana then she is a danger to herself and others.

            “Together, parents and teachers can lay the foundation for raising healthy, drug-free students,” said David Ward, president of the American Council on Education. “We need to protect future citizens and leaders. And we can only do this if we keep our kids away from drugs and help them focus on their academic futures.”

According to crimereports.com, Marple Newtown police have had 14 drug possession charges from June till now of this year. Six of those have been marijuana charges.

Pennsylvania state law for marijuana possession with over 30 grams and 1^st offence is misdemeanor. Maximum sentence is 1 year in jail and a $5000 fine.

Smith said he is worried more about getting caught by police than he is his academics.

 “Who wouldn’t want my job,” Smith said. “I play video games while you are crunching numbers from 9 to 5. I wake up when most people leave for lunch… I could never give this up.”

Methacton School Board Meeting

Methacton School District held their monthly school board meeting at Oct. 19 at Arcola Intermediate School. 219 Methacton high school students were honored at the meeting for the “M” awards for students achieving an average grade of 93 or above for the 2009-2010 school year.

The meeting was held to address the issues of the curriculum writing update and the disclosure of details on the agreement terms with the National Education Association. A new curriculum was not presented, but updates or changes that should be made were addressed by the school board. Any details with the NEA will be disclosed at a future date.

Although many students and parents left after they had received their awards, two parents stayed to let the school board know what was on their mind.

“I feel that [the] school board will harm the school district and the community if you do not let us know the details of the agreement with the NEA,” John Andrews said. “I feel that there is a risk not letting the taxpayers know the agreement details.”

“We have the right to know the details,” a parent of Methacton School District said. “We are the tax payers. Without taxpayers there is no school district, and we are told to just be quiet and go away.”

School Board President Howard A. Jones told parents that the school board had signed a contract with the NEA to keep the agreement and details with the NEA confidential. Any further information will be discussed at the next meeting on Oct. 26, he added.

Diane Barrie presented updates to the school district’s writing curriculum.

Barrie said updating the curriculum would make for a more meaningful document for teachers to actually use, instead of going only by the textbook. A new curriculum would help teachers meet the needs of all students, she added.

 “Curriculum writing is a collaborative process,” Barrie said. “It is not in a textbook and it will never be finished.”

Learning from the Domino Wizard

Robert Speca life guarding in Ocean City.
Photo by Robert Speca

Robert Speca, a science teacher at Marple Newtown High School, is not your ordinary teacher. Before he started his teaching career he was a lifeguard, swimming coach, and Ironman triathlon athlete.

But his biggest triumph is being the original Guinness domino toppling record holder, he said.

Speca is a member of an elite few who can say they are or were in the Guinness Book of World Records.

“It was my second-year math teacher at Marple Newtown High school who sparked my interest in domino-toppling,” Speca said. “It was Mr. Dobransky who used dominos as an example to teach about the math induction theory.”

“I was intrigued enough by his theory to go out that very afternoon and buy four boxes of dominos,” Speca explained. “The first I had ever owned, 112 in all.”  As his motivation grew, so did his domino collection, at a rate of a box a day.

His junior year he invited some friends over to help set up around 500 dominos in his basement. The oohs and aahs from friends confirmed that this would appeal to others.

As more and more students came to see Speca in action so did a local newspaper, the County Leader, who took an interest in the on-goings of his basement.

He gave the newspaper something to talk about with a show of 5,555 dominos.

“I probably could have charged admission,” Speca said. “But their excitement was enough of a reward.”

A few weeks later, the Philadelphia Bulletin dedicated a pictorial spread in its Sunday magazine to his domino-toppling. With that, Speca became known as  Bob Speca, the “Domino Wizard.”

When one of his friends, Bill Passman, asked, “I wonder if that’s the largest chain in the world? You should write to Guinness,” Speca bought the latest edition of The Guinness Book of World Records to find out what the record was.

To his surprise there was no such listing. To start a whole new category Speca wrote to Guinness: “I have a bunch of dominos and line them all up. Does that sound interesting enough to be included in your new book of world records?”

They were quick to respond. It was to be called “Dominos toppled in a continuous chain from one hit.”

Now, a senior in high school, Speca was invited out to California to show off his skills on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. On the show he set a record of 11,111 dominos.

A group of students in Seattle watched the show and tried to beat Speca’s record. Speca became the ex-Guinness record holder, when the 1976 edition included the student’s new record of 13,832.

Robert Speca setting up his domino show for The Dave Letterman Show .
Photo Courtesy of Robert Speca.

Speca reclaimed his fame by getting into the 1977 Guinness record book with 22,222 dominos. A man in England tried to one-up with 33,000, and Speca destroyed all hope for him with 55,555 dominos, securing his name in the record books for at least another year.

Speca attended the University of Pennsylvania, and as any college student knows, Ivy League students need to get their hands on as much money as they can. To help his dad underwrite the costs, he appeared on The Tony Orlando Show and on The Tonight Show again. Speca also appeared at shopping centers and made commercials in many cities in the United States and Canada.

“Perhaps my most satisfying moment experienced was one that wasn’t lucrative, merely fun and worthwhile,” Speca said. In 1978, he donated his time to the National Hemophilia Foundation to set up a long chain of dominos at the Manhattan Center in New York City. He had painted some dominos red, white, and blue to make up an American flag effect.

The process would take 11 days and 100,000 dominos.

 The world of domino-toppling gave Speca the discipline and desire that allowed him to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in astronomy from the University of Pennsylvania, he said. He taught science at Academy Park High School then moved to Marple Newtown High School.

Speca said the discipline needed for domino toppling has also helped him compete in 14 Ironman triathlons and coach swimmers.

It has granted him financial freedom to travel the world and see his favorite band Kansas perform 100 times. Because of his fascination with dominos, Speca has met countless celebrities including Richard Pryor, Jackie Gleason, Jerry Seinfeld, and many more, he said.

Speca still uses dominos in commercials, but he said his glory days are over.  Besides playing dominos with his nieces and nephews, he has set the boxes aside to allow other generations to pick up where he left off.            

Now most of his domino use is in the classroom. Speca uses them to show, in relation to atoms, how potential energy can be converted to kinetic energy and vice versa. He hopes that he can spark something in a student’s mind like Mr. Dobransky sparked something in his.

He now sees this hobby as art and encourages everyone to “try it and see what happens.”

“After your first toppling line, you will want more,” he added.

As he once said on The Late Show with Dave Letterman, “Domino toppling is kinda like an art form in motion."

                  Students in Mr. Speca's class learning how potential energy can turn into kinetic energy.

                                                         Videos by Nick Vasiliadis

The Best Rally Ever!

Rally stage in front of the Capitol building. Photo courtesy of: Nick Vasiliadis

More than 250,000 people attended Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert’s Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear Oct. 30 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

With Halloween only a day away, it was, for many, a costume party. Popular costumes included bald eagles, patriots, Waldos, and even Snookis.

            Stewart, host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” was philosophical about the rally’s purpose. “This was not a rally to ridicule faith or to suggest that times aren’t difficult and that we have nothing to fear,” he said. “They are and we do. We live now in hard times, not end times.”  

He added that the American people need to stop magnifying their problems and try to solve them together as a nation, not just as a political party, and shut other voices out.

            Guest appearances included The Roots, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Ozzy Osborne, R2-D2, Tony Bennett and more.

For a few, it was a good concert, for others a chance to express their feelings and political beliefs.           

“[The rally was] entertaining and inspiring,” said Kyle Hetricx, a rally attendee. “Jon’s message at the end gave me hope that we still can work together.”

Before Stewart and Colbert took the stage there was a musical guest appearance by The Roots and John Legend.  The rally opened up with the National Anthem and a benediction given by “the Rev.” Guido Sarducci.

Sarducci asked God for a sign that revealed the true religion.

Surprisingly, God did not answer the question. After the benediction, Colbert, of Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” invited Sam Waterston, from the television series Law and Order, to read a poem that Colbert wrote himself the night before called “Are You Sure?”

Next, Stewart introduced musical artist Yusuf Islam, formally known as Cat Stevens, to sing “Peace Train,” but as he was singing his song Colbert brought on stage Ozzy Osborne to sing “Crazy Train.” Since Colbert and Stewart were bickering about which performer should play, both Ozzy and Yusuf could not finish their songs. As a compromise, The O’Jays hit the stage to perform “Love Train.”

Then cameras cut to the crowd where Jason Jones and Wyatt Cenac were covering the rally. Whereas Cenac reported sanity and a calm crowd, Jones reported “chaos” and “fears” for his own life.

After Jones anxiously ran away from the crowd, P.K. Winsome came on the jumbotron with an important message, “This rally is sure to be a historic event, one you’ll remember forever…” Winsome reminded all viewers to buy souvenirs to remind them of what they will never forget.

Moments later, Stewart and Colbert sang a duet, “I’m More American Than You,” enlightening the audience on how America is the greatest and strongest country in the world.

Next, Kid Rock and Cheryl Crow performed. Afterwards, Stewart and Colbert had a debate on the subject of reason versus fear, to which Kareem Abdul-Jabbar spoke his mind. “No matter what religious position someone plays, we’re all on the same team,” he said.

John Oliver approached the stage dressed like Peter Pan to mediate the discussion between Colbert and Stewart. Oliver asked the masses to chant, “Will this help! Will this help!” Americans chanting proved too much for Colbert, and he “melted” to the ground like the Wicked Witch of the West.

Finally, Stewart took the stage alone saying, “I’m really happy you guys are here, even if none of us really are quite sure why we are here.”

Stewart explained his intentions for them holding the rally, and added that the press is a great tool to help Americans see their problems but magnifies them too much, thereby creating blindness resulting from fear.

“If we amplify everything, we hear nothing,” Stewart said.

Tony Bennett closed by singing, “America The Beautiful.”

“It is not important what happened today,” Stewart told the attendees before they left. “But what is recorded of what happened today.”

This man showing his distaste towards tea parties. Photo by Nick Vasiliadis