• On Thanksgiving Day, Dr. Julia Chase-Brand, 69, plans to run a 4.75-mile race in Manchester, Conn., where the presence of women will be plentiful and unremarkable. Fifty years ago, when she and two other women ran there the first time, it was a widely publicized act of civil disobedience that became a pioneering moment in female distance running in the United States.

Image source
“I wasn’t masquerading as a male,” Chase-Brand said. “I was what I was. I’m a girl, I have a skirt, my hair is done, I have lipstick on and I’m going to run.”

• “I consider Julia the first true American woman road racer,” said Amby Burfoot, a longtime editor at Runner’s World magazine who won the Manchester Road Race nine times, as well as the 1968 Boston Marathon.

• “She competed in a big race under the full glare of worldwide publicity and she ran fast,” Burfoot said. “She wasn’t an oddball looking for publicity. She was a dedicated, well-trained athlete looking for an outlet for her talent.”
• “Finishing that race was a defining moment for me,” said Chase-Brand, who is medical director of outpatient psychiatry at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital here. “If I could handle that pressure, I realized I could go ahead and live my life as I wanted. I could do anything.” » The full New York Times article - By Jeré Longman - Published October 25, 2011.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - What Will You Do With Your Life?
  Overview | Students consider what it means to live a life well-lived by creating life lists of goals they would like to accomplish and analyzing patterns in the lists of their peers. Go to this Life and Building a Health Society Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - The Political is Personal -
  Overview | Students explore their own personal political philosophies by identifying events, people and experiences that have helped shape their beliefs and writing an essay. Go to this Building Society and ESL Lesson.

• Our inclination as parents had been to intervene to protect our children. But maybe it was better that they had to win these battles by themselves. As the New Humanitarian school director, Vasiliy Bogin often says, “Life is the best teacher.”

• In practice, though, the philosophy meant that Bogin delighted in barraging children with word problems and puzzles to force them to think broadly. It was the opposite of the rote memorization of the Soviet system.


The author's son, Emmett, eating with his classmates at the New Humanitarian School in Moscow. Original image

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  When I asked Bogin to explain Shchedrovitsky, he asked a question. “Does 2 + 2 = 4? No! Because two cats plus two sausages is what? Two cats. Two drops of water plus two drops of water? One drop of water.”
• At dinnertime, the kids taunted me with riddles. “Ten crows are sitting on a fence,” Arden announced. “A cat pounces and eats one crow. How many are left?” “Umm, nine,” I said, fearing a trap. “No, none!” she gleefully responded. “Do you really think that after one crow is eaten, the others are going to stick around?” » The full New York Times article - By Clifford J. Levy - Published September 15, 2011.

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - What Will You Do With Your Life?
  Overview: Students consider what it means to live a life well-lived by creating life lists of goals they would like to accomplish and analyzing patterns in the lists of their peers. Go to this Life and Building a Health Society Lesson.

Now, there’s new evidence that even just 15 minutes a day of physical activity can have a significant impact on longevity.

• The benefits applied to all age groups and both sexes, as well as to those at risk for heart problems.
• “If the minimum amount of exercise we suggest is adhered to, mortality from heart disease, diabetes and cancer could be reduced,” the researchers wrote.
• “This low volume of physical activity could play a central part in the global war against non-communicable diseases, reducing medical costs and health disparities.” » The full Washington Post article - By Rod Stein - Published: August 17, 2011.

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Vigorous Exercise Cuts Breast Cancer Risk

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• The findings suggest that exercise itself protects against breast cancer, regardless of whether it leads to weight loss, note Michael F. Leitzmann, MD, and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute.
• The researchers analyzed data on more than 32,000 postmenopausal women collected over 11 years as part of the Breast Cancer Detection Demonstration Project. » The Article from WebMD - By Daniel J. DeNoon

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• The New York Times - Learning Network - What Will You Do With Your Life?
  Overview | Students consider what it means to live a life well-lived by creating life lists of goals they would like to accomplish and analyzing patterns in the lists of their peers. » Go to this Life's Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Talking about Breast Cancer:
  Overview | Students share words and associations related to cancer. They then investigate and participate in dialogues about the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. » Go to this Health, Science and Life's Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - The Science of Aging -
  Overview | Student reflect on the lives of older people they know, then research and debate the key issues surrounding scientific experimentation in anti-aging. (Related NYT article: » Even more reason to get moving - By Jane E. Brody) » Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

• A national celebration marked by selective memory and fear of the future.
• China’s Communist Party at 90 is a bit like many 90-year-olds: increasingly infirm, fearful, experimenting with ways to prolong life, but overwhelmed by the complexities of managing it. » The full New York Times commentary - By David Shambaugh - Published: July 1, 2011.

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• The Learning Foundation - "Did Li Qingyou Break the Law?" - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson -
  Li Qingyou's statment: "Our mentality was that when Chairman Mao waved his hand, we would move, and whatever he said, we would do.
  - We took their money, gold, silver, and things and gave it to the government."
  - Pin Dueng was one of the landowners described as ’rich’ in Li’s statement, and has accused Li of stealing his things and has brought the case to court. Go to this Simplified Mock Trial.
• World Wise School - Worksheet - Students will learn to identify and modify generalizations -
  This activity introduces students to the difficult concept of generalization so that they will challenge generalizations made about people... Go to this Building Society Lesson.

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Watching him in the middle of the trading floor as he switches back and forth from computer screens, his blindness is not apparent at all. But to check his e-mail, read research reports and look at presentations, Mr.Goyal uses a screen-reading software whose speed is so high that it sounds like gibberish to the untrained ear.
“One challenge is that I don’t become a benchmark for other people,” he said. “I’ve done all these things but yes, it’s been a struggle. Not everyone is as fortunate to have the support of friends and family and it wouldn’t be fair. I’m mediocre at many things.” » The full New York Times article. By Julia Werdigier - Published Decemeber 2, 2010

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  The New York Times - Learning Network - What Will You Do With Your Life? -
  Overview | Students consider what it means to live a life well-lived by creating life lists of goals they would like to accomplish and analyzing patterns in the lists of their peers. Go to this Life's Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - No Quick Fix? Developing Problem-Solving Skills -
  Overview | How can real problems be approached and analyzed in ways that lead to practical solutions? What distinguishes effective solutions from ineffective ones? In this lesson, students consider how to work through a practical problem. They identify problems in their school that need fixing, then devise viable solutions to one of those problems, using problem-solving models and drawing on strategies like the social science of behavioral change. They then test some of their proposed solutions in the field and propose them to the school.Overview: Students consider what it means to live a life well-lived by creating life lists of goals they would like to accomplish and analyzing patterns in the lists of their peers. Go to this Science and Life's Lesson.

California woman earns college diploma at age 94:
"It's taken me quite a long time because I've had a busy life," said Soares. "I'm finally achieving it, and it makes me feel really good."
Born in Richmond, Calif., in 1915, Soares had wanted to attend college right after she graduated from Roosevelt High School in Oakland in 1932, but that was during the Great Depression.
"Unless you had some help, it would have been impossible to go to college," Soares said. "However I never lost the desire to go."
"We are really amazed and very proud of my mom," said Regina Hungerford, Soares' youngest child. "The biggest thing that we can all learn is that we're never too old." » The full USA Today article.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - What Will You Do With Your Life?
  Overview: Students consider what it means to live a life well-lived by creating life lists of goals they would like to accomplish and analyzing patterns in the lists of their peers. Go to this Life's Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - The Science of Aging -
  Overview | Student reflect on the lives of older people they know, then research and debate the key issues surrounding scientific experimentation in anti-aging. (Related NYT article: » Even more reason to get moving -By Jane E. Brody) Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

The United States is the only industrialized democracy that does not ensure that all of its citizens have health care coverage, with an estimated 36 million Americans uninsured.
And Washington spends vastly more on health care -- both per person and as a share of national income as measured by Gross Domestic Product -- than other industrialized democracies, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The United States spent about 7,290 dollars per person in 2007, more than double what Britain, France, and Germany spent, with no meaningful edge in the quality of care, and lags behind OECD averages in key indicators like life expectancy and infant mortality.
The measure includes a government-backed insurance plan, popularly known as a "public option," to compete with the private insurance industry.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says the bill, as written, would cut the budget deficit by about 100 billion dollars over 10 years while extending health care coverage to 96 percent of all Americans. The full AFP article » By Olivier Knox.

Original image and information about improving health care from this report by the Federal Trade Commission and the Dept of Justice.

Related article: Across a number of questions, the poll detected substantial support for a greater government role in health care, a position generally identified with the Democratic Party. When asked which party was more likely to improve health care, only 18 percent of respondents said the Republicans, compared with 57 percent who picked the Democrats. Even one of four Republicans said the Democrats would do better.
Read the full New York Times article » By Kevin Sack and Marjorie Connelly.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Measuring the Impact of the Recession on Families and Communities -
  Overview: Students consider the loss of health care coverage among the unemployed and other ways that the recession affects the U.S. economy and families. They then examine and collect evidence of its effects on their own communities. Go to this Health and Building SocietyLesson.

Le has few memories of his three-day journey on the fishing trawler, which ended just as they were running out of food, water and fuel.
But he has vivid memories of the example set by his father, Thong Ba Le, who is now 69 and has never returned to Vietnam. After the family settled in northern Virginia, he took a job in a supermarket, where he worked his way up from bag boy to manager.
"I always wanted to be like my dad," Le said. "He persevered and overcame many challenges." The AP image and article source.

• New York Times - Learning Network - Coming to America -
  Overview: Students will personalize immigration history through a simulation. They will then analyze immigration history in their own area using the Times interactive Immigration Explorer tool. Go to this Building Society Lesson.
• New York Times - Learning Network - Exploring How Trends in American Immigration have Impacted American Politics Throughout History -
  Overview: Students create an exhibit that explores the connections between immigration and politics from 1850 to the present. Go to this Building Society Lesson.
• PBS Lesson - The Immigration Debate -
  Overview. Students will:
  • Consider the validity of statements often cited regarding immigration and immigrants
  • Research and debate the essence of these statements to support or negate presented perspectives
  • Make informed decisions regarding the statements' accuracy  Go to this Building Society Lesson.

Teachers exhorted their students to ask questions. Some, true to the school’s embrace of new technology, gauged their students’ comprehension with individual polling devices.
“The Muslim world in general is struggling with its Islamic education,” Razak Mohamed Lazim, the head of Al Irsyad said, explaining that Islamic schools had failed to adapt to the modern world. “In many cases, it’s also the challenge the Muslim world is facing. We are not addressing the needs of Islam as a faith that has to be alive, interacting with other communities and other religions.” From this New York Times Article By Norimitsu Onsishi.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Exploring What It Takes to Become a Well-Informed Citizen -
  Overview: In this lesson, students explore education requirements for different professions, and define the skills and knowledge that adults use in their everyday lives. Go to this Building Society Lesson.
• Related Lesson from: The Learning Foundation - A Simplified Mock Trial -
  The Malaysian authorities' refused to renew the publication of the weekly Catholic newspaper The Herald unless it stops using the word Allah as the word for God in the Malay language.
  The Newspaper answered: Muslims, like Christians, do not worship a person called Allah. They worship a single supreme being, which the Arabic language denotes as Allah.
  Students argue both sides of the issue and decide in the case: Only Muslims can use 'Allah' - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson Plan.

• Tolerance.org - 10 Ways to Nurture Tolerance "Identify intolerance -
  (stereotypes and cultural misinformation depicted in news reports, movies, TV shows, computer games and other media) when children are exposed to it." Go to this Building Society Lesson.

Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” the Nobel Committee said in Oslo today.
Obama, 48, last year was elected the first black U.S. president on a platform of extracting the U.S. from the Iraq war while increasing focus on an eight-year conflict in Afghanistan. All U.S. forces are scheduled to be withdrawn from Iraq by 2011, after the 2003 the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.
Obama is the third sitting U.S. President to be awarded the prize, following Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter won in 2002. » read the Bloomberg article By Meera Bhatia

The New York Times - Learning Network - History in the Making -
Overview: Students explore the social history of the United States to better understand why the election of Barack Obama is historic from a variety of perspectives. Go to this Building Society and Law Lesson.

The New York Times - Learning Network - Educating Youth on Voting and the Electoral Process -
Overview: Students create voter education campaigns to raise awareness of and interest in the government for future voters. Go to this Building Society and Law Lesson.

Before traveling here from Baltimore, Phelps's mother, Debbie, received a letter from Barbara Kines, who had taught Phelps in the third grade.
Before he found an outlet for his abundant energy in swimming, Phelps had immense difficulties concentrating and sitting still, leading one of his grade-school teachers to wonder if he would ever be able to focus on anything. Read Article » By By Karen Crouse - The International Herald

• More background about "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder" - from Schoolbehavior.com and the article "Can exercise help hyperactivity?" - By Peter Schworm - The Boston Globe (IHT)
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Understanding Social and Emotional Issues Surrounding Attention Deficit -
Overview: Students reflect on how attention deficit disorders affect people’s lives in the areas of home, school, and friendships by reading and discussing a blog post and reader’s comments. Students will brainstorm ways to increase tolerance and understanding of individual differences and write about a personal experience related to the idea of “being different.” Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

"I think the leukemia taught me to think step by step," Van der Weijden said. "When you're laying in the hospital bed and feeling so much pain and feeling so tired, you don't want to think about next week or next month, you're only thinking about the next hour."You just be patient. You lay in your bed and just wait. It's almost the same strategy I've used here, to stay in the pack, to be patient, and stay easy just waiting for your chance." Read IHT Article » - The Associated Press

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Creating “Life Lists” of Personal Goals -
Overview: Students consider what it means to live a life well-lived by creating life lists of goals they would like to accomplish and analyzing patterns in the lists of their peers. Go to this Life's Lesson.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Learning How Stem Cells Can Repair the Body -
Overview: Students research stem cells to learn how they function, the distinguishing characteristics of types of stem cells, and how stem cells may be manipulated by scientists to help bodies heal and regenerate unhealthy or damaged cells.  Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Learning About Cell Renewal Throughout the Body -
Overview: Students learn about the latest research on cell and tissue renewal. They then explore the various internal body parts and systems examined in these studies.  Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

Of all the supporters behind the two presumptive nominees for president this year, none are quite as intriguing as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger - a Republican who has thrown his support behind John McCain - and his wife, Maria Shriver - a Democrat who is a vocal backer of Barack Obama.
The four Schwarzenegger children - who range in age from 10 to 18 - have already taken sides, though only one of them, Katherine, is old enough to vote. She, too, favors Obama.
"I think there are great benefits to having kids grow up understanding that we do not live in a one-party system," Shriver said. "That there are two ways at looking at an issue. To be patient and to compromise, those are good lessons not just in politics but for life. I grew up believing there was only one way to think. There isn't, she said.
Read Article » By Jennifer Steinhauer - New York Times

• New York Times - Learning Network - Telling Our Own Versions of the Story of the United States of America -
Overview: Students consider both internal and external views of the United States. They then create a project that tells about their vision of the past, present and future of the U.S. by pairing their own written statements with photographs. Go to this Building Society and ESL Lesson.

• WWS - World Wise School Lesson - Students will recognize that a single observation can be misleading.
Young children often make assumptions and judgments about people based on quick impressions. For example, a little girl noticing a house with peeling paint and an unkempt yard told her aunt, "I bet the people who live in that house are ugly." The girl had somehow learned to make assumptions about people she had never met based on her perception of their possessions. Go to this Building Society Lesson Worksheet. 

• The Learning Foundation - Compare and Contrast - Buddhism which relies on the direct observation of one's personal experience and on honing certain skills in order to gain true understanding and wisdom, with the importance of continually testing and questioning assumptions made by Socrates.
Ask students if the Buddha and Socrates agreed?