Under the law, chain restaurants will have to provide nutrition information on their menus. Employers must provide “reasonable break time” for nursing mothers.
Health insurance companies will soon have to cover all recommended screenings, preventive care and vaccines, without charging co-payments or deductibles.
Medicare beneficiaries will get free annual physicals. Medicaid will cover drugs and counseling to help pregnant women stop smoking. And a new federal trust fund will pay for more bicycle paths, playgrounds, sidewalks and hiking trails.
Those are some of the provisions Congress tucked into the legislation in an effort to reduce the huge toll of preventable diseases — regardless of whether the initiatives also save money for the government, as some lawmakers expect. The full New York Times article » By Robert Pear.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - ‘The Reality of Reform’: Understanding the Health Care Law -
  Overview | How will health care reform change life and politics in the United States? What does the new law mean for individuals, families, businesses and insurers, as well as for politics and government leaders? In this lesson, students gauge their background knowledge of the health care reform act and take a close look at the legislation to clarify their understanding. They then execute a project on historical context, local reaction and/or the key players, and finish by creating collages of images and quotations that illuminate the issues. Go to this Health and Building SocietyLesson.

• 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.

Now, as the Iranian government has cracked down to suppress the protests that erupted after the presidential election in June and devastated the reform movement, Ayatollah Montazeri uses religion to attack the government’s legitimacy.
Now in his mid-80s, frail and ill, Ayatollah Montazeri has remained in his home in Qum, the center of religious learning in Iran, issuing one politically charged religious edict after another, helping keep alive a faltering opposition movement. The man whom Ayatollah Khomeini once called “the fruit of my life” has condemned the state he helped to create.
“A political system based on force, oppression, changing people’s votes, killing, closure, arresting and using Stalinist and medieval torture, creating repression, censorship of newspapers, interruption of the means of mass communications, jailing the enlightened and the elite of society for false reasons, and forcing them to make false confessions in jail, is condemned and illegitimate,” he said in one of a flurry of written comments posted on Web sites since the election. The full New York Times article » By Michael Slackman.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Understanding the Quest to Protect Human Rights -
  Overview: Students explore the concept of human rights by developing and defending their own "Bills of Human Rights" and by writing a reflective essay that compares their notions of human rights and the protection of them.  Go to this Building a Healthy Society Lesson and Law.
• 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.

Jurm was tormented by warlords in the 1990s, and though it never fell to the Taliban, the presence of the central government, even today, is barely felt. The idea to change that was simple: people elected the most trusted villagers, and the government in Kabul, helped by foreign donors, gave them direct grants — money to build things like water systems and girls’ schools for themselves.

Original image source » Holly Pickett for The New York Times
Villagers and development workers had to persuade a local mullah to get a girls' school built in the Jurm District of Afghanistan.

But forcing conditions would have violated a basic principle of the approach: never start a project that is not backed by all members of the community, or it will fail.
“People have to be mentally ready,” said Akhtar Iqbal, Aga Khan’s director in Badakhshan. If they are not, the school or clinic will languish unused, a frequent problem with large-scale development efforts.
Today, many people have water taps, fields grow wheat and it is no longer considered shameful for a woman to go to a doctor. The full New York Times article » By Sabrina Tavernise

• World Wise School - Perceptions - This activity is designed to help students understand that perceptions are influenced by personal experience and taste as well as cultural background.  Go to Building Society Lesson Worksheet.

• 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 New York Times - Learning Network - Exploring the Intersection of Religion and Modernity -
  Overview: Students examine the ways in which various religious faiths have responded to social, ideological, and technological changes in 'modern' times. Go to this Building Society Lesson.

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.

Dr. Strobos at left in 1941 with Abraham Pais and her mother, Marie Schotte, with whom she housed scores of Jews.» Original images and article

Why would she take such gambles for people she sometimes barely knew?
“It’s the right thing to do,” she said with nonchalance. “Your conscience tells you to do it. I believe in heroism, and when you’re young, you want to do dangerous things.”
In the decades since her wartime experience, she has spoken out on issues like the torture of terrorists, which she argues is not only cruel but also ineffective.
“Even when they scared me to death and hurt me, it confirmed me that I should not say anything to them,” she said. The full New York Times article » By Joseph Berger.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Examining the Attributes and Historical Realities That Create Heroes -
  Overview: Students will generate a list of the common attributes of heroes, and analyze a specific hero within his or her historical and cultural context.  Go to this Building Society and Life's 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.

"Socrates...the consummate inquiring mind in history wrote nothing, accomplished nothing, and made his mark by standing around a rock, questioning people ... When an audience is interested in questioning the world, then nonsense blows away like a morning mist .... » read more

• World Wise School - Worksheet - Students will learn to identify and modify generalizations -
  Overview | 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.

How many of us remember that in 1917, Congress passed an "Espionage Act" that gave broad powers to local postmen to decide what newspapers, magazines and other literature Americans were allowed to read, or that any number of such publications were effectively banned in that way? Read this New York Times "Letter from America" - By Richard Bernstein

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Fighting Fire with Satire -
Overview: Students consider satire in the news by exploring various sources of “fake news,” and then creating their own political satire in the form of a skit, news article, or cartoon. Go to this Media and ESL Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Creating Political Cartoons that Show and Tell -
Overview: Students will explore the power of images through political cartoons. They then create their own original artwork to submit to an appropriate publication. Go to this Media and ESL Lesson

image credit - lighthousewws5.com

Kit wanted his students to ask questions and challange what they heard and said, even what he said.
Kids were active and talkative in his classes, and often talked about them at home.
A number of parents complained that their children questioned what they told them instead of showing them respect.
They said the teacher should be teaching the same answers they taught their kids and follow Thai custom.

- The parents filed a complaint with the head of the school and the village to replace Kit.
- They said: "What our kids need is answers to pass the national entrance exams so they can go to university and get a good job."
- Kit answered that the world is changing and kids need to find out for themselves what these changes mean, so they can adapt.
- The parents said it was foreigners causing the changes and they didn't need to follow them.

• The Learning Foundation - "What to Teach" - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson Plan.

The relevant question is how much of a return women have gotten on their education. And the answer isn’t especially subtle. The return has been enormous. Read Article » By David Leonhardt - New York Times

• New York Times - Learning Network - Sharing Opinions about the Value of a College Degree -
Overview: Students share opinions about the value of a college degree by reviewing a number of statistics, opinions and analyses. Go to this Economy and Building Society 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.

Sania Mirza, the most successful tennis star in India, has announced that she has no desire to play in her country any more, distressed by a string of controversies that have exposed her to months of negative publicity.

Barkha Dutt, managing editor of NDTV, one of India's most popular news channels said that Mirza had "every reason to feel fed up."
"She is young, pretty, with attitude, and as a result she is hounded," she said, "and gets caught up in these controversies which range from the fabricated to the ridiculous." Read Article »

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Exploring the Shaping of Tolerance and Intolerance -
Overview: Students examine the meanings of tolerance and intolerance and participate in a "town hall meeting" in which they represent different perspectives in order to explore how tolerance is shaped by various beliefs and contexts.  Go to this Building Society Lesson.
• World Wise School - "How Accureate is It?"
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 Worksheet.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Exploring Bias in the News -
Overview: Students look for biased words in news articles, suggest synonyms, then rewrite the sentences to demonstrate how word choice can alter meaning. Go to this Media and Society Lesson.

"Race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now," Obama said.
He said the controversies during the past couple of weeks "reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American." Read the article » By Janny Scott - IHT

• New York Times - Learning Network - Free Speech -
Overview: Students share opinions and feedback from the speech on race delivered by Barack Obama on March 18, 2008. They then create a hypertext-annotated version of the speech that explains its historical and contemporary references and offers their own commentary. Go to this Building Society Lesson.

From The Buddha's teachings ... every action that one performs in the present moment — whether by body, speech, or mind itself — eventually bears fruit according to its skillfulness: act in unskillful and harmful ways and unhappiness is bound to follow; act skillfully and happiness will ultimately ensue.13 As long as one remains ignorant of this principle, one is doomed to an aimless existence: happy one moment, in despair the next; enjoying one lifetime in heaven, the next in hell.

• World Wise School Lesson - Students will recognize that their classmates hold a variety of opinions. - This activity is designed to illustrate the variety of perspectives and opinions represented in the class. It will help students understand that perceptions are influenced by personal experience and taste as well as cultural background.  Go to Building Society Lesson Worksheet.

• Compare and Contrast - Ask students if the Buddha and Socrates thought the same or different? -
Writing help from TOEFL- Prep Writing Practice Site Lesson - More about Comparison and Contrast.

• 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.

Chicago — Addressing a packed congregation at one of the city’s largest black churches, Senator Barack Obama on Sunday invoked his own absent father to deliver a sharp message to black men, saying "What makes you a man is not the ability to have a child. Any fool can have a child. That doesn’t make you a father. It’s the courage to raise a child that makes you a father.” Read Article » By Julie Bosman - New York Times

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Examining Options for Teen Parents Now and in Previous Generations - Overview: Students discuss the hardships of teen parenting today and throughout history and interview someone of an older generation about how attitudes, behaviors and options relating to teen pregnancy and parenting have changed over time. Go to this Health, Science and Building Society lesson.

Youk Chhang was 14 when the Khmer Rouge seized power, and like many teenagers, he was forced into hard labor in the fields, with food and death his twin obsessions.
"There were all those people my age, just little kids, naive, innocent."
Read Article » By Seth Mydans - International Herald Tribune

"They're us, and we are them," Youk Chhang said in an interview in his small office in Phnom Penh where photographs of both victims and killers hang on the walls. "They are the evil side of us. Crimes are committed by human beings, by people just like me."

• The New York Times - Learning Network - The Killing Fields
Documenting Ethnic Division and Ethnic Cleansing Throughout Modern History
Overview: Students learn about ethnic divisions in the West African nation of Ivory Coast and research instances of ethnic cleansing in many nations throughout history. Students then create global history textbook entries that explore, compare and contrast these historic examples. The Killing Fields Go to Law and Society Lesson.

Lee was injured on July 2, 2006, during a geological field trip in the desert of California, when the car he was driving overturned. He emerged from a coma three days later, but his fourth cervical vertebra had been fractured.
Nevertheless, he was back to work in early 2007.
Every time he tested out a new device and adapted it for his own use, Lee said, he felt a little thrill, as if he had solved a scientific problem.
During lunch with colleagues recently, Lee amazed onlookers as he touched a headset microphone attached to his wheelchair with his right cheek to move the chair backward, and so prevent bedsores.
On his way back to his office from the cafeteria, Lee used his right cheek again to shift the wheelchair into cruise control mode. That mode buffers the shock when he uses his head to steer the wheelchair on a bumpy road.
"It's like downhill skiing," he said. - Read this NYT article » By Su-Hyun Lee

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Understanding and Diagramming the Power of the Brain to Cause Motion - Overview: Students test and reflect on how the brain receives, interprets and translates contradictory verbal and auditory cues into movement. Then, after learning about a new innovation in brain research and robotics, they diagram the brain and nervous system activities involved in voluntary motion and incorporate this knowledge into a creative work of science fiction. Go to this Health, Science and Building Society lesson.

A carefully designed study released Thursday in The Lancet, a leading British medical journal, shows that a variety of common food dyes and the preservative sodium benzoate — an ingredient in many soft drinks, fruit juices, salad dressings and other foods — causes some children to become more hyperactive and distractible than usual. The full article - By Claudia Wallis - Time Magazine

Related Lesson:
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Evaluating the Pros and Cons of a New Type of Toxicity Test
Overview: Students evaluate the pros and cons of a new approach to food, chemical, and drug testing which utilizes 'DNA chips' to test the toxicity of chemical compounds. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Researching Alternatives to Trans Fats
Overview: Students will consider the fat content of a wide variety of foods. They will then examine their own diets, find healthier alternatives, and make charts that illustrate before and after menus for a typical day. Go to this Health and Science Lesson.

"Both my dad and my husband told me that women don't talk back," said the 29-year-old woman. "They told me the Koran said I had to be obedient, and I answered that it does not say beat up your wife." Read Article » By Neil MacFarquhar - New York Times.

Besides teaching her classes, she has established an Arabic culture club, which draws about 35 students, parents and staff members to meetings once a month. She has brought her family to Kalona for ice cream socials and bike-safety rallies. "When I first started, I thought, 'Wow, Arabic in Kalona? What's this going to be like?' " Attar said. "But everyone has been so welcoming." Read Article »

Why do people gossip and spread rumors? We've all had that kind of urge. But why? Here are some possible reasons:
- To feel superior
When people are feeling bad aboutthemselves, they sometimes thinkthey’ll feel better if there weresomeone worse off than they are.
- To feel like part of the group
If everybody else is gossiping or spreading rumors, you might feelyou have to do the same thing in order to fit in.
- For attention
When you know a secret that nobody knows, or are the first personin your group to hear a rumor, it can make you the center ofattention.
- For control or power
Certain people always want to be in control and at the top of theladder.
- Boredom
Did you know in many studies, boredom was the number 1 reason why young people say they spread rumors? ... Read more about Gossip and Rumors - PBS kids Its my Life.

Related article: "But rumours sell. People tend to believe in a rumour if it is against the party they hate. This is worrying because people cannot make an informed decision based on rumours." The full article - The Bangkok Post Friday March 3,2006

• The New York Times- Learning Network - Not Just the Facts
Overview: Students explore the difference between hard news, news analysis and (rumors and gossip) ... They then endeavor to write an analysis ... using local sources and drawing their own conclusions. Go to this Media Lesson.
• The Learning Foundation - "News vs Gossip" - Simplified Mock Trial.

Background: The coup leaders used state power for political ends, manipulated the rule of law to suit their needs and kept martial law in place in certain provincial areas up until Election Day. With the interim government’s popularity sinking, the military-appointed legislature waited until a few days before the election before quickly passing 64 laws as a parting gift to anyone who still held illusions that the junta respected democracy.
One of those laws passed at the last minute was the Internal Security Act, which gives the military sweeping powers to detain people, wiretap phones and declare emergency rule. Read article » By Daniel Ten Kate - Asian Sentinel.

(AFP) image on right from article on Thai voting.

“I think what we’re seeing over these past couple of years is that the Thai elite has become disillusioned with democracy because Thaksin opened up the possibility that the poor can have some say in politics, and they don’t like that,” said Giles from Chulalongkorn University. “To develop democracy, civil society will have to push against the Thai elite. It’s going to take some time to educate the elites about the benefits of democracy.” Read Article »

• The Learning Foundation - "The 18th Thai constitution?" - What makes a law good lesson plan.

• The Learning Foundation - "It's my country/I can do what I want!" - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson Plan. Editor's note: This case is based on the conflicting opinions about who chooses the way a country is governed.

• Related Lesson: The New York Times - Learning Network - Explore the positives and negatives of democratic governments and dictatorships - Go to this Building Society Lesson.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - No Place for Bullies -
  Overview | Students reflect on the bullying in their community, hold an anonymous discussion about bullying and suggest solutions to the problem. Go to this Building Society and Internet Lesson.

• Three related Learning Foundation - Simplified Mock Trial cases -
  ‣ "I can say what I want!"
  ‣ "I was just protecting my kid"
  ‣ "News vs Gossip"

Two months after they cracked down on huge anti-government demonstrations led by Buddhist monks, the generals who rule Myanmar have reason to feel relief.
As the attention of the world shifts elsewhere, the generals have made it clear that they intend to follow their own course, as they have through a half-century of self-imposed isolation. Read Article »

Burmese business news: China won the rights to natural gas from the biggest field in Myanmar, beating India in the race for resources among the two-fastest growing major economies.
China, India, Thailand, South Korea and Japan are competing for a share of the gas supply in Myanmar as discoveries increase. Myanmar had about 19 trillion cubic feet of reserves last year, BP said in its annual energy report. Read Article »

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Understanding the Quest to Protect Human Rights.
Overview: Students explore the concept of human rights by developing and defending their own "Bills of Human Rights" and by writing a reflective essay that compares their notions of human rights and the protection of them...  Go to this Law and Society Lesson.

Southeast Asia’s leaders again show how toothless their organization really is. Read Article » Burma Gets Away With It Again at ASEAN - The Asian Sentinel

"In the Quiet Land, no one can say

when the soldiers are coming to carry them away.

The Chinese want (gas); the French want the oil;

the Thais take the timber; and SLORC takes the spoils...
In the Quiet Land....

In the Quiet Land, no one can hear
what is silenced by murder

and covered up with fear.

But, despite what is forced, freedom's a sound

that liars can't fake and no shouting can drown."
From In The Quiet Land By Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Understanding the Quest to Protect Human Rights.
Overview: Students explore the concept of human rights by developing and defending their own "Bills of Human Rights" and by writing a reflective essay that compares their notions of human rights and the protection of them...  Go to this Law and Society Lesson.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Exploring Driver Safety for Teenagers
Overview: Students use the Internet to investigate safe driving practices and technologies, and then "publish" a manual of safe driving for teenagers. Go to this Building Society Lesson.

• Have students read and discuss the: Parent-Youth Safe Driving Contract.  

Although the findings do not change the relationship of Homo erectus as a direct ancestor of Homo sapiens, scientists said, the surprisingly diminutive erectus skull implies that this species was not as humanlike as once thought. Article source: A pair of fossils shakes up the human family tree By John Noble Wilford - International Herald Tribune

 "Creation or Evolution?" by David Ross
• World Wise School - Learning 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 Lesson Worksheet.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Investigating and Discussing Darwinism ... (Explaining Life’s Complexities)
Overview: Students learn about theories of ’intelligent design’ in evolutionary science...  Go to this Science Lesson.  

Overview of Lesson Plan: Students research and debate the positive and negative aspects of expanding nuclear resources, biotechnology, and nanotechnology in the future. Go to this Science and Society Lesson.

As advanced science (communications and international agreements) play a larger role in courtrooms across the country (and the world) judges who earned degrees in English, the humanities (or only Law as in Thailand) face the daunting task of making informed decisions about some very technical disputes. Read the entire article Judges get crash course in sciences - By Mike Baker - Associated Press Writer.

"... This is a problem for Thailand. They ignore the scientific evidence. The judge, the attorney, the police... I think they don’t know much about forensic science, especially DNA...." read the rest of the Interview with Dr. Porntip - Foreign Correspondent.

• WWS - World Wise School- Is That a Fact?
Overview: Understanding the difference between fact and opinion is critical to our ability to examine our reactions to events and people. Stereotypes and prejudices are often based on opinions that are perceived as facts. Go to this Building Society Lesson Worksheet.

• 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 Science Lesson.

• The Learning Foundation - Simplified Mock Trials - "What to Teach" - Simplified Mock Trial.

The enterprise has steadily borne fruit. The detection rate in Bangladesh inched up to more than 70 percent in 2006, according to the World Health Organization, and the cure rate to 89 percent. Among the 22 countries that are considered to be heavily burdened by tuberculosis, few have reached those levels, the health organization says. Go to the article

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Exploring the Impact of Disease on the Global Population
Overview: Students investigate the nature, causes and statistics of diseases in lesser developed countries and explore ways in which disease impacts the global population. Go to this Health and Building Society Lesson

• Related New York Times - Lesson - Nothing to Sneeze At

Enlisting (Thai) villagers in flu battle  "Thailand has mobilized about 750,000 volunteers (under the last elected government) one for every 15 rural households." 'This is something that all over the world we've been trying to promote. And this is probably the best example that I've ever seen.' said William Aldis, the representative of the World Health Organization in Thailand." Go to the article - By Thomas Fuller - International Herald Tribune

it is better to have visitors than to lie quietly alone. But one type of visitor seems to be especially beneficial, researchers reported on Tuesday. That visitor is a dog.

Overview: News Snapshot helps students with the basic set of questions answered by journalists when relaying the news-- who, what, where, when, why and how.  - Ask students to use their knowledge of current events, the pictures and the quotation as clues to raise and answer questions. Go to: "Study Identifies Heart Patient's Best Friend."

Although the concept of public punishment may now seem strange, even barbaric, it was the accepted norm until the 19th century.
Public humiliation was a major part of punishment in stocks and pillories. These would always be sited in the most public place available, for example the market square or village green. In small communities, those being punished would be well known to everyone else, thereby increasing their shame.
Audience participation was a key element. The helpless victim would usually be subjected to a barrage of mockery and abuse, and pelted with any missiles which came to hand.

---

"The fear of missing out means today's media, more than ever before, hunts in a pack," Prime Minister Tony Blair said. "In these modes, it is like a feral beast, just tearing people and reputations to bits. But no one dares miss out." From: Prime Minister Tony Blair's speech to the Reuter Institute - Study of Jounalism

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Exploring Privacy Issues in Celebrity Trials
Overview: Students explore the topic of privacy rights in trials in which public personalities are accused of crimes and (media treatment becomes part of the punishment). Go to this Law and Society Lesson.  

• The New York Times - Learning Network - The Second Draft of History
Overview: Students draft entries about a recent historical event for a history textbook using two specific sources of information. They then compare their entries and examine the differences...(with what they thought to be true before doing the research) Go to this Law and Soceity Lesson.

"I think that it would be unrealistic to expect the rule of law to continue for long without making sure that there is a democratic base for it," said Martin Lee, a legislator and lawyer who was founding chairman of the Democratic Party, in an interview.
"So far we are fortunate because we inherited the rule of law from the British and the judges so far are very independent, but remember the Communist Party doesn't like independent judges.
They want judges who will give them judgments that they want." Lee said. The full article By Donald Greenlees - International Herald Tribune
Published: June 29, 2007

• 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 Law and Society Lesson

A Malaysian Federal Court said Joy, now age 41, who was born to Muslim parents and began attending church in 1990, should seek permission to renounce Islam from Islamic Shariah courts. Joy, however, has refused to seek the Shariah court's permission, saying she is a Christian and should not be bound by Islamic laws.
As far as is known, only one person has ever been allowed to leave Islam in Malaysia. An 89-year old woman named Nyonya Tahir who converted to Buddhism in 1936 had her decision accepted – 69 years later ‑ in 2006, after she had died.
From: Doing the Impossible: Quitting Islam in Malaysia - By Imran Imtiaz Shah Yacob - Asia Sentinel

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Understanding the Quest to Protect Human Rights.
Overview: Students explore the concept of human rights by developing and defending their own "Bills of Human Rights" and by writing a reflective essay that compares their notions of human rights and the protection of them...  Go to this Law and Society Lesson.

Ex-Red Guard recalls China's Cultural Revolution 40 years later, many struggle to understand

"We did what you see on TV or in films," Li said. "We put up big-character posters and went around to the houses of the rich and landowners to get their stuff. We took their money, gold, silver, and things and gave it to the government." The full article - By Jehangir S. Pocha (The Boston Globe) in the International Herald Tribune.

News analysis: Thai democracy: Who threatens it? - By Seth Mydans - The New York Times

A question that many opponents of Thaksin, as well as those of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who succeeded Estrada, fail to ask is what would come next if their elected leaders were overthrown, sidestepping the democratic process.

Related lessons:
• The Learning Foundation - Did Ex-Red Guard Li Qingyou break the Law - Simplified Mock Trial
• WWS - World Wise School - Generalizations
Overview: Students need to form the habit of reflecting on the sources of their own opinions and reactions to develop global perspectives. This activity asks students to respond to a series of facts, analyze their reactions, and compare their responses... Go to this Building Society Lesson Worksheet. 

"I think the threats are greater now than they were during the conflict, because you have people moving back into these areas, and they're armed," Wildlife Conservation Society Southern Sudan program director Paul Elkan, said.
"The question now is, Wow, they survived, but can they survive the peace?" Full Story - National Geographic News

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Mapping Animals' Migration Routes and Patterns
Overview: Students consider an immense animal migration recently documented in Sudan. They then investigate migratory patterns of animals and reflect on how human conflicts and activities affect migratory wildlife populations. Go to this Science and Building Society Lesson.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Assessing the Findings of the National Intelligence Estimate on Terrorism after 9/11
Overview: Students share opinions about the meaning of feeling safe in the continuing aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks. They then read and summarize findings of the Office of National Intelligence concerning the potential threat to the United States from Al Qaeda and read news reports and opinions in order to re-address the notion of safety. Go to this Building Society Lesson.