28 Jul 2008
For Many Student Athletes, Game Over

I'm not going to shed any crocodile tears for the loss of high school jocks - I've always questioned the propriety the sports in educational facilities. But what really caught my eye was this:

“In a No Child Left Behind era, all nonmath, nonreading classes have been cut back,” he [Stewart Trost] said.

Music and art are being dropped at an alarming rate, right alongside of (or, in most cases before) the basketball team. Standardized tests have become counter-productive, decreasing the ability of schools to educate rather than enhancing it.

As cash-strapped school districts across the nation scale back sports programs, some fear that the tradition of the scholar athlete is at risk.

(link) [New York Times]

07:09 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link

Microsoft gives Apache cash to promote open source

Be still my quaking heart! I thought I felt the earth move - now I know the cause!

Microsoft expanded its support for the open-source community on Friday by giving money to the Apache Software Foundation, the first time it has given money to the long-standing open-source project.

(link) [Infoworld]

07:08 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link