What's wrong with this picture?

From a Raleigh, NC TV station - 'Clair' To Spread Clean Air Message Across Region:

A character modeled after a 10-year-old Chapel Hill student soon will be teaching youngsters across the region about the dangers of air pollution.

Clair, which is short for "clean air," is at the heart of a campaign being launched by Triangle Air Awareness to encourage residents to maintain the area's high quality of life by reducing air pollution.

"I hate to say it, but children listen a lot more closely. They go home and tell parents, 'We need to not drive so much. You need to turn off those lights when you leave the room.' They're very invested," clean air advocate Anne Galamb said.

They "go home" and hit up their parents with some ecoweenie propaganda they've learned? Where the heck were they? We knew the answer, of course:

"We also thought children would be more interested in hearing about clean air from somebody that was a child."

So, the organization enlisted McDougal Elementary School fifth-grader Madeline Taylor to play the role of Clair and found sponsors to finance a tour of area schools this fall.

Why is it that "professional educators" can always find classroom time for this sort of piffle, but can't manage to teach kids to read, write, or do arithmetic? One wonders how much time they would provide for a "spokestyke" named Neutron Nick who wanted to tell the kids about nuclear power, provided, of course, that his parents would let him skip class.

(Via Air Pollution News)

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 6:28 AM -

 
Everyone needs a hobby

Pupils perform 'alarming' feat:

A high-pitched alarm which cannot be heard by adults has been hijacked by schoolchildren to create ringtones so they can get away with using phones in class.

Techno-savvy pupils have adapted the Mosquito alarm, used to drive teenage gangs away from shopping centres.

They can receive calls and texts during lessons without teachers having the faintest idea what is going on

The alarm, which has been praised by police, is highly effective because its ultra-high sound can be heard only by youths but not by most people over 20.

Schoolchildren have recorded the sound, which they named Teen Buzz, and spread it from phone to phone via text messages and Bluetooth technology.

Now they can receive calls and texts during lessons without teachers having the faintest idea what is going on.

The article also asks why the pesky tykes don't just put the phone on vibrate. It's not as much fun, of course.

posted by Cracker Barrel Philosopher at 8:00 AM -