Eighty-six percent of American high school students report that some of their classmates use alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs during the school day.

That’s among the most significant findings of an annual survey of teenagers about their perceptions of drug use, released Wednesday, by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASAColumbia) in New York.

By Allison Terry, Correspondent / August 22, 2012

The latest survey, the National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XVII: Teens, gives parents a teen’s-eye view of the relentlessness and pervasiveness of the school drug problem, says Joseph Califano Jr., founder and chairman emeritus of CASAColumbia and former US secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare.

The survey gives a “graphic portrait of what is going on in high schools and among high school students – the fact that we have 9 out of 10 students saying that classmates are using drugs, drinking, and smoking during school the day on or near school grounds,” says Mr. Califano during a phone interview.

According to their peers, 17 percent of high school students use alcohol, tobacco, or drugs while at school, the survey found by asking students to estimate the percentage of their classmates engage in this behavior while at school.

CASAColumbia has tracked the attitudes of high school students and their perceptions of drug use for 17 years. For seven of the past eight years, the survey has found that about 60 percent of high school students say their schools are “drug-infected” – that drugs are used, kept, or sold on campus. This percentage is up from 44 percent in 2002, but down from 66 percent in 2010.

The student-reported prevalence of drugs in schools is not limited to public institutions, says Califano. This year’s survey found, for the first time, that more than half of students attending private school (54 percent) say illegal drugs are present at school, up from 36 percent in 2011.

More than half of high school students report that there is a place on or near campus where students go to drink, smoke, or get high, the survey found. About one-third of the students (36 percent) say it is easy for students to do this without getting caught. Also, 44 percent of high school students say they know a student who sells drugs at school. Drugs most often sold by students are marijuana (91 percent), prescription drugs (24 percent), cocaine (9 percent), and Ecstasy (7 percent).

CASAColumbia does not track the number of teen drug and alcohol users, but rather how high school students perceive the pressures they encounter day to day, Califano says. The organization used QEV Analytics, a public opinion research firm, to conduct telephone interviews with 510 girls and 493 boys between the ages of 12 and 17.

“The point is that we should not inflict this world on our kids and we are,” he says.

Percentages of ninth- and 12th-graders who admit to using drugs and alcohol, as tracked by theUS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), are lower than what the CASAColumbia survey would indicate.

Thirty-nine percent of teens have consumed alcohol in the past 30 days, according to the CDC’s 2011 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey, conducted every two years among ninth- to 12th-grade students in public and private schools. In addition, 23 percent of students say they used marijuana, 6.8 percent used cocaine, 11.4 percent used inhalants, 2.9 percent used heroin, and 3.8 percent used methamphetamines within 30 days of taking the survey.

In looking at trends of the prevalence of tobacco, alcohol, and illegal drug use on school property, the CDC reports that 5 percent of students have used alcohol and tobacco on campus, 6 percent have smoked marijuana, and 26 percent were offered, sold, or given an illegal drug.

“People are simply not paying attention,” Califano said, in explaining why there has not been much reduction in the number of “drug-infected” schools over the years. “We are trying to get parents, and other adults who have influence in kids’ lives, to look at the world as teens see it, and identify the circumstances that increase or decrease the likelihood that they will use drugs.”

Factors that increase the likelihood of teen substance abuse, according to the survey, include peer pressure via social networking websites such as Facebook andMySpace.

Students who attend “drug-infected” schools are more likely to see on social networking sites pictures of their classmates getting drunk, passing out, or using drugs, and 45 percent of students (10.9 million) have seen these types of pictures online. Of those students who have seen partying pictures, 75 percent say the pictures encourage other students to engage in that behavior, and 47 percent say the party scene looks like fun.

Students who have seen online pictures of their peers partying with drugs are more likely to engage in such behavior than are teens who have not. They are four times more likely to have used marijuana (25 percent versus 6 percent), three times more likely to have used alcohol (43 percent versus 13 percent), and almost three times more likely to have used tobacco (16 percent versus 6 percent), the CASAColumbia survey found.

“The takeaway from this survey for parents is to talk to their children and get engaged in their children’s lives,” said Emily Feinstein, CASAColumbia’s senior policy analyst and project director of the teen survey, in a statement. “They should ask their children what they’re seeing at school and online. It takes a teen to know what’s going on in the teen world, but it takes parents to help their children navigate that world.”

Parental engagement is the No. 1 way for parents to confront drug use in schools and in their teenagers’ lives, says Califano. Family dinners and attending religious services are two avenues for parents to engage with their kids.

“Parents think there is nothing they can do about it,” he says. “That attitude should change, and we are trying to change it.”

CASAColumbia’s website offers advice to parents who want to find out more about how schools deal with substance abuse. The organization suggests that parents talk to school administrators about the training teachers receive to recognize and respond to student drug use, what prevention programs the school offers and in what grades, and if the school tests for illegal substances.

“This survey drives home the fact that our leaders, whether they are presidential candidates, congressional candidates, mayors, or governors, talk about the importance of educating kids but ignore the big problem of the use of drugs,” Califano says. “If they are serious about getting kids better educated, they have to get serious about drug use. “

Related stories

• How much do you know about marijuana? Take the quiz
• Study: With OxyContin harder to misuse, abusers shift to harder drugs
• Cover Story: The family dinner is back – not haute, but the right thing to do

*******************************

August 22, 2012 

By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 22 (HealthDay News) — Ninety percent of American high school students report that some of their classmates are using illicit drugs, including alcohol and tobacco, during the school day, a new survey found.

When asked to estimate how many were involved, these teens reported that about 17 percent of students — roughly 2.8 million — are abusing drugs during the school day, according to the survey.

“The findings are alarming but not surprising,” said Bruce Goldman, director of substance abuse services at Zucker Hillside Hospital, in Glen Oaks, N.Y. “We know that teens abuse alcohol, cannabis, prescription medications. It makes sense that they do it at school where they congregate with their peers.

Goldman was not involved with the survey, which was released Wednesday by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASAColumbia), in New York City.

The survey is a timely one, coming out soon after a U.S. government study found that more teenagers start drinking and smoking cigarettes and marijuana in June and July than in any other month.

The new survey also found that schools can be a hub of drug-dealing activity, with 44 percent of high schoolers saying they know a fellow student who sells drugs at their school.

Half of respondents knew of a place near their school where kids could go to drink and get high during the school day, according to the yearly back-to-school survey, which polled 1,003 12-to-17-year olds.

And more than one-third said that students had ample opportunity during the school day to drug, drink and smoke without getting caught.

Drug use in both public and private schools is on the rise, with 54 percent of private high school students reporting that drugs are available in their schools versus 24 percent in 2002 and 61 percent of students at public schools saying their schools are “drug infected,” compared with 46 percent in 2002.

Social media seem to be contributing to the overall trend, with 75 percent of teens saying that seeing photos of other teens partying on Facebook, MySpace or other social networking sites made them want to do the same.

Nearly half of teens who have seen such pictures perceived that the teens in the photos “are having a good time.”

Kids who had seen such photos were three to four times more likely to have used marijuana, alcohol or tobacco compared to kids who had not viewed this type of picture.

“Seeing teens partying with alcohol or marijuana on Facebook and other sites encourages other teens to want to party like that,” said Emily Feinstein, project director for the survey and a senior policy analyst with CASAColumbia. “Clearly, parents really need to help children navigate that world safely.”

The survey also looked specifically at parental supervision and parental expectations and found both to play a major role in teens’ drug use.

Children who are left home alone overnight are about twice as likely to have used alcohol or marijuana and three times as likely to have used tobacco, compared to kids who are not left home alone.

Teens who believe their parents would not be “extremely upset” to know that their child was using drugs were less likely to engage in this type of behavior.

“Parents need to be hypervigilant and monitor their children’s friends, both virtual and reality,” Goldman said.

The same goes for school personnel, he added.

“If kids know who is using drugs, why don’t the staff?” he asked.

Feinstein concluded, “Preventing addiction is all about preventing teen substance use because the developing brain is more vulnerable. We really need to look at this as a health care problem rather than a behavioral problem and start screening and intervening early.”

More information

For more on teens and drugs, visit the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

The sex game was brought to the attention of officials at Piedmont High School in Piedmont, Calif., who launched an investigation earlier this month. The school is known for ranking in the top handful of the state’s schools in standardized tests.

By ALYSSA NEWCOMB | Good Morning America

In a letter to parents, Principal Rich Kitchens described a ritual “in which our female students (unbeknownst to most of them) are drafted as part of the league…Male students earn points for documented engagement in sexual activities with female students,” according to ABC News affiliate KGO-TV.

Many students, both male and female, knew about the league and participated either willingly or because of social pressures, Kitchens wrote.

The principal said the “league” revolved around varsity team players and had been around for years.

“The revelation that students expressed concern that the fallout could result in discipline and affect their college applications suggests an understanding by students that there is something wrong with the ‘Fantasy Slut League,’” Kitchens wrote in the letter.

The Piedmont High School and officials from the school’s district did not return ABC News’ phone calls and messages.

The school is planning assemblies and hopes the letter will create a discussion, assistant superintendent Randall Booker told KGO.

“It always comes back to how do we educate students and to have further conversations with the community,” he said.

http://www.cracked.com/funny-6763-school-girls-japan-vs-america/

Above: Actors  Ron Howard and Cindy Williams in the film “American Graffiti, 1950s depiction of American High School students….

http://www.filmreference.com/Films-A-An/American-Graffiti.html

by Amy Efaw

About: The emotional journey of a teenage girl who throws away her newborn baby.

Story Outline in Brief: 15 year old Devon faces a difficult journey as she is arrested and sent to Juvenile Prison after throwing her newborn baby in the trash. We follow Devon as she processes what she’s done, remembers all of the things that led up to “That Night,” and goes to court with her lawyer, Dominique, to determine whether she will be tried as a minor or as an adult.

My Review: This was a surprising gem of a book. I ran across it by accident. I was browsing the audio books on the library website and saw this one and decided to check it out. It’s the fictional story of a gruesome crime committed by a girl who had never before done anything “bad.” The book opens with her lying on the couch, sick, and we only slowly come to learn that she had just given birth and thrown away her baby. We later find out that Devon had been in such denial about her pregnancy that she herself did not think she was pregnant until after she had given birth. Throughout this stunningly written book we learn more about Devon’s past and family…a hands-off, selfish, man-hunting mother who is hardly ever home, Devon’s deep drive for perfection in sports, school, and life, and a non-existent father. We really come to sympathize with Devon as we experience this traumatic event through her eyes. Her lawyer, Dom, is a key character in the book. Throughout Dom’s conversations with Devon, Devon begins to remember the events of “That Night,” and we journey with her through her flashbacks as she pieces together the memory which she had truly, legitimately forgotten because it was so traumatic. Dom works extremely hard to get to know Devon as well as to make sure Devon knows that she has her back despite the crime Devon has committed. I’ve always had a heart for teenage girls and this book was so raw and painful in its descriptions of things a lot of teenage girls face. I went away from the book feeling so sad for Devon and also so proud of her courage. It gave me a heart for young women in juvenile detention and for teen moms. There were some supporting stories about the other girls in Devon’s detention center that really enhanced the whole feel of the book. The entire story was seamlessly written down to the very last brilliant sentence. Be prepared to cry.

Gabi Rating: For ages 15 and up. Disturbing descriptions of the birth, brief sexuality, and some mild language.

Summarizing Thoughts: I never would have thought that a book on this subject could be so incredible. I recommend it to pretty much anyone just because it’s amazing, but if you are a teen mom, have a heart for teen moms, or are interested in Juvenile Detention outreach…read this book!!

I give this book 4 out of 5 hearts! ♥♥♥♥×

Now the happy part of this post. I’m back to writing about the ladies! It’s been a good while, really. I can’t even remember – but I suspect the last time I had aired a post with WTA as main subject was back in Wimbledon. So let’s talk McHale, shall we?

I once wrote a post about the situation of the American tennis – talking about this ‘between harvests’ (I think I used this very same term) period, when the Williams sisters weren’t around, and the US women’s tennis was left in the hands of girls like Mattek-Sands and King. I also mentioned about the up and coming teenagers.

Among them, Christina McHale.

She is decent at tennis.

Well, she is here. Not here like, ‘hey, look at me Caro, I’m coming for your ranking’. It’s more like ‘hey, look at me Caro, I might be coming for your ranking someday really soon’. All normal, as predicted – we are beyond the point 15-yos could win Slams.

I got to watch her for the first time today. And, well, I was really impressed. I follow her since the start of the year, I think, when she would either have WCs or qualify. First time I took a closer look, she was taking Sveta out of Indian Wells. Back from the digression. Today, playing Bartoli – who, in other news, is not quite the same since Wimbledon – she felt no fear. She totally went for it – just like Marion, in fact; the French showed some A-display of tennis, hitting hard and even making some cash at the net, breaking Chris twice and serving for the set at 5/4.

But then McHale broke her, and I have no idea how, because my stream just puff, died, and the whole match changed after. Bartoli even had a confident hold at 5/6, yes, but that was it. Her gameplan totally failed in the tie-break, and Christina had it in the bag, 7-2. In the second set – which I barely watched – the young American broke her twice in the first three games, lost one of the breaks, but re-broke and ended up sealing her way to the 3rd round with a 7/6, 6/2 win over seed #8.

How she used this forehand pretty much impressed me today

Darn good, highlighted by her backhand – some killer winners she hit – her conscience – she craftily moved Bartoli around to hit winners into the open court – and total and complete absence of fear. And the results of course: In her last three events, the Jersey native took out world #1 Caroline Wozniacki (Cincy), two-time Grand Slam champion Sveta (Dallas) and now Bartoli.

Of course, she’s not ready yet – and I (who am I to say something?) didn’t even have to tell you this – one who’s aware of her post-upset results will understand and concur. The consistency – against everybody, and through a week – is not there, just like big, important results outside the USA.

But for a 19-year old, who has just broke through the top-60 and is almost in the second week of the US Open, I dare to say she is in the right way.

Do I even need to say anything about this? Yup. I found a stack of books on “the bench” the other day. One of those books happened to be You Look Too Young to Be a Mom: Teen Mothers Speak Out on Love, Learning, and Success. Oddly enough, I was able to sell this book within a week. I suppose there’s some sort of comment on the state of American teens in there but fart. Butt fart. The point is that the picture you see above happened to be between a couple of the pages in said book. I suppose it was being used as a bookmark. If the person that was reading the book is in the picture that’s a bit narcissistic and if the reader is not in the picture well then I guess that I’m a tad scared for my life. The book also had an inscription on the inside cover. I should have transcribed it while it was in my possession but I was high on Pepto Bismal at the time. It was something along the lines of “I know you’ll make the right decision” and what not. Abor…Pepto Bismal please give me money. The picture mostly speaks for itself. It’s another example of two ladies who are really into themselves and doing a couple of the classic “I’m a girl take my picture” poses. Unfortunately, they weren’t really considering their poses in relation to each other. Perhaps the girl on the left likes to eat farts or is proud of her friend’s buttocks. Also, the girl on the right is about to barf.

Today’s lesson is to always check your books before you put them on a bench for someone else to take. You may have forgotten about the nude pictures of yourself that you used as bookmarks. Conversely, if you find some books make sure you check for nude pictures of your neighbor. Learning.

At long last, it dawned on me: Vagueness was not a campus fad or just another generational raid on proper locution. It was a coup. Linguistic rabble had stormed the grammar palace. The principles of effective speech had gone up in flames.

Recently I have been reading a lot about the global tragedy of child sex trafficking. It has forever scarred my mind and heart with appalling and painful images of broken bodies, shattered hearts, and lost innocence. The depth of depravity in the hearts of men knocks the breath out of me as I investigate these things. It feels like landing on my back after falling out of a three story window. I can’t breathe and I’m nearly paralyzed by the pain. I cannot even begin to imagine the agony that penetrates the little souls that are actually experiencing this suffering…little bodies and hearts grown old after merely a few days of this unspeakable torture. And they have no hope for a way out.

How can a father sell his baby girl into slavery? What kind of darkness veils his mind into thinking that this is even moderately okay? And yet in the streets of Cambodia and other tragedy ravished places, this happens constantly, daily. The poverty that compels this kind of action is also beyond my comprehension. Their need is so great that it eats their souls alive, like a deadly cancer, driving them to the basest desperation, that is, selling the innocents under their care into the very clutches of evil. Unwittingly, they are selling their own souls along with the bodies and hearts of these little ones who should have been protected under their care.

And then I turn to look at America and my heart is grieved by what I see. Here, too, is a sex-obsessed nation. At least a few decades ago we had the decency to keep sex an adult secret. At least we let our children remain innocent of heart and mind. But as the years have gone by, this decency has decayed. Our culture has become a culture that is driven by the provocative. Our media, our music, and our movies revolve around the provocative. And who are the greatest victims of this shift?

OUR CHILDREN.

In today’s American society it has become expected that girls wear less clothing and more make-up at a younger age. It eerily echoes the stories of child prostitutes in Asia who paint their faces, wear tight dresses, and walk down the street in stilettos, purely to arouse the lust of passersby, giving them an “excuse” to think evil thoughts and to do evil things to these children.

Our little girls are not forced into prostitution, but daily society pressures them to dress older and more provocatively. They are instructed in how to attract attention with their bodies and their behavior. This is another form of lost innocence and it is driven by the force of a sex-crazed society. And whether we are aware of it or not, it gives adults (particularly MEN) an “excuse” to think things about these little girls that should never be thought.

Twelve years ago when I was in 8^th grade I did not wear make-up. I hardly ever thought about it because none of my friends wore make-up, either. Sure, I felt pressure to wear cool clothes and to have straight, shiny hair, but I rarely felt I needed to be more sexy and grown-up. I still played with dolls in 8^th grade for heaven’s sake!

Even in just 12 years, American society has changed so much. The 13, 14, and 15-year-old girls I see would not be caught dead without thick eyeliner, heavy mascara, and glossy lips. Drive by a theater on any given Friday night and you will see girls who should be at home playing with their dolls, leaning against the walls provocatively in their EXTREME mini-skirts, fluttering their little girl eyelashes, and swinging their coiffed hair as they flirt with boys that should be at home playing with green plastic army men.

Since when did attracting the opposite sex become the obsession of 11-year-olds? How is this even a little bit OK?

And it’s starting even younger and younger. Little girls as young as 4 and 5 start learning how to “look sexy” because of what their parents dress them in. Gone are the days of tights and fluffy dresses. Welcome to the days of lingerie lace and spaghetti straps and leopard prints and mini-mini skirts. (Provided happily by your local kids’ clothing store.)

It starts innocently enough with mom dressing little Molly like a miniature adult because she thinks it’s cute. But it is a trap of allowing sexy attire to become the norm so that when Molly is ten and mom is a few years older, they both feel it necessary to stick with the trend of little girls dressing like adults…and not even regular, respectable, business-type adults, but sexy, flirtatious, provocative adults.

There is a 10-year-old I know who is full of life and giggles and little girl sparkle. But I see her dressing in extremely tight, spaghetti strap tops and extremely tiny short shorts, swaying her little body back and forth to music like someone in your every day, PG-13 music video. And it breaks my heart. When did little girls stop being little girls?

We need to take a stand. We need to act now to fight this wave of the sexualization (and exploitation) of children in this country. Our society is teetering on the edge of an abyss that Thailand, Cambodia, and even Chinatown, N.Y.C., have already fallen into.

Earlier I asked how a Cambodian father could allow his daughter’s body to be sold. I ask the same of us. How can we allow (and even encourage) our children to sell themselves, exploiting their bodies, minds, and hearts to the lust of men young and old. It horrifies me that what is happening in those other parts of the world is starting to happen here WITH THE CONSENT AND NODDING APPROVAL OF THE ENTIRE NATION.

Oh Lord! Return us to innocence! Break our hearts and bring us to our knees in repentance! Make us bold and courageous, turning our hearts and minds back to the purity that is You. And may our children no longer be sold to the road of lost innocence.

Amen.

INTERNATIONAL / ASIA PACIFIC | December 06, 2009 4 American Teenagers Arrested in Japan By HIROKO TABUCHI Three boys and a girl from an American military base were arrested on charges of attempted murder for allegedly toppling a woman on a motorbike, causing her to suffer a serious head injury.

My Take:

Pranks can get you into hot water and as in the case of these 4 teenagers arrested. I’m sure they all thought this would be fun and were LOL at the time. But not anymore! Parents need to continue to guide their youths no mater how old or young. Teens need to read this and think again about the next planned youthful prank….. enough said.

New York : Listening Library, 2006. The audio book has 5 CDs, playing time of 6 hours and 9 minutes. The print book has 275 pages.

This is the story of DJ Schwenk, a 15 year old girl who lives on a dairy farm in a small Wisconsin town in recent time (around 2005). Her father is disabled, her 2 older brothers are off at college on football scholarships, and it falls to DJ to keep the farming running. It’s a lot of work milking twice a day, haying, taking care of the cows and their calves, keeping the barn clean. DJ’s mother is working 2 jobs at the school, and isn’t home much. Her younger brother, Curtis, doesn’t speak much at all, likes going to the dentist, and only helps on the farm when his sports schedule doesn’t conflict, which isn’t too often.

The story picks up when a spoiled rich kid quarterback named Brian from the school’s arch rival team turns up at the farm saying his coach made him come work for the Schwenk’s this summer. There is a lot of conflict between DJ and Brian at the beginning. But she learns to understand him better when she uses her football knowledge and skill to help him get in shape for the football season. Despite their differences, they become great friends, and even experience a brief spark of romance. Other things that happen include DJ discovering her best friend is a lesbian who is in love with her, and despite the fact that her brothers won’t talk to their Dad or even come to visit, her mother has been staying in touch with them. DJ reaches out to them, too, and that relationship is restored. DJ hasn’t done well in school the previous year, and gets motivated to make up her work to improve her grades so she can be eligible to play sports again in the fall. While training Brian, she realizes how much she loves football, that she has a talent for training others, and that deep-down, she wants to play, too. She makes the high school football team, and ends up playing against her good friend, Brian, who feels betrayed that she never mentioned she would be playing on the team. By the end of the story, DJ has turned 16 and definitely matured, everyone has a better understanding of each other, and DJ has joy in her life now that she’s taking action and not acting like a cow (that is, just doing whatever is expected of her without complaint).

It was a pleasant story to listen to, because every character has some good in him/her, and DJ’s narrative can be kind of funny, and it has a happy ending. It’s written in first person. The reader, Natalie Moore, does a nice job sounding like DJ, even working in the Norwegian “o” vowel that many from Wisconsin might speak. But Moore’s depiction of the male characters’ voices was unnatural and distracting. She tried to lower the pitch of her voice too much, instead of just relying on speech patterns to distinguish the characters.

The worth of this book is multifaceted: first giving a great example of learning to understand others rather than judging them and taking offense. Second, the story shows the value of hard work, the benefits that result from it, and the motivations that can make you successful at accomplishing hard tasks. Third, you learn a lot about dairy farming. The details are nicely woven into the story. There are enough topics in the story to appeal to a wide range of readers/listeners. Good news: there is a 2007 sequel, OFF SEASON, which tells more about DJ’s football career.

4Q 4P J

Tweens and teen under age 15 will enjoy this book the most.

The cover of this audio book features a background of blue sky with whispy clouds, and the head and shoulders show of a cow wearing a tiara.

tags: “YALSA Amazing Audio Books for Young Adults list”

farming, football, Women’s Football, Wisconsin, friendship, high school, family life, American teens

AR notes: IL: MG – BL: 5.3 – AR Pts: 10.0

]]> http://manasir53.wordpress.com/2008/11/30/can-michelle-rhee-save-our-schoolsus-updated/ Sun, 30 Nov 2008 06:47:43 +0000 manasir53 http://manasir53.wordpress.com/2008/11/30/can-michelle-rhee-save-our-schoolsus-updated/ In 11th grade, Allante Rhodes spent 50 minutes a day in a Microsoft Word class at Anacostia Senior High School in Washington. He was determined to go to college, and he figured that knowing Word was a prerequisite. But on a good day, only six of the school’s 14 computers worked. He never knew which ones until he sat down and searched for a flicker of life on the screen. “It was like Russian roulette,” says Rhodes, a tall young man with an older man’s steady gaze. If he picked the wrong computer, the teacher would give him a handout. He would spend the rest of the period learning to use Microsoft Word with a pencil and paper.

One day last fall, tired of this absurdity, Rhodes e-mailed Michelle Rhee, the new, bold-talking chancellor running the District of Columbia Public Schools system. His teacher had given him the address, which was on the chancellor’s home page. He was nervous when he hit SEND, but the words were reasonable. “Computers are slowly becoming something that we use every day,” he wrote. “And learning how to use them is a major factor in our lives. So I’m just bringing this to your attention.” He didn’t expect to hear back. Rhee answered the same day. It was the beginning of an unusual relationship.

The U.S. spends more per pupil on elementary and high school education than most developed nations. Yet it is behind most of them in the math and science abilities of its children. Young Americans today are less likely than their parents were to finish high school. This is an issue that is warping the nation’s economy and security, and the causes are not as mysterious as they seem. The biggest problem with U.S. public schools is ineffective teaching, according to decades of research. And Washington, which spends more money per pupil than the vast majority of large districts, is the problem writ extreme, a laboratory that failure made.

Rhee took over Anacostia High and the district’s 143 other schools in June 2007, when Mayor Adrian Fenty named her chancellor. Her appointment stunned the city. Rhee, then 37, had no experience running a school, let alone a district with 46,000 students that ranks last in math among 11 urban school systems. When Fenty called her, she was running a nonprofit called the New Teacher Project, which helps schools recruit good teachers. Most problematic of all, Rhee is not from Washington. She is from Ohio, and she is Korean American in a majority-African-American city. “I was,” she says now, “the worst pick on the face of the earth.”

But Rhee came highly recommended by another prominent school reformer: Joel Klein, chancellor of New York City’s schools. And Rhee was once a teacher–in a Baltimore elementary school with Teach for America–and the experience convinced her that good teachers could alter the lives of kids like Rhodes.

Anacostia High has a 24% graduation rate, and only 21% of its students read at grade level. Rhodes is well aware of the miserable statistics, and when he first saw his new chancellor from afar, he thought she looked petite, foreign and underqualified. “I was like, She doesn’t look ready for urban kids.” But after they exchanged e-mails, he agreed to meet her downtown. He realized almost at once that he had underestimated her. “She actually sat with me,” he says, “and talked eye to eye, like I was one of her co-workers.” They decided to meet again, this time at Anacostia High. Rhodes began to talk about Rhee to his classmates, and they started writing an agenda for the meeting, detailing all the things that were wrong with the D.C. school system. They had much to tell.

Rhee has promised to make Washington the highest-performing urban school district in the nation, a prospect that, if realized, could transform the way schools across the country are run. She is attempting to do this through a relentless focus on finding–and rewarding–strong teachers, purging incompetent ones and weakening the tenure system that keeps bad teachers in the classroom. This fall, Rhee was asked to meet with both presidential campaigns to discuss school reform. In the last debate, each candidate tried to claim her as his own, with Barack Obama calling her a “wonderful new superintendent.”

Hard as it is to imagine Washington schools ranking among the best in the country, the city does have some things working in its favor. The system is relatively small, making it easier to redirect. As in New York City, the board of education was recently dissolved, which means changes can be made without waiting for the blessing of a fractious body of overseers. And now that a third of Washington’s kids are in charter schools, there is intense pressure on the public system to keep the students it still has. If they keep fleeing the system at the current rate, enrollment will drop 50% every 10 years.

Each week, Rhee gets e-mails from superintendents in other cities. They understand that if she succeeds, Rhee could do something no one has done before: she could prove that low-income urban kids can catch up with kids in the suburbs. The radicalism of this idea cannot be overstated. Now, without proof that cities can revolutionize their worst schools, there is always a fine excuse. Superintendents, parents and teachers in urban school districts lament systemic problems they cannot control: poverty, hunger, violence and negligent parents. They bicker over small improvements such as class size and curriculum, like diplomats touring a refugee camp and talking about the need for nicer curtains. To the extent they intervene at all, politicians respond by either throwing more money at the problem (if they’re on the left) or making it easier for some parents to send their kids to private schools (if they’re on the right).

Meanwhile, millions of students left behind in confused classrooms spend another day learning nothing.

Il fatto è che, questa roba, mi ha ormai dato così ripetutamente fastidio, da dover essere espulsa come un calcolo renale, come un pezzo di spinacio fra i denti, come un tocco di mascara finito all’angolino dell’occhio, come una mutanda tra la chiappa destra e la sinistra…insomma: FASTIDIO.

Situazione: negli unici momenti in cui mi stravacco sul divano facendo zapping convulso, orario vuole che becchi l’uno o l’altro programma su MTV oppure, se davvero mi ha detto sfiga, entrambi. Trattasi di formatSS educativi e veritieri come le tette della Ventura, cioè “Next” ma SOPRATTUTTO “My Sweet 16″. Direi di soffermarmi, quindi, sul secondo. Esso consta di codesti ingredienti transgenici:

• uno stato USA
• un ragazzino o una ragazzina che stanno per compiere i fatidici 16 anni, che là stanno come i nostri 18, perchè possono piglia’ aa patente
• le loro case da 50 stanze + le loro famiglie che si puliscono normalmente il culo con bigliettoni da 6 fantastilioni di dollari
• un gregge di di-loro amici e vagamente conoscenti i quali, come nei migliori serial stile college importati qui da noi, farebbero carte false per essere invitati al mega party
• una location per il party il cui costo azzererebbe il debito nel terzo mondo
• un super ospite di solito conosciutissimo in quel dato stato aMMeRRecano
• il gran finale dove al cretinetto viene regalata una macchina che di norma va dall’ultimo modello di mercedes fino a, che so, Jaguar o Bentley o magari Ferrarine d’importanziòn.

Il copione si snoda più o meno nello stesso modo. Prendiamo il caso di una ragazzina, perchè le femmine, bisogna ammetterlo, toccano vette insuperate di imbecillità: si inizia con la cheerleader, o aspirante tale, di turno. La soggetta semovente nei meandri del suddetto scenario, è usualmente una portatrice insana di dieci chili di troppo, ma per tacere del buon gusto, va in queste boutiqucce e decide di prendere cosine del genere “tamarra Versace gran soiree”, che tradotto si estrinseca in un discretissimo completo maculato fucsia, scaldaspalle di latex e stivali di pelo di topo muschiato. L’effetto finale è da vera pretty-woman, ma PRIMA di incontrare Richard Gere.

Si continua scegliendo la location del festone e stravaganti modi per –> 1) invitare amici e gente appena intravista a scuola -ma FARE NUMERO serve eccome- 2) far pesare il più possibile agli esclusi la mancata entrata ed il divertimento epocale che ne conseguirà. La scelta vestito e la scelta locale, di solito sono costellati da interventi paterni, dove il genitore risulta essere un totale deficiente che la figlia si rigira semplicemente snocciolando un sorrisetto con lucidalabbra alla ciliegia ed un “ai love iu deddi!” miagolato a testa reclinata, sbraccicando un peluche sul letto (a 4 piazze che hanno nella “cameretta”).

E arriva il grande momento. La tipa ha più boccoli di Shirley Temple, c’è più servizio d’ordine che ad un concerto dei Rolling Stones e più coreografi e party-planners, con tanto di auricolare, che nel film in cui J Lo faceva l’organizzatrice di matrimoni… La sala è gremita, orde di adolescenti si agitano sulla pista e mi preme specificare che, a quanto pare, là le ragazze trovino fico ballare quasi esclusivamente dimenando il culo e mimando lap-dancer. Teneri virgulti.  

Sono due i momenti clou che mancano all’appello–> 1) l’entrata della festeggiata (c’è la doppia opzione: o ‘vintage’ dove scende da uno scalone tipo Rossella O’ Hara o scosciandosi da limousine glitterate), 2) la consegna della vettura, che avviene a fine serata, tra fari che illuminano a giorno e bave dei meno fortunati i quali vengono mantenuti dietro a cordoni di sicurezza da energumeni che mantengono i plebei lontani dal tappeto d’oro.

Qui e là richeggiano i “sooo coooool!” – “this is the best party ever!”…cui fa eco la festeggiata di turno…nell’ultima puntata vista, ha esclamato una cosa traducibile con un “E VOI UNA COSA COSI’ VE LA SOGNATE, STRONZI”.

Stronzo chi guarda.

Why, you ask? “I allowed them to have a voice, feel secure, and share their lives,” says Ms. Bowman. “Teenagers are given a bad rap in many ways. People are terrified of them. They’re very controlled in those years, very influenced by family, community, school, church. They’re trying to break away and to form themselves.” Absolutely amazing. Check out some of the results from her book here.