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For you Star Wars fans out there, here are five ways to celebrate Star Wars Day:

1.       Send a friend a may the 4th e-card from the official Star Wars site.

StarWars.com has 15 different varieties of e-cards to mark Star Wars Day. Check them out here.

2.       Geek out on Star Wars gear.

Star Wars collectibles and merchandise are aplenty on the Internet. Think you have every Star Wars item ever produced? Check out these lightsaber chopsticks or Star Wars-themed fold-up stereo headphones. For female fans, there's “These are Not The Boobs You're looking For Move Along” t-shirts on Amazon – a take on the famed “These are Not The Droids You're looking For Line” uttered by Obi-Wan Kenobi in “Star Wars: A New Hope.”

3.       Participate in a lightsaber flash mob

Word is “The Unofficial World's Largest Lightsaber Flash Mob” will be held today at the University of Texas-Arlington campus, according to theforcenet. Won't be in the Arlington area? There's no doubt the flash mob will make its way to YouTube. Or you can always gather your own flash mob.              

4. Get a girl using a Star Wars pickup line

This dorkly.com article is chock full of Star Wars pickup lines, including “I feel a great disturbance … in my pants.” [CAUTION: these probably won't work.]

5.       Veg out and have a Star Wars marathon

Preferably on Blu-Ray, there's no better way to pay homage to the Star Wars franchise then to gorge on the masterpieces created by George Lucas.

On the off chance you don't have the entire film collection, Wal-Mart has the complete saga on sale for $89.96 here.

When you're done with the films, there's always the Clone Wars TV series for your viewing pleasure.

There you have it – everything you need to celebrate may the Fourth, a.k.a. Star Wars Day. Enjoy!

To report problems or to leave feedback about this article, e-mail: to contact the editor, e-mail:

Tags: droids, star wars a new hope, texas arlington

For someone who grew up as a DC/Marvel swing-fanboy, the chance to participate in an interview with “The Avengers” writer/director Joss Whedon was nothing short of nerd nirvana.

The Kernel, along with some other collegiate newspapers, had the chance to pick Whedon’s brain about his experience working on “The Avengers,” as well as his writing/directing career as a whole.

Highlights of that career include co-writing for “Toy story,” “Speed” and “The Cabin in the Woods,” as well as guest directing episodes of “The Office” and “Glee.”

During the interview, Whedon discussed everything from handling pressures of the project down to what superpower he’d like to have in real life.

“The Avengers” is based on S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury trying to unite heroes with extraordinary powers and egos.did you ever feel like Nick Fury, trying to bring the actors into a team concept, and how did you handle creative differences in this type of situation?

JW: I felt very much like Nick Fury. He’s the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., literally, and that puts him at a remove from everybody, even if he likes them. He knows he’s putting them in harm’s way. hopefully I’m not putting my actors in harm’s way.

Hopefully I’m not even making them uncomfortable, but I’m not nearly as intelligent or manipulative as Nick and I didn’t have as many problems because my actors actually wanted to be together. they enjoy each other.

But you do feel that responsibility that you’ve got to get all of these people to give their best. for (Fury) it’s in battle, and for me it’s when we’re rolling, to really come up with their best stuff and play off each other as well as possible, and you have a great responsibility to service them with your camera at the same time.

So I definitely felt some of the pressure, but I can see out of my left eye.

Did you have any particular combination of super heroes that you thought were the most interesting to see interact?

JW: I love the Bruce Banner, Tony Stark relationship.

Bruce Banner’s the first guy Tony Stark’s come across who operates on his level intellectually, who isn’t a villain.

But I also love Tony and Steve (Captain America) and how much they can’t stand each other, and I’m very invested in Natasha and Hawkeye and their deep friendship, so, you know — oh — I love them all.

I hate this question (laughs).

What advice would you give to any student with ambitions of one day sitting in the director’s chair?

JW: my advice would be (to) sit down. now you’re in the director’s chair.

We live in an age where anybody can make a movie. If you have a phone, you can make a movie. OK, maybe not a huge movie, maybe phone-sized, but it’s there.

When I came up, you wrote a script, and you hoped and hoped. or you raised enough money to make a short film.

Things are different now and the best way to get your work out there — not just as an offering to somebody else to hope they’ll make it, but to show yourself as a filmmaker and to learn as a filmmaker — is just make movies.

There’s no excuse not to now.

If you were going to insert yourself into a super hero movie, what powers would you have?

JW: I would have the power of invisibility, and then I wouldn’t have to show up for as many shooting days.

College students have a lot of options this summer with movies to see during their breaks. why should college students have it first on their list to see “The Avengers”?

JW: I think “The Avengers” is the kind of movie that I grew up wanting to make and thought they had stopped making.

When I grew up, the summer movie was, literally, created as a concept, and all my life I wanted to do something like that, something like the first “Indiana Jones,” something that was steeped in character, in love of the genre that it was portraying, had intelligence, had real acting, had a story that unfolded and wasn’t just a sort of big premise that you already knew going in.

More and more, summer movies have felt a little cynical. There are very big exceptions to that, but that has been the case when people throw so much money down.

They’re not interested in a story, they’re interested in just barraging you with excitement and imagery and brand names.Marvel doesn’t operate that way. they care about the people. That’s why they hire some of the best actors in the business to play their heroes. This is an old-fashioned movie.

It’s a little bit bigger than life, but it’s very human.

“The Avengers” opens may 4.

Tags: brain, puts

How naive. I thought people were happy to live in Fleet in Hampshire because of the good schools, light traffic and low crime. but it seems there is something else putting the smile on the face of my fellow Fleetonians. News broke last week that we are the sex-toy capital of Britain. the town centre has been buzzing ever since. so to speak.

To leap to the top of this auspicious league table we Fleetonians spend 62p per head on sex toys. I didn’t realise a first-class stamp could be so much fun. Sixty-two pence? ten of us would have to club together to buy even a packet of batteries.

I confess I’m not among this army of sex shoppers. I can’t buy a bottle of Pinot Grigio without getting ID-ed in Morrisons. Even so, reporters were quickly dispatched to rummage in the town’s bottom drawer. but most people were too tied up to answer the door. (Sorry, again.)

Licking their lips, hacks painted a depraved picture of a town where we all supped pints in the Slap and Tickle, tethered to perfect strangers and struggling to conduct a conversation over the low-level drone of 100 pairs of vibrating underpants.

Sarah Anderson, who runs the more than Coffee shop in the town, declared: "I’m just as likely to chat to my female friends about vibrators as I am about clothes or lipstick." Which got me wondering how she froths her hot milk.

According to Lovehoney (no, me neither) this boom in "erotic accessories" has been fuelled by Sex and the City. Fleet has many qualities, but it is not classy Manhattan. No one batted an eyelid when mid-market frilly-knicker outlet La Senza went bust, but a Facebook group was set up to rescue our branch of Peacocks. (It worked.)

That’s not to say Fleet is downmarket. It’s a great place to live. when Poundland opened in the old Woolworths store it lasted less than a year. Turns out we prefer Waitrose. It’s just that it’s the sort of middle-class town where a racy night in involves full-fat houmous and an "outstanding" Ofsted report.

Notably, other places in the sex-toy table were also commuting towns – Didcot, Godalming, Basingstoke. the 40-minute train ride out of London Waterloo can be boring, and a newspaper can struggle to keep you titillated beyond Farnborough.

Our local paper, though, is a mine of information. the Fleet News and Mail is terrific – a great big broadsheet, exhaustively covering all the municipal machinations. they have to draft in the punch-up and flasher stories from nearby Aldershot to add spice. but maybe Fleetonians are getting enough of that at home.

The local police have a Twitter feed which is revelatory about the level of crime locally. "Adam on route to an on-going #NeighbourDispute." "Don’t block the pavement or dropped kerb." "24hr CrimeReview – NO #Burglaries, NO #Thefts, NO #CriminalDamage." "Look out for Pc Franks on his bike… he has broken his stabilisers."

Whenever I tell someone where I live, there is a flicker of recognition. "Now why do I know Fleet?" Usually they have just enjoyed the small thrill of walking over the footbridge spanning the M3 which joins the eastbound Fleet Services to the westbound. In fact Fleet only exists thanks to tourism. Londoners boarded the early steam trains to visit Fleet pond. these days it’s a draw for joggers, dog walkers and families wishing they’d gone on the shorter circuit.

According to Halifax’s happiness survey, 95 per cent of us in Fleet are in good health and we live longer too. Men in Fleet live until 81. Which means I’ve got another 50 years to stock up on handcuffs. Apparently we also have less rain and more sun than the national average. try telling that to my sodden raised bed. You see, even that sounds like a euphemism in a town like Fleet.

Tags: batteries, bottom drawer, first class, pairs, pence, pints

If there is one word that’s on the mind of every high school student this time of year it might be PROM! Yes, we’re right in the midst of prom-mania—Cerritos High School’s Prom is this Saturday—and arguably the hottest accessory for prom is something that most of us can’t live without: our mobile phone. 

Be smart and use your phone as your personal assistant for all prom-planning. From finding a date to picking your hairstyle, your mobile device is going to be the one-stop shop to make your prom night the best ever! 

Here are six tips from AT&T to help you be the bomb at the prom.

1. Desperate for a last-minute date? need a confidence boost? Check out Ask2Dance ($1.99 for iPhone) to let the romance$ flow.

2. Is your date not what you expect? Looking to ditch your date? Play it cool with ShakeNFake ($0.99) for iPhone). as the name suggests, simply shake your phone to make it look like you’re receiving a call.  Set the fake call to show a name, phone number and picture so you’ll be sure to fool the dud you’re trying to ditch!

3. “Try on” different hairdos with PromHairstyles (free for iPhone). Save your favorite and bring the image in to your stylist to have her duplicate for the big night.

4. Picking a prom dress can be daunting.  Get some help keeping track of options, accessories and details. iPromDress ($1.99 for iPhone) lets you save favorite dresses digitally and include specifics such as designer, price, color and neckline for easy comparison. A free and similar app is PromGuide (free for iPhone and Android), which can direct you to nearby stores that sell your favorite styles. If you are trying to keep track of multiple outfits for more than one dance (lucky you!), try iFrockUp (free for iPhone), which includes countdowns for multiple dates and allows you to mix and match accessories to different dresses to create a new look for each prom.

5. Make your mobile device a smart accessory with customized skins and cases. Use skinit.com to create an exact color match case for your device and even import graphics and designs to match your wardrobe for the night. Or try out letscrystalit.com to add jewels and crystals to a case for a sparkly touch. Better yet, go all out with a new phone that matches your look for the night.  Many of this spring’s “in” colors have made their way to the latest mobile devices.  at AT&T, fashionistas have a kaleidoscope of devices to choose from—everything from a cool cyan blue Nokia Lumia 900 to a mod white HTC Vivid to a pretty pink Pantech Pursuit II.

6. Finally, make sure to book dinner reservations. Start your night off right with UrbanSpoon (free for iPhone and Android) to book your pre-prom dinner reservation.  Use the restaurant generator to find options based on price point, type of food and location. 

— Laura Escudero, Casey & Sayre, inc., Los Angeles

Tags: fool, iphone, midst, mobile device, mobile phone, romance

You want to sound good on the guitar on the first day. it encourages you to play more and learn guitar fast. the best way is to find easy acoustic guitar songs that have few chords and difficult parts to play. when you visit your local music store and look through all the music books how do you know which ones are easy to play. But you also want music that is contemporary and modern. no one wants to be playing blowing in the wind (sorry Bob) these days.

What I can do is give you some of the artists who write really great music that is constructed in a simple way. You shouldn’t start out by buying an Eric Clapton album or perhaps Dave Gilmour’s latest tome. I agree that they write and play great guitar music but as a beginner you need to lower your sights. Do not look at guitar music but rather look at songs that have a simple set up and are not too fast.

No beginners can play fast music well so do not try it. You might think you are the new Bruce Springsteen but honestly he has more skill than you would believe and playing fast is a skill.
So who is writing good playable music for the beginner guitarist these days? here are ten groups and artists that write well written easy music. Buy the easy play music for these people and you will be playing great music very quickly.

• Coldplay
• James Blunt
• Razorlight
• Tracy Chapman
• Gabrielle
• Van Morrison
• Scouting for girls
• The Feeling
• Any country music artist. (They write simple well written songs that tell a story but do not require great virtuosity)

The other way to find easy acoustic guitar songs to play is to follow a modern contemporary guitar course like Jamorama. As part of the course you will learn a great selection of modern great sounding songs arranged for beginners.

Tags: great music, playable music

There’s a difference between a true investment and a half-hearted effort. And this distinction is illustrated in the saga of the bald doll.

In January, cancer advocate Jane Bingham launched a Facebook page asking Mattel to introduce a bald version of Barbie to support children with cancer. at first, Mattel responded to Bingham with a basic form letter saying it does not accept submissions from consumers. but after the “Beautiful And Bald Barbie” movement attracted widespread attention and accumulated more than 160,000 Facebook “likes,” the toy maker announced it would produce 10,000 limited-edition bald Barbie dolls to donate exclusively to U.S. children’s hospitals.

While Bingham was pleased with this decision, she was also disappointed with the result. “They are only making 10,000 of these dolls, so only a very limited number of kids will even be able to get their hands on one,” says Bingham. “Each year, 12,000 kids are diagnosed with cancer, and no child without cancer will receive one. plus, this limited quantity is bound to cause a high resale price. It’s basically going to be only a collector’s item.”

At the same time, Mattel competitor MGA Entertainment, maker of the Bratz Dolls, was carefully watching the saga unfold. “After hearing that Jane just received a form letter from Mattel, it gave us the green light to get involved,” says MGA’s Susan Hale. MGA approached Bingham to develop the “True Hope” collection. under the banner, MGA is releasing three bald Bratz dolls, three bald Moxie Girlz dolls, and one bald Moxie Boyz doll. In addition, MGA is donating $1 for every doll sold to support cancer research at the City of Hope organization.

Little details matter, says Hale. All of these dolls, for instance, do not have eyebrows since most cancer patients lose theirs. Wigs are also not included with the dolls, nor are they available as separate accessories. “We want to show that you don’t have to have hair to be beautiful,” says Hale. Each doll package comes with a kid-sized beaded bracelet, in honor of young cancer patients. “Kids receive a bead every time they finish a treatment. They use their collections as a way to countdown to the end of their treatment,” says Bingham.

The True Hope collection debuts exclusively at Toys ‘R’ Us beginning June 11th. The retailer is fully supporting the bald dolls by placing the SKUs in high traffic areas, including by the cashier registers. Hale also says Toys ‘R’ Us is not switching out any of the “hair” Bratz and Moxie dolls in the toy aisle to make room for these new products. “Toys ‘R’ Us is fully on board,” says Hale. “Other retailers see [selling bald dolls] as risky, but not Toys ‘R’ Us.”

Both Bingham and MGA’s Hale make an effort to downplay any competition between the two toy makers, though it’s hard not to make the comparison. “This isn’t a situation where Bratz beats Barbie. we would love to see all doll makers offer a bald version. It’s not just Barbie. we want to see bald [Spin Master] Liv Dolls and [Mattel] American Girl dolls,” says Hale.

Tags: bratz dolls, competitor, submissions, true hope

Angelin Preljocaj takes inspiration from the darker aspects of the Brothers Grimm fairytale for his version of Snow White. Unlike Disney’s saccharine 1937 film, Preljocaj punctuates his ballet with brutality, taking the audience into a strange and primal world, filled with visceral sexuality and evil.

It opens with a pregnant woman writhing about the floor and fatally giving birth. the tone is thus set for the entire ballet; there is never a moment of joy without a counterpoint of bleakness. even when a happy marital ending seems inevitable, the Queen is forced to dance herself to death in red-hot iron shoes.

The production’s Snow White (Nagisa Shirai) is not an innocent victim. At court, she crosses and uncrosses her legs with a sense of unfulfilled yearning that expose the character’s deepest sexual desires. Her costume, by Jean Paul Gaultier, embodies both her virginal naivety in its white, flowing chiffon and her potent passions in its figure-revealing slits and contours.

The Queen, Patrizia Telleschi, is more overtly lascivious in shiny black bondage gear and stilettos. Angular high kicks draw attention to her uncovered inner thighs and give a commanding sense of power. Accompanied by two lycra-hooded and gagged cat slaves, she is like an erotic dominatrix. even the seven dwarfs take an unconventional form. They become spinning acrobats who somersault up and down a vertical cliff face.

The ballet has moments of enticing genius. the Queen forces the poisoned apple into Snow White’s mouth and drags the young princess about the stage, teeth gripping fruit, in a remarkable and mesmerising duet. the prince’s subsequent dance with Snow White’s limp body is equally stirring and cleverly conceived. But there is also a lot of hollow, uninspired movement that seems to fill time rather than take forward the story or create any visual enticement. Gustav Mahler’s music is similarly hit and miss.

Preljocaj takes Snow White into a modern, dark and seductive realm that isn’t always enthralling but never fails to surprise.

Ballet Preljocaj’s Snow White ran from Thursday to Saturday last week. Check out more ballet both from the UK and around the world at Sadler’s Wells. Visit sadlerswells.com to find out more.

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Tags: black bondage, counterpoint, iron shoes, shirai

PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) –

Portland is getting ready to get into the groove for the first Rock 'N' Roll half Marathon.

More than 20 bands twill add rhythm to the beat of 14,000 runners racing through the Rose City on may 20.

The inaugural race starts and finishes downtown at Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

The opener and headliner for the race are Chris Renne and Kevin Rudolf.

The music starts at 8 a.m. and goes until 12:30 p.m. with a performance every mile of the race route.

It concludes with a final closing performance by Kevin Rudolf in the RoZone at the Rose Festival CityFair.

A list of bands participating includes: James London Band, Boys without Toys, Bandemia, The 5th Elephant, Portland School of Rock, Noah Peterson, Little Beirut, Geno Michaels & Soul City with The new Iberians, DJ Dennis Marcellino, Dubious with Level 2, Kathy Boyd & Phoenix Rising with River City Ramblers, cool Breeze with Randy Foote & The Shankin' Yankees, Lenny Rancher & The Carlyle Group with Ricky G & China Watch, Petty Fever with Rich Layton & the Troublemakers, Jacob Merlin Band with Garcia Birthday Band, and Kevin Rudolf.

Copyright 2012 KPTV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.

Tags: carlyle group, kathy boyd, renne, river city ramblers, rose city, rudolf

Ahead of its upfront presentation on Monday (May 14), NBC has released its 2012-2013 primetime schedule, and it is heavy on shakeups as the struggling network attempts to refocus and make itself “Must-See TV” again. the biggest and strangest move is the shift of comedies “Whitney” and “Community” to Fridays at 8 and 8:30 p.m., respectively. NBC entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, did not beat around the bush when addressing how industry pundits interpreted the move. “I know that most people in our industry think Friday is a graveyard but we don’t really believe that,” Greenblatt said about the move. “If you don’t build it they won’t come.”

Dramas and crime procedurals aimed at an older audience (think “Ghost Whisperer” and “Medium”) have historically been the only shows able to maintain an audience on the difficult night, and it’s telling that the network made this same move with another low-rated cult hit comedy, “Chuck,” on its fall schedule last year.

Beyond “Community,” there are several major moves on NBC’s lineup that indicate a long-term, full-scale programming overhaul that execs no doubt hope will help the network move out of fourth place and restore the Peacock to its former glory.

Below are some of the biggest changes and what they might mean for the future of your favorite shows.

“The Voice” returns in the fall to anchor Mondays and Tuesdays “The Voice” has been one of the few true hits NBC has been able to launch in the last several years. its overall ratings are strong and it is a leader in the 18-49 demographic that advertisers covet. NBC is banking on the show big time next year, airing two cycles (fall and spring) instead of just one, and pairing it with its three most buzzed-about new shows, hoping that its ratings lead-in will spell success across the board.

On Mondays, “The Voice” will toss to J.J. Abrams/Eric Kripke’s hotly anticipated thriller “Revolution” and on Tuesdays to comedies “Go On” and “The new Normal.” “Go On” marks Matthew Perry’s return to NBC after several well-liked but low-rated attempts (“Studio 60,” “Mr. Sunshine”) to rekindle his TV stardom and he’s not taking any chances — the show, a single-camera comedy about a struggling sportscaster, was written and created by his former “Friends” showrunner Scott Silveri specifically for him.

Like “Revolution” and “Go on,” “The new Normal” comes from the mind of another TV giant, “Glee” creator Ryan Murphy. about a gay couple (Andrew Rannells and “Hangover” star Justin Bartha) and their attempts to start a family with a surrogate (Georgia King), who herself is hoping to give her 8-year-old daughter a new start, “Normal” was considered such a sure thing based on its strong pilot and Murphy’s clout that the show began staffing before NBC had even officially announced its pickup.

“Go On” and “Normal” — along with new Wednesday comedies “Animal Practice” and “Guys with Kids” — represent NBC’s push to develop new comedies as it looks to find shows to replace those currently holding down its low-rated, award-winning Thursday lineup.

Thursdays stay the same … for now NBC has already announced a shortened, 13-episode final season for “30 Rock,” though it pleased many by announcing it was sticking by “Up All Night” and “Parks and Recreation.” Neither show has ever been an all-out ratings winner, but both have been consistent performers, drawing better ratings on Thursdays than the aging “Rock.” While “The Office” is experiencing series-low numbers, it remains the top scripted comedy on the network (that’s how tough things are for NBC right now), and “Parks and Rec” held on to more of its “Office” lead-in audience than either “Rock” or “Night” did in the 9:30 timeslot, so it’s no surprise NBC is keeping the acclaimed comedies where they are.

But with ratings flagging across the board, NBC’s move to keep its Thursday lineup is probably an attempt to appease the very fans they will court for new shows. (“The new Normal” is aimed squarely at the same young adult-to-early-30s audience that got riled when the net didn’t announce an immediate pick-up for “Parks.”)

With so many new comedies in the works at NBC, fans of its Thursday shows would be silly to think that — unless they experience a major ratings turnaround next season — this won’t be the last season of both “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation.” “Up All Night” could benefit in the long term if “The new Normal” or any of the family-centric sitcoms the net is launching on Wednesdays take off. NBC execs reportedly like the show, and it is new enough to thrive if paired with the right lead-in.

Say farewell to “Community” and “Whitney” When it comes to “Community,” Greenblatt perhaps protests too much. the show enjoys a devoted cult audience, but it simply isn’t large enough to justify keeping the show on the air much longer, and it’s very unlikely the small audience it does have will follow it to Friday nights. That said, as with “Parks and Rec” and “The Office,” the net doesn’t want to alienate the show’s fans, so it will — just as it did with its cult-favorite “Chuck” last year — let the increasingly troubled comedy burn off its remaining episodes and go out with a planned-for conclusion.

Need more proof that the show is on its way to the graveyard? consider its haphazard, ill-fitting lead-in, “Whitney.” the two shows are not only polar opposites on their own, they are aimed at entirely different audiences. (Interestingly, don’t be surprised if “Whitney,” which skews older, does better on Fridays than “Community.”)

After both shows inevitably bite the dust, we wouldn’t be surprised if NBC shifted “Law & Order: SVU” to Fridays to let the show, which has seen its own ratings fall dramatically since Christopher Meloni’s departure, either wind down or enjoy a small-scale resurgence. “SVU” is a more logical fit with the net’s current Friday procedural fantasy “Grimm” and the two shows could prop each other up.

What do you think of NBC’s programming changes? Let us know in the comments below

Tags: audience, comedy, entertainment chairman, industry pundits, primetime schedule

3:13 am May 14, 2012, by Maureen Downey

Mpaza S. Kapembwa of DeKalb  is a 2011 Cross Keys High School graduate who now attends Williams College.

He is a Gates Millennium Scholar, Coca Cola Scholar and Dell Scholar. this is the second piece he has written for the get Schooled blog

Our method of fixing problems in education today seems to be laying all the blame on our teachers. We have grown comfortable not being responsible. At the same time, we want all of the benefits of shared responsibility without sharing in the burden. We are quick to frown when someone wakes us up from a restful sleep. a teacher reminding us of our own responsibility is akin to the alarm going off in the wee hours of the morning. Parents see their dreams not being realized in their children and they lash out at the dream snatcher — the teacher.

When President Obama visited Seoul in 2009, he asked President Lee Myung-bak about his biggest challenge in education. Myung-bak said he wished parents didn’t care so much about their children’s success. South Korea’s students have outperformed the rest of the world for most of the last decade. It shouldn’t come as a surprise being that their main problem is “over commitment” by parents to their children’s education.

In 2011, Amy Chua published her best-selling book “The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,” which focused on the child-rearing practices of  Chinese mothers. The book recounts her strict, perhaps extreme, method of raising her children: no play dates, piano practice for hours each day, threatening to donate their toys if they rebelled. Such an attitude toward cultivating success stands in stark contrast to the most visible aspects of American education.

While Ms. Chua’s methods might have been extreme, it is worth considering that American education in general needs to be a little more like a Tiger Mother. Our system values self-esteem, happiness, friendship, and feeling good above true knowledge, wisdom and understanding.

Calling for students to be more responsible for their education and for parents to cease blaming teachers won’t work with politicians, policymakers, struggling students and the general public. all of these groups believe they have something to lose if they accept this premise. Struggling students are allowed to advance in our system of leaving no child behind — success is more important to the grown-ups than to the child. The general public will gladly direct the blame to teachers to avoid looking in the mirror.

Education only works when there is a certain level of synergy between the community/home students, and educators. Working together, they form a very powerful triangle. cut one corner and it collapses. We are trying to form this triangle but only focusing on our educators. Our “solutions” are designed according to an emotional convenience. It is so much easier to work on the teacher. Working on the student causes feelings of discomfort and reflects badly on parents. yet it can’t be denied that the comforts of the blame game are wearing thin as our students are being put at a disadvantage.

One of my high school teachers told me that dodge ball was removed from schools because some kids did not have the agility to outmaneuver the ball. Our academic policy views have similar but unintended results. I fear we may be expelling learning from our schools simply because it is not pain-free for all participants.

–from Maureen Downey, for the AJC get Schooled blog

Tags: cross keys high school, last decade, school graduate, surprise