Page C8, Friday, October 1, 2010 Carroll County Times

LIFE & TIMES

‘The First Newspaper’ Education summit

A Sort of Allegory, Part Three Th

Thee
stinctive awe at the words,
and again a strange pre-
science of the future made
IBM to open
N icholas shook his
head. “ ‘Tis a poor
plan, Master Bre-
nton,” he said. “The folk
ton’s voice sank lower as if
he were thinking aloud, —
“in the long run, it will be
mighty good for our circu-
First itself felt in every mind.
Here for the first time in
history was being laid
down that fine, fearless new school
wish news, give them the
news. The more thou
lation.”
The speaker paused.
Newspaper creed that has made the in-
dependent press what it is.

givest them, the better
pleased they are and thus
doth the news sheet move
from hand to hand till it
may be said (if I too may
coin a phrase) to increase
vastly its ‘circulation.’ ”
“In sooth,” said Master
Brenton, looking at Nich-
olas with a quiet expres-
sion that was not exempt
from a certain slyness.
“There I do hold thou art
in the wrong, even as a
matter of craft or policie.
For it seems to me that if
our paper speaketh first
this and then that but hath
no fixed certainty of truth,
sooner or later will all its
talk seem vain, and no man
will heed it. But if it speak
always the truth, then
sooner or later shall all
come to believe it and say
of any happening, ‘It
standeth written in the
paper, therefore it is so.’
And here I charge you all
that have any part in this
new venture,” continued
Master Brenton, looking
about the room at the lis-
tening faces and speaking
with great seriousness.
“Let us lay it to our
hearts that our maxim shall
be truth and truth alone.
Let no man set his hand to
aught that shall go upon
our presses save only that
which is assured truth. In
this way shall our venture
ever be pleasing to the
Most High, and I do verily
believe,”— and here Cax-
Then turning to the broad
sheet before him, he began
to scan its columns with
his eye. The others stood
watching him as he read.
“What is this, Master Ed-
ward,” he queried pres-
ently. “Here I see in this
first induct, or column, as
one names it, the word
King fairly and truly
spelled. Lower down it
standeth Kyng, and yet fur-
ther in the second induct
Kynge, and in the last in-
duct where there is talk of
His Majesty’s marvelous
skill in the French game of
palm or tennis, lo the word
stands Quhyngge! How
sayeth thou?”
“Wouldst thou have it
written always in but one
and the same way?” asked
the printer in astonishment.
“Aye, truly,” said Caxton.
“With never any choice,
or variation to suit the
fancy of him who reads so
that he who likes it written
King may see it so, and yet
also he who would prefer it
written in a freer style, or
Quhyngge, may also find it
so and thus both be
pleased.”
“That will I never have!”
said Master Brenton firmly.
“Dost not remember,
friend, the old tale in the
fabula of Aesopus of him
who would please all men.
Here will I make another
maxim for our newspaper.
All men we cannot please,
for in pleasing one belike
by
Stephen
Leacock
we run counter to another.
Let us set our hand to
write always without fear.
Let us seek favour with
none. Always in our news
sheet we will seek to speak
dutifully and with all rev-
erence of the King his
Majesty: let us also speak
with all respect and com-
mendation of His Majesty’s
great prelates and nobles,
for are they not the exalted
of the land? Also I would
have it that we say nothing
harsh against our wealthy
merchants and burgesses,
for hath not the Lord pros-
pered them in their sub-
stances. Yea, friends, let us
speak ever well of the
King, the clergy, the nobil-
ity and of all persons of
wealth and substantial
holdings. But beyond this”
— here Brenton Coxton’s
eye flashed, — “let us
speak with utter fearless-
ness of all men. So shall we
be, if I may borrow a
mighty good word from
Tacitus his Annals, of a
complete independence,
hanging on to no man. In
fact our venture shall be an
independent newspaper.”
The listeners felt an in-
Meantime Caxton con-
tinued to glance his eye
over the news sheet, mur-
muring his comments on
what he saw, — “Ah! vastly
fine, Master Nicholas, —
this of the sailing of His
Majesty’s ships for Spain,
— and this, too, of the
Doge of Venice, his death,
‘tis brave reading and
maketh a fair discourse.
Here also this likes me, ‘tis
shrewdly devised,” and
here he placed his finger
on a particular spot on the
news sheet, — “here in
speaking of the strange
mishap of my Lord Arun-
del, thou useth a great S for
strange, and setteth it in a
line all by itself whereby
the mind of him that reads
is suddenly awakened,
alarmed as it were by a bell
in the night. ‘Tis good. ‘Tis
well. But mark you, friend
Nicholas, try it not too
often, nor use your great
letters too easily. In the
case of my Lord Arundel, it
is seemly, but for a mishap
to a lesser person, let it
stand in a more modest
fashion.”
There was a pause. Then
suddenly Caxton looked up
again.
“What manner of tale is
this! What strange thing is
here! In faith, Master
Nicholas, whence hast
thou so marvelous a thing!
The whole world must
know of it. Harken ye all
to this!”
in New York
Initiative will merge high school,
two years of college for degree
BY KAREN MATTHEWS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — The
City University of New
York and IBM will open a
unique
school that
will merge
high scho-
ool wi- th
two years
of college,
allowing
students to
earn an as-
s o c i a t e ’ s BLOOMBERG
degree, Ma-
yor Michael Bloomberg
said Monday when an-
nouncing a series of ambi-
tious educational initiati-
ves.
Those students will be
“first in line for a job at
IBM,” Bloomberg said in
his announcement, made
on MSNBC.
The city also will move
to a rating system this
year designed to ensure
teacher tenure is linked to
classroom performance.
Only teachers rated “ef-
fective” or “highly effec-
tive” will be awarded
lifetime job protection,
ols and mentor fellow in-
structors.
“New York City is ... lay-
ing the foundation to en-
sure that every child
who graduates high
school is ready to start
college or a career,”
Bloomberg said.
Bloomberg said the city
will work with the state to
end so- called “seat time,”
which requires all stu-
dents to spend a certain
number of hours in their
seats on every subject
even if they have already
mastered the subject.
It will also endeavor to
change a state law that re-
quires schools to buy
printed textbooks rather
than digital content.
“That may be good for
the business textbook in-
dustry but it’s really a bad
deal for our students in
this day and age,” Bloom-
berg said.
Earlier Monday, Mayor
Cory Booker said about
$40 million has been
raised so far to match the
$100 million donation to
Newark’s school system
from Facebook’s founder
Mark Zuckerberg.

Helpful advice
the mayor said.
Bloomberg said the city
will use a $36 million fed-
eral grant to enlist highly
skilled teachers to work in
low- performing scho-
Booker appeared in
Manhattan with New Jer-
sey Gov. Chris Christie
and Zuckerberg at NBC
News’ “Education Nation”
Summit.

Mississippi conference
held on anti-bullying
BY EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
JACKSON, Miss. — Kaleisha Ham-
mond says she sees people picking on
each other at school by saying mean
things or shoving their classmates
down in the hallways, and the seventh
grader from South Pike Middle
School says she wants to be part of the
solution to bullying.
“Whatever you do to people, it can
come back to haunt you,” Kaleisha, 12,
said Wednesday after listening to a
speaker at an anti- bullying confer-
ence in Jackson.
About 300 middle school students
from across the state, along with
teachers and counselors, attended the
conference hosted by several state
agencies, including the attorney gen-
eral’s office and the departments of
education and mental health.
The students will go back to school
as peer counselors.
“Kids absorb a lot more when other
kids are talking to them,” Attorney
General Jim Hood said.
The students received advice on
how to recognize when people are
picking on others — and how to help
the victims.
One of the first lessons: Don’t laugh
when someone’s being bullied, even if
the bullying seems not to bother the
person. The victim might just be act-
ing brave.
Milton Creagh, a motivational
speaker from Atlanta, told the stu-
dents and teachers about growing up
in Chicago in the 1970s and being bul-
lied at school.
Back when tall afros were fashion-
able, “I had a disease called ‘afro-
won’t- grow,’” Creagh said, prompting
laughter from the students. “People
started teasing me because I had a bad
hair day every day.”
Creagh said other students picked
on him because he wore cheap sneak-
ers, walked with a limp because he
Participants autograph a graffiti wall during an anti- bullying confer-
ence Wednesday at the Jackson Convention Complex in downtown
Jackson, Miss.
had a cast on one leg and was the first
student in his school to get braces on
his teeth — complete with a headgear
that he had to wear 24 hours a day for
six months.
He later attended college on athletic
and academic scholarships and spoke
at a public event with President Ger-
ald Ford. Creagh said after graduation,
he landed a corporate job because
AP PHOTO
Ford, who was an ex- president by
then, recommended that a golfing
buddy should hire him.
Despite his success as an adult,
Creagh said he still remembers
vividly how it felt to be bullied, in-
cluding how it hurt when students
who weren’t the bullies laughed at the
mean things that were said and done
to him.
Va. sees high
graduation rate
86 percent finish high school on time
BY ZINE CHEN SAMPSON
ASSOCIATED PRESS
RICHMOND, Va. —
Nearly 86 percent of stu-
dents in the class of 2010
graduated after four years
of high school.
The Virginia Department
of Education said the on-
time graduation rate for
public high school students
who were first-time ninth-
graders in 2006-07 was 85.5
percent, about 2 percentage
points higher than that of
the previous year’s class.
Among school divisions,
Falls Church and Clarke
County had the highest on-
time graduation rates for
the class of 2010, at 97 per-
cent and 96 percent, re-
spectively, according to the
report released Thursday.
Portsmouth had the lowest,
67 percent, followed by
Roanoke at 68 percent.
The report also showed
continuing disparities in
on- time graduation rates
among student subgroups:
Asian students had a 94
percent graduation rate;
whites, 89 percent; black
students, 79 percent; and
Hispanics, 76 percent. Stu-
dents with disabilities had
an 83 percent graduation
rate; economically disad-
vantaged students, 77 per-
cent.
But graduation rates for
black and Hispanic stu-
dents improved from last
year by 3 percentage points
and 4 percentage points,
respectively.
Superintendent for Pub-
lic Instruction Patricia I.
Wright said Thursday that
the higher graduation rate
is a result of teachers,
counselors and administra-
tors’ efforts to help stu-
dents struggling students,
and those “who are most
susceptible to the pressures
that cause students to drop
out.”
Of the 98,027 students in
the group that began high
school in 2006- 07, slightly
more than 8 percent
dropped out. Hispanic stu-
dents had the highest
dropout rate at 18 percent;
students with disabilities,
13 percent; economically
disadvantaged, 12 percent;
black students, 12 percent;
white students, 5 percent;
Asians, 4 percent.
The Department of Edu-
cation tracks individual
students from year to year
to get a precise on- time
graduation rate by assign-
ing each high-school fresh-
man a “testing identifier”
number. This is the third
year the state has reported
graduation rates using the
method, which accounts
for student mobility.

National Education Briefs

College students cited
in poverty increase
DULUTH, Minn. — The mayor
of Duluth says the city’s poverty
rate increased, in part, because
census workers counted more col-
lege students.
The U.S. Census American
Community Survey shows Du-
luth’s poverty rate rose from
21 percent in 2008 to 25 percent
last year.
Mayor Don Ness very few stu-
dents are above the poverty in-
come status, which is almost
$11,000 a year for a single person.
The community survey shows
about 14,000 students were
a law that allowed the state to
transfer students to neighboring
found unconstitutional the state
law under which the students
class is a must for most Des
Moines high school students.
counted in 2008 and approxi- districts after closing a struggling were transferred to the West Mif- School officials said most stu-
mately 15,000 were counted last high school doesn’t pass constitu- flin, East Allegheny and South Al- dents who are opting out of phys-
year. ical education classes have been
tional muster. legheny districts. The court
Ness tells the Duluth News Trib-The court unanimously found a determined the law was so specific told they must take the course.
une the large and growing student The Des Moines Register said
lower court had erred when it as to reasonably apply only to
portion of the city’s populationruled the state Department of Ed- school officials are telling families
Duquesne and therefore constitu-
may not accurately reflect the ucation had the right to transfer tionally prohibited. that students, for the most part,
students from the shuttered
number of people living in poverty will no longer be able to receive
The case was sent back to Com-
in the traditional sense. Duquesne High School to a trio of monwealth Court for further con- waivers exempting them from gym
neighboring districts. class. Officials are also scaling
sideration.
The state took over the district back contract physical education.
High school transfer in 2000 and closed the high school That’s where students exercise on
rule unconstitutional test in 2007, citing budget issues, poor Des Moines: Students their own outside the school day,
log the activity and turn it in.
HARRISBURG, Pa. — The ment.
scores and declining enroll-
must take gym class
Pennsylvania Supreme Court said On Wednesday, the high court DES MOINES, Iowa — Gym — Associated Press