| Where did the last 20 years go?
Do you ever dream along to the radio? I have recently started doing so, one of the many new-found benefits (the first being that the sun-up day can only, frankly, get better) of savage scouring insomnia. It does make dreams more interesting, this falling asleep finally, shattered, around dawn or later. I managed two whole books the other night (a Jeffery Deaver and a Robert Harris, five bottles of pop, 24 cigs, seven trips to the potty, one very numb elbow, eyes like thrashed oysters) before drifting off to the Today programme, which twitched my subconscious in various delightful ways - dwarves and baby dinosaurs arguing in surprisingly articulate fashion over autonomy for schools; a Great White shark with (somehow, worryingly) the face of Hazel Blears negotiating, with mild high-pitched menace; the flooded lanes of Tewkesbury - and, also, I thought I had dreamt something bizarre about microwave ovens.
Vocational Schools Work Better, Report Says
Labor and business groups are calling for a dramatic expansion in vocational high schools after a report released yesterday showed that the schools are graduating more students and losing fewer dropouts than are city schools overall, even as advocates say support for them has stalled. In the class of 2005, 63% of career school students graduated in four years compared to 58% citywide, and just 10% dropped out compared to 15% citywide, a 2006 state Board of Regents report found. Career school students also performed far better on Regents exams, with more than 80% gaining high scores in math, English, and science compared with 55% or less citywide. Yet the 22 city high schools that teach such skills as auto mechanics, fashion design, and podcasting alongside the traditional curriculum receive $265 less per student in funding, and just 12% of career programs have been given state certification, the report said.
Teen fashionistas try industry for size at summer camp
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - While many U.S. students enrolled in sports or music camps this summer, a rising number of girls invested their time instead in a new type of program centered on catwalks and haute couture -- fashion camp. Enrollment in fashion-related majors at schools like New York's Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons The New School of Design has risen in recent years, partly due to the popularity of reality television series based on fashion such as "Project Runway" and the hit movie "The Devil Wears Prada". So fashion camps held in New York, Ohio, California, Alabama and Canada were seen as giving teenage girls with a passion for fashion the chance to see whether they wanted to seriously pursue a job in the highly competitive industry. In New York, where about 169,000 people work in the fashion business, a group of 35 girls aged between 13 and 16 paid $1,095 each to join the first season of Fashion Camp NYC, comprised of five days of lectures, seminars and store visits.
Back to School Fashion Trends Could Get Expensive
A lot of back to school shopping has to do with the latest fashion trends. So what are the kids buying these days? For schools that don't impose uniforms, a lot of kids feel the need to dress trendy. (Girl 1:) "Maternity-looking shirts!" (Kuznits:) "Baby doll shirts?" (Girl 1:) "Yeah, baby doll shirts and really chunky necklaces, wide-legged pants." (Girl 2:) "I just pick out what I like." And what they like could get expensive, like the rising trend of high-end jeans. (Girl 2:) "It's kind of ridiculous." (Boy:) "It's hard to find jeans, but if you find the right pair of jeans, yeah, I think it's worth spending you know for one good pair." (Kuznits:) "What's the most you would spend on a pair of jeans?" (Boy:) "No more than, like, $180." (Kuznits:) "Who pays for the jeans?" (Boy:) "I do, but my mom will probably pay me back later." .
It won't be same for Clark at Capital High
Last week, Capital High School Principal Clinton Giles was doing some "yard work" at the Greenbrier Street school. Giles was using a brush hog to clear weeds from his cross country team's course on school property. "I began to reclaim that," said Giles, who wasn't going to wait for the county to take care of it. "Within Kanawha County Schools there is a system that does maintenance, but the system is too large, so you can't depend on them to get to you in a timely fashion." His impatience and displeasure with some of the state school board's policies are what led Giles not to following the plan of improvement policy with his boys basketball Coach Carl Clark. When he asked Clark to resign in April, the 13-year coach refused, eventually filing a grievance against Giles.
Teen fashionistas try industry for size
While many US students enrolled in sports or music camps this summer, a rising number of girls invested their time instead in a new type of program centered on catwalks and haute couture - fashion camp. Enrollment in fashion-related majors at schools like New York's Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons The New School of Design has risen in recent years, partly due to the popularity of reality television series based on fashion such as "Project Runway" and the hit movie "The Devil Wears Prada". So fashion camps held in New York, Ohio, California, Alabama and Canada were seen as giving teenage girls with a passion for fashion the chance to see whether they wanted to seriously pursue a job in the highly competitive industry. In New York, where about 169,000 people work in the fashion business, a group of 35 girls aged between 13 and 16 paid $1,095 each to join the first season of Fashion Camp NYC, comprised of five days of lectures, seminars and store visits.
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