The Changing Senior Year
The senior year of high school is considered by many to be a rite of passage of sorts: That final year feels like the triumphant culmination of a dozen or more years of hard work, capped by an elaborate cap-and-gown ceremony. However, the senior year—one of the most fashionable times for youth—is itself becoming a bit unfashionable in spots. A growing number of students are forgoing the traditional senior year for internships or college classes. Next year, a small cadre of schools in eight states will allow sophomores who pass a series of tests to graduate two years early—moving directly to college. In Utah, three-fourths of the high school seniors attending the Academy of Math Engineering and Science are taking two or more classes at the University of Utah. It’s all an effort to make the senior year less ceremonial and more serious—a true springboard to adult responsibilities. “The research on adolescents is pretty clear—these kids are ready for adult responsibilities,” says Al Church, principal for Utah’s Academy of Math Engineering and Science, “so let’s put them in environments in which they can be active learners, experiential learners, project-based learners.” (USA Today)
With a Facebook Friend Like This…
Ron Bowes, an online security consultant, has posted personal details of more than 100 million Facebook users on the Internet site Pirate Bay. Bowes used a program to scan all 500 million personal Facebook pages and pull information not protected by Facebook privacy settings. “As I thought more about it and talked to other people, I realized this is a scary privacy issue,” Bowes said. “I can find the name of pretty much every person on Facebook.” The file on Pirate Bay already has been downloaded several thousand times. (MSNBC)
Energy Drinks Dangerous?
Some health experts in Canada are saying that energy drinks—wildly popular among youth—pose a sizable danger to children and teens and should carry with them stronger warning labels. The critics say that energy drinks contain loads of caffeine—about five times more than you’d find in an average can of soda and twice as much as you’d consume from a cup of coffee. One can of Red Bull contains about 113.6 milligrams of caffeine—pretty significant, considering Health Canada says that children ages 10-12 never should consume more than 85 milligrams of the stuff in a single day. Too much caffeine can cause irritability, loss of sleep and nervousness. More seriously, it can make the heart speed up or beat abnormally. (The London Globe & Mail)
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/energy-drinks-pose-serious-health-risk-to-kids-canadian-medical-journal/article1652080/
More Fang for the Buck
Dentists are reporting that some of their teen patients are asking for more than just the occasional filling or cap. They want fang-shaped veneers to make them look like vampires. Only a few dentists in the country offer the veneers, and they cost about $200 a set; tut the dentists who do perform the procedure say they’re very safe and quite attractive—if you’re into that sort of thing. “It is indeed a new dental trend, but I can’t imagine it will spread beyond the fringe groups—teens who love Twilight and “True Blood,” people in the goth scene and members of the modern vampire subculture,” says dental marketing expert Jim Du Molin (who may be unaware that vampires in Twilight don’t have fangs). “However, many people seem to view their teeth as a fashion accessory these days; and they’re decorating them accordingly—rappers with gold teeth and grills, party girls with sparkly tooth jewels and now this.” (San Francisco Chronicle)
