Thankful At this time of Thanksgiving, I am reminded of how fortunate I was to have been a recent candidate for Hernando County School Board. I would like to extend a warm thank you to all the members of our community that supported me during my candidacy. ...more

November 27, 2008

Hillsborough County parents are looking at an array of expanded school options with eight new charter schools planning to open in August. ...more

November 14, 2008

Hillsborough parents are looking at an array of expanded school options with eight new charter schools planning to open in August. ...more

November 13, 2008

Deshjuana Bagley, who friends call Desh, was turned on to technology as a seventh-grade student at Westbrook High School in Beaumont, Texas. ...more

November 12, 2008

Living with his wife Betty in a Dunedin condominium overlooking the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, Ed Maguire knows a life of peace. But the 91-year-old veteran also saw his share of war. During World War II he was a member of the U.S. Army 33rd Ordnance Bomb Disposal Squad. ...more

November 8, 2008

Her adrenaline pumping, Mary Vaughn climbed through the window of a downed helicopter, lowered herself into a lake and swam to a rescue net that lifted her to safety. ...more

November 5, 2008

Bradley Jackson made an interesting discovery this summer: It turns out Manta rays gliding through the waters of Monterey Bay in California have a lot in common with hermit crabs skittering on the shores of Cockroach Bay in Ruskin. ...more

October 8, 2008

Bradley Jackson got up close and personal this summer with the rays and sharks of Elkhorn Slough, an estuary off the coast of Monterey Bay in California. ...more

October 4, 2008

I am writing to you today to express my opinion on an important subject. Music Programs across the country are having their budgets cut by lack of funding. ...more

September 30, 2008

Is there a crisis for boys? Peg Tyre, author of the well-researched new book "The Trouble with Boys" responds with a resounding "yes." And it's a crisis that's occurring at all levels of our educational system, from preschool through college, affecting boys and young men and setting the stage for a very different kind of gender gap. The trouble with boys, of course, lies not within boys but within our culture. In response, we must look beyond individual interventions and examine the systems in which our boys are growing up - the family, schools, sports, social networks, and the culture at large. Individual level treatments are necessary, of course, but without examining the underlying causes of these challenges facing boys, we're not truly addressing the problem. Tyre's new book, "The Trouble with Boys: A Surprising Report Card on Our Sons, Their Problems at School, and What Parents and Educators Must Do," has ignited a new national conversation about a generation of boys we hope to raise to become productive, caring young men. But in her book, Tyre - an investigative journalist by trade - outlines years of research and reporting from schools nationwide showing the public education system is not geared toward boys' success. Tyre delved into lagging school performance and the great numbers of boys being treated for behavior issues such as attention deficit disorder and found a strong correlation between the testing-based education reforms of the last decade and boys' social and academic battles. In a school environment obsessed with test preparation and highly scheduled lessons, there is less time for hands-on learning, recess, physical education and play-based learning that connect with boys' intellectual and physical strengths. Twenty years ago, experts said the exact same thing about girls - that our sexist culture was creating the widely reported loss of self-esteem, that our schools were responsible for girls' poor achievement in math and science, and that, despite Title IX, girls were not experiencing an equal playing field in sports. Thankfully, girls' advocates stepped up and created effective strategies that helped girls successfully navigate our often troublesome culture and helped adults support girls more effectively. While we haven't solved the problems, we are much closer to a society where girls are empowered, have strong relationships, and opportunities to succeed in school and life. Unfortunately, along the way boys seem to have suffered. Maybe it's the outdated win-lose mentality that still plagues us - if girls are successful, then boys can't be. As with so many of our societal ills, we need to create win-win solutions. That's why at The Ophelia Project and Boys initiative of Tampa Bay we are working together to identify the gender-specific needs of youth and effective strategies for addressing those needs. When we started in 2002, our focus was solely on girls. But now, we work with both genders to address their unique needs. And we're committed to a win-win approach for both girls and boys. While Tyre is focused on the educational problems that need to be addressed so that boys can succeed at school, The Boys Initiative is also concerned about the social and emotional issues boys are facing. We offer programs for boys and young men, as well as trainings for adults who work with boys. Our focus areas for boys and young men are: bullying and violence prevention, leadership development, positive peer support, and creation of a healthy sports culture. We operate programs in both school and community settings. This year we are offering a new program, RISE: Revealing Inner Strengths through Empowerment, for sixth-grade students, on the fall schedule at five public middle schools (Dowdell, Ferrell, Orange Grove, Stewart, and Young). All sixth-graders at these schools are involved in gender-specific programs, in which they participate in team-building, fun learning activities, and meaningful group discussions. All five schools have been enthusiastic partners in the project and we are providing additional training opportunities for school staff as a critical component of the project. We work closely with national experts as we build our programs and services for the Tampa community. One of the most exciting upcoming events is Boys Council Training - the first to be offered in the nation. This innovative new program is a twin venture of the California-based Girls Circle Association, a project of the Tides Center. Ophelia brought the highly effective Girls' Circle program to Tampa in 2003 and we are proud to now be introducing the Boys Council program. The training will take place on October 9-10 and space is limited. The work of the Boys Initiative is truly innovative. We are one of the few communities in the country that has tackled boys' issues with the same energy and commitment as girls' issues. We're not aware of any other boys' projects operating on a community-wide level in the country. Parents, the school system, and other nonprofits are joining us as we address what boys need. That makes me hopeful that, over time, we can find the right local solutions for the national crisis that Tyre documents and raise boys who are successful in both school and life. ...more

September 28, 2008