Older Students

Heather Housand is 13 years old and has just discovered ho scary high school can be.Older students necking in the hallways. Piles of homework. Rules. The sheer size of the place.Glen Burnie Senior High is crammed with 2,074 students who, along with 115 teachers, rush to classes through a maze of hallways in six buildings."I was worried about getting lost," said Heather, whose small, single-building middle school had about half as many students. "I was really nervous when the older kids came."

When Emani Haffeez and fellow student council members convene for a meeting, they sit cross-legged in a circle on a blue and red carpet, surrounded by building blocks, teddy bears and dolls.They begin each session by answering a few simple questions: "What day is it? What month is it? What is the date?" And though all council members know their names, several stumble over how to spell them.The 5-year-olds on the Campfield Kindergarten Council, formed in the fall, are getting a firsthand lesson in democracy, handling issues such as choosing school colors and doling out charitable contributions.

Sharing a bathroom with 20 college women is not exactly what 49-year-old Jennifer Bean-Dempsey envisioned for herself at this stage of her life.Neither is planning a family Christmas dinner while studying for exams in her dormitory room.But Ms. Bean-Dempsey, mother of six and grandmother of three, is among the increasing number of nontraditional students forsaking home and hearth for communal living in Towson State University's 11 dorms.In the past five years, the number of these students at Towson State has risen from 131 to 201 -- and includes a single mother with a new baby, a blind man and an Army veteran who wants to be a film director.

I expected to be sweltering by this time of year. But instead the weather has eased into gentle warmth.What a difference 10 degrees makes in summer. It makes less difference in winter. If I'm cold, I just put on another sweater under my jacket. It doesn't work in reverse.If I'm too hot, I can only shed so many layers before modestly fleeing to the air conditioning in my bathing suit. I don't know how rabbits endure a year-round coat.But all last week it was cool enough to go paddle-boating on the Columbia lakes.

Do you remember looping strips of paper to make paper chains when you were small? Elkridge Elementary School students make paper chains each holiday season, festooning their school with color. But for these kids, each link cost 10 cents.Here's the system: Students in each grade choose a charity to which they would like to donate money. Then for two weeks, the children buy their links, chaining paper through the halls.At the end of Holiday Chain season, Principal Mary Mitchell measures the chains and the grade with the longest chain is the winner.

Reading and writing together is building bridges between students at Sykesville Middle and Piney Ridge Elementary schools.Once a month, the middle school students go to the neighboring school and read to kindergartners. The project, funded by a grant from the Nestle Co., gives children in the Reading is Fundamental program an opportunity for educational interactionwith older students.It also provides the best in children's literature to the youngsters. Hundreds of free books go home with the kindergartners.

Cathy Ettenhofer entered the work force as a hairdresser in 1967, left it to raise two sons and now stands one semester shy of a degree in social work from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The 45-year-old student plans to become a geriatric social worker, probably in a nursing home.She says her desire to help finance college for her sons and to find a spiritually rewarding career brought her to college in 1988 -- and will send her on to graduate school.This fall, college campuses across the nation will welcome millions of older, "non-traditional" students who are eager for career changes as well as for the extra money that a college -- or advanced -- degree can provide.

High school memories of golden days singing in a glee club have brought good music and talent back into action for the benefit of Carroll Hospice.Members of the Alamedian Light Opera Company, reunited for their first gala performance in 1987, will present the seventh Golden Days Gala at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Westminster High School.The company was established in 1943 by alumni of the City College Glee Club in Baltimore. When club members and former students threw a party in 1983 for their high school music teacher, Blanche Bowlsbey, the members decided their voices hadn't aged with their bodies.

When Milton Rudich graduated from high school in 1920, college was not an option."I had to work to support myself," Mr. Rudich said. "I needed the income."Seventy-three years later, after watching his daughter and three grandchildren graduate from college, he's gone back to school.Though Mr. Rudich, 88, is the oldest student at Towson State University, a refrigerator magnet in his apartment suggests he prefers to think of himself as "a recycled teen-ager."Like many of his fellow students, he takes the shuttle bus to his classes.

sex -- might be the next most common subject at Board of Education meetings.At its meeting Wednesday, the board will discuss whether to extend to juniors and seniors education about the prevention of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.The meeting is at 9 a.m. Wednesday at North Carroll High. Board members contacted said they will keep an open mind until hearing from staff Wednesday.Last month, the Liberty High School Parent, Student and Teachers Association president, Christine Centofanti, asked the board to consider strengthening its health curriculum for older high school students.

As kids head back to school tomorrow, freshmen at Aberdeen High School may find the first day a little less daunting. During the summer, more than 100 incoming ninth graders got a look at the school, the upperclassmen and their peers, when they participated in the school's first freshman field day. With more than 400 new freshmen expected to attend the school this year, the event was part of a multipronged approach to improve freshman transition, said...

Benjamin Harris is like most 15-year-olds - He has his first summer job, and he is counting the days until he can get his learner's permit - but for one thing. Instead of starting his junior year in high school this fall, he will be a junior at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. The Severn teenager graduated summa cum laude May 29 with an associate's degree from Anne Arundel Community College and won a $5,000 scholarship to UMBC. No matter that he is too young, according to the state of Maryland, to take the General Educational Development (GED)

As a teenager, Mary Sanford Williams yearned to become a lawyer. But at the time, there was no money for college. Finally, now that she has graduated from Baltimore City Community College - at age 80 - the West Baltimore resident is closer to her goal. BCCC's oldest graduate this year plans to become a legal assistant. According to The Sun's Sumathi Reddy, Ms. Williams, who had a 3.5 grade-point average, did not attend the graduation ceremony last week because she is in summer school and has started course work at the University of Baltimore on the way to getting her bachelor's degree.

Plans for two of Anne Arundel County's special education centers have some parents worried. School system officials are seeking $500,000 to reassign students by age at Ruth Parker Eason School in Millersville and Marley Glen School in Glen Burnie, both of which now serve 3- to 21-year-olds. Administrators say it makes more sense to assign pupils up to about middle school-age to one school - Marley Glen - and older students to the other. But some parents fear that such a move would tear apart relationships with staff members whom families have trusted for years.

Students entering middle and high school in Anne Arundel County this fall won't have an extra day to orient themselves before older students join them, as has been the practice in past years, officials said. Superintendent Eric J. Smith noted instructional and financial reasons for eliminating the staggered openings, which allowed incoming sixth- and ninth-graders to start school a day early. "I think it's very important that both parents and students are at ease," Smith said. "But there are ways to deal with it that are more cost effective and less disruptive to one of our precious school days."

Students entering middle and high school in Anne Arundel County this fall won't have an extra day to orient themselves before older students join them, as has been the practice in past years, officials said. Superintendent Eric J. Smith noted instructional and financial reasons for eliminating the staggered openings, which allowed incoming sixth- and ninth-graders to start school a day early. "I think it's very important that both parents and students are at ease," Smith said. "But there are ways to deal with it that are more cost effective and less disruptive to one of our precious school days."

THE FIRST major international study of reading in a decade shows that American 15-year-olds are about as proficient at reading as they are at mathematics and science. They're adequate but not very good - the definition of mediocre. In a new test given last year, U.S. teens performed about in the middle of the pack of 15-year-olds from 27 countries, most of them industrialized. Teen-agers in Canada, Finland and New Zealand significantly outperformed them. American students substantially outshone peers in only seven countries, among them Mexico.

Overall, Baltimore County educators have reason to applaud results on the 2000 Maryland School Performance Assessment Program. County elementary and middle school pupils improved scores in most subject areas of the MSPAP. As a result, the county has 26 schools - the most in the state - with composite scores that meet or beat the state's testing goal. High scorers such as Summit Park and Fullerton elementaries continue to produce impressive results. And four elementary schools - Riderwood, Hampton, Timonium and Padonia International - earned the highest scores in the state in writing, language use, or social studies for third- and fifth-graders.

Midshipmen can no longer trade exemplary performance at the Naval Academy for weekend leave. "Our object is to keep midshipmen at the academy more, not less," said Capt. Lee Geanuleas, director of the academy's professional development division, in explaining the change at the thrice-yearly meeting of the school's Board of Visitors yesterday. The board, a congressionally appointed group that runs the academy, also heard from Geanuleas that the new policy is an attempt to maintain rankings between classes and to end the idea that leaving campus is a prize.

Here is an educational institution ... -- Where the students never graduate and never receive diplomas or degrees. -- Where students and instructors often trade places in the course of a day: The student of the morning session transforms in the afternoon into the teacher. -- Where even the professional directors, when they retire, step around to the opposite side of the desk to join the ranks of the student body. It's called the Renaissance Institute. It's part of the College of Notre Dame in Baltimore, and open to men and women 50 or older.