Older Students

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.

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.

A spate of books critical of higher education and a severe budget crunch have combined to put college and university faculty on the spot. As never before, we're expected to justify how we spend our professional time.Faculty responsibilities include teaching, research and service, with different blends of the three at each institution. But what parents (and voters) understand best about college teachers is that they're supposed to teach. Parents expect to send their children to an affordable public college or university with a dedicated faculty that spends time in the classroom, not on the golf course.

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.

It's never too late to learn.At least that's what three Carroll women who have gone back to college believe."I took a year leave without pay before I retired, to decide whatI was going to do when I grew up," said Joan F. Taylor, 57, a religious studies major who's on the dean's list at Western Maryland College in Westminster."

While a state survey of adolescents shows a decrease in overall drug use among older students, officials are concerned about results that show an increase in experimentation among sixth- and eighth-graders.Although some question the accuracy of the Maryland Adolescent Survey Report, citing its length and format as too demanding of younger students, others say the results are an accurate depiction of drug use in Maryland schools.The survey, which cost $80,000,was given to 14,000 Maryland students chosen to represent a statistically valid sample of the population.