Skills

We've been hearing a lot about a talent shortage in the labor market. But where exactly is the shortage in talent? Because, seriously, it's hard to avoid layoff news coming from all corners of the work force these days. Case in point: Circuit City fired 7 percent of its hourly workers last week. It plans to replace them with lower-paid employees. But recruiters and employment experts say job candidates increasingly have the upper hand in the job market as employers compete for talent.

Volunteers sought for senior aid The county Department of Aging and Disabilities is seeking volunteers age 55 and older to work in various programs to aid seniors in the community and others. Programs include tax assistance, nutrition sites, tutors and mentors in schools, as well as administrative support for state and county police. Information: 410-222-4464. Older drivers can have skills assessed Volunteers at the Maryland Association of Highway Safety Leaders are offering drivers ages 60 and older a driving health inventory.

Eight Carroll County children were asked the question: "What do you do when you hear a strange noise in your bedroom at night and think that there may be a monster in the corner?" Their answer - build a contraption that turns on the light without having to get out of bed. So they did. They dubbed the massive, wacky, machine "The Illuminator" and constructed it using items such as a baseball, easels, pipes, cones, a remote-controlled car, wood scraps, plywood, mousetraps and a bowling ball.

Maryland will spend $3.5 million to expand a program that offers in-home instruction in parent skills to pregnant women and families with young children.The money for the Healthy Families Maryland initiative will serve an additional 1,000 families with a high risk of social problems, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend said yesterday. She said the funds will come, in part, from money saved by trimming out-of-state care for emotionally disturbed children in favor of in-state treatment.The program serves 440 families in Baltimore and in Montgomery, Prince George's, Frederick, Howard and Garrett counties.

Reader Rabbit Thinking Adventures, Ages 4-6, $29.95, The Learning CompanyIn today's curriculum, thinking, along with reading, writing and mathematics, is widely recognized as a critical education skill. There are many building blocks to learning, including the ability to recognize new concepts and apply these to new situations. Each child develops and strengthens these critical thinking abilities at a different pace."Reader Rabbit Thinking Adventures," a two CD-ROM set that helps children ages 4-6 develop thinking skills in fun and imaginative ways, is now available at most toy stores.

Brian Billick's skills as an offensive architect earned him the job as the Ravens' head coach. But those skills won't determine whether he succeeds or fails in the coming years.If all he had to do was design and operate a potent offense, there's little doubt he would prosper. He can handle that part of the job. Just check his record.But there is so much more to the art of being an NFL head coach, so much that doesn't involve diagramming plays. And those variables almost always separate the winners from the losers.

WEDNESDAY started out being one of those days when it's great to be in Baltimore. There was plenty of warmth in the November air. The city trees were in high color. No frosts had killed my back garden. The goldfish were still darting around the pond and had survived the attention of the neighborhood cats.The roofers had been by and fixed the last of the leaks from the summer's storms and hurricanes. I called the painter to repair the inside damage. I thought to myself that maybe I'd have the house ready for the upcoming holidays.

MONTREAL -- As I prepared to visit the Grandparents House of Villeray here during an international conference on aging, I pondered the normal age-group segregation that occurs in our daily lives. As preschoolers, middle-schoolers, teens, adults and seniors, we go about our daily routines mostly interacting with our peers. I wondered, what would it be like if we co-mingled with other generations throughout the day? Would we grow to understand each other? Would our lives be richer?After a morning spent chattering in French with a group of lively volunteers in their 70s and 80s, I was convinced that we all lose in our age-centric lives.

Editor's note: Today, reading specialist Susan Rapp discusses the benefits of electronic toys and provides guidelines for selecting them. On Wednesday's Parent & Child page, she will review specific toys appropriate for emerging readers.Somewhere between the phonics workbooks and the high-tech CD-ROM games are new products that can motivate and entertain while providing serious learning of reading skills. These include electronic toys, which are more portable than personal computer games and more interesting than paper and pencil tasks.

Mistaken tax figures reflect education fads, declining math skillsAs a lifelong resident of Baltimore, I found Tom Pelton's article about the city's shrinking population interesting ("Differing views on housing problem," Oct. 22).As a mathematics teacher in Baltimore for more than 20 years, I found Mr. Pelton's inability to compute percentages disconcerting.Based on the numbers the article supplied for property taxes on a $100,000 house, Mr. Pelton actually understated the disparity in tax bills between the city and other localities.

The U.S. is investing money and hope in an attempt to build a work force that can successfully compete for good jobs in a global economy. High schools and community colleges are undertaking career-oriented reforms, while the federal Workforce Investment Act is funding expanded programs for young people and for workers dislocated by economic change. It sounds good, but unfortunately, much of the money and hope will be wasted - unless current myths are replaced with facts and common sense.

For many Maryland families, the youth lacrosse season wrapped up this week, and that could only mean one thing. Summer lacrosse is around the corner, fall lacrosse is only a season away - and winter lacrosse? Ah, you can almost smell the stale gym socks. To describe Baltimore and its suburbs as the nation's breeder reactor for hard-core lacrosse enthusiasts is to do a disservice to other hard-core enterprises (and probably breeder reactors). If this sort of radioactive fanaticism could be bottled, metropolitan Baltimore would be regarded as the North Korea of the West, with better roll dodging skills and fewer missile tests.

Laid off from her job as a marketing recruiter in January, Nancy Sprague Levesque kept herself busy responding to job postings on the Internet. But soon, she felt as if she were just tossing her resume into a virtual black hole. Levesque realized two things: She needed to meet more people and keep her skills fresh. Through networking, Levesque, 34, hooked up with Business Volunteers Unlimited - a local nonprofit group that helps companies arrange volunteer opportunities for their employees.

You wrote recently about learning techniques instead of just following recipes. Do you have any suggestions on how to develop techniques? I'd like to work on my skills. There are some great books out, including Tom Colicchio's Think Like a Chef or James Peterson's Cooking, which is packed with step-by-step photos. But another thing I like to suggest to beginning cooks is to explore Chinese cooking. It's a great way to focus on techniques or methods. Preparing vegetables in uniform pieces for a stir-fry can teach you knife skills.

A3 percent increase in the teen birth rate among Americans in 2006 may only be cause for concern and not panic or alarm. But coming after 14 years of steady decreases, the news is still disturbing and underscores the need to keep paying attention to the issue. Reducing teen births and pregnancies has been a priority for at least a decade because the consequences - for the moms and their children - are grim. A teen who gives birth is less likely to finish high school, and if she is also unmarried, her child has more than a 60 percent chance of growing up in poverty.

Good morning -- Hank Steinbrenner -- We see you've inherited your father's people skills, as well.

Howard Community College, in cooperation with the Howard County Chamber of Commerce, will hold a fall job/career fair from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 2 in the college's Burrill Galleria, 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia. Representatives from a wide range of large and small companies and organizations will be on hand to discuss opportunities, accept applications and schedule interviews. Visitors are invited to bring resumes for review by the college's career counselors and can access the college's online database for local job postings.

Beginners welcome -- Howard Huskies are accepting registration for the 2007-2008 recreational hockey season. No tryouts are necessary. Openings are available for players ages 4 to 17 in the rec/developmental program; openings are available for skaters and goalies ages 4 to 8 and 9 and 10, and skaters ages 11 and 12 and 15 to 17. Beginners and those seeking to revive skills are invited. Coaches are USA Hockey-certified. www.HowardHuskies.org.

Schools need better methods Year-round school is not the answer. Kids need a summer vacation, a break from academics. All of us middle-aged and older persons learned plenty during the nine months we attended school. The problem is the quality of the education given during the time allotted. There is a lot of wasted time during the school year. I know, having had children attend the public schools and having worked for the school system. The answer is to focus on skills that children need to learn all subjects with greater ease.

Eight Carroll County children were asked the question: "What do you do when you hear a strange noise in your bedroom at night and think that there may be a monster in the corner?" Their answer - build a contraption that turns on the light without having to get out of bed. So they did. They dubbed the massive, wacky, machine "The Illuminator" and constructed it using items such as a baseball, easels, pipes, cones, a remote-controlled car, wood scraps, plywood, mousetraps and a bowling ball.