Students And Teachers

Juli Murray, a junior at Centennial High School, often writes short stories, but she had never tackled a novel. She was inspired to give it a try by an international challenge that has no prizes and very little structure -- National Novel Writing Month. The only goal is to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. The results are uploaded to the National Novel Writing Month organization (www.nanowrimo.org), where the word count is verified. After that ... nothing. Nobody reads or judges the works.

WHEN THE nation's governors join business executives and education leaders at the National Education Summit on High Schools in Washington tomorrow, they'll be tackling one of education's toughest challenges - the troubling performance of the nation's secondary schools. The governors and their allies should recognize that both sides in the national debate hold part of the solution to high school reform. There's a lot of buzz in education about shrinking the size of high schools. Philadelphia recently became the latest big-city school system to announce plans to break its large, "comprehensive" schools into smaller, more personal places, a reform often associated with liberal educators.

For Lauren Whittington and Caralyn Welliver, their adviser at Winters Mill High School is one of the most important adults in their lives. Health teacher Sal Picataggi has advised the two juniors since ninth grade, helping them sort through such issues as college planning, job interviews and class schedules. Above all, Picataggi and the students say, lasting relationships have developed during the three years of daily 20- minute advisory sessions. "He plays an important role in our lives," Welliver, 16, of Westminster, said Thursday morning during an advisory period.

AS THE FATHER of two girls under age 3, I find that sleep is hard to come by. The ongoing crisis in the Baltimore City school system, of which I am a part, has made a good night's rest still more difficult. Even in the best of times -- and the last several months have been far from that -- being a principal in the city is a difficult challenge. Yes, the work is rewarding and full of joy. But it is always bone-tiring work. I have for three years been the principal at Waverly Elementary/Middle School, which is across the street from where Memorial Stadium was. By any measure, Waverly has been a success.

Banging on empty water-cooler bottles for a rhythmic drumbeat, about 150 city students from five schools who had skipped their classes demonstrated yesterday outside a meeting of the state Board of Education, demanding funding for Baltimore's struggling schools. "We want our money, and we want our education," said Chantel Morant, 15, a sophomore at Baltimore City College who helped organize the rally. "Money and education go hand in hand, like two plus two equals four." The students skipped school and caught MTA buses or walked to meet at 9 a.m. in front of state Department of Education headquarters on West Baltimore Street.

DENVER - Sitting in front of a huge American flag, federal Judge Lewis Babcock taught a lesson in civics last week. It was a lesson a majority of the Colorado General Assembly and governor never learned in their lame - and probably unconstitutional - attempt to force the state's schoolchildren and teachers to say the Pledge of Allegiance. It is beyond the power of government, said Judge Babcock, to compel anyone to say the pledge. The judge read extensively from a 1943 U.S. Supreme Court decision that affirmed his position.

Howard County Board of Education member Virginia Charles, considered by many to be a strong advocate for the interests of students and teachers, resigned Monday, citing health reasons - stress in particular. Elected in 2000, she had three years left in her six-year term. "This was a very tough decision. I feel very guilty," an emotional Charles, 56, said yesterday. Her resignation is the second by a school board member in less than two years. Laura Waters, elected to a six-year term in 1998, left in October 2001, saying participation on the panel compromised her integrity and principles.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - This morning, when students walk past the palm tree outside Al-Nidimiyah High School after an unplanned 40-day break and go into the classroom, the lesson plan in national culture class will be different. No longer will teacher Ali Abid stand before a portrait of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and glorify him as the latest in a line of great leaders going back to the caliphs who followed the prophet Muhammad. "We are going to say this is the end of this man," said the 36-year-old Abid, sounding neither sad nor happy about Hussein's fall from power.

Carroll County scheduled a rare Good Friday school day yesterday to make up class time lost to snow. The result: thousands of student absences, hundreds of teachers taking personal days, quiet cafeterias, empty buses, still hallways, idle custodians and bragging rights - albeit temporary - on teacher-to-student ratios. "We have the best ratios in the state right now," Assistant Superintendent Stephen Guthrie quipped. "They are 1-to-0 in some classes." Carroll and Talbot County were the only Maryland school districts to schedule classes yesterday to make up for snow days.

Barbara M. Dandridge, Caught between a mandate to attend an extra day of school yesterday and the lure of carefree spring vacations, Howard County students and teachers struggled and many succumbed. Schools found 20 percent to 50 percent of their students absent on a Monday, a weekday that rarely sees an absentee rate greater than 10 percent, said Patti Caplan, spokeswoman for Howard County public schools. Students were not the only ones eager to begin their spring breaks. More than 660 teachers were absent yesterday, compared with an average of 300 to 350 for a normal Monday.