Boarding Schools for Girls

The teenage pregnancy rate in the United States increased by 3 percent in 2006, the latest year for which reliable statistics are available. The nation recorded a 4 percent increase in births and a 1 percent increase in abortions among adolescent girls, according to a new study from Guttmacher Institute.

This is the first time in 10 years that pregnancy rates among teens has not gone down.

• Between 1990 and 2005, the pregnancy rate declined 41 percent among females ages 15 to 19 years old .
  
• This represented a drop from 117 pregnancies per 1000 girls to 70 per 1000.
  
• Abortions declined 56 percent among teenagers during that same period.

"It is too soon to tell whether the increase in teen pregnancy between 2005 and 2006 is a short-term fluctuation, a more lasting stabilization or the beginning of a significant new trend, any of which would be of great concern," said Lawrence Finer, director of domestic research at the Institute.

A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study published in the journal Pediatrics found an increase of 1 percent in the teen birth rate in 2007.

Labels: pregnancy, health, teenagers, abortion

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Sun-Life Financial has announced that it is launching a program call Sun Life Rising Star to help at-risk youth who are committed to furthering their education. The program will award over $1 million to organizations and students this year.

"The Sun-Life Rising Start Awards program is being launched initially as a pilot in six major U.S. cities: Detroit, San Diego, New York, Seattle, Miami/South Florida, and Boston.

In each city, up to three nonprofit organizations and three students will be awarded grants/scholarships, with the exception of Miami/South Florida, where four nonprofits and four students will be selected." [Source: Business Wire]

Nonprofits that are recognized for their commitment to supporting education among at-risk youth will receive $50,000 grants. Each of those organizations must then nominate a student who will receive a $5,000 scholarship.

Labels: education, at-risk youth, grants

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All-boys' schools do not foster an overly masculine environment. Instead, boys in single-sex schools are freer to express their emotions and engage in subjects such as art dance and music, according to new research presented at the International Boys' Schools Coalition in London.

• Abigail Adams of the University of Virginia found that boys often lose confidence in their academic abilities after competing with girls in the early grades.
  
• Girls that age have an advantage in verbal skills and reading ability.
  
• Boys can often benefit from "boy friendly" ways of teaching.
  
• For example, since boys have better spatial skills, better vision, and are usually more impulsive and physically active, they may benefit from hands-on lessons, where they are allowed to move around.

"In the present sexualized atmosphere prevalent in mixed schools, boys feel coerced into acting like men before they understand themselves well enough to know what that means," according to the report.

Tony Little, headmaster of Eton School, said that teachers do not always recognize that boys can be more emotional than girls.

Labels: single-sex education, boys

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Fears that the only state-sponsored girls school in the British City of Leeds is about to be closed prompted parents and other concerned community members to express their dissatisfaction during a recent public meeting.

A Jan. 20 article in the Yorkshire Evening Post described the controversy surrounding the future of Parklands Girls High School:

Parents, staff, pupils and the community were given the chance to have their say at the first public meeting held on the issue of girls-only schooling. A further eight meetings are being held.

Speaking before the meeting, parent governor Lisa Evans whose daughter goes to Parklands, said: "Education Leeds has made its mind up."

Year 12 pupil Arfana Kauser, 16, of Harehills, said: "The school teaches us to be strong independent women who are going to be successful in the future. I think it's important it's not nixed."

Labels: girls school, great britain

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In an effort to enlist American students in the effort to increase girls educational opportunities throughout the world, Girls Learn International, Inc. (GLI) partners U.S. schools with schools in developing nations.

According to the programs website, GLI was established to accomplish the following objectives:

• Promote cross-cultural understanding and communication;
• Give girls the opportunity to explore issues affecting other girls in the context of global human rights.
• Train girls to be leaders and advocates for positive social change

The website reports that GLI "supports the empowerment of American students as they discover that through their own creative initiatives, dedication and passionate leadership, students can create real solutions that address the obstacles facing girls and women in developing countries and be leaders in the movement to affect positive change for girls and women worldwide."

The program has chapters in 47 U.S. middle schools and high schools and 27 partner schools in developing nations.

Labels: girls education, international

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A new survey of more than 33,000 girls ages 12 to 17 years old has revealed that that one in four has experienced a serious fight or attack from another girl in the past year.

Researchers from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found the following:

• 19 percent of the girls had been in a fight at school
• 14 percent had been in a group fight
• 6 percent had attacked someone else with the intention of hurting that person.

Using drugs or alcohol put a girl at higher risk for such fights, SAMHSA reported.

"The findings are all alarming," said SAMHSA spokesperson Pamela Hyde. "We need to do a better job of reaching girls at risk and teaching them how to resolve problems without resorting to violence."

Labels: fighting, violence

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It has been estimated that we spend 25 years of our lives sleeping. It sounds like a lot, but it's necessary. Getting adequate sleep improves both our physical and mental conditions. Because they are still growing, teenagers need an average of nine hours of sleep each night -- and failing to get enough sleep has been associated with teen depression and thoughts of suicide.

A Jan. 13 Contra Costa Times article by Tom McMahon provided the following suggestions for helping to ensure that your teen is getting enough sleep:

• Reading before bedtime is a good way to transition into sleep.
• Teens sleep better in cool, quiet and dark rooms.
• Encourage your teens to catch up on sleep on the weekends.
• Exercise daily.
• Do not allow any caffeine or sugar after 5 p.m.

"Explain to your teen the benefits of sleeping an hour or two more than usual," McMahon advised. "[When well rested] you become energized and happier, more alert and creative, and you can concentrate better on a project, you accomplish more, you feel better and you will be refreshed and perform more efficiently."

Labels: parenting, sleep, mental health, depression

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Many people turn to junk food when theyre feeling anxious or sad -- a familiar practice for many women and teen girls . But a new study out of Australia has found that unhealthy food could increase  not decrease  feelings of anxiety and depression in women.

Researchers from the University of Melbourne found that mood disorders were more common among women aged 20 to 93 who, over 10 years, ate primarily processed, refined, high-fat foods. &

When they assessed how diet might relate to mood disorders, they found that a "Western" diet  eating primarily hamburgers, white bread, pizza, chips, flavored milk drinks, beer, and sugar-laden foods  was associated with a 50 percent greater likelihood for depressive disorders. (Source: Reuters)

The team reviewed diet and mental health information for over 1,000 women, and found that 121 had depressive and/or anxiety disorders. High instances of depression and anxiety were consistent even when the study results were adjusted for factors such as age, weight, social and economic status and physical activity.

Labels: nutrition, mental health, depression, junk-food

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For those who care about the safety and well-being of children, adolescents and teenagers, the rise of cyberbullying (online harassment) has been among the more troubling developments of the Internet age.

While acknowledging the dangers associated with this practice, the LA Times editorial board argued in a Jan. 2 article that parents, not schools, bear primary responsibility for curtailing this type of abuse:

We feel for the Beverly Hills eighth-grader who complained that she had been described as "spoiled," a "brat" and a "slut" in a YouTube video posted by a classmate. But sympathetic school officials went too far in suspending the girl who produced the video. Punishing the student for behavior outside the school was illegal, wrote U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson, "without any evidence that such speech caused a substantial disruption of the school's activities." &

Public schools rightly prevent students from insulting one another in the classroom, where even verbal disputes can interfere with a lesson, or elsewhere on school grounds, where conflicts can undermine discipline and order. ...Still, educators should recognize the reasonable limits of their authority and confine their discipline to girls and boys who are mean to one another -- or to their principal -- at school.

Labels: cyber-bullying, abuse, harassment

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Julia Bolz, an attorney from Seattle, Washington, has become a strong advocate for girls education in Afghanistan. A Jan. 3 article by Hal Bernton of McClatchy Newspapers provided the following information about Bolz's school-building efforts:

In the past seven years, Bolz has raised money to construct 19 new schools and repair more than a dozen others in Balkh province in northern Afghanistan. Those schools, now operated by the Afghan Ministry of Education, serve nearly 18,000 students, most of whom are girls.

Next year, Bolz's organization, Ayni Education International, plans to spend about $600,000 building, expanding and maintaining schools as well as operating two teacher training centers.

Bolz, who no longer practices law, spends part of the year in the U.S. tapping a fundraising network that ranges from Seattle schoolchildren to the National Geographic Society, and part of the year in Afghanistan rallying community support.

Labels: girls school, international

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A study that was led by John Eckenrode, PhD, of Cornell University, has revealed that girls whose mothers had received nurse visits while pregnant or after giving birth are less likely to be arrested or convicted of a crime than girls whose mother didnt receive such services.

A Jan. 4 article by Nancy Welsh of MedPage Today provided the following details about the study, which was published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine:

• Among girls whose mothers received prenatal or infancy nurse visits, 10 percent had been arrested by age 19, compared with 30 percent of those in a comparison group.
• Nurse-visited girls also were less likely to be convicted of a crime (4 percent versus 20 percent), researchers reported in the January Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.
• The families in the study had been recruited between April 1978 and September 1980 when the mothers attended antepartum clinics or obstetricians' offices. Some 85 percent of the mothers were younger than 19 years, unmarried, or of low socioeconomic status.

Labels: at-risk youth, early_intervention

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The Denver board of education has granted approval for the Girls Athletic Leadership School (GALS), a charter school that is set to open for the 2010-2011 academic year.

According to a Dec. 31, 2009, article by Jeremy P. Meyer of The Denver Post, the school will start with two grades (six and seven), but plans to expand through 12th grade:

"We know that girls focus on academics more when they're in an all-girls setting, simply put, because we are taking away a large social distraction, especially in middle school," said Elizabeth Wolfson, founder of the school, which will be in south-central Denver.

"Research shows girls begin to trail off when they hit middle school," she said. "That is because of social distractions between girls and boys but also between girls and girls. By separating them out, we can work on the girl-to-girl piece."

The academic program at GALS is to be based on the Expeditionary Learning model, which emphasizes active learning, character growth and teamwork. A large part of the day will focus on health and wellness.

Students will start in the morning with exercise, have opportunities for movement throughout the school day and must participate in extracurricular activities.

Labels: girls school, charter school

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