LIFE/ Charlotte
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Internet hazards elude tech-chaUenged parents
Continued from page 1B
in the West Bank she met on
MySpace.com when U.S. offi
cials found her in JcEtdan and
s^t her home.
A school district in Grand
Forks, N.D., recently banned
access to the site from school
comput^^.
“Don’t blame MySpace,”
says Nickel. “It’s here and we
have to live with it.”
Instead, he suggests parents
sit with their children when
the kids are developing tiieir
online profiles so they can dis
cuss what’s appropriate to put
on there and what’s not. He
also tu^es parents to check
out their children’s fiiends’
profiles. ‘You might see a pic
ture of your own daughter on
a fiiend’s page—with her
name on it.”
Parents certainly have a
role to play in Internet safety
but many of them don’t know
how to be a first-generation
Internet parent, says Jchn
CaroseUa, vice president of
Sunnyvale, Calif-based Blue
Coat Systems which created
the free K9 Web Protection
contmt filter. 'They have to
play computer cop.
“Parents—their jobs have
changed,” he says. “If you had
fiiends over and mom was in
the kitchen, she could over
hear and half pay attention to
the action. She might not
intervene but there was
enough residual contact so
that parental guidelines
could be applied. Now, if kids
are hanging out with their
buddies online, parents have
no contextual contact,” says
CaroseUa, the father of three
children, ages 14, 16 and 20.
He compares a child’s after-
school routine now to that of
his own childhood:
‘We’d have to be home in
time for dinner. You’d have
dinner and stay home. Why
did our parents do that? Tb
make sure you were physical
ly safe, so they’d know where
you were. The other conse
quence was that you wa:e in
the value sj^ten of the fami
ly You’d spend the four hours
before bedtime in the value
system of yom family
“Now, even the good kids,
the weU-groomed good stu
dents, are on the Internet
after dinner, soakir^ in thdr
peer group value system.
From the perspective of par
ents, they’re sneaking out
knd hanging with their
fiiends at night. It’s rare to
hear, 'No instant mess^tng
after dinner,’ but the key
thing is that today’s kids
aren’t removed from their
peer group.”
Scores of companies, includ
ing Nickel’s and Carosdia’s,
make computer software
with parental controls that
wUl help block Web sites and
programs that parents don’t
, want to take the chance their
children wUl use.
Safe Eyes, made by
Acworth, Ga.-based
SafeBrowse, also can log
instant m^sages in almost,
real-time—about 15 minutes
later. Usirg this product, par
ents not only see who their
children are talking to but
what they’re saying, too.
What a child truly believes
is harmless conversation
could be used to hurt them
lato-.
‘Your ccoicem isn’t your kid
talking to Johnny but that
your child is talking to some
one who he met through
Johnny’s fiiend, who your
child also doesn’t know,” says
Aaron Kenny, SafeBrowse
chief technology officer.
“The problem isn’t neces
sarily an online filendship
with an unknown person,
but when it turns offline,” he
adds.
One innocent IM fiom a
girl that she just got home
fiem cheerleading practice
coupled with another IM
another day that mentions
the name of her hometown
give a predator an outline of
her daily schedule, Kenny
notes.
Safe Eyes also has time
controls, which allow parents
to set the rules about when—
and how lor^—the computer
can be on.
Won’t kids resist?
‘We hear fiom parents and
kids. It comes down to the
philosophy of how it’s put out
there. If it’s done in an
authoritarian way without
talking about the issui^ sur
rounding it, it may cause
some problems. That’s whay
parents should talk about the
'why and about the risks,”
Kenny says.
He’s also pietty sure most
tech-sawyteens won’t be able
to type their way out of the
controls. "We put on our best
teen hack^ hat on imtil we
coialdn’t get around it.”
On the Net:
wmvsafebrowse.com
wwwryber-sqfetyurom
www.getk9rom
Teach for America surges in popularity
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
It’s the strong^t job market
in years for new college grad
uates, with salaries and
perks rising accordingly But
one of the country’s hottest
recruiters this spring
promised low wages,
exhausting labor and only a
brief break before the work
begins.
Tfeach for America is siorg-
ing in poptilarity At sites
arotmd the country the 17-
year-old nonprofit has begun
training about 2,400 recent
graduates for two-year teach
ing stints in disadvantaged
schools, nearly triple the fig
ure in 2000. Nearly 19,000
college seniors applied—and
more than fovur in five were
turned down. At Notre Dame,
Spelman, Dartmouth and
Yale, more than 10 percent of
seniors applied.
TFA hns come a lor^ way
since founder Wendy Kopp
used ffiers to recruit her first
corps of 500 teachers, a year
after outlining the idea in her
1989 Princeton senior thesis.
Tbday she has 90 fuU-time
recruiter. By 2010, TFA
plans to ecpand the number
of regions where it places
teachers fium 22 to 33, and
nearly double in size. It hopes
to call itself the No. 1 employ
er of recent college graduates
in the country
Driving the growth is savvy
and aggressive recruiting
that students say exudes
competence and reminds
them of Wall Street firms.
But th^e’s also strai^t talk
about how hard it can be to
teach in low-income schools.
'The combination seems to
appeal to high-achieving stu
dents who relish a challenge
and want to be in the trench
es—as long as they have
hdp.
‘It sounds like it’s going to
take aU your energy for two
years,” said Lida Storch, a
former University of
Minnesota rower who will
teach this fall at an elemen
tary school in the Bronx. “But
I just graduated fium college.
I’ve got lots of eneagy”
TFA recruits, trains and
helps get the new teachers
alternative certification, then
schools pay their salaries.
The organization says it
has proved the model can
work. Now it is trying to build
is ready to
serve you.
Call us to set
up your home
or business
deliveries...
704 370 0496
a critical mass of alumni
who—even if they move onto
other fields like law or poli
tics-share the experi^ce of
having tau^t in low-income
areas and may use those
escperiences to influence edu
cation policy
“I told them right up fixint
that I was going to go to med
school,” said recent
Dartmouth graduate Kristen
Wong, who starts this fall on
a new site in Hawaii. “They
liked that even better. They
pick people who become lead
ers in the community who
make policy who vote.”
Some critics note fewer
than one-third stay in the
classroom following their
two-year stints. But TFA says
about two-thirds have
remained directly involved in
education—if not as teachers,
then in research, policy and
in many cases startup char
ter schools. TFA counts 10
alumni in elective office,
including Natasha Kamrani,
recently elected to Hotiston’s
school board. The goal is 100
alumni in pubhc office by
2010.
“Given our theory of
change,” Kopp said in a
phone interview, “numbers
are everything.”
The growth plan is ambi
tious. TFA’s bu(^et wfll have
to grow fix)m $40 million to
$100 million a year, the vast
majority fium private donors.
But Kopp says recruiting is
what she worries most about.
The challenge is both quan
tity and quality TFA spends
about $12,000 on each corps
member per year, and about
$4,000 of that goes into
recruiting applicants, then
evaluatii^ whom to hire
through a rigorous interview
process. Pregram officials say
they could find teaching slots
for more than the 17 percent
of applicants accepted last
year, but they want to pick
only candidates who will suc
ceed. Even so, about 15 per
cent fail to complete their
two-year commitment.
“There are times when you
come to sayirg, ‘This is it, I
can’t help these kids,”’ said
Shawna Wefls, a University
of Vermont graduate who is
finishing up her second year
teaching in a Las Vegas mid
dle school. Still, she’ll stay in
teaching nert year.
Kopp says more and more
students are looking to do
meaningful work after col
lege, particularly if it is not a.
career-loi^ commitment.
Megan Scelfo is one of 14
new graduates from
Louisiana State University
who are joining. Hurricane
Katrina was the motivation
for many though Scelfo said
she was attracted by an
inspiring TFA teacher she
had during high school.
“I had been given such a gift
by someone who joined their
movement, I felt like I had to
give back,” she said.
The program’s rapid growth
has made it a bigger target
for some critics, who worry
'TEA is geared more toward
the experience of the teachers
than that of their students.
Linda Darling-Hammond, a
Stanford education professor,
has argued that the failure of
TFA teachers to go throu^
regular certification hurts
tiidr effectiveness.
Some principals, mean
while, have concluded bring
ing in TFA teachers, isn’t
worth it, because most leave
after two years.
Robert V^egas, principal of
Ford Boulevard Elementary
School in Los Angeles,
acknowledges TFA provided
good teachers. But the school
still paid some staff-develop
ment costs beyond what TFA
picked up and “the money we
had to inv^ in training only
to see it leave two years latCT
was a hard pill to swallow,”
Venegas said.
TFA points to research
showing most principals
think its teadias are more
effective than other faculty,
and one study showing TFA
teachers help students make
10 percent more progress
than expected in math (with
some, but less, benefit in
reading) And as for leaving
after two years, some schools
face such turnover problems
that even that long a commit
ment is welcome.
“I understand that that’s
the deal when they come,”
said Nancy McKay, principal
of Crestworth Middle Magnet
School in Baton Rouge, La. “I
tease them every year that
we’re going to try to find them
a girl or a guy so theyll stay
tiy to set than up with a lit
tle matchmaking. That’s the
length to which I will go to try
to keep them.”
On the Net:
Teach for America:
http-J/wwwseachforamericaorg
AmeriCare^Health
AmeriCare Health
‘'Sugar Creek” Medical center
721 W. Sugar Creek Rd. • 704-941-8020
“Now Open”
“A New 3 Million Dollar Facility”
(across the streetfrom Mayfield Memorial Baptist Church)
“On The Plaza” • 704-535-0400
1805 Milton Road • Charlotte, NC 28215^
“At The Park” • 704-399-2677
6023 Beatties Ford Road • Charlotte, NC 28216
Visit AmeriCare at either location
For All Family Healthcare Needs
- Accepting New Patients -
“Appointments Not Necessary”
Comprehensive Healthcare
You Need and Deserve;
• State-of-the Art Pediatrics
• Urgent Care • Internal Medicine
• Minor Trauma • Industrial Medicine I
• Diagnostic- Center I
Dr. Fidelis Edosomwan
Open Mon-Fri, 9ara-7pm, Sat. 9am-5pm
“For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thy
wounds, saith the Lord.” -Jeremiah 30i 17
Looking for expert eye care?
YouTl find it at
Carolinas Eye Center
and
Wesley Clement, MD
Well-known ophthalmologist Wesley Clemenc MD,
is now offering general ophthalmology care in
addition to his Laser Vision Correction practice.
Dr. Clement accepts most insurances.
Carolinas Eye Center
704.510.3100
Wesley D. Clement, MD
Charlotte
230 East W.T. Harris Blvd., Suite C-13
Dr. Maya An^elou
The 2006 Host Steering Committee
and
Marilyn Bald win Richards
North Carolina Director
United Ne^ro College Fund
Cordially Invite Ytu To Attend The 4th Annual
A fundraiser and signature special event Lenefittin^ the
Unifcetl Ne^ ro College Fund, wkicfi fionors women wko are
leaders in tkeir respective fields and kave krou^kt positive
recognition locally, statewide and nationally.
Satturtlay, June 24,2006
Hilton Ckarlotte Center City Hotel
Silent Auction; 11:00 - 12 Noon
Hatitude Hat Competition: 11:00 - 12:30 PM
Luncheon and Presentations 12:15 PM
2006 Women Wko Lead Awards • $5,000 Scholarship Award
2006 Honorees
RSVP: Friday, June 16,2006
TeL (704)377-8625
EmaiL ncin£o@uncf.or^
$125.00 per person
All donations are tax-deductiLle to tke
full extent all owed Ly law
Dee Dixon Bridget-Anne Hampden
CEarVide lAesident&CEQ
Communications JHR /Vsfociates, LLC
shannon McFayde
Heatl of Human
Resources,
^(^hovia Bank
Posikumously
Elizabeth Ross Dorgan
RetireA Educator,
Civic Volunteer an J Chair,
MAW'WLU2005-2(X)6