First Paragraph W/ Thesis Statement Paper # 3 (November)

         

First Paragraph 

 Everyday across the country, millions of young students wake up around sunrise and begin the tedious task of getting through their morning routine in order to get to class on time. Some of these students are early risers and take well to the task while others struggle just to get out of bed. Attention span is key in order to be able to digest the information overload that students from Kindergarten through High School face every day. Matthew Shulman from the U.S. News & World Report website, citing a study about the effects of REM sleep, wrote “Researchers at the University of Montreal report that a study of young children showed that those who slept significantly fewer hours than the recommended 10 were more hyperactive and impulsive than those who got plenty of shuteye and scored lower on two cognitive skills tests.” The study implies that students who sleep less will be more likely to act up in class and will give teachers a much more difficult task while teaching their students. Studies like this one and an abundance of others show a lack of sleep causes not only learning problems, but can also lead to serious health issues. 

Thesis Statement

A change to the school system from such an early morning rise to a 10 a.m. start, would dramatically improve learning capabilities of our children and would lead to a more productive and healthy population.

6 Quotes From Authors From Class That Support My Argument (11/26)

John Gatto from “Against School” online “Boredom is the common condition of schoolteachers, and anyone who has spent time in a teachers' lounge can vouch for the low energy, the whining, the dispirited attitudes, to be found there. When asked whythey feel bored, the teachers tend to blame the kids, as you might expect. Who wouldn't get bored teaching students who are rude and interested only in grades?”

Ken Robinson taken from his book The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything  “Those students whose minds work differently—and we’re talking about many students here; perhaps even the majority of them—can feel alienated from the whole culture of education”

Mike Rose on his resolutions article ““to have more young people get an engaging and challenging education.”

John Gatto from “Against School” online “Mass schooling of a compulsory nature really got its teeth into the United States between 1905 and 1915, though it was conceived of much earlier and pushed for throughout most of the nineteenth century. The reason given for this enormous upheaval of family life and cultural traditions was, roughly speaking, threefold:

1) To make good people.

2) To make good citizens.

3) To make each person his or her personal best.”

bell hooks from the class selection in “Critical Thinking” Handout “Thinking is an action. For all aspiring intellectuals, thoughts are the laboratory where one goes to pose questions and find answers, and the place where visions of theory and praxis come together”.

bell hooks “Critical Thinking“  handout “When students are fully engaged, professors no longer assume the sole leadership role in the classroom”

The Authors That Agree With Me (11/26)

Over the quarter we have read many authors that I learned from. Some I agreed with and some not but I learned something from them all. The Authors that agree with me the most are John Gatto, Ken Robinson, Mike Rose, and Paolo Freire. I really like the ideas that Ken Robinson puts forth and listening to him is inspiring to say the least. He seems like an author I would really enjoy reading other works from and to learn more about his experiences that lead him to his great ideas. John Gatto I probably agree with the most as far as his opinions on the state of the school system and his views on the history of education related to the teaching methods and regulations that we have today. Mike Rose’s experiences are great to read and he gives vivid images of the experiences he had in school in his writings and really explains the teachers and their methods he had in great detail. Paolo Friere gives a great alternative to what he calls “the banking” method of teaching and explains the system and the proposed fix in a great detail. I had to re-read many sections of Paolo Friere’s “The Banking Method of Education” to get what he meant because his writing is so detailed but that is why I really enjoyed reading it.  

Most Important Lesson I Ever Learned (October?)

    I have had many lessons throughout my life I consider to be important. Some from learning by trial and error, some taught to me by someone or something else. One that stands out to me is that family is the most important part of life. Without my family I would be lost and I wouldn't be where I am or who I am without every one of them. When I was younger, I did not appreciate the people in my life as I do today. For instance, my brother and I were very competitive growing up and we used to fight emotionally as well as physically. Over the years we have become become best friends and I treasure our relationship.

  Family helps you when you are at your worst and they teach you to become the person you are. They love you no matter what you do and they guide you through your ups and downs. They give everything they have to help you and they work to build you up and let you know when you are wrong. Many people don't have the relationship that I have with my family, and many people have very strong relationships.

Thesis Statement & First Paragraph Paper # 2 (10/31)

Thesis Statement

Ms. Hamer and Mr. Collier were great teachers and had the ability to garner my attention and focus to the subject matter they taught, they did so in different ways.

First Paragraph

My first year of public school was the 7th grade as I had been homeschooled by my mom and grandma from kindergarten through 6th grade. Although I had many teachers that year, the one who made the transition from homeschool to public school a lot less stressful was Ms. Hamer. She was known to take her students outside to energize their bodies and minds by having the kids play sports that were modified to include English lessons. The ambiance for her classroom was very inviting but for a 12 year old kid, being outside was what we drooled over like hungry dogs when they hear the dog food bag shake.  “Tag you’re in!” a student would exclaim, which usually meant it was your turn to give an answer to a question followed by the absolute fulfillment of kicking a soccer ball as hard as you could toward a large weathered net.  I don’t quite know how it worked, but my brain was able to suck in information like a sponge whether I was kicking soccer balls or defending the flag of my team in an unrelated but equally entertaining Mr. Hamer sponsored activity. Ms. Hamer was very soft spoken although her ability to motivate had her students hanging on every word that she so calmly voiced. She was a relatively small person physically; maybe 5 ft even and weighed enough that a 12 year old could hoist her above their shoulders. Her size was misleading however as the content of her message and her ability to relate gained the respect of even the most dispassionate and cold-blooded mischief makers.

The Two Teachers I Chose to Write About for Paper # 2 (10/31)

For paper # 2, I chose to write about my 7^th grade English teacher, Ms. Hamer, and my 10^th Grade Astronomy teacher, Mr. Collier. I chose to write about these two teachers because they played a huge role in my life, not only with education, but also personally. Ms. Hamer was my first English teacher besides my mom because I was homeschooled by my mom until that point. She was a very outgoing and inspirational person and she made my life with public school a much easier transition and she helped me with some personal family issues. Mr. Collier helped me academically and personally as well but in a different way. He wasn’t as involved in my life outside of school but he inspired my love of astronomy and that love has been in my life for over ten years. I don’t think I’ll ever stop studying the stars and I credit him for that. His class was also a reason for me to want to go to school, especially as a teenager since I was definitely in the highlight of my teenage rebellion career. I wanted to go to school just to hear him speak about Astronomy and that kept me grounded in other classes as well. 

James A. Garfield High School vs Welton Academy (10/29)

James A. Garfield High School is a public school in a lower income area in East LA. The school is rampant in gang issues and drug problems and most of the students are not expected to achieve very much in life. It seems like they (students) are there only to comply with state law and learning anything takes a back burner. The conditions of the school don’t seem too bad given the area the school is located and the time of the film. Still not ideal though. Most of the student caucus is Hispanic. Welton Academy is a well off prep school with mostly Caucasian students. The school is well kept and the teachers are generally well educated professors. The difference mainly is the wealth difference between the schools students and faculty, as well as the location of the schools. Most of the students at James A. Garfield likely grew up in a lower class neighborhood and by the time they reach high school don’t have big aspirations. The students at Welton are more likely from more well off areas geographically and have wealthier parents. The reasoning for the testing group’s suspicion of cheating at James A. Garfield High School was most likely due to the area of the school the students and their race as rather than any real evidence.

Mr. Escalante and Mr. Keating (10/29)

           Mr. Keating and Mr. Escalante had different teaching styles and different situations with the classes they were teaching. Mr. Keating taught at a “higher class” prep school with rigid standards and Mr. Escalante taught at an inner city public school in a low income neighborhood with gang related problems and students who were less than motivated to learn. Both teachers started with an agenda to inspire their students, and both wanted to change the way their students thought. Mr. Keating was trying to take students who had previously been accustomed to a strict, regimented style of learning and open their minds to a more creative way to learn and think. Mr. Keating went to school at the same prep school that his students were attending and he knew how strict it was and wanted to make a difference. Mr. Escalante was basically handed a class of troubled teens and his goal was to take an academically unstructured class, and teach them a subject they never thought they would have the ability to learn. He wanted to change their mindsets from teens who saw no future in sight, to high achieving productive members of society. Mr. Keating had class expeditions outside of class as well as unique activities inside the classroom to motivate the students to participate. Mr. Escalante spent time with his students outside of class and showed a huge interest in their lives outside of class. Mr. Keating also took on a huge role in his students personal lives as well. 

Mr. Escalante compared to Mr. Macfarland (10/24)

Mr. MacFarland and Mr. Escalante were very similar to each other in many ways. They both took students who seemed inherently uninterested in learning and gave them inspiration and desire to learn the subjects each teacher taught. Mike Rose mentions a student who was sort of a smart ass and an alcoholic who would give Mr. MacFarland a hard time during class. Rose then goes on to say that MacFarland was able to guide the uninterested students into become active participants in his class. This is very similar to how Mr. Escalante took his students from academic failure and disinterest in learning to students passing A.P. Calculus exams. Mr. Escalante spent time outside of class with his students, even having them over to his home. In the elective English class that MacFarland taught and Rose took, Mr. MacFarland also regularly ad the students over to his apartment for study sessions. In the scene were Mr. Escalante goes to the restaurant where Anna works to speak to her father, he mentions the importance of education and his desire for Anna to go to college. Mr. MacFarland also guided Mike Rose towards going to college, even going so far as to get him accepted at the college Mr. MacFarland went to. He also helped Rose get loans so he could attend the college.  

Stand and Deliver Part II- The rise of Mr. Escalante (10/24)

I thought the testing people were quite the racists. The only bright side of the racism was that one of the racists was played by Andy Garcia, who is an awesome actor. Things to do in Denver When You’re Dead = Best movie ever! They couldn’t believe the students could pass the test on their own and yet they did twice. At first, Mr. Escalante seemed shaken by the experience. He talked to his wife about the possibility of switching professions to a more profitable one where he would work less hours and have more respect. Then the students fixed up the bug for him and he saw their respect and admiration of him first hand. Mr. Escalante was great in the scene where he stands up to the testing services people in defense of his class. The second part of the movie was a lot better than the first. You can really see the value in Mr. Escalante teaching at the school and the way his relationship with his students blossomed in the second half. It was cool to see how the amount of students passing the A.P. Calculus exam raised over the years that was displayed before the credits came at the end of the film. Also, the Stand and Deliver song playing during the credits is a must for anyone’s “jam rock” playlist on their iPods (joking). 

Was Mr. Escalante a Good Teacher? (10/22)

Mr. Escalante was a good teacher in certain areas and others not so much. I think he probably was the right choice for the circumstances at James A. Garfield High School where he was teaching but that wouldn’t be the case in most situations in my opinion. I guess he probably would have tailored his personality based on the environment he was teaching at but I think the term “right guy for the job” definitely applies to this situation. When he went to one of his students place of work and talked to her father about the importance of her staying in school and the value of understanding basic mathematics, I thought that was an excellent showing of a great teacher. He most likely left a lasting impression on is student to continue pushing forward with her education and she will most likely never forget that part. I know it seems to work in the movie, but the way he talked to some of his students seemed inappropriate to me. Since this is a true story, I can imagine that some of the things that happened in the film got “hollywooded” quite a bit so the real circumstance could have been much different. That being said, I would say that being the right man for the job doesn’t mean you’re the best teacher, but it can mean you’re the best teacher for the given situation. 

Formal Paper #3- Final Draft

Sleep for Education

Everyday across the country, millions of young students wake up around sunrise and begin the tedious task of getting through their morning routine in order to get to class on time. Some of these students are early risers and take well to the task while others struggle just to get out of bed. Attention span is key to being able to digest the information overload that students from kindergarten through high school face every day. Matthew Shulman from the U.S. News & World Report website, citing a study about the effects of REM sleep, wrote, “Researchers at the University of Montreal report that a study of young children showed that those who slept significantly fewer hours than the recommended 10 were more hyperactive and impulsive than those who got plenty of shuteye and scored lower on two cognitive skills tests.” The study implies that students who sleep less will be more likely to act up in class, and teachers will have a much more difficult time teaching these students. Studies like this one and an abundance of others show that lack of sleep not only causes learning problems but can also lead to serious health issues. A change to the school system from such an early morning rise to a 10 a.m. start could dramatically improve learning capabilities of our children and could lead to a more productive and healthy population.

There are many arguments for why a 10 a.m. start would not work. Many will say that it would require parents adjusting their work schedules so they can accommodate the new standard. It would also require, in some cases, a change in day care and babysitting situations. Another argument might be that it would be unfair to teachers who have grown accustomed to the 7-to-4 schedule they’ve had for 100 years. It might also be assumed that a 10 a.m. start would lead to a 5 p.m. finish, which would wreak havoc on parents’ work schedules.

All these and other arguments and reasons for why not to have a 10 a.m. start overlook one important fact: it’s not about the teachers or the parents, it’s about the students. If the point of education is indeed to educate and not to babysit, the rationale for changing to a 10 a.m. start would be obvious: Students who get more sleep will be more engaged and less disruptive, and, in most cases, more eager to learn. With students more awake and engaged from the time they start class, their ability to learn and concentrate on the subject matter would increase, causing a decrease in the amount of time required to have class. Following this logic, changing the school day from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. to one that starts at 10 a.m. and ends at, say, 3 p.m. would result in a more productive school day with less time required of the students and teachers.

Mothers all over the country are practically pulling their hair out attempting to get their kids to wake up each and every school day. It’s extremely stressful for parents, especially the ones who have to be at work bright and early, to have to worry that if their child misses another day of class that they will get a call from the truant officer. Even if the parents succeed in getting their kids to school, they have to worry that their sleep-deprived and exhausted children might cause a stir in class or sneak off campus once they arrive.  

In the movie Chalk, Mr. Lowrey had a hard time controlling his students. They were disruptive, did not respect him, and seemed, overall, uninterested in anything he had to say. He of course was a new teacher and eventually was able to figure out how to get through to them; but should it really have been so hard that it took the whole school year to get to anything that resembled a cooperative class? It was such a bad experience for Mr. Lowrey that even after accomplishing the great feat of learning to be, from all appearances in the film, the best teacher in the school, he seriously doubted his resolve to continue to teach. Of course, he needed to learn to be a quality teacher; that being said, he would have most likely been able to reach his stride a lot sooner if he already had a willing and cooperative class.  The students in his class would have been much less a nuisance if they were accustomed to a proper sleep routine that would include a later start time.

Many articles are written about teaching methods to open the minds of students and help them unleash their creativity.  Many of these writings propose worthwhile methods to help students become successful. Examples of these include bell hooks, John Gatto, and Mike Rose, whose writings offer inspiring proposals for changes to the school system to encourage critical thinking. In his article “Against School” on wesjones.com, John Gatto writes, “Boredom is the common condition of schoolteachers, and anyone who has spent time in a teachers’ lounge can vouch for the low energy, the whining, the dispirited attitudes, to be found there. When asked why they feel bored, the teachers tend to blame the kids, as you might expect. Who wouldn’t get bored teaching students who are rude and interested only in grades?” Isn’t it possible that both the boredom the teachers feel and the rudeness the teachers see in their students that Gatto points out in the quote above might be alleviated by adjusting the start time of the school day?

In an article on the Washington Post website about education resolutions for the New Year, Mike Rose proposes as a resolution “to have more young people get an engaging and challenging education.” That was his number-one education resolution. It would be easier to give well-rested students a more engaging and challenging education than it would a group of half-awake, brain-dead troublemakers. In his book The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, Ken Robinson, an expert on critical thinking, writes, “Those students whose minds work differently—and we’re talking about many students here; perhaps even the majority of them—can feel alienated from the whole culture of education” (39). To add to that statement, students’ minds also operate differently with varying levels of sleep.  

A quick search on Google for “effects of sleep deprivation” pulls up many negative articles related to mental and physical health issues. Camille Peri writes in a WebMd.com article, “First, it impairs attention, alertness, concentration, reasoning, and problem solving. This makes it more difficult to learn efficiently. Second, during the night, various sleep cycles play a role in ‘consolidating’ memories in the mind. If you don’t get enough sleep, you won’t be able to remember what you learned and experienced during the day.”  The article goes on to explain that serious health problems can arise from a lack of sleep over time. These health risks include heart disease, heart failure, stroke, high blood pressure and so on. It did not say the age group of the study but presumably this study was based on adults. If that is true, and it is dangerous for adults to get inadequate sleep, how dangerous is it for children—who require even more sleep than adults— to have less sleep for 10 – 13 years before officially becoming adults?

Andrew Ward, an expert on the brain, was quoted on the Stone Hearth News website as saying, “Sleepiness disrupts the coordinated activity of an important network of brain regions; the impaired function of this network is also implicated in Alzheimer’s disease.” The brain is the most valuable organ that human beings have. Without it, we never would have discovered fire, put a man on the moon, or saved millions lives with innovations in medical technology. Why would we want to risk the health of children’s brains and their bodies by depriving them of the simplest form of preventive health care: adequate sleep?

The end result of switching to a 10 a.m. start time for schools grades K-12 would be to dramatically increase productivity amongst students as well as teachers. The overall health of the U.S. population would be improved in future generations, and perhaps mankind would see a new wave of discoveries by human beings using fully rested and functional brains. Teachers and parents would be less stressed out as they will be dealing with less hyperactive kids who are more eager to accomplish goals and to learn. The research has been done. The answer is obvious. All that’s left is for action to take place with a very simple change that could alter the lives of millions for the better and create a society of overachievers.

Works Cited

Shulman, Matthew. “Kids and Sleep: Why They Need More.” U.S. News & World Report. U.S. News & World Report LP. Web. 6 Sep. 2007

Chalk. Dir. Mike Akel. Perf.  Troy Schremmer, Janelle Schremmer, Shannon Haragan. Virgil Films, 2006. Film.  

Gatto, John. “Against School.” Harper's Magazine. Harper's Magazine Foundation. Wesjones.com. Web. Sep. 2003

Rose, Mike. “Mike Rose’s Resolution on Education.” The Washington Post. The Washington Post Company. Web. 1 May. 2011

Robinson, Ken. The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. New York: Penguin, 2009. Print.

Peri, Camille. “Coping With Excessive Sleepiness.” WebMD. WebMD, LLC. Web. 14 Sep. 2012

Ward, Andrew. “How sleep deprivation impacts dementia, different types of memory, and learning.” Stone Hearth News. Web. 16 Oct. 2012

Formal Paper # 3 Rough Draft

Sleep for Education

Everyday across the country, millions of young students wake up around sunrise and begin the tedious task of getting through their morning routine in order to get to class on time. Some of these students are early risers and take well to the task while others struggle just to get out of bed. Attention span is key in order to be able to digest the information overload that students from Kindergarten through High School face every day. Matthew Shulman from the U.S. News & World Report website, citing a study about the effects of REM sleep, wrote “Researchers at the University of Montreal report that a study of young children showed that those who slept significantly fewer hours than the recommended 10 were more hyperactive and impulsive than those who got plenty of shuteye and scored lower on two cognitive skills tests.” The study implies that students who sleep less will be more likely to act up in class and will give teachers a much more difficult task while teaching their students. Studies like this one and an abundance of others show a lack of sleep causes not only learning problems, but can also lead to serious health issues. A change to the school system from such an early morning rise to a 10 a.m. start, would dramatically improve learning capabilities of our children and would lead to a more productive and healthy population.

There are many arguments for why a 10 a.m. start would not work. Many will say that it would require parents adjusting their work schedules so they can accommodate the new standard. It would also require in some cases, a change in day care and babysitting situations. Another argument would be that it would be unfair to teachers who have grown accustomed to the 7 to 4 schedule they’ve had for 100 years. It would also be assumed that a 10 a.m. start would lead to a 5 pm finish and that would wreak havoc on parents work schedules. All these and other arguments and excuses for why not to have a 10 am start forget one important fact; it’s not about them. If the point of education is indeed to educate and not to babysit, the reasoning behind changing to a 10 am start would be obvious. Students who get more sleep will be more engaged, less disruptive, and in most cases will be more eager to learn. With students more awake and engaged from the time they start class, their ability to learn and concentrate on the subject matter will increase, causing the amount of time required to have class to decrease. So we can take a 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. school day and change it to a 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. schedule, and have a more productive school day with less time required of the students and teachers. Mothers all over the country are practically pulling their hair out while attempting to get their kids to wake up each and every day.

In the movie Chalk, Mr. Lowrey has the hardest time controlling his students. They were disruptive, did not respect him, and seemed overall uninterested in anything he had to say. He of course was a new teacher and eventually was able to figure out how to get through to them, but should it really have been so hard that it took the whole school year to get to anything that resembled a cooperative class? It was such a bad experience for Mr. Lowrey that even after accomplishing such a great feat and learning to be, what looked like from the film, as the best teacher in the school, he seriously doubted his resolve in continuing to teach. Now it being said that he needed to learn to be a quality teacher, he would have most likely been able to reach his stride a lot sooner if he already had a willing and cooperative class.  The students in his class would have been much less of a nuisance if they were accustomed to a proper sleep routine which would include a later start time.

Many articles are written about teaching methods to open the minds of their students and to help those students unleash their own creativity.  Most of these writings are absolutely correct and contain within them, some of the most important methods to help students become successful. When reading authors like bell hooks, Mike Rose, and John Gatto or watching YouTube videos of Ken Robinson, I agree with their views on the current state of teaching in schools and I’m inspired by some of the proposals for changes to the school system to encourage critical thought. In John Gatto’s article “Against School” on wesjones.com, he writes “Boredom is the common condition of schoolteachers, and anyone who has spent time in a teachers’ lounge can vouch for the low energy, the whining, the dispirited attitudes, to be found there. When asked why they feel bored, the teachers tend to blame the kids, as you might expect. Who wouldn’t get bored teaching students who are rude and interested only in grades?”  Both the boredom the teachers feel and the rudeness the teachers see in their students that Gatto points out in the quote above, could be fixed mostly just by adjusting the start time of their day. In an article on the Washington Post website about education resolutions for the New Year, Mike Rose writes “1) To have more young people get an engaging and challenging education.” That was his number one resolution. It would be easier to give well-rested students a more engaging and challenging education than to a group of half-awake brain-dead troublemakers. I imagine it would be hard to teach math to a sleeping infant which is basically what it amounts to when trying to teach millions of under-slept children across the United States.

A quick search on Google for “effects of sleep deprivation” pulls up many negative articles related to mental and physical health issues. Camille Peri writes in a WebMd.com article “First, it impairs attention, alertness, concentration, reasoning, and problem solving. This makes it more difficult to learn efficiently. Second, during the night, various sleep cycles play a role in ‘consolidating’ memories in the mind. If you don’t get enough sleep, you won’t be able to remember what you learned and experienced during the day.” The article goes on to explain serious health problems that can arise from a lack of sleep over time. These health risks include heart disease, heart failure, stroke, high blood pressure and so on. It did not say the age group of the study but I would have to assume that this study was based on adults. If that is true, and it is dangerous for adults to have a lack of sleep, how dangerous is it to children who require more sleep to have less for 10 – 13 years before officially becoming adults? Andrew Ward, an expert on the brain, was quoted on the Stone Hearth News website as saying “Sleepiness disrupts the coordinated activity of an important network of brain regions; the impaired function of this network is also implicated in Alzheimer’s disease.” The brain is the most valuable organ that human beings have. Without it, we never would have discovered fire, put a man on the moon, or saved millions lives with innovations in medical technology. Why would we want to risk the health of children’s brains and their bodies by depriving them of the simplest form of preventive health care…adequate sleep?

The end result of switching to a 10 a.m. start time for schools grades K-12 would be dramatically increased productivity amongst students as well as teachers. The overall health of the U.S. population will be improved in future generations and we will usher in a new wave of discoveries by mankind using fully rested and functional brains. Teachers and parents will be less stressed out as they will be dealing with less hyperactive kids who are more eager to accomplish goals and to learn. The research has been done. The answer is obvious. All that’s left is for action to take place with a very simple change that could alter the lives of millions for the better and create a society of over achievers.

Works Cited

Shulman, Matthew. “Kids and Sleep: Why They Need More.” U.S. News & World Report. U.S. News & World Report LP. Web. 6 Sep. 2007

Chalk. Dir. Mike Akel. Perf.  Troy Schremmer, Janelle Schremmer, Shannon Haragan. Virgil Films, 2006. Film.   

Gatto, John. “Against School.” Harper's Magazine. Harper's Magazine Foundation. Wesjones.com. Web. Sep. 2003

Rose, Mike. “Mike Rose’s Resolution on Education.” The Washington Post. The Washington Post Company. Web. 1 May. 2011

Peri, Camille. “Coping With Excessive Sleepiness.” WebMD. WebMD, LLC. Web. 14 Sep. 2012

Ward, Andrew. “How sleep deprivation impacts dementia, different types of memory, and learning.” Stone Hearth News. Web. 16 Oct. 2012