School Courses

No. 2 pencils sharpened and ready? You may begin. No cheating. A) People in relationships should avoid conflict with each other. True or false? B) An argument can often strengthen a relationship. True or false? Along with lessons in algebra and history, these basics of healthy relationships (A is false, B is true, according to a test developed by University of Minnesota researcher David H.

The students of Kennedy High School's woodworking class did not set out to build a better mousetrap. For a class project, students were assigned to build a sliding computer keyboard tray from plans drawn by the school's computer-aided design class. The finished product came as a pleasant surprise to Kennedy drafting instructor Harvey Phillips. "I said, 'Wow!' " Phillips said. "What the students built is much superior to some of the things I've seen in stores."

In the beginning of the semester, my Spanish 3 class had 53 students. About 10 had no chairs, so they sat on the windowsills. Another five stood, leaning against the wall. I thought about writing about it for my school paper, so I went to talk with the head counselor. He said that since it was an advanced class, he expected many students to drop it. Where was the support and encouragement? They should be telling us, "You can do it!"

Job prospects for Americans, the government says, have never been better. Companies that downsized in the early 1990s are now rehiring workers with profits from Wall Street's recent upswing. Recruiters are flocking to colleges across the nation. But Helene Hirsch's third- and fourth-graders at Erwin Street School are taking nothing for granted.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) will deliver the keynote address Friday as the Valley Leadership Institute honors 25 new graduates. The leadership institute, a nonprofit organization directed by business and civic leaders to educate and train Valley residents on important local issues, recently completed its seventh yearlong program, said Debbie Adelsberg, program coordinator. "The goal is to educate, to train, to get people more involved in their communities," Adelsberg said.

As the youngest of eight children, Mary Helen Ponce would often lock herself in the bathroom or climb trees in search of a quiet place to read. Lacking paper and pencils, she used sticks to scratch her first stories in the soft dirt around her family's Pacoima home. On Wednesday, Ponce, the author of "Hoyt Street," which describes her childhood experiences in 1950s Pacoima, and four other books, brought her enthusiasm for literacy to the Vaughn Next Century Learning Center.

As the youngest in a family of eight children, Mary Helen Ponce would often lock herself in the bathroom or climb trees in search of a quiet place to read. Lacking paper and pencils, she used sticks to scratch her first stories in the soft dirt around her family's Pacoima home. On Wednesday, Ponce, the author of "Hoyt Street," which describes her childhood experiences in 1950s Pacoima, and four other books, brought her enthusiasm for literacy to Vaughn Next Century Learning Center.

Intimidated by a language and a school system she didn't understand, Alma Valencia, a Mexican immigrant, rarely spoke to her daughter's teachers. Like many Latin American immigrants, Valencia, 40, assumed that her child's education should be left in the hands of the school faculty, as it was done in her hometown of Colima. But after learning of the high dropout rate for Latinos in Los Angeles, Valencia grew worried about her daughter Cattleya's future.

This graduation was not advertised on Nimitz Middle School's marquee. The honorees wore neither cap nor gown. They walked across no stage. But their collective achievement was no less significant than that of many other students--they were graduating from anger. Each of the 20 had earned the right to seek a "Chill Out" diploma through a painful series of mistakes and missteps that left them on the verge of being kicked out of the Huntington Park school.

Starting in the fall, students at Santa Margarita High School will be able to enroll in the International Baccalaureate Program at their school. After nearly two years of teacher training, curriculum revisions and accreditation reviews, the school recently received word that it had been accepted into the prestigious program. "We're proud to offer it," Principal Merritt Hemenway said. "The International Baccalaureate diplomas open a lot of doors for students."