NewsBites for Kidz Feb 21 05

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The littlest students at one Anchorage school are learning their lessons in Russian, the complex tongue of Alaska’s former owner and a language increasingly important for improved international relations.

Kindergartners and first-graders at Turnagain Elementary School attend two three-hour sessions a day — one in Russian, one in English — in a program described by foreign language experts as a first for a public school in the United States.

CHILDREN HOLD RUSSIAN LETTERS UP

Al Grillo / AP

First graders at Turnagain Elementary hold up Russian letters in response a question by teacher Katerina Huelsman.

It’s serious stuff tackling the 33-letter Cyrillic alphabet and many consonant sounds not found in English. Russian is spoken as a first language by 170 million people; it’s a second language for at least 100 million more.

“This language takes so long to learn, so this is a great way to do it,” said Janice Gullickson, coordinator of the Anchorage School District’s world languages office. “We envision a grand product.”

The age of the students is what makes the Alaska program unique, experts say. Many schools nationwide offer Russian as a second language to middle and high school students.

“What Anchorage is doing is indeed new,” said Dan Davidson, director of the Washington-based American Council of Teachers of Russian. “I think Alaska has really hit on what we’d like to view as a new model.”

School to expand classes
The program is being launched with a $490,000 three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s foreign language assistance program. Officials with the 49,000-student district plan to expand it each year at the 365-student school, ultimately offering it in all grades.

Two Russian natives are among the four teachers assigned to the program. On a recent January morning, Katerina Huelsman held up flash cards before 16 attentive first-graders.

“SLOO-shai-teh mee-NYA,” she said. Translation: “Listen to me.”

Up went a card showing slumbering children and up went a dozen hands. “Spaht!” called out a girl, correctly pronouncing the word for “to sleep.”

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Only six of the students come from Russian-speaking homes. About 5,200 people — less than 1 percent of Alaska’s population — claim Russian as their primary heritage, according to 2000 census figures. Still, the program was born in a state with long ties to its Slavic neighbor.

The link began thousands of years ago with Siberian nomads who are believed to have migrated over the Bering Strait. Eighteenth-century Russians explored the Alaska coast, imparting geographic names and remnants of their culture that remain today. Traders established the earliest modern settlements in the territory purchased by the United States for $7.2 million in 1867, almost a century before Alaska was admitted as the 49th state.

The relationship took on boundless promise with the end of the Cold War, said Elena Farkas, coordinator of the Russian Immersion program. Farkas campaigned for such a program for more than a decade, almost from the time she arrived from Magadan, Anchorage’s Russian sister city since 1991.

The way she sees it, the new program is building a corps of future ambassadors.

“The time is right,” she said. “People look at Russia differently, not as an enemy anymore. We need to establish a national relationship with Russia — and one way to establish a relationship is to know the language and culture.”

Thinking beyond Alaska
Russian — along with Arabic, Chinese and Korean — are identified as the most crucial languages to learn in international relations, said Davidson of the Russian teachers council, a division of the nonprofit American Councils for International Education.

Mastering those languages is critical for improving international relations and the same skills are greatly needed in trade, research, fisheries and oil development, Davidson said.

Aside from the global implications, language immersion exposes students to a rich cultural experience, said Tom and Meg Kibler, who enrolled their 5-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn, in one of the two kindergarten classes offered through the program. Their fourth-grader daughter, Haley, also gets brief lessons

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in Russian through Turnagain’s program for non-immersion students.

“I want our girls to know the world is bigger than Anchorage or Alaska or the U.S., for that matter,” said Tom Kibler, a former Russian linguist with the Army who now leads language classes for parents of immersion students. “The more we learn about different cultures and people, the more we recognize we have so many similarities.”

Kaitlyn just likes Russian.

“It’s fun, really fun, to learn a different language,” she said.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6906884/?GT1=6190

CELEBRATIONS

Lunar New Year-SOUTH KOREA

Children about to start their lunar New Year holidays say goodbye to their father who stays behind to work, at the Seoul-Busan KTX line terminal at Seoul Station on Sunday afternoon.

Korea Feb. 7, 2005

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200502/200502060013.html

Kids to Feel the Squeeze this Lunar New Year

With the lunar New Year just around the corner, traditional demand for crisp new banknotes has reached a peak ? but this year it is for W5,000 bills (US$4.8), not the W10,000 or bigger children have become used to expecting. Regrettable, but there is a recession on.

Jung Choon-hee, a customer at Kookmin Bank on Friday, said, “Last year, I gave W10,000 to kindergarteners and W20,000 to middle school and high school students, but this year, I’ve decided to give W5,000 to smaller kids and W10,000 to the older ones.” Kim Joong-gun, a retired public servant from Daegu, says, “I’ve exchanged W200,000 into bills of W5,000. Last year my wallet was filled with W10,000 bills.”

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200502/200502040032.html

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Snakes fascinate curious kids at state park festival – Michigan, USA

Monday, February 21, 2005

By Jeff Kart

The Bay City Times Writer

Wiggly or wooden, kids love snakes.

Hold a snake race, and they come running.

Children were lining up to craft and compete with snow snakes at the 2005 Winter Festival at the Bay City State Recreation Area on Saturday.

American Indians used to make the snakes out of saplings, and race them on snow-covered, frozen lakes.

Some of the more than 500 kids who showed up at Saturday's one-day festival were making snakes out of 3-foot-long dowel rods, sanding their snakes and decorating them with markers, before waxing the creations and tossing them down a mini-luge run made on a iced-over path by the park's picnic area.

There were donated prizes like sleds and books for the best-decorated snakes, and those that went the farthest. Kids and their parents paid $2 for each dowel.

The snake making was one of several activities, including fishing, crafts and nature exposure, that made up the annual day of winter fun at the recreation area.

"I really like snakes," said Kevin Kula, 13, of Bay City.

He wishes he had a pet snake.

"My mom is the world's biggest snake-hater," Kula said. "If she would let me, I would."

He colored his snake red and black, like an Eastern milk snake. His technique for winning the competition? Throw hard and straight.

Victoria Anderson, 10, of Saginaw, colored her snake green and purple.

"I think they're really cool," she said. "I think it's a good thing for kids to do this, because it helps them build their imagination."

Anderson's hands were covered with ink from the markers.

"It makes your hands dirty," she said. "But who cares?"

She doesn't share Kula's love of the reptiles.

"I'm glad it's a fake snake, because I hate real snakes," Anderson said. "I seriously do."

Paul Beachy, a park trail guide, said American Indians used to drag a small boy by his feet to make a track for snow snake competitions.

"It was entertainment," Beachy said. "I kind of equate it to when we would have Hot Wheels as kids."

The American Indians took the races quite seriously, he said. The winner was allowed to take home a competitor's snake of his choosing.

"There was a lot of betting and trash-talking," Beachy said.

Children who made snakes on Saturday were encouraged to color them to look like real snakes that are native to Michigan.

Some snow snakes have been known to go for a quarter mile during previous competitions at the park, Beachy said.

Aubrey Ouderkirk, 8, of Midland, colored her rod blue-green and black, and decorated it with a tree, a deer and a snake.

"I think it's cool," Ouderkirk said. "You get to express yourself, and then you get to race it.

"I do wish it was real," she said of her wooden snow snake, "because I think snakes are awesome, even if they bite."

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Pattee Canyon snow race introduces children to Norwegian culture

By Colin McDonald of the Missoulian

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2005/02/21/news/top/news01.txt

Happily riding in a plastic sled pulled by his mother, 3 1/2-year-old Lucca Wellenstein watched as his older brother Anders, 5 1/2, chased him on cross-country skis. When Anders got close enough he'd kick the back of the sled. "Watch it," Lucca told his sibling.

The Wellenstein family - including parents Andrea and Charlie and baby sister Gabrielle - was at the back of the pack Sunday at the first Barnelopet, hosted by the Missoula Sons of Norway Lodge 424. A Norwegian word meaning "children's race," the noncompetitive Barnelopet was held on the Pattee Canyon ski trails.

"The main purpose of this is to get kids introduced to skiing and Norwegian culture," said organizer Karen Sacrison-Leach. "It's not meant to be a race."

Each participant received an official-looking racing bib and a handmade goodie bag displaying the Norwegian flag and containing a cowbell, a Norwegian chocolate bar, an informational pamphlet on the Sons of Norway youth program - and more candy.

Stellan Bechtold trips up during the start of the Barnelopet on Sunday but ended up having a good time anyway. The Barnelopet - a Norwegian word meaning "children's race" - was put on by a local chapter of the Sons of Norway.

Photo by TIM THOMPSON/Missoulian

The 25 young participants were evenly divided between skiing and walking.

After the first third of the 1.5-kilometer course, Anders joined his brother on the sled, leaving his mother to pull both boys up the only hill on the course. But at the halfway point Anders was back on his skis - and back to kicking at his brother. By then Lucca was mastering the art of making snowballs.

"It's getting out to spend time together under the guise of a racing bib," Andrea said while toting her family behind her.

Before entering the final bend in the race course, Andrea told her boys the one thing she wanted was for them to ski across the finish line by themselves.

To the sound of cowbells and cheering, the two happily skied down the gentle slope to the finish line - and were rewarded with mugs of hot chocolate.

After the event each participant was award a medal. Dan Rude, a Sons of Norway member, then instructed children and adults alike to join hands and make a big circle around the crackling fire.

With two steps to the right, one step to the left and a rise onto his toes, he instructed the group how to dance to a traditional Norwegian song. A handful of Sons of Norway members who spoke Norwegian sang the song, while the rest hummed along, smiling, shuffling through the snow and kicking their feet into the air when instructed by Rude.

"I think it was a success," Sacrison-Leach said.

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SCHOOLING

Glad Scientists - JAPAN

By KENJI MARUYAMA, The Asahi Shimbun

http://www.asahi.com/english/lifestyle/TKY200502050129.html

After regular schools cut back on science, children turn to cram schools to experiment

The red glass melted, formed itself into a teardrop shape and dropped. It fell into a beaker of glycerin and gave off a clicking sound as it landed.

The girl melting the tip of a glass stick watched the progress of her experiment dubiously. She had been holding her breath. When the glass hit glycerin, she began to breathe again, murmuring, ``Maybe it won't go so well.''

The girl was one of a class of eight elementary school children conducting an experiment on how tempered glass is created. It was the sort of experiment usually undertaken by high school students in science class.

The kids were in a classroom at Science Club, a private juku or cram school. The school offers classes featuring science experiments at 10 locations in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

The glass experiment took place at Science Club's headquarters near JR Nakano Station. A teacher and an assistant were kept hopping answering nearly constant questions by the curious children and giving them a hand when needed. The children had a bit of trouble following directions. Some needed help with the angle of the fire, others couldn't quite figure out where to stand.

The teachers patiently repeated their instructions. The class on glass lasted three hours.

Science Club offers at least one class for each elementary school grade. The classes meet once or twice a month for basic experiments on light and heat.

A 34-year-old woman who works at a research center at a university enrolled her son, a first-grader from Koto Ward.

``Schools are not providing enough science experiments these days,'' she said. ``I enrolled my son in this class so his interest in science wouldn't fade away. The curriculum is good and my son seems to enjoy it.''

Like Science Club, an increasing number of cram schools are offering classes that provide science experiments for elementary school children.

The trend started around 2002 when a five-day school week and a new school instruction guide that included a cut in science study were introduced.

Teachers and administrators at the cram schools that offer science experiments believe they are filling a crucial gap. Many say that experimentation nurtures children's ability to think on their own rather than simply memorize a slew of facts.

Anecdotal evidence and common sense support their contention. Certainly the children-knowing they weren't being ranked by grades or tests-appeared happy and excited during their lab classes. Tuition ranges from several thousand yen to more than 10,000 yen a month.

While Science Club has opened nine new schools since 2000, Gakken Co., which runs Gakken Kyoshitsu, a mammoth cramschool operation that offers classes at 13,000 locations across the country, started science experiment classes in 2002. After developing its own curriculum, the school now offers 750 lab classes.

Fujiwara Gakuen Jikken Kyoiku Kenkyusho, a private educational institute in Higashinari Ward, Osaka, has lab equipment in its classrooms comparable to those found in regular schools.

Director Tsuyoshi Fujiwara set up the institute in 1956. The school provides training to cramschool operators hoping to add science experiments to their curriculum.

Although about 800 individuals have undergone training, only a few schools have actually added lab classes to their schools.

``Introducing science experiments requires good facilities and hard work,'' Fujiwara said. ``They have to be fully prepared to prevent accidents and to be able to answer the many questions the children will ask. It can be a lot of trouble.''

Monolith Co. is a firm that can ease this burden. The company, located in Kounan, Aichi Prefecture, provides cram schools with facilities, curriculum, materials as well as teacher training. It began a franchise operation in 2003 under the name ``Kids Labo,'' which has spread to about 50 schools across the country.

Shizuyo Hashimoto, a professor emeritus at Tokai University, began providing science lab classes for elementary and junior high school children in 1995 at a small science museum she built in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture.

She said she was deeply troubled over the declining quality and amount of science education. ``Science experiments, whether they take place at schools or cram schools, boost children's mental agility,'' Hashimoto said.

However, she said the experiments need improvement and a lack of qualified instructors also must be addressed.(IHT/Asahi: February 5,2005)

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Students know it's safety first - New Jersey,USA

By: Elaine Worden , Staff Writer

Cranbury Press

02/04/2005

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13891202&BRD=1091&PAG=461&dept_id=425419&rfi=6

JFK Safety Patrol are role models for their fellow students.

JAMESBURG — John F. Kennedy School students are in good hands, thanks to their very own student Safety Patrol.

Consisting of 24 fifth-grade students, Safety Patrol is always on the lookout to lend a helping hand, keep their fellow classmates in order, comfort the younger children when they are having a bad day, and act as role models for the other students.

"They're really a great group of kids," said Vice Principal Wendy Sloter.

Safety Patrol members work throughout the day monitoring doors, making sure the children line up on the playgrounds and when they leave and arrive at school, and keeping an eye out for unruly behavior.

But Safety Patrol members are more than doorway and hall monitors, they are role models for the younger children in the pre-K through fifth-grade school.

"It's not only the big kids helping the little kids, but the little kids growing attached to the big kids," said Ms. Sloter.

Making the transition to school can be a daunting experience for the youngest children, but the Safety Patrol is there to give them guidance and support.

"Normally in the lower grades some of the students cry and you have to ask them why they're sad and make them feel better," said patrol member Jenna Putsky.

"They are role models," said Ms. Sloter.

Every morning they arrive at 8:15 sharp, get the children into line, and lead them into their classrooms. Patrol members monitor the doorways and open them for classmates. At the end of the school day, safety patrollers help students line up again to be picked up by parents or to prepare to walk home.

The Safety Patrol is in its second year of operation, but last year the program was run a little differently and involved the participation of all fifth-grade students, and not just a select few.

Over the summer, fourth-grade teachers will recommend students for next year's Safety Patrol program, choosing about five students from each class. The children don't need to be straight-A students, but teachers do look for students who are well-behaved and on time.

"They know they have to be on their best behavior to do this," said Ms. Sloter.

The students meet about once a month during recess.

"We talk about any problems they might be having," Ms. Sloter said.

The safety patrollers all have different duties.

Every day Anderson Farfani goes outside (except when it's raining) and raises the flag.

Caroline Faraone monitors one of the school's doorways, which is used by students in kindergarten, first, fourth and fifth grade. Each set of school doors has a traffic flow for children in different grades.

Safety patroller Dana Somers is in charge of the students in the mornings and afternoons when they line up outside as their parents pick them up and drop them off.

Dana will tell the students to stay in line, and whenever the school lines up inside, she watches students to make sure they don't leave their backpacks lying in the hallways.

The Safety Patrol also has floater members, whose duties vary depending on what is needed that day.

Another benefit of the Safety Patrol is that it helps the children involved to overcome their shyness, said Ms. Sloter. The Safety Patrol has helped students forge friendships with one another, and they enjoy being around one another.

"They're a tightknit group," said Ms. Sloter.

Safety Patrol members even carry the responsibility of making sure the other children are on their best behavior, whether they are in the classroom, on the playground or lining up to go home.

"On outside days we have to tell them to be responsible and not run around," said Allison.

Sometimes patrol members run into an unusual circumstance when keeping an eye on their fellow students.

"They like to lie down and people step on them," said Raven Klag, who explained that she's encountered a few younger children who have decided to lie down instead of stand in line.

Safety patrol can't give out detentions, but the students are aware that they are supposed to listen to what they say. But if a troublesome situation persists, Ms. Sloter is there to lend a hand and take charge.

"That's when I get involved," Ms. Sloter said.

The students in Safety Patrol understand the importance of their role in the school and take it seriously.

"It feels very nice. It's such a big honor to take care of other children," said Jenna.

Other Safety Patrol members say they enjoy having the younger ones look up to them.

"I love being a role model," said Ahmid Langston.

Travis Lowande agreed. "I like to help out the school," he said, smiling.

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DIFFICULT LIFE

Chinese street children struggle to survive

CTV.ca News Staff

When Joseph Song was a young boy, he was one of many Chinese children who roamed the streets working for the little money he would never see.

These days, the 19-year-old helps run a sanctuary for street children at what used to be an old chili factory

More and more Chinese children from impoverished families are sold in what amounts to a slave market. Poor families sell their children to "ren fanzi", which means "a dealer of children".

They are told their children will work in a factory. Instead they are forced to beg for money or steal on the lonely, violent streets of China where handlers often fight over their turf.

All of the money they make goes to their handlers.

Song told CTV's Steve Chao that he was taught to break into cars and steal things as a street child.

"If I didn't come back with enough money, I would be beaten," he said.

Stacey Hayes runs the sanctuary Song works at. She went to Beijing a few years ago to study Chinese and never left.

She decided to stay after seeing the many children wandering the streets.

The school offers children three meals a day and even classes.

But there is only so much room in the school and the numbers of street children are ever rising.

Doctors Without Borders is one of the organizations that works with marginalized children in China who escaped or were rejected by their families.

They provide temporary accommodation, medical and psychological care, food and schooling.

With files from CTV's Steve Chao

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UN urges action on child labour – WORLD-WIDE

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/4282715.stm

Published: 2005/02/21 11:52:21 GMT

Huge aid increases are needed to help more than 210 million children around the world working full-time, the United Nations' children's fund Unicef says. CHILDHOOD: THE FACTS

One in two children in the developing world lives in poverty
2.2m children could be saved through immunisation each year
37% of 15 to 49-year-olds in Botswana are HIV-positive
121m primary school-age children, mostly girls, are out of school
210m five to 15 year-olds are in full-time employment

Many children aged five to 15 are working as slaves, miners, and soldiers, its latest report says.

Unicef argues the only way to end child labour is to end poverty and it calls on rich industrialised nations to give far more in development aid.

Child labour, it says, is a scar on the world's conscience in the 21st Century.

Children are born, sold into what amounts to domestic slavery in many countries, the report says, some earning as little as $1 a month.

Others are exploited in unregulated chemical plants in Asia, giant open cast mines in Latin America and stone quarries in West Africa.

Children are also used as cheap farm labour in North America the report said.

The highest incidence of child labour is in Africa, where 41% of those aged five to 14 work, compared to 21% in Asia and 17% in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Asia accounts for 60% of all child workers, however, because of its higher population, the report says.

The richest nations have already committed themselves to halving poverty and hunger and reducing child mortality by 2015.

"A huge amount still remains to be done to protect children's rights all over the globe and to prevent their exploitation," said Unicef's UK executive director, David Bull.

Unicef says 60% of all child workers in the world are in Asia

The BBC's Jannat Jalil says the world's richest nations are already discussing an ambitious plan put forward by the UK to reduce the debt burdens of poor countries and give them more aid and trade opportunities.

But, she says, some observers argue the solution does not just lie in giving more money.

They say action must also be taken to tackle the widespread corruption and lack of democracy that exists in many countries.

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BUSINESS

Fashion Trend: Consumers are spending more on children's wear- New York, USA

THE BALTIMORE SUN

Monday, February 14, 2005

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031780803288&path=!living&s=1037645509005&tacodalogin=no

NEW YORK

Instead of strutting in stilettos, they bounced in saddle shoes. No, these were not the usual models seen on the runways of Fashion Week, except for the labels on the clothes they were wearing:

Escada, Hilfiger, Sean John, Kenneth Cole, Nicole Miller.

Those were some of the designers showing their fall lines here this week - for 4- to 11-year-olds. Call it high fashion for the knee-high set, the kind of cashmere blazers, leather jackets and faux furs that trendy moms and dads wear, miniaturized for their offspring.

It was a first for Fashion Week, an entire show of children's clothing in the same Bryant Park tents where designers are displaying their grown-up lines. It was an acknowledgment of a market trend that has been building in recent years: While sales of adult apparel have been dropping, consumers are spending more than ever on children's wear.

Sales of children's clothes jumped 10 percent in 2003, the most recent year for which figures are available, making it a $30 billion industry. During the same period, consumers spent almost 9 percent less on men's clothing and more than 6 percent less on women's wear.

"It's definitely a testament to the importance of the children's wear industry that they're actually presenting a live runway show during a very prestigious event," says Erin Clack, a senior editor of Children's Business, a division of the fashion bible, Women's Wear Daily.

For the apparel industry, children represent an opportunity for growth and brand expansion.

Parents who have waited until later in life to have kids are now paying top dollar to clothe their kids in the same designers they've worn. Additionally, the celebrities who have set the style for adults - from Gwyneth Paltrow to Madonna to Will Smith and Jada Pinkett - now are parents themselves, and what they buy for their children is helping set trends for the next generation.

"Actors are becoming parents, and they have very different attitudes than they had 20 or 30 years ago," says Miriam Arond, the editor-in-chief of Child magazine. "Children are walking down the red carpet with their parents now."

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FESTIVAL

Children learn culture in Chinese New Year festivities – Chicago, Illinois, USA

By Eileen O. Daday Daily Herald Correspondent

Posted 2/13/2005

http://www.dailyherald.com/search/main_story.asp?intid=38396134

Children from the Chicago Northwest Suburban Chinese School welcomed the year of the rooster Saturday in traditional Chinese fashion: through lively songs and dances.

Nearly 200 students who attend the weekend school, which meets every Sunday morning at Fremd High School in Palatine, participated in the variety show to usher in Chinese New Year.

The event, at Schaumburg's Prairie Center for the Arts, is the biggest production of the year for the school. Nearly 400 friends and family members filled the auditorium.

"This allows our children a chance to experience their Chinese heritage," said Stephanie Ho of Lincolnshire, whose two daughters performed.

Red banners, lanterns and mock firecrackers decorated the auditorium lobby. On stage, students danced under a huge banner of a rooster, as well as good luck banners proclaiming the new year in both Chinese and English.

On stage, students performed traditional Chinese songs and dances, and even martial arts demonstrations.

"I've been in it every year since I was little," said April Ko, 12, of Rolling Meadows. "It's so much fun. We've been working on it since we came back from winter break."

Ko and her preteen peers performed a more modern hip- hop dance number, done to Chinese music, of course.

"We like this better than the traditional dances," Ko said. "This is what we're used to."

Families whose children attend the school include parents born in mainland China and Taiwan, who want their children to learn their native culture, as well as adoptive families of Chinese children.

"I want her to learn the Chinese language and the culture," said Peggy Mueller, of her 7-year old adopted daughter, Katie, who performed with her first-grade class.

Linwen Lee of Long Grove remembers participating in similar celebrations when she was a girl in Taiwan.

"Every school had this kind of festival," Lee said. "This is different because each class contributes at least one act. But that's what I'm hoping my son will learn, not just the language but the culture, like I experienced growing up in Taiwan."

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Born In USA; Adopted In Canada
Feb. 13, 2005

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/11/60minutes/main673597.shtml

The conventional wisdom is that if you are looking to adopt that perfect baby, a healthy infant, you will wait years and pay tens of thousands of dollars. You may have to go to Eastern Europe, Latin America or China.

But what if you were told there are hundreds of healthy newborns that private adoption agencies are struggling to find homes for, right here in the United States, who are available within a few weeks of being born.

They’re black or mixed-race infants. With an estimated 2 million American families looking to adopt, it may surprise you where these babies are ending up. Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports.

British Columbia, in Northwest Canada, is best known for its vast wilderness, where blacks are point .65 percent of the population. And some of that minority is children adopted from the United States.

Dave and Juanita Alexander adopted Elias two years ago. They got Keiran last summer. The Alexanders, both teachers, live in Langley, a community 30 miles outside Vancouver.

After trying unsuccessfully to adopt a child in Canada, they contacted The Open Door, a Christian adoption agency in Thomasville, Ga., that has placed more than 200 children in British Columbia.

The Alexanders dug deep to come up with the fee of $10,000. No sooner had they sent in the paperwork, than the phone rang about Elias. "That was fast," recalls Dave Alexander. "I wasn't expecting that at all. … Two weeks." With Keiran, it was longer -- just three weeks.

Dave and Juanita Alexander adopted Elias two years ago, and Keiran last summer. They live in Langley, a community 30 miles outside Vancouver. (Photo: CBS)

There are now at least 300 families with African-American children in British Columbia. The parents there have organized a monthly gathering so their kids can get to know each other. It’s a kind of support group where the parents get help from each other.

It’s not just Canadian families adopting African-American babies. You can find them all across Europe, from Italy to Norway, even in Peru. One Florida adoption agency sent more than half its black infants out of the country last year. No one keeps count, but 60 Minutes was told it could involve as many as 500 children a year. Many adoption professionals we talked to were shocked when they heard that the United States was, as they put it, “exporting” black babies.

Walter Gilbert, CEO of The Open Door, views these adoptions as a "win-win" situation for the children, and he has strong opinions about why. "Especially in Canada, people are just color blind," says Gilbert. "That's been our experience. We would tend to tell them [birth mothers] that our experience has been there's less prejudice. They know what they experience here."

But the Alexanders say Canada is not as colorblind as Gilbert thinks.

"The first time we walked into school with Elias, and the comment that was made was, 'Your basketball program just got a big shot in the arm,'" says Juanita Alexander.

"Or the assumption that he's got rhythm and he's a great musician," adds Juanita's husband, Dave.

"Do you take all of those comments as racist, or how do you accept those things," asks Stahl.

"We can't necessarily always blame them for the comments, and the curiosity that they have, because, you know, families like ours aren't that terribly common here," says Juanita Alexander.

The Open Door also places black babies in the United States, but mainly with white families. Gilbert says blacks tend to adopt directly from relatives or from foster care, often because there’s no fee. He adds that they "never have enough black families."

But even if they did, it might not make that much of a difference. Today, it’s the biological parent who gets to choose who adopts their child, and at The Open Door, only 10 percent of them insist on a black family.

Mark Dedrick and Shante Easterling already had a 4-year-old daughter, and a son with costly health problems, when they found out Shante was pregnant again. After combing through a stack of applications, they decided the best place for their child, Keiran, was with the Alexanders in Canada.

Mark and Shante chose the Alexanders over a well-off American black family.

"It wasn’t money, it wasn’t color, it was more who could raise my child and do the best job," says Mark Dedrick.

Another issue for Mark and Shante was keeping the connection. The black family didn’t want to do that. "They weren’t willing to send photos or be, you know, in our life, like Dave and Juanita are," says Shante.

The Alexanders have Mark and Shante’s picture hanging in Keiran’s bedroom, and they send letters and photos every month, reporting on Keiran’s progress.

Michelle Johnson, a sociologist in Minneapolis, counsels people who want to adopt. She knows firsthand what Elias and Keiran will face as they get older. She was one of two black children adopted by a family in the lily-white suburbs of Minneapolis in the '70s.

"[It was] very lonely. Very alienating and confusing at times," says Johnson, who remembers her mother seething when strangers would come up to her and her brother in the supermarket. "Touching us. Asking inappropriate questions. … The hair, a big thing. Or skin."

She adds, "I don't think the hurt truly came until I entered school."

It was the first day of kindergarten and a classmate called her the “N-word.” Most white families who adopt a black child, she says, don’t handle situations like that well because they’re not prepared for the telltale signs.

"Denying that racism exists. Thinking that love is enough," says Johnson. "Not being able to contemplate what happens when Bobby is 10 and grandma gives gifts to the birth kids who are white and not to your child who is brown? What are you gonna do about that?"

And she says it happens all the time.

From what 60 Minutes saw, the Canadian parents are aware of the pitfalls, and so they invite in black adults to be mentors, send their children to all-black summer camp, and organize seminars to educate themselves.

But what about when the kids get older? "In the teen years, when you're dealing with 'Who am I,' 'Where do I belong,' those questions take on a whole new meaning when you're doing a balancing act between two cultures," says Johnson.

Isaac Birch, 11, was one of the first black American babies to be adopted in Canada. He says he's already felt the sting of racism: "I was actually on the school bus, and I was bickering with another kid. And he called me a black freak. So that kind of made me a little upset."

"I can’t even begin to understand what it’s like to be black," says Isaac's mother, Brenda.

Brenda and her husband, Gary Birch, who is paralyzed from a car accident, realized from the start they would need help raising Isaac.

"We wanted to actually meet the birth mother before the child was born and develop a relationship," says Brenda.

What they wanted is called an “open” adoption, which was rare 11 years ago when Brenda Birch met Isaac’s birth mother, Sonya Norsworthy, a single mom from Houston who wanted to go to college.

"I figured I'd do the best that I could for both of us," says Norsworthy, who thought that doing the best for Isaac would mean giving him up for good. Instead, she ended up with a couple willing to push “open adoption” to the limit.

Sonya and her daughter, Lily, visit Isaac in Canada every year, and Isaac comes to Houston to visit them. "It allows him to know all of himself. His mom and his dad who raise him," says Norsworthy. "And then it also allows him to know his family that's here in the United States. … He doesn't have to search for 'Who am I,' 'Where did I come from?'"

Gary Birch says he wanted the open adoption: "But the more I realized what that really meant, I started to get scared. And, Brenda said, 'You know, you can never have too many people that love him.'"

"That doesn't mean there weren't times, particularly early on, where I wondered, 'What would I do if she said really, 'Actually, I changed my mind and I want to raise Isaac,'" adds Brenda Birch. "What if I have to give him up? And that was really important for me to face."

"So few people know about these transnational adoptions," says Stahl to Johnson. "Really, we've talked to people in your business who didn't know about it."

As for Norsworthy, she did go to college and went on to get a master's degree -- and she has a relationship with her son.

Is he having the kind of life she hoped he was going to have?

"I get teary-eyed. He told me, two nights ago, that he loves the way he lives," says Norsworthy. "And his two families. He's having a wonderful life. He's having a terrific life."

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OPINION

At risk - children's wellbeing and school excursions

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/At-risk--childrens-wellbeing-and--school-excursions/2005/02/21/1108834733662.html?oneclick=true#

By Kelly Burke

February 22, 2005

Their oyster is getting smaller ... children from Central Coast Grammar School on an excursion to Oceanworld Manly yesterday.

Photo: Peter Rae

Deserted playgrounds, childhood obesity and spiraling diagnoses of behavioral disorders - these are the legacies of over-protective parenting which has spawned a generation of cottonwool kids.

Play has become a four-letter word, said child psychologist and author John Irvine. The absence of adventure in children's lives is affecting social and emotional development, as well as waistlines.

Launching a national schools adventure competition at Oceanworld Manly yesterday, Dr Irvine urged a throng of primary school children to venture away from television and computer screens, and start exercising more than just their fingers and thumbs.

But he conceded that the rise in electronic entertainment, longer working hours, isolated communities and parental fear meant the numbers were stacked against children. According to the Bureau of Statistics, television, videos and computer games offer the most common recreational activity for five- to 14-year-olds. And everything from stranger danger to uninspiring litigation-proof playgrounds is ensuring children increasingly stay indoors.

"The irony is that in protecting our children from the dangers outside the house, we may be exposing them to greater risk inside," Dr Irvine said. "We seem to have forgotten that children need to explore through play and adventure if we are to have healthy, well-adjusted, confident adults. And it seems we're seeing more children who don't know - or who have forgotten - how to play."

But apparent concern for children's safety is also threatening to render extinct the traditional school excursion, the president of the NSW Teachers Federation, Maree O'Halloran, said.

Department of Education and Training guidelines introduced last year require teachers to fill in lengthy risk assessment forms before children take so much as a step outside the school gates.

Ms O'Halloran said feedback from teachers indicated that excursions were declining because the department's safety requirements had become too onerous and time-consuming. Rather than making out-of-school adventures safer for students, the department was merely transferring its legal responsibility to schools, she said.

MAINELY KIDS COLUMN: The truth about Maine’s winter and why we love it

Released 2/21/05

By Hannah Gregory, editor, MainelyKids.com Online Magazine

Growing up in the Midwest, we were lucky to have one or two days in any given winter where we might be able to dust off our sleds and make a run for the nearest hill. That's not to say we didn't get winter weather. As a child, I remember constantly hearing adults explain that "it's too cold to snow."

I can actually remember specific days in my childhood based on how cold it was as we stood waiting for the bus. Just like so many places in the United States, ice storms cancelled school and caused power outages and February was just plain brutal. Why do I mention this?

Since moving to Maine I cannot count how many times I have been on the phone or received an email message and heard or read, "You're in Maine? Isn't it cold up there?" Usually, I reply with "It's winter, isn't it cold almost everywhere?" Then I go on to gloat about how, since moving my family to Maine, we enjoy white snow-covered surroundings, making the winter months much more fun and beautiful than other places. Of course, I also mention that I no longer have unbearably hot July and August months.

Another good response is, "Katie Couric looked pretty cold this morning on the Today Show. I don't think it's just Maine."

Sometimes it seems as though people believe winter only happens in Alaska and Maine. What they don't seem to realize is that there is this thing called the "wind chill factor" in flatter states that makes it feel much colder than the temperature gauge indicates. And it really doesn't get that cold here, when you compare it to other cities across the United States. In Kansas (where I grew up), it was not newsworthy when the temperature dipped below 10 degrees, or even below zero during the daytime. In Maine, however, it is a big news story because while our average temperatures may seem low, it really does not get down below 10 degrees very often - that is - in the southern half of the state where the majority of the population resides.

Statistically speaking, Maine is cold - yes, but so are many, many other places across the United States. It can be a bit misleading when doing research based on "average temperatures" because, while most days in the winter are cold (in Kansas City, for example), they will get one or two days out of a month that are unusually warm, and this brings up the average temperature. So, don't let statistics fool you.

I have lived in Maine and in the Midwest, and I can say without a doubt that winter is much more pleasant here. I shock people every time I make this statement. The truth is - winter happens across the country, but it is just more fun in Maine. My kids can snowboard in their neighborhood, build snow men, learn to ski and ice skate, and enjoy snow ball fights. Winter is more celebrated and enjoyed here and people love it. There are winter festivals, snowmobiling competitions and ski camps. If you have active kids, there is so much to do in the outdoors in the winter - opportunities kids other places simply to not have.

People just don't get it, but that's okay. Like so many other Maine families, I will take my winter as it comes and enjoy it to its fullest. I will watch my children embrace winter, make dozens of igloos and sled down hills to their hearts' content. I will buy new hockey skates for my boys each year as they outgrow the old ones and be thankful for the wonderful outdoor places to skate. I will look out the window at my snow-covered neighborhood and notice how the scene is so perfect it should be on a postcard.

And as winter slowly begins to turn to spring, I will look forward to living in a climate and a place that allows for not only beautiful winters, but the most wonderful and enjoyable summer seasons you can imagine. For those of us who live in Maine with kids, we get it - its okay that others don't. (But I will admit that I am really looking forward to the spring thaw.)

WAY TO GO KIDS!

Kids Do Read- Harry Potter books, most recommended by kids to their folks! – London, U.K.

[World News]: London, Feb 21: If you thought that kids today are glued to their television sets or the computer rather than reading books, you are wrong, for if a new study is to be believed reality is quite the contrary.

According to The Telegraph, the study conducted by Tesco suggests that children typically read for pleasure for six hours each week and enjoy authors such as J.K. Rowling Mark Haddon, Philip Pullman and Lemony Snicket.

2,600 parents were asked about their children's reading habits and it was found that about 40 per cent of parents think their children read more than they did at the same age, which has given rise to the phenomenon of "crossovers".

"Contrary to popular belief, children read more today than ever before. Far from being obsessed with TV and computer games, our study shows their love of reading is greater than ever. Many are literary critics for their parents," Caroline Ridding, the book buyer for Tesco was quoted as saying.

The most popular child-to-parent recommendations were:

-1. Harry Potter (books 1-5), J.K. Rowling; 2. Adrian Mole series, Sue Townsend; 3. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Mark Haddon; 4. His Dark Materials (1-4), Philip Pullman; 5. Holes, Louis Sachar; 6. A Series of Unfortunate Events (1-11), Lemony Snicket; 7. Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder; 8. How I Live Now, Meg Rosoff; 9. Junk, Melvin Burges; 10. The Scarecrow and His Servant, Philip Pullman.

The most recommended parent-to-child titles were:

1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis; 2. The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkein; 3. The Borrowers, Mary Norton; 4. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkein; 5. Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll; 6. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl; 7. Famous Five series, Enid Blyton; 8. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell; 9. Mallory Towers series, Enid Blyton; 10. Heidi, Joanna Spryi. (ANI)

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KIDS MEETING FAMOUS PEOPLE

Coburg kids will charm a prince – Melbourne, AUSTRALIA

Paula Beauchamp and Ben Packham

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/printpage/0,5481,12328982,00.html

22 Feb 05

THE children of Coburg North Primary School will be guest stars in Prince Charles's Melbourne extravaganza.

Regal: Coburg princesses Lesha Taha, Gizem Tuncer and Suzie Beers are ready to greet a prince.
Pictures: David Caird

The monarch-in-waiting will visit the small state school next Thursday during his two-day tour of Melbourne.

Principal Tracy Hammill broke the news at the school last Friday – to squeals of delight.

"It is surreal," Ms Hammill said.

"I told the kids the prince was coming to our school because they were so special. And it's true, they are special."

But not everyone at the 130-strong school was sure which prince would be coming.

When Ms Hammill asked her students if they could remember the prince's name, one brave voice said "Charming".

Fadmer Tuncer said her daughter Gizem, 6, did not immediately know who Prince Charles was.

But the family cleared up her doubts at the weekend with a picture.

"She got very excited," Mrs Tuncer said.

Coburg North Primary School was chosen because of Prince Charles's interest in their physical activity program, Go For Your Life.

Children at the school spend about 30 minutes outside each day playing, or engaged in sport, tai chi or gardening.

An unforgettable but top-secret memento was planned for the prince, Ms Hammill said.

A government spokeswoman said Premier Steve Bracks would join Prince Charles on the school tour.

Parent Karen Beers said Coburg was abuzz.

"Out of every school in Victoria, they chose Coburg. The recognition is wonderful. We're proud because this school really is fantastic," she said.

Daughter Suzie, 5, said she was excited "because he is special" – but she was not sure why.

© Herald and Weekly Times

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ENTERTAINMENT

How do we love our children? PHILIPPINES

Posted 08:07pm (Mla time) Feb 21, 2005

By Raymond Lee

Inquirer News Service

http://news.inq7.net/entertainment/index.php?index=3&story_id=28239

HOW DO you find the words to write about a film whose immediate effect is to render you speechless?

I saw director Ditsi Carolino's film twice--first when she showed her almost-final cut, sans music, to us her classmates in a UP film writing workshop last October; second at the full-house premiere at the Cine Adarna (formerly UP Film Center) last December.

In both instances the end of "Bunso" was met with silence.

Not silence born out of indifference or polite relief, in deference to the presence of the filmmaker; but stunned silence, and silence as defense mechanism--a finger to a hole in a dam. When the dam burst, well, it was visible on the faces of those who had just seen ... a miracle.

"Nawasak ako," I overheard someone say after the premiere. She described for the rest of us our own unarticulated feelings. How do you translate this? "I was devastated?" "Blown away?" "Flattened?" "Demolished?" "Gutted?"

All of the above, utterly and completely.

Carolino filmed Bunso (The Youngest) in a jail in Cebu where the child offenders were mixed with the adult prisoners. Cheek by jowl they slept in cramped, unsanitary quarters that leaked when it rained and reeked any other day. Pushing and shoving, they lined up for their daily gruel.

She filmed dozens of these children--all of them poor, most from dysfunctional families--for several weeks. She zeroed in on three of them. They were 12, 13 years old at the time the film was shot, but none of them looked over 10. They were, despite their age, The Three Wise Men of this film. It seems life had exempted them from boyhood.

The Charmer

Tony is the charmer, the natural leader among them. He addresses the camera like a long-lost friend and makes as if he were touring us in his own private castle. He provides the articulate running commentary that practically glues the film's narrative together. He becomes our eyes and ears into this world that has so been misrepresented in many of our prison genre movies that are more juvenile and more delinquent than any of the juvenile delinquents here.

Tony becomes sort of a mother hen to the other boys.

Tony finds a shirt to give a shivering Diosel, the third of this magical triumvirate. He is the angel among them, with an angelic singing voice and a knack for telling a damn funny story even if it is about him getting caught stealing change from a store so he can eat, the store owner showing him compassion and forgiving him, and him getting no such luck from his own father who sends him to jail just to teach him a lesson.

HEADY HEADLINES

Swine Show lets kids go whole hog for learning

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