Category: Education


There is a major debate on the significance of getting a technical college degree and whether it enables one to get a job. More importantly, people are interested in knowing about the academic significance of these degrees. Technical colleges, which are more popularly known as community colleges, offer two-year associate degrees as compared to four-year degree at standard colleges.

Aside from the difference in duration of education, technical colleges are also distinguishable as they offer specialized degrees, diplomas and certificates. A student can enroll at a technical college after completing high school. Spending two years will earn one degree in aviation, mechanics, electrical engineering, manufacturing, and dozens of other fields.

In these two years of education, the first six months are for the basic training in science, mathematics, physics, chemistry, mechanics and other fields. After the first semester, one has the choice to select a particular field of education. The method of instruction at a technical college differs from a traditional one as it pays more attention to experiment than course work.

A student enrolled at a technical college will be spending more time in the laboratory, workshops, warehouses and other establishments to gain experience needed for the degree or certificate.Academic course work is also included in the associate degree but generally with a ratio of 40% to 60%.

Some courses involve an equal ratio of academic and laboratory/workshop depending on the requirements of certification or diploma. Admissions in technical colleges follow the same route as traditional four-year institutions. A student is eligible for admission after completing a high school diploma. SAT or ACT scores along with accredited GED scores are required for admission.

Our Minneapolis technical school also offers an opportunity for home-schooled students to take admission as long as their studies have followed an accredited arrangement with their local school district. If a student is applying for a single course rather than a certificate or diploma then he or she will not need these accreditations.

According to data extracted from National Center for Education Statistics, there are 1,045 community colleges in the United States with many states having dozens of them. This makes it easier for students to seek admission at an institution that is closer to their home.

Some community colleges do not offer residential facilities so it is highly important that a student makes accommodation arrangements on one’s own. Tuition fees and other charges are taken at the start of the academic year. These charges can be as much as ten times lower than that of their traditional counterpart. Affordability and shorter duration has made these colleges ideal for those students who do not want to commit to a four year degree or do not have the financial means to support their education.

Employment rates for technical college graduates are at par with traditional colleges and higher in some cases. Specialized courses in aviation, mechanics, dentistry, medicine, and chemical engineering enable students to find employment rather quickly given the high demand in these sectors. On an aggregate scale, the specialized education in technical colleges can be good for those who want to join workforce in the shortest possible time.

Photo courtesy of tonrulkens on flickr

With the release of and subsequent media frenzy surrounding Pope Benedict XVI’s published comments on condom use has come a renewed debate about religion, sexuality and public health. And it’s not just about “male prostitutes.” While the Pope’s original declaration referred to the fact that condom use may be a moral act for male prostitutes wishing to prevent against sexually transmitted infections, the Vatican later clarified that — oh, wait a minute — women, men and transsexuals also may use condoms to protect themselves against transmission of disease, thank you very much.

Many progressive Catholics and organizations say these statements have opened the door to the potential to have a more realistic conversation about the role condoms play in protecting the health and lives of women, men and young people globally.

But, of course, the conversation has been happening for years between public health experts, advocates and those who use condoms. We already know that condoms are the only sure-fire contraceptive method for women who want to prevent both pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. However, Catholics for Choice say that many Catholic health providers working for Catholic aid agencies in developing nations are secretly handing out condoms while fearing for their jobs since condom use is still unacceptable as a tenet of the Church. Catholic groups like the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in the United States have stood in the way of ensuring access to condoms, as well as to the funding of other HIV/AIDS prevention strategies that work — like comprehensive sex education in developing nations — for too long.

The best way we can “use” the Pope’s comments on condoms, in this country, is to put pressure on Catholic health agencies working on the ground in these poor nations to formally integrate condoms into their prevention strategies.

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Amy Winehouse might have been denied a visa to enter the United States. But apparently the leading politician in Uganda working to pass a bill that would criminalize homosexuality with the death penalty or life imprisonment is allowed to walk the streets of Washington, D.C., attending an international conference on financial management.

According to Warren Throckmorton, a Christian psychologist and blogger covering Uganda’s efforts to criminalize homosexuality, Ugandan Member of Parliament David Bahati is set to attend a December 6-8 conference in D.C. held by the International Consortium on Government Financial Management. The conference is set to take place at the Enrique Iglesias Conference Center at the Inter-American Development Bank.

Throckmorton spoke to Bahati in mid-November. At the time, Bahati said that his Anti-Homosexuality Bill would not face a vote in parliament until after February 2011 elections. But Bahati is still very confident that the bill will pass.

“Bahati said that due to the upcoming elections no significant legislative work is anticipated. He continues to believe that the bill will be considered and debated in Parliament after the elections,” Throckmorton reports. “Mr. Bahati said that the delay should not be taken as a sign of lack of support by the committee chair or his peers in the Ugandan Parliament.”

So there you have it. The Anti-Homosexuality Bill — which would criminalize homosexuality with the death penalty or life imprisonment, and even throw in jail straight people who work on behalf of LGBT rights, or straight people who do not disclose to the government people they know who are LGBT — won’t become law before February 2011. But it is still very much on the table, and something that Bahati continues to champion every chance he gets.

And the International Consortium on Governmental Financial Management, as well as all their sponsors for the upcoming December 6-8 conference, are comfortable with someone like Bahati attending?

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With an LGBT-specific school and a bunch of diversity workers, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) is ahead of the curve on gay rights. But now they are taking their stance on equality and inclusiveness one step further. Board officials have announced three new initiatives to make schools safer for all students that fall outside the heterosexual label.

“This is a pretty significant development. It’s historic. The TDSB as an entity has never taken this on system-wide, so it’s having huge ripple effects,” says Michelle Cho, student equity program advisor for the TDSB. “We know that homophobia and transphobia have existed in our schools for a long time. It’s just being highlighted much more in the media now. There’s a real crisis that’s gone unnamed in our schools. This needs to be talked about.”

The Positive Space campaign will see middle school and secondary teachers trained by a positive space representative in order to become official points of contact for students suffering with issues stemming from homophobia or transphobia. According to Cho, the new initiatives are a first in Canada. There has never before been a system-wide promotion of gender-based violence prevention.

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On a September morning, just before dawn, ICE came knocking on Fredd Reyes’ door. It was 5 am and Fredd was asleep after a long night of studying for his exam at Guilford Technical Community College that very same day. Instead of taking his exam, Fredd was rudely awakened from his sleep, handcuffed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and taken from his North Carolina home to North Georgia Detention Center. He was then transferred to the Stewart Detention center in Lumpkin, Georgia, which is quite infamous for corrupt and inhumane immigrant detention practices.

Twenty-two years ago, Fredd’s family fled their native Guatemala in the face of death threats and persecution. Needless to say, they haven’t been back since. Despite the clear danger they faced back in Guatemala, an immigration judge denied their bid for asylum in 2000.

Fredd worked hard and earned his Associates Degree from Davidson County Community College and transferred to Guilford Tech to continue his education. As a result, he is eligible for the federal DREAM Act, which would give undocumented youth like him a pathway to citizenship, expected to come up for a vote in the House and Senate before the end of this year. Fredd aspires to utilize his acting and singing skills to become a professional actor and renowned singer, and he’s quite good (see video below). He is neither a criminal nor a threat to this country, and completely undeserving of detention, let alone deportation from the only country he calls his home.

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The ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center filed a class action lawsuit in federal court this week alleging that GEO Group, the nation’s second-largest private prison operator, was subjecting young prisoners to “barbaric, unconstitutional conditions” at a Mississippi facility.

The lawsuit presents a laundry list of abuse at the 1,400-bed Walnut Grove Correctional Facility in north Mississippi. And it goes straight after GEO for allowing assaults and denying medical care and education while racking up healthy profits at the prison. The facility was built with $41 million in taxpayer dollars, while GEO has now earned more than $100 million in profit from its management, the suit estimates. The 1,400 boys and young men held there were all sentenced as adults, but two-thirds of them were convicted of non-violent crimes.

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Police in Muncie, Indiana, say that Central High School administrators undermined their ability to investigate a rape charge by failing to report the incident to law enforcement.

When a 16-year-girl told an assistant principal on Tuesday that she had just been dragged into a school bathroom and raped, administrators had her sit in the principal’s office for over two hours and told to write down what had occurred. They didn’t bother calling the police or a victim’s advocate, to the dismay of the Indiana Coalition Against Sexual Assault (InCASA). When administrators did call the girl’s guardian, she was taken to the hospital and staff there finally called the police. It was then about four hours since the assault had been reported.

Superintendent Eric King defended the school’s irresponsible decision in a television interview by claiming that the girl’s story wasn’t completely consistent and school administrators doubted the allegation, that “the facts in the case were somewhat vague,” and they wanted to investigate themselves. Nothing like attacking rape victims for making up their story without any evidence except that they’re female and girls lie, right? The school officials didn’t even bother notifying any one of the four school police officers. Why bother having school police if you don’t tell them anything? It’s so much better to play make-believe detective and screw up the real investigation.

School administrators had no business deciding not to report a student’s rape charge because they were “vague” on the details. Rape is a serious crime and should be reported to police immediately: the student also should have been transported straight to the hospital, rather than made to wait in the principal’s office for hours. Delaware County deputy prosecutor Eric Hoffman commented that he was “uncomfortable” with school officials deciding to usurp the role of police, which is perhaps a massive understatement. And Detective George Hooper pointed out that there was a serious cost to the unwarranted delay: other students and probably a cleaning crew had been through the bathroom since the rape occurred, so any evidence that could have been available at the crime scene was lost to police.

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Two University of Guadalajara academic centers (Health Sciences along with Biological and Agricultural Sciences) have been criticized for still receiving live animals from the animal control centers and for sweeping up animals off the street to use them as part of its medical and scientific practices in the areas of Medicine, Veterinary Medicine, Nursing, Odontology and Psychology. Apart from being a clear violation of the Mexican Official Standard (NOM 042 SSA) the practice is ethically wrong. Furthermore, the University of Guadalajara has a Center for Alternative Use of Animal in Education (CAAE) that has not been exploit to the fullest. ?
Dogs to be used for dissection and for practicing surgical procedures are either being captured in the street by trucks owned by the University or are being provided by third parties hired for the same purpose. In some cases, dogs are wearing tagged collars, showing they have owners. Other dogs are taken from the Animal Control Center in the nearby municipality of Tonala, Jalisco. The captured animals suffer from tremendous stress due to the conditions they are put through, even prior the %u201Ceducational%u201D practice. All the animals, including sometimes puppies and pregnant dogs are forced to live in cages, often going for days without any food, shade or water.
It has been through the evidence of photos, videos and the complaints of neighbors and some of the students deeply worried about the situation, the methods or torture and extreme cruelty these animals have to go through, as well as the poor health conditions the practices take place putting at risk the health itself of the students. Their testimonies describe the use of expired anesthetics and drugs that are employed in lower doses than required, before cutting open the animals. The result is that animals aren%u2019t properly sedated and frequently gain consciousness in the middle of the surgery when they have been already cut wide open, suffering from indescribable pain. In many cases their screams and moans are silent by beating them, and those in charge of the practices do not take into consideration the provisions applicable by law. Crying means the same in every language. Let%u2019s help to stop this disgraceful treatment towards animals. Sign the petition to stop these archaic methods of using live animals in educational practices and make a difference. They need our help.
Stop the use of live animals in the University of Guadalajara

A new documentary by Michael Webber has been getting a lot of attention at film festivals this year. The Elephant in the Living Room brings the issue of privately owned lions and tigers and bears (and reptiles and other wild animals) to the big screen.

In an interview with CityBeat, Webber said exotic pet ownership may be shocking, but it’s not an obscure phenomenon. “I started paying attention and that’s when I realized this was the elephant in the living room. This big, enormous thing that’s going on in our country and no one is really recognizing it.”

Until now.

It’s no coincidence that the Dayton, Ohio, filmmaker aimed the camera at his own state. Ohio has some of the weakest exotic animal laws in the country, a flaw which gained national attention this summer when a bear killed his caretaker. Despite obvious and repeated negligence on the part of the bear’s owner, Sam Mazzola, authorities’ hands were tied because you can pretty much own whatever you want in Ohio. And Mazzola isn’t the only one whose choice of pets has caused problems.

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Holding anti-bullying assemblies at middle and high schools is certainly a noble effort to try and turn the tide of harassment in the classroom. Whether that harassment is based on race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or more, schools should be looking at ways to make combating bullying a central part of the education experience.

But if a school holds an anti-bullying assembly, and the students do nothing more than just laugh it off or make jokes about it, does it have any real teeth?

That’s a question that has particular relevance today, with the word that a 14-year-old Pennsylvania student committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a tractor trailer to escape bullying at his school. The day before his suicide, the school had held an anti-bullying assembly, but as The Daily Item reports in their coverage of the suicide, many students just laughed the program off and wasted the opportunity to really look at the consequences of bullying.

And now another student is dead.

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