To complete her cross-examination, prosecutor Sarah Carr, 16, had one final question for Andrew G., 17, the defendant in a recent case at the youth court in Colonie, N.Y.: "Didn't you know it was wrong?" Andrew nodded shyly, eyes averted. He knew that stealing a $4.97 Star Wars action figure from Wal-Mart was not only a petty crime but also a geeky one in the eyes of his high school peers, some of whom were serving on the jury. From the story - A Jury of Their Peers By Jeremy Caplan - Time Magazine

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Exploring the Youth Court System by Engaging in a Mock Trial
Overview: Students learn about youth courts and explore the system further by engaging in a mock youth court trial. Go to this Law and Society Lesson

The jury unanimously found the defendant guilty of the assault of a 70-year-old woman during an attempted burglary.
But in a passionate closing argument, the defence counsel urged leniency, saying the defendant had taken his victim to hospital and turned himself in, said Korean news agency Yonhap.
After a two-hour deliberation the jury recommended a suspended sentence of 30 months and 80 hours' community service, and the judge agreed. Read this BBC Article »

More Background: This initial learning process has been facilitated by the South Korean government, which is running commercials about jury service and conducting mock trials. Read the IHT article » By Thaddeus Hoffmeister.

• Related Lesson The New York Times - Learning Network - Exploring the (American) Youth Court System by Engaging in a Mock Trial
Overview: Students learn about youth courts and explore the system further by engaging in a mock youth court trial. Go to this Law and Society Lesson.

• The Learning Foundation - "What to Teach" - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson Plan.

The behaviors are abstaining from smoking, weight management, blood pressure control, regular exercise and avoiding diabetes. The study reports that all are significantly correlated with healthy survival after 90.
A second study in the same issue of the journal suggests that some of the oldest of the old survive not because they avoid illness, but because they live well despite disease. Read more about the study in this article » By Nicholas Bakalar - NYT

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Creating “Life Lists” of Personal Goals -
Overview: Students consider what it means to live a life well-lived by creating life lists of goals they would like to accomplish and analyzing patterns in the lists of their peers. Go to this Life's Lesson.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Creating Health Resources for Students -
Overview: Students consider the role of the nurse at their school and create informational pamphlets on health topics relevant to adolescents. Go to this Health and Life's Lesson.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Evaluating Teens' Sources of Health-Related Information
Overview: Students students research the answers to their own health-related questions, and evaluate the various sources from which this information comes. Go to this Health and Science Lesson. - Related information: "Teen Health Website" - Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - "A Woman's Worth"   Examining the Changing Roles of Women in Cultures Around the World
• Writing help from TOEFL- Prep Writing Practice Site Lesson - "Comparison and Contrast" 

Sometimes the combination of parenthood and big-event pressure does not work. Rawlinson and her husband and coach, Chris, agonized over the decision but ultimately chose to send Cornelis to Australia with his grandparents before the 400-hurdle final in Osaka.
The idea was for Rawlinson to have more time to conserve energy and for the other Australian athletes to have a chance to sleep without fear of being awakened in the team hotel by a screaming baby. But Rawlinson credited Cornelis's birth with helping her psychologically and for increasing her already high tolerance for pain in one of the most grueling events in athletics.
"The truth is: There's no pain like childbirth," she said in Osaka. The full IHT artcle By Christopher Clarey -IHT

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Profiles in Progress
Overview: students consider the role of women in sports, particularly the Olympic games. They then research and write a profile about a woman who has competed in the Olympics. Go to this Health and Life's Lesson.

By JOHN M. BRODER - New York Times

Dr. Wafa Sultan was a largely unknown Syrian-American psychiatrist living outside Los Angeles, nursing a deep anger and despair about her fellow Muslims.

"Only the Muslims defend their beliefs by burning down churches, killing people and destroying embassies. This path will not yield any results. The Muslims must ask themselves what they can do for humankind, before they demand that humankind respect them."

...Read more.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Exploring the Intersection of Religion and Modernity
Overview: Students examine the ways in which various religious faiths have responded to social, ideological, and technological changes in 'modern' times. Go to this Building Society Lesson.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - What does race mean in the World today?
Overview: Students read the lesson questions and what other students in this New Yor Times lesson answered. They then write their answers to the questions and discuss them. Go to this Building Society Lesson  

• World Wise School - Looking at ourselves and others -
Using a simulation game, students will experience what it is like to confront and deal with a culture highly different from their own.  Go to this Building Society Lesson.

How it helped change the way 10-year-old Dennis Maclaine judges people.

"Before, I just saw a big kid ... not really an athlete," Maclaine said. "Now I think they could be an athlete and actually win a medal."

On the back of the card, the young woman is identified as weightlifter Cheryl Haworth, an Olympic bronze medalist..."It gets you to think you shouldn't judge a book by its cover," said Adam Karas, 10, another student.

"In today's China it would seem that discriminatory actions are not so common," said Yan Shikui, the narrator for the production. "But in fact, it is very serious. We talk about the difference between urban and rural citizens, the gap between the strong and the weak. All of these are very deep notions buried in people's minds, which cannot be solved by using violence. They have to be addressed through ideas."

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Viewing Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" Speech through a Global Lens
Overview: Students learn about the production of "Passages of Martin Luther King Jr." at the National Theater in China, and the ways in which the words of Dr. King have impacted the Chinese people and government. They then examine cases of discrimination around the world and respond to Dr. King's famous 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech from the perspective of these marginalized populations. Go to this Building Society Lesson.

Although the findings do not change the relationship of Homo erectus as a direct ancestor of Homo sapiens, scientists said, the surprisingly diminutive erectus skull implies that this species was not as humanlike as once thought. Article source: A pair of fossils shakes up the human family tree By John Noble Wilford - International Herald Tribune

 "Creation or Evolution?" by David Ross
• World Wise School - Learning to identify and modify generalizations. This activity introduces students to the difficult concept of generalization so that they will challenge generalizations made about people... Go to this Lesson Worksheet.
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Investigating and Discussing Darwinism ... (Explaining Life’s Complexities)
Overview: Students learn about theories of ’intelligent design’ in evolutionary science...  Go to this Science Lesson.  

The Lindners share a defective copy of a gene known as BRCA1 (for breast cancer gene 1) that raises their risk of developing breast cancer sometime in their lives to between 60 percent and 90 percent.
Deborah Lindner began to seek support elsewhere, (and contacted) Bright Pink, a group of young women who have tested positive for the BRCA genes.
Lindsay Avner, its founder, lived in Chicago, and their meeting over coffee in the hospital lounge one evening in March lasted four hours. Avner, 24, had had a prophylactic mastectomy last year.
"You've got to see my breasts," she told Deborah Lindner, escorting her into the bathroom.
Avner's surgeon at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan had used a technique that preserved the breast skin and nipples, leaving a scar only under the breast. Deborah, still in her scrubs, said, "Wow."
Deborah scheduled the double mastectomy with Dr. D.J. Winchester at Evanston Northwestern hospital for the last weekend in June, three days after her medical board exams.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Talking about Breast Cancer:
Students share words and associations related to cancer. They then investigate and participate in dialogues about the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Go to this Health, Science and Life's Lesson.

Since her debut in cyberspace in December, María Amelia López, 95, has drawn thousands of readers from across the globe with an incisive blog.
"Elderly people like me - and there are a lot of old people who are younger than I am - should all have someone who shows them how to use the Internet," she said. "The Internet opens paths and opens up the past," she wrote. The Full article - By Victoria Burnett - IHT

Children are said to be best placed to give grandparents net skills - "Kids to teach elderly net skills" BBC News
• The New York Times - Learning Network - Organizing and Contributing to Internet Volunteer Missions
Overview: Students reflect on their experiences and interest in volunteer service. They work in small groups to develop service plans for communities in need around the world and connect them with virtual volunteers.Go to this Building Society Lesson.

A Malaysian Federal Court said Joy, now age 41, who was born to Muslim parents and began attending church in 1990, should seek permission to renounce Islam from Islamic Shariah courts. Joy, however, has refused to seek the Shariah court's permission, saying she is a Christian and should not be bound by Islamic laws.
As far as is known, only one person has ever been allowed to leave Islam in Malaysia. An 89-year old woman named Nyonya Tahir who converted to Buddhism in 1936 had her decision accepted – 69 years later ‑ in 2006, after she had died.
From: Doing the Impossible: Quitting Islam in Malaysia - By Imran Imtiaz Shah Yacob - Asia Sentinel

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Understanding the Quest to Protect Human Rights.
Overview: Students explore the concept of human rights by developing and defending their own "Bills of Human Rights" and by writing a reflective essay that compares their notions of human rights and the protection of them...  Go to this Law and Society Lesson.

’'It is the beginning of a new, courageous life," she said. ’Relationships today depend not only on education or wealth alone. It is wise to have a blood test done before marriage.’ Dikshya was infected by her husband, an injecting drug user, and wants every girl not to take marriage for granted.- By Manish Gautam Chitwan, Nepal (Asia Media Forum)

"We'll see the next Toyota coming from China and the next Samsung coming from India," says Harold Sirkin, senior vice president of the Boston Consulting Group, based in Chicago, and co-author of its 2006 study.

But Sirkin is optimistic that the U.S. economy will continue to flourish. "There are a lot of imports coming in from China today, but what's our unemployment rate?" he said. "It isn't 43 percent. We've responded."
This article - By William J. Holstein - New York Times. (The U.S. jobless rate, fell to 1.9 percent in the week ended April 21 from 2.0 percent.)

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Analyzing the Benefits and Drawbacks of a Global Economy
Overview: Students analyze the impact of a global economy on the workers, business leaders and governments of China and the United States. Go to this Economy and Society Lesson 

When Shawnta Taylor approached her father, she told him who she was and started to embrace him, but he pulled back.
"Baby, don't hug me," he told her, "I'm dirty."
"Daddy, don't do that. I came too far for you to turn away from me," she said, pulling him close.
Soon afterward Mr. Taylor checked himself into a rehabilitation center and began the road back that led to his first trip to his hometown in more than two decades. The full story - By Sean D. Hamill - New York Times

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Writing Human Interest Stories for the School Newspaper
Overview: Students share opinions about inspirational or noteworthy stories they have heard. They then investigate sources and prepare interview questions for human interest stories they will write and submit to the school newspaper for publication. Go to this Life and ESL Lesson.

"Many Filipinos now agree with outside analysts who have blamed them for their fascination with political theater and failure to buckle down to the hard work of institution building ..... Just as the original people power was seen as a model of nonviolent resistance, the letdown now is an object lesson in the limits and even the destructive effects of a popular uprising." Enthusiasm wanes for people power By Seth Mydans - The International Herald Tribune

Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra
The Role of the Thai Media: "Newspapers today are big business, with many of them listed on the stock market. Severe if not cut-throat competition is the order of the day, and partisanship with big business and political parties is not unheard of..." - The Nation (Asia Media Forum)
"Media must filter out the rumours.." But rumours sell. People tend to believe in a rumour if it is against the party they hate. This is worrying because people cannot make an informed decision based on rumours." - Bangkok Post Friday March 3,2006

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Investigating Nations That Are Transitioned to Democratic Forms of Government
Overview: Students consider words that reflect their knowledge and opinions about democracy. They then work in groups to research countries. Go to this Law and Building Society Lesson

"Tiger was the motivated one, and Earl and Tida were great at providing an environment of unconditional love, an environment where he could excel." said Rudy Duran, Woods's golf instructor from 5 to 10. - Read Article » Bringing up Tiger to be himself By Damon Hack - The New York Times

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Examining the Attributes and Historical Realities That Create Heroes Overview: Students will generate a list of the common attributes of heroes, and analyze a specific hero within his or her historical and cultural context. Go to this Life's Lesson.

Click on Tamarine's picture for her story from - BBC Sports and Esther's picture for her story from The New York Times - Snapshot

• The New York Times - News Snapshot:"On the Ball" Overview: News Snapshot Helps students with the basic set of questions answered by journalists when relaying the news-- who, what, where, when, why and how. Ask students to use their knowledge of current events, the pictures and the quotation as clues to answer the questions on the page.

• Related Lesson The New York Times - Learning Network - Racing for Equality - Go to this Building Society lesson.

  "I feel very happy that the emperor regards my new life as a continuation, not as a complete break," Sayako added. Read Article »