Brooke Harris is out of a job as a Michigan teacher. But she’s not exactly sure why. All she knows is that her dismissal stems from encouraging her middle school students to raise money for the family of slain teenager Trayvon Martin. Lots of organizations are rallying not only for the arrest and prosecution of George Zimmerman, but to fundraise and defray the legal expenses Martin’s parents have accumulated just trying to bring their son’s alleged murderer to justice.

This is where good teaching came back to bite her in the hindparts: Harris initially gave her journalism students at Pontiac Academy for Excellence an editorial-writing assignment on the shooting. But the kids felt led to do more, and Harris says she asked the school's administrators if the eighth graders could pay $1 for a dress-down day, a popular fundraising tactic at schools that require uniforms.

Last summer, I went to Earth, Wind & Fire’s 40^th anniversary concert. I knew when I bought the tickets that I was going to offer myself up as a background vocalist and showgirl right from my seat. I mean, come on—it’s Earth, Wind & Fire. “Emotions,” “Fantasy,” “Let’s Groove,” “Boogie Wonderland” Earth, Wind & Fire. That’s a guaranteed party.

There were people in my section I would’ve never pinned as EWF fans. Jim from accounting, Skater Guy Bill, the lady who frowns at you when you have too many items at the express checkout. They all came on out. There was another, more important person there I never would’ve expected: my mommy. And she was right next to me, hollering out all the lyrics like Phillip Bailey was going to call her onstage for a job well done.

When I was in eighth grade, I had a seriously hardcore history teacher. I had binders upon binders with notes about actual Vietnam War battles, the Cold War, JFK's assassination, etc. I'm sure there were points at which I could guess where my teacher stood politically, but I can't really definitively say, because he never personalized or politicized any of it.

The same, it seems, cannot be said for a Virginia middle school teacher Michael Denman, who is under fire from parents after making his students do "opposition research" ... on only Republican presidential candidates. According to conservative website The Daily Caller, the eighth-graders were told to research the backgrounds and positions of Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul ... which, okay, so far, not so strange. But after that, it got a bit bizarre.

Schools should not be providing condoms to middle schoolers. This seems obvious, no? But not everyone agrees, it seems.

A school committee in Springfield, Massachusetts approved a policy that would make condoms available to kids over the age of 12 as part of a comprehensive reproductive health policy to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy.

That is one hell of a school supply. Can you imagine this popping up on your school’s “wish list” items? I wonder, will they have to ask the school nurse for condoms? Or maybe they will put them in one of those neat little dispensers in the boys' bathroom.

Your child has possibly been killed, please come and identify the body. They are the most incomprehensible words a parent could ever hear, ones most of us surely try to push away when we hear tragic stories like the 22 children who were killed in a bus crash in Switzerland overnight. As investigators figure out the how and why, as two schools mourn the death of beloved teachers and classmates, the parents of those 12-year-olds are in a private hell. Not just because their child has probably died, but also because many are flying by private military plane to the accident far from their home. Process that for a minute ... they can't run to their baby's side right now -- they actually have to take mass transit to get to them.

As President Obama acknowledged in his State of the Union address Tuesday night, the American people tend to regard much of what goes on in Washington, DC, with a skeptical eye. But there was a moment during Obama's looong (is it over yet?) speech that, as the parent of two kids attending public elementary school, I found myself wanting to stand up and cheer. Actually, come to think of it, there were a few of them.

Here are five things the President said about education that parents of kids of all ages -- K through college -- can celebrate. (If Washington lawmakers can manage to work out a deal to make them happen, that is -- which is, of course, a big if.)

It’s 12:00 a.m., and when most children are all snuggly buggly wuggly in their widdle beds getting lots of shuteye for their big days at school tomorrow, mine is still awake.

Apparently, her class got in trouble today for excessive chattiness and in a brazen show of authoritative take-that-ness, her teacher slammed them with — wait for it — 60 definitions and 60 sentences. On top of science homework and algebra equations, Girl Child’s whole night has been spent with her face stuck in a dictionary and a marble composition book leading up to now, the stroke of midnight. I am not amused.

When you were a kid, were you squirreling away mental notes about what you would and would not do when you became a mom based on what your own mother did? I sure did. I had a running list of no-nos forged from all the things my mama did to pluck my nerves and swore up and down I wasn’t going to put my own daughter through such agony.

I, for example, was going to let my little girl wear whatever she wanted because my mom stifled my fashion creativity. In the 80s no less, when you could basically put anything on and still be hip. I mean, wearing jellies with socks seemed like a fun, easy way to transition my favorite summer sandal into the cold, winter months. I vividly remember fighting for that look and silently vowing to be the coolest, most style-conscious mom ever when she shut me down.