Stuart Chaifetz said he knew something was wrong when his 10-year-old son Akian started acting out school. Akian has autism, but had always been "sweet and non-violent." So when things took a turn, his dad said he wanted to find out why.

When meetings with school officials at his Cherry Hill, N.J., school and therapists failed, he took action into his own hands. He wired Aikan and sent him to school. The six hours of audio he recorded confirmed his worst fears.  

This is one of those stories that makes me want to lock up my children and never let them leave the house again, or move to a deserted island where no one could ever harm them. Something, somewhere where things like the tragic senseless death of 10-year-old Joanna Ramos aren't possible.

It happened in Long Beach, California, one day after classes at Willard Elementary School in February. According to the Los Angeles Times, Ramos and an 11-year-old schoolmate were reportedly arguing over what many fourth grade girls argue over -- a boy. They planned to meet after school and fight it out in an alley near the school, and that's when the plan went horribly wrong.

For the most part, I think I'm pretty open-minded, and try to see past stereotypes to individuals rather than groups or labels. However, there's one group I know I've been highly judgmental of without really thinking too much about it -- homeschoolers.

For years, the mere thought of anyone choosing to homeschool their child left me appalled (at the thought of doing so myself) and pretty well resigned to the fact that they were crazy eccentrics of some type. But as they say, with age comes wisdom, and as I've aged, given birth to children, and seen and heard the horror stories that happen in our nation's public school systems, I've definitely changed my thinking about the practice. Also, lately I've met a diverse and dynamic assortment of women who homeschool their children, and to my surprise, they're totally cool.

No, my son didn't hijack my computer and write that headline, it's true, according to researchers. A new study says that, with the exception of the last couple of years of high school, homework provides few, if any, benefits to students; it may even impede their learning.

So all of that time I spend trying to coerce my second grader to sit down and complete his assignments, and all the breath I expend trying to explain why homework is so important to his future is all a big waste? Yes, say Australian researchers who included 10,000 children in their study. They concluded that children could be better served spending that homework time doing something else more beneficial. They even went so far as to say that only students in senior high should do homework.

At the risk of sounding like one of those "I walked to school in the snow with no shoes" sermons we've all heard from our grandparents at one time or another, I'm completely aghast at a story out of Oklahoma in which parents are outraged because their precious babies are being made to attend class with no air conditioning. In MARCH.

According to KOCO, some parents in Oklahoma City are complaining that the school district won't turn on the A/C until April 15. Yes, temperatures have been unseasonably high this year, but not that high. It's been in the high 70s there, but you'd think the kids were being baked based on the reactions of some parents.

The other day I was with one of my son's second grade friends. I told him his shoe was untied, and bent down to tie it for him. He looked up at me strangely, said, "I can tie my own shoe," and bent down and did so. 

I was impressed, though I know an 8-year-old doing so should probably be a given. So I vowed once again that I'd finally get around to teaching my 8-year-old how to tie his own shoe. Only I still haven't, and apparently I'm not the only slacker parent when it comes to shoelaces. 

Among other skills our kids are lacking today, a survey from a British energy company recently found that 45 percent of kids ages 5-13 can't tie their shoes. While that might be alarming to some -- and certainly was to the survey authors who used this and other findings to bemoan that "youths have lost their sense of adventure and lack skills, which older generations take for granted" -- I found it reassuring. 

Lincoln Crossing Elementary School in Sacramento, California must be the end all be all as far as grade schools go, because parents actually pitched tents and camped out at the school to secure a kindergarten spot for their kids. Yes, I'm serious.

Registration for next year's class began yesterday, March 13, but some parents weren't taking any chances in grabbing one of the remaining 50 or so highly coveted openings, so some campers showed up as early as Saturday. And while some insist that Lincoln Crossing is simply a great school, others listed its location as the reason why they felt it to be camp-worthy. Not that I can say that I blame them. Having the school close by is pretty convenient, especially when it comes to younger children. If I had my heart set on a certain school for my son, I probably would've camped out too. (Ok, you're right. I would've probably made my husband do it.)

I believe in a pretty firm approach when it comes to disciplining my children. In general, I don't want the educators and other adults in their lives to treat them with kid gloves either. I want them to call them out when they're wrong and punish them accordingly. However, I also want them to treat them with respect, which is the part a teacher in Florida missed in her recent dealings with a student.

It was the week of the FCAT, Florida's standardized testing, and eighth grader Thomas Cancellare missed school. He said he was violently ill with some sort of stomach issues and needed to stay home. When he went back to school the next week, he even had a doctor's note to back up his story.

His teacher, however, wasn't buying it.