The intent is admirable -- to crack down on cyber bullying that has become rampant among children. However, the means one principal is taking is more than extreme as she's threatening to expel any child under the age of 13 who has a Facebook account.

According to a story in The Sydney Morning Herald, Leonie Hultgren, the principal of Harlaxton State School in Toowoomba, Queensland, isn't just talking about children who use Facebook during school hours, or those who have been accused of using it maliciously, but rather ANY student that has an account that's not 13. She says those are the rules of the site, and for good reason. She believes children younger than that aren't mature enough to handle the responsibility of it, and she for one isn't going to tolerate it.

Never mind what those people called parents at home think. She's reaching beyond the school doors and into people's homes to dictate what they can and can't do. What a slippery slope that is.

Parenting may not come with a manual, I get that. But it could at least come with some sort of checklist or task manager or something. Every morning is anew with things that you need to impart, a piece of wisdom you feel like you should probably drop, a do or don’t that—if not shared—may derail some socially unacceptable faux pas when they’re at their first college party or on a date with someone they, and possibly you, really like.

It’s impossible to remember to tell them everything, try as you might. Heck, sometimes it’s hard just to be sure they leave the house with their teeth brushed and their lunch in hand. But there are some key things that are a little harder to make sure the kids know before they leave the arch of safety and spoonfed lesson-learning that is your home. Mainly because they’re just tough to learn as an adult, much less a child. 

If the current student loan interest rate is allowed to expire, interest rates on student loans will double to more than 6 percent. I feel the same way about this issue that I do about the payroll tax. Something needs to be done but maybe not with the 2012 election right around the corner!

Both sides need to be aware of how pinched the middle class feels right now and wary because middle class moderates could define these elections.

Back in the days before children, my husband and I squabbled occasionally on whether or not we should help our kids pay for college. I thought it tremendously important that we do so, him not so much. It’s one of those bridges we agreed to cross when we came to it.

Then we had a kid, looked at our schooling options, and decided to enroll her in private school, despite the economic toll it takes on our family. It’s a sacrifice we’re willing to make for our children, and they’re getting a better education than they would at the local public school.

The cost of higher education in this country is more than alarming. As someone who graduated with more than $70,000.00 in student loans for my out-of-state tuition, I sometimes want to slap myself silly for borrowing so much money.

When I was in college in the 90s, I borrowed tens of thousands of dollars each year despite having no credit history. Getting my loan money each semester was easier than opening a credit card with Macy’s.  I couldn't buy a pair of shoes on credit but I was able to borrow an almost unlimited amount of money with no idea or plan in place as to how I would pay it back four years later.  

My sons and me at my alma materHelp me understand why educating our youth is a political issue. Sure, education per se does not fit within a the literal realm of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” but I think it warrants an assumed position therein. When we live and work and grow in an educated society, we all stand to gain. Are we not all lifted up by an educated populace? You don’t need me to point to research and studies that support this notion.

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.  

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.