Contract disputes are not unusual in workplaces. Affected employees may grumble more than usual, and they might perform their jobs half-heartedly, but this dissension rarely is seen outside of the company. But when the workplace is a school, employees' unhappiness can be seen -- and sometimes felt -- by many beyond the feuding parties. Teachers in Lawrence Township and Carmel Clay Schools have rec

V ideo games have evolved since they first became popular in the late 1970s. Early games such as Pac Man involved simple tasks, like gobbling up dots while following a trail. Today's games are more interactive, more complicated and more realistic. For example, in a scenario from Grand Theft Auto, the player drives a car while shooting at a target. Countless studies have been done on both the drawb

Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. (Proverbs 22:15) In 1985, at age 15, Paula Cooper fatally stabbed 78-year-old Ruth Pelke in Gary. In 1986, she was sentenced to death, but three years later, her sentence was reduced to 60 years in prison. She is eligible for parole in 2015. Recently, Cooper reflected on her experiences in prison,

A ccording to a 2003 Brookings Institution study, homework loads for American students in kindergarten through 12th grade have not varied much in the past 50 years, with one exception: After the Soviets launched the Sputnik satellite in 1957, homework doubled. The study also noted that American children have one of the lowest homework loads in the world; most do less than an hour a day. Yet one of

"I think being a refugee means coming from another country. You lost your home, you don't have it anymore," said Ajmal Ayubzai, 15, an Afghan refugee. This is the turn Ajmal's life has taken, and it fits the United Nations' criteria for determining refugee status. Since 1951, the U.N. has defined a refugee as: "A person seeking to leave a country based on a well-founded fear of being persecuted fo

If you polled kids, most would say they learn best when it's quiet. What happens, then, if it isn't? To find out, Y-Press talked with a former school superintendent, a fourth-grade teacher and four students in his class. Washington Township teacher Kevin Gardner had 30 students in his fourth-grade class by the end of the 2000-01 school year. "I consider (my class) to be very large. When things go

No one doubts that high school football players work hard: They practice most of the summer despite the heat, preparing for a season culminating (they hope) in regional and state contests. Not everyone realizes, however, that marching bands work just as hard and are just as competitive as football teams. Casey Turner, 17, St. Peters, Mo., described a typical marching band contest: "It's just teena

"I had stolen CDs from this certain store over and over again, both under the influence and clean, and I'd never been caught. . . . "And I walked in with a bag of marijuana in my pocket to go steal a couple of CDs. I guess they were targeting us from the moment we walked in the door, me and a friend of mine. And as we were walking out, they pulled us to the side . . . and of course they searched o

In late October, six Y-Press journalists and three adult chaperones visited Benin to examine the life of youth in the relatively new democracy and the challenges they face. In addition to today's story, their reporting was featured in The Star on Dec. 30. Those stories can be read at www.indystar.com/Ypress. The reporting team: Zoe Hayes, 18, Lebanon; Chris Reissaus, 17, Carmel; and Jonathan Gaine

Only half of all Beninese kids attend school, according to the Beninese government. The government is working to change that by making elementary education free for all citizens, beginning this year. The change will involve an estimated 1 million children (based on population estimates) and will be a step toward increasing the country's literacy rate, which now hovers near 41 percent, among the world's worst, according to the Benin Education Fund.

Though unfamiliar to Americans and home to a painful past, the West African nation of Benin quickly is becoming the center of hope in the region.