Saturday Morning News

Most Saturday mornings, I get up around 7AM and go to the local Familymart (like a 7-11), pick up a copy of the International Herald Tribune, and go for breakfast at the Nashville (scrambled eggs, bacon, and a couple of pancakes). Then I sit for a hour, have breakfast, and read the paper. Most mornings, the news is not really that thought provoking - another tirade against or for the war in Iraq, an explanation of how to do business in China, yada yada yada. This morning's paper though had several interesting opinion pieces:

Meanwhile: The wonders of same-sex education
For a long time, people (mostly women) have been trumpeting the advantages of same-sex schools for girls - with a lot of good reasons. This article suggests that it would be good for boys, too. I taught high school for 7 years in Canada, and I have often thought that same-sex schools and uniforms would go a long way to avoiding a lot of the behaviour problems that plague public schools in Canada. The students' focus is often on how members of the opposite sex perceive them. They spend an inordinate amount of time on primping and preening. The focus for many kids is not on getting an education. There are problems associated with single-sex education, such as an inability to socialize with members of the opposite sex, but I don't think that this is a real concern. Most children interact with a wide range of kids outside of school. I definitely think that this issue needs some serious consideration.

Dealing with North Korea
Because of the fact that the six-party talks are back on, and in light of a recent U.N. report on the dire state of human rights in North Korea, this article is interesting. I would like to see some progress on dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons programs and on the North's human rights abuses. However, the current U.S. administration always seems to lump everything together and then coat it with a layer of regime change. It hasn't worked. Working on both at the same time, but not tying progress in one area with progress in the other seems reasonable.

In a farewell, Seoul's original rock star is rediscovered
I'm not a real rock fan, but this was interesting, especially the part about the singer's run-in with former President Park Chung Hee.