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Christmas cheer
Question: What do Santa’s little helpers learn at school?
Answer: The elfabet!
Question: What does Jack Frost like best about school?
Answer: Snow and tell.
Question: What do elves do after school?
Answer: Gnome work.
Put to the test
—Our Schools Our Selves
Students in Rhode Island invited 50 adults to take a test based on questions from an exam that students are required to take to graduate. The test-takers were state legislators, scientists, engineers, reporters, professors and others. Sixty per cent of the adults had scores low enough to put them in jeopardy of failing to graduate from secondary school—this effectively made the students’ point.
Private schools ban I Am Malala
—www.indiatimes.com
The All Pakistan Private Schools Federation (APPSF) has banned I Am Malala. Malala Yousafzai, the author of the book, was shot by the Taliban in 2012 for defending girls’ right to education. The APPSF unanimously banned the book after finding “the contents regarding Holy Prophet highly controversial and written at the behest of Western forces.” Mirza Kashif Ali, APPSF president, said Malala’s book was banned because academics know that 16-year-old Malala is a puppet of the West. “We run private schools in which more than 50 per cent enrolment is girls and an equal percentage of teachers is also female and we are striving for women empowerment and we stand by the movements and drive to give the denied rights to women. That doesn’t mean that we will allow our children to toe Malala’s line with severe attacks on our basic beliefs.”
