Gail Spitzschuh, a 7th-grade teacher at Holy Family School in the Bronx section of New York City, has been named teacher of the year by Today’s Catholic Teacher magazine. The award, presented at the recent annual meeting of the National Catholic Educational Association, honors Ms. Spitzschuh as an “exceptional teacher, counselor, and friend.”
William N. Kirby has been appointed commissioner of education by the Texas State Board of Education. Mr. Kirby, who has served as interim commissioner since the resignation of Raymon Bynum last fall, is a 20-year veteran of the Texas Education Agency.
Mr. Kirby was selected from a field of 100 applicants sought through a nationwide search by the board’s committee on long-range planning. Before being named interim commissioner, Mr. Kirby served for three years as deputy commis-sioner for finance and program administration.
A Utah high-school junior, after reportedly being instructed by her biology teacher to disregard a textbook’s chapter on sex education to avoid trouble from local citizens who objected to sex-education classes, decided to survey some of her peers to determine how they had learned about sex.
Lori Bona found that 70 percent of those surveyed learned about sex from their friends, 21 percent had sex education at home, 6 percent received information from magazines and books, and 3 percent turned to their church leaders. Her findings were published in the Orem High School newspaper.
Donald Strassberg, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Utah and a certified sex therapist, told reporters that Ms. Bona’s findings “are consistent with scientific research data.”
“Most teens get sex information from their friends, who get it from other friends,” he said. “Unfortunately, much of the information is incorrect.”
