When Josiah Kaufman was a freshman at Carmel High School, he would bring his lunch every day. When the period was over, he would help his friends return their lunch trays out of "courtesy," he said. Soon, he began helping other students clean up. "It became this thing where I went all around the cafeteria and started picking up everyone's trays when they were done. It was so funny. People were like, 'Why in the world are you doing this?'" Josiah was just being nice. It also was his way of adapting to new people and a new school system. It was Josiah's first year in a public school.   11/20/08  Click to See More

After reporting from the Democratic Convention in Denver, we realized teens there can be more independent than us. We used the bus system in the center of the city. There are more than 100 bus routes, compared to 28 in Indianapolis. To us, it seems like it should be the other way around, considering that the urban population of Indianapolis is 200,000 more than Denver’s.   11/05/08  Click to See More

Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard said that the city, United Way of Central Indiana and a local foundation will launch a major educational reform program early in 2009. The program, which will be piloted in two schools at first, will track students in grades 1-8 to discover what extra help each one personally needs. “There’s literally dozens upon dozens of programs in the schools right now,” said Ballard, pointing to nonprofit agencies like the Boys and Girls Clubs.   11/02/08  Click to See More

“The great truth about America is if you get an education, anybody can be anybody.” This belief, voiced by U.S. Rep. Mike Pence, is the foundation of my family’s view of education. From as early as I can remember, my mother instilled in me the importance of education and the opportunities it could bring.   10/29/08  Click to See More