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Tired of unruly kids in schools, Temple, Texas has brought back a discipline method banned by most school districts long ago: it’s bringing back the paddle.
But even by Texas standards, Temple is unusual. The city, a compact railroad hub of 60,000 people, banned the practice and then revived it at the demand of parents who longed for the orderly schools of yesteryear. Without paddling, "there were no consequences for kids," said Steve Wright, who runs a construction business and is Temple’s school board president.
Since paddling was brought back to the city’s 14 schools by a unanimous board vote in May, behavior at Temple’s single high school has changed dramatically, Wright said, even though only one student in the school system has been paddled.
"The discipline problem is much better than it’s been in years," Wright said, something he attributed to the new punishment and to other discipline programs schools are trying. Residents of the city’s comfortable homes, most of which sport neighborly, worn chairs out front, praise the change.
Michael Bimbaum of The Washington Post has the story: Link (Photo: Tom Fox/Dallas Morning News)
Previously on Neatorama: Spanking Children Makes Them More Aggressive
Archaeologists have recently found a temple underneath the city of Alexandria, Egypt dedicated to the cat goddess Bastet. It contains around 600 statues of cats!
Egyptian archaeologists who found the temple say it was built by Queen Berenike II, wife of Greek King Ptolemy III, who ruled Egypt from 246 to 221 B.C.
Cats were important house pets in ancient Egypt and were often depicted in private tombs. In some cases, cats were mummified in the same way as humans and buried at temples.
The statue pictured is made of limestone. Link
(image credit: Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities)
If you think a pop-up book is impressive, check this one out: a pop-up diorama of the Kinkaku-ji Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan, made entirely out of LEGO blocks! YouTube user talapz created this out of 4,500 bricks.
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – via The Brothers Brick
In the Follydock IFCR festival in 2007, artists, designers, and architects came together in an abandoned part of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to design "follies" or strange and playful structures that defy traditional architectural wisdom (not to mention common sense).
This one above, the Temple of Trash, was made by the SALZIG Design Team. It’s composed of 100 tonnes of plastic bottles compressed into bales of garbage.
Link | More at Follydock’s website – via Recyclart and MAKE
