European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 20, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Voices waking up to link Between naps and men by Sharon Randall Monterey county Herald Here Are some questions that Are Bette left unasked and this May Well be one of them. Butte wondered about it for year without coming up with an answer., maybe you Tail help me. Why do you suppose men fall asleep in Public an women Don to generally speaking of course. Think about it. Can you remember the last time you saw somebody nodding Oft in Public a in a Church service or a school Board meeting or maybe in the Driver s scat of a moving car try to picture the Nodden sitting up straight or listing a Little poised like a tree ready to fall. Jaws Slack eyes glazed lids drooping Mouth gaping maybe drooling a bit not pretty really but endear ing somehow Don t you think of now look closely. Try to ignore the drool. Can you identity the sex of the snoozer be honest. It s a Man in t it hah i knew it Well sure it could be a woman but i Don t think so. I can t prove it. It s not like Ive done some scientific Survey or something. I Haven Teven applied for a Grant. Yet. But based on objective observations made during More years than i care to admit i d say that if you pick a random sampling of 100 people and kick themis a room together until one of them Falls asleep there is a 99.9 percent Chance that said person willbe a Man. V  and if All 100 people in that room should happen Harvey conserved to try at inappropriate moments. To fall asleep i d say there is a 99.9 percent Chanc that you picked yourself a random sampling of men. This purely an observation not to be misconstrue Das a criticism. Drowsiness is not a character flaw. It s More Tike a disease really one of those Peculiar conditions that afflicts men More than women and through no fault of their own leaves them looking foolish. Most men Don t like to look foolish particularly in Public which is probably Why they seem so embarrassed when they get caught in the act. In most cases if you Elbow a Man to Wake him up he will quickly wipe the drool from his Chin and swear he was t sleeping he was us just us resting his  him sleeping in Church hell pretend he was praying. And if you give him a minute hell be Pray ing again. ,. My Grandfather was Baptist preacher who consid ered it a personal affront if not a mortal  to doze during one of Bis sermons. But he saw no harm at All in taking a Quick Nap at Home which he often did right in the Middle of one of my grandmother s sentences. She tried to discourage him from the habit when Ever it occurred by carefully inserting Small foreign objects such As brooms trans matchsticks dead flies or whatever into his gaping Mouth. He would awake sputtering and she would continue her sentence As if nothing had happened. And whenever dared to ask for an explanation. Either he was too proud to admit he d been caught napping or he figured he had it coming. He had been warned not Tomany her by some Well meaning souls who said she was too mischievous for a preacher s wife. But head married her anyhow and never once regretted it he said because he had a weakness for mischief Vou women. There have been times i admit lots of them actually when the temptation to try out my grand Mother s treatment of some Semi comatose male companion has been All but overwhelming. Most tempting perhaps was my College history professor who was prone so to speak to nod off mid sentence during his own lectures. Occasionally he snored. But he would Rouse himself instantly if anyone inthe class made the slightest move so i never got to try the treatment on him personally. I polled my family. My daughter who is 16, said girls Don t Wanna miss out on stuff or look Gross in Public but Guys Don t  my son who is 13, suggested men s work is harder than women s work so men get More  but he withdrew that theory when offered the Hance to try women s work firsthand. And my husband would have had an opinion but he was asleep in his chair. I Don t know Why men nod off in my  i know i should t take it personally. But in the Back of my mind i still ask is it the company they keep. " Scripps Howard new service fails for pupils and parents. " by Joe Pisani Greenwich Conn time the worst thing parents can do when incomes to dealing with kids is break , that s what has happen Din California where an outspoken school Board member has come up with a plan to abolish Homework which leads Many of us to won Der is he getting paid off in baby sitting dollars for this stunt now every kid i know including four in my own family is clamouring to be represented on the local school Board so they can draft initiatives that would end Homework once and for All across this great Landof ours where nobody wants to work anymore any Way in offices and in classrooms. Banning Homework is a Radical idea that has been gaining momentum and it has taken on the intensity of other historic social movements such As taxation without representation is tyranny and sharing House work. Once the fire starts raging there s no putting it put. The juror began when Garrett Redmond a trus tee with the Cabrillo unified school District introduced a proposal in half Moon Bay calif., to Abol ish Homework because a it puts an unbearable Strain on family life b it is unjust c it wastes too much time d it destroys Home life e it favors Stu Harris Usa you Art incorrect the Correct answer it 14. You Art a to Tupi  dents whose parents Are smart enough to do it for their kids f there s a fundamental inequity Between poor students and Well to do students who can tap into the internet and cd rooms and g it s a Finan Cial Burden on the taxpayer because textbooks get worn out by being carried Back and Forth to school. Did i forget anything Redmond who belongs to a five member school Board that oversees the education system for 3,500 students in a District stretching 15 Miles along the coast South of san Francisco was t joking. Is nothing sacred in America Homework once was a hallowed tradition in our country ranking right up there with detention fraternity hazing and income tax. It was a Milestone in the development of Western civilization one of the few remaining tactics the adult world has to inflict pain on youngsters. Homework teaches kids skills that they la need to succeed in the real workaday world such As evading responsibility cutting Corners and plagiarism. Redmond said his daughter who was valedictorian of her eighth Grade class last year usually spends five hours a night on Homework and those Are hours he d rather she spent with him even if it Means watching to together. After All watching Melrose place or married.,. With children will give kids an education they la never get in social studies. Helping our children study for spelling tests and do arithmetic problems is about the Only interaction some of us have however volatile. Don t you love providing adult supervision on so Cial studies and science projects i can still remember when my dad helped me build a wind Tunnel for the eighth Grade science fair and in a fervent father son cooperative Effort we almost burned the House Down. " when it comes to parents and Homework there Are two extremes parents who Don t know or care what their kids do and parents who actually do the assignments. This is manifested in several ways such As when a second grader s composition on her summer vacation comes Back written in com Pound Complex sentences or when a ninth grader s algebra assignment comes Back entirely wrong. On the other hand maybe the California proposition deserves serious study. Banning Homework might help overworked and underpaid parents who Are tired of doing their kids assignments after a Day of dealing with a snarling Boss or an unruly spouse. It might even give them additional free time time that could be profitably spent. Watching Nyp Blue. Los Angeles times Washington Post news service Page 20 sunday november 20,1994