Google had a contest called “What if..” encouraging kids to submit a Google logo doodle, as you sometimes see on holidays or special occasions. The results are AMAZING. You have a chance to vote on your favorite design in four different age groups. The winner will have their doodle displayed on the Google homepage May 22. Click on the link from the Google.com homepage or go to http://www.google.com/doodle4google/

I was inspired and fascinated at the quality of the art and the imagination of the designs. It was gut wrenching choosing my favorite of the 12 finalists. Congratulations and best of luck!

Brilliance! Lunch has not been the same at Readington Middle School in Readington, NJ since last week when 29 middle school students paid for the $2.00 lunch with a pocket full of pennies, 200 to be exact. The students were protesting the short amount of time they had for their lunch break. When requests to administrators to extend the lunch hour were ignored they took the matter into their own hands. The extra time required to count the change by cafeteria staff clogged the lunch line, forcing many students to miss eating lunch.

Readington officials threatened to send the students that paid with pennies to detention. A firestorm of media coverage exacerbated the situation forcing the school district to back pedal and allow the parents decide punishment of the students.

Why a punishment? The school felt that it was a prank and disrupted the school schedule and therefore the students must be punished! Give me a break – I think the students had a fantastic idea – it was not illegal, it was not destructive. A penny is still a legal form of tender. We forget that the main purpose of our educational system is to teach children not just so they have knowledge but also to be critical thinkers, problem solvers, and members of society.

Obviously, the problem with a short lunch, 30 minutes, was considerable enough that it caused the students to organize. Teach them the right way, make them analyze their actions and their results, teach them to recognize the cause and effect of their actions and applaud them for their creativity. Guide the students and mentor them – let them be a part of the solution. Kudos to the kids that had the ideas and the parents that stood behind them.