Classroom

Chinese President Hu Jintao is coming to Washington amid much gnashing of teeth over whether Chinese power is growing as U.S. might wanes. The Chinese military clearly feels empowered. Beijing has gotten more aggressive with Japan and Southeast Asian nations over claims to disputed territory. China has also failed to rein in its ally, nuclear-armed North Korea, whose bizarre behavior threatens the region. Moreover, just before Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates arrived in Beijing last week in hopes of improving ties with Chinese military officials, China test-flew a stealth fighter jet, clearly proclaiming its new muscle.

Constance McAlister recently saw a girl struggle to walk down the hallway at John Bartram High School under the weight of a dozen books borrowed from her teacher's classroom library. The student told the Bartram principal that she borrowed so many because they were there and her teacher let her. "How wonderful would it be if this is contagious?" McAlister said. "We're hoping that all our students build an intimacy with books, with reading. " But with libraries in fewer than half of the city's public schools, that's a goal that's been hard to reach.

The Walt Whitman Arts Center in downtown Camden, home to theatrical and cultural events since the 1970s, will live to stage another show. Over the summer, Rutgers University, the owner of the neoclassical structure, announced plans to convert the performance space into classrooms. The nonprofit arts center then sued, saying it would no longer be able to hold performances and the construction violated its lease. A settlement reached this month will turn the building into a hybrid classroom-theater.

Even the butterflies sensed something was up. Maybe it was the fidgetier-than-usual little bodies in the classroom seats around them. Maybe it was the hint of chill in the air, calling forth the urgings of ancestors past. Flitting about their mesh enclosures in orange-and-black-winged flight, the monarchs were on the move. Ready to go. Even a dish of Juicy Juice, their favorite, the green kind, wasn't getting many takers. "I'm soooo excited, I can't stop smiling," said Algerita Phillips, a fifth grader at the Thomas E. Bowe School in Glassboro.

ONE OF the first lessons Tony Danza taught his students at Northeast High School last fall was to keep their hands clean. There he is, in the pilot of his new "reality" show, pointing 10th-grade English students toward the hand-sanitizer dispensers he's stationed just inside his classroom door. When "Teach: Tony Danza" premieres Oct. 1 on A&E, Philadelphians and viewers across the country will finally get a chance to assess the results of an experiment in which the former sitcom star spent a year living in Northern Liberties and teaching "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Julius Caesar" - as well as a bit of hygiene - to two sections of students at Northeast.

Stevens E. Brooks, 68, of Chestnut Hill, executive director of the Philadelphia Center from 1973 to 2007, died of complications from pulmonary embolisms at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center on Thursday, June 3. Founded in 1967 by the Great Lakes Colleges Association, the center offers college students a semester of what its website calls "experiential education. " "Students earn a full semester of academic credit from Hope College" in Holland, Mich., the website states, "for participating in the program's three central components: 32 hours per week of work at an internship, two courses, and independent city living.

The statistics in the classroom and on the baseball field are off the charts for Washington Township shortstop Nick Favatella. Yet one rival coach wanted to talk about something else: Favatella's character. "When he hits a home run, he doesn't try to show up the other team," Lenape coach Phil Fiore said. "He is a very classy kid and ballplayer, and his style and class are what I like the most. " That's saying something, because Favatella has done a lot in his four years at Washington Township.

There are plenty of reasons why eating feces is bad for you, and a judge has ordered the South Jersey teen who defecated in a classmate's soda to detail them all in an essay. Prosecutors dropped an aggravated-assault charge against the 17-year-old Haddon Township High School student after he pleaded guilty in Camden County Superior Court yesterday to tampering with a food product. As a result, he'll be on probation, and must serve 200 hours of community service and apologize to the victim by letter.

Children are the future and that includes the South Jersey student who allegedly defecated in a classmate's soda and those who laughed as the classmate unwittingly drank it. It happened March 29 inside a classroom at Haddon Township High School, authorities said. "Apparently once the victim drank from the cup, students in the classroom erupted in laughter," said Jason Laughlin, a spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office. When a teacher found out the next day, Laughlin said, the accused 17-year-old was charged with aggravated assault and tampering with a food product.

Kathleen Sligh's colleagues at Roxborough High call her "an education angel. " At George Washington High, Yvonne Schwiker is a "treasure and an inspiration," her principal said. Kareem Demetrius Edwards "helped me to realize that my potential as a student is more powerful than anything," one of his pupils at Parkway West High said. They are emblematic of excellent teachers citywide - men and women who spend nights and weekends on schoolwork, who dip into their own pockets for supplies, who take a personal interest in their students' lives.