Life Skills

Jake Jemas is a senior at Solebury School in New Hope Four years of high school and I still don't know how to scramble an egg. I have no idea how to change a tire. And applying for a student loan looks like a mind-boggling process. Graduating high school seniors have Shakespeare, algebra, and physics under their belts, but they have never been taught how to function as independent adults. Basic life skills are left out of a high school experience that is supposed to prepare you for the "real world.

Brownie pizza was the featured entree at a recent cooking club meeting in Burlington County. Four tiny chefs scrambled around the kitchen in the Medford community center, grating their white chocolate "cheese" and taking a quick break for "pin the pepperoni on the pizza. " Brownie pizza may not be the most essential recipe for a 9-year-old to master, but Rosy Gruber says the cooking is secondary for her son, Jason. "I tell people he's going to a cooking class and they think, 'Oh, he's learning to cook.

DEAR ABBY: My 18-year-old graduating senior, "Renee," has told me I have taught her nothing about living life. Furthermore, she informed me that her school counselor agrees with her, saying I have failed to teach her the skills needed to be successful in life. At first I was angry and denied everything my daughter said. Now I am beginning to doubt myself and the way I have raised her. Have I taught her the necessary skills to live her life? Does she lack what it takes to make it through the good and bad parts of life?

If it weren't for the Variety Club's after-school program, James Welsh, 20, would be sitting home alone watching television. And Tiffany Erickson, 18, might not have found her niche, working with preschoolers at Tolentine Community Center. James and Tiffany are developmentally disabled. They are two of about 50 teens and young adults, ages 15 to 21, who attend the after-school program each day in Room 311 at Bok Technical High School in South Philadelphia. The program, free to the students, provides work opportunities, arts and crafts, and academic remediation - all part of the life-skills training essential for developmentally disabled youth.

The subject is Housekeeping 101. Teacher Rita McGuane stands at the front of the class, adjusting an overhead projector slide while four adults watch. She starts with some fundamentals. "After you finish doing the dishes, wipe down the countertops," she says. "Trash should be collected every day. " This is the Chester County Department of Probation, where enforcing a criminal court sentence can sometimes seem like social work. Probation officers monitor convicted criminals once they get out of jail or are sentenced to supervision instead of jail.

Rena Rowan arrived in America as a war bride in 1945. Deserted by her husband in the 1950s, she raised four children alone in a fourth-floor walkup in the Overbrook section of Philadelphia. "We had no food. My landlady asked me to hem a skirt. She paid me, and I went around the corner to buy food. Eventually, I got a job for a New York designer, and I made clothes for him. " And, eventually, Rena Rowan became a cofounder of Jones New York, one of America's best-known fashion labels.

After a 16-year hiatus, Becky Morgan is returning to the classroom to teach what was once called home economics at Burlington City High School. Like many teachers, Morgan took time off to raise a family. When her children were old enough to take care of themselves, she began searching for a teaching position that was similar to her old job. But she wasn't expecting much. "About two years ago, I didn't think there would be a [home economics] job out there," Morgan said. "The field was dying.

The fog, caused by unseasonably warm mid-March weather, climbed ever so slowly off the ice, and was so heavy, so thick, you could barely see the young hockey players skating through their drills. Their innocent, unbridled laughter echoed off the tin roof of the Kensington rink - a rink that was on the critical list a few months ago. Ed Snider, the Flyers' founder and chairman, has taken the rink - and two others - off life support. Because of budget cuts, the city had targeted three city rinks for closure.

Three teenagers, armed with maroon linen napkins, polished silverware recently for the dinner crowd at a Warminster retirement community. They interrupted their work to talk hair. "How do they do the highlights?" asked Kirstin Snyder, 16. "They put your hair up," answered Meghan McNickle, 17. "It stings your eyes. " The students, juniors in the life skills class at William Tennent High School in Warminster, turned back to the task at hand and continued to work in comfortable silence.

Amyin Muhammad, 14, and Yusef Johnson, 10, were going at it on Broadway near Federal Street in Camden. Amid the fumes of passing buses and the smell of incense curling up from the tables of sidewalk vendors, Amyin, the ninth grader, had challenged Yusef, the fourth grader, to a joust in what has become a regular urban street sport: chess. It also is the main subject at what is known as the Camden Street Academy - four folding tables with chessboards presided over by Baba Yatahma, academy founder, street vendor and longtime denizen of the corner.

PITTSBURGH - University of Pittsburgh students were cautiously optimistic Friday after six days without a bomb threat. Scores of threats over a two-month period, many by anonymous e-mails, caused major disruptions to classes and campus life. The threats stopped April 21 after school officials withdrew a $50,000 reward offer for information about the person or people involved. On Friday, some students were already trying out gowns for the weekend's graduation ceremony, and showing family and friends around campus.

Refiners need to think long term There may be a lot of truth to the letter from Sunoco Inc. about the refinery closings, but how about some sort of long-term alternative ("Tough choices at Sunoco," Friday)? There are still oil refiners in the country, and presumably they are not all losing money. How about a downsized, modernized, and more efficient refinery operation at one of the refinery sites? There are already fears of fuel shortages and price increases because of these two closings.

Jake Jemas is a senior at Solebury School in New Hope Four years of high school and I still don't know how to scramble an egg. I have no idea how to change a tire. And applying for a student loan looks like a mind-boggling process. Graduating high school seniors have Shakespeare, algebra, and physics under their belts, but they have never been taught how to function as independent adults. Basic life skills are left out of a high school experience that is supposed to prepare you for the "real world.

CHICAGO - Since as far back as their brains will allow them to remember, Markieff and Marcus Morris have done everything - everything - together. And since they started taking their basketball seriously, back in the ninth grade, their dream also has been the same - to play in the NBA. Now, as the dream appears to be creeping closer to reality, it has become apparent to the both of them that it probably will be the first thing to tear them away from each other. The identical twins are in Chicago at the NBA Draft Combine, where over the span of 3 days they will work out and interview for prospective teams in preparation for the June 23 draft.

DEAR ABBY: My 18-year-old graduating senior, "Renee," has told me I have taught her nothing about living life. Furthermore, she informed me that her school counselor agrees with her, saying I have failed to teach her the skills needed to be successful in life. At first I was angry and denied everything my daughter said. Now I am beginning to doubt myself and the way I have raised her. Have I taught her the necessary skills to live her life? Does she lack what it takes to make it through the good and bad parts of life?

Darina Allen, doyenne of Irish cooking, is a huge advocate of her ancestors' foodways, of growing your own vegetables, making your own butter, even raising your own chickens. Her latest cookbook is a how-to for what she believes is a new generation who want to live closer to the land. She chatted with us from her Ballymaloe Cookery School in County Cork, Ireland, about her book, Forgotten Skills of Cooking: The Time-Honored Ways Are the Best.   Question: What inspired you to write a cookbook that includes skills like how to pluck a chicken?

Brownie pizza was the featured entree at a recent cooking club meeting in Burlington County. Four tiny chefs scrambled around the kitchen in the Medford community center, grating their white chocolate "cheese" and taking a quick break for "pin the pepperoni on the pizza. " Brownie pizza may not be the most essential recipe for a 9-year-old to master, but Rosy Gruber says the cooking is secondary for her son, Jason. "I tell people he's going to a cooking class and they think, 'Oh, he's learning to cook.

The fog, caused by unseasonably warm mid-March weather, climbed ever so slowly off the ice, and was so heavy, so thick, you could barely see the young hockey players skating through their drills. Their innocent, unbridled laughter echoed off the tin roof of the Kensington rink - a rink that was on the critical list a few months ago. Ed Snider, the Flyers' founder and chairman, has taken the rink - and two others - off life support. Because of budget cuts, the city had targeted three city rinks for closure.

I'M SICK of vigil after vigil. On April 27, my sister lost a son by the hands of a lowlife who, as I write, is still out on the street to kill again. My nephew, Tyrone Miller, never hurt anybody, was a churchgoing, hard worker, and someone shot him down. Why? Whoever did this took a part of my sister, too. I just hope that the soul of the person who did this burns in hell. Sgt. Liczbinski, doing his job of protecting the people of this city, was shot down by these cold-blooded criminals who should never have been on the street in the first place.

David Leary wanted to give the frying pan a shake. Antonio De Rosa, or "Mr. Toni" as he's known in the kitchen, handed it over without hesitation. "Here goes nothing," said Leary, a 19-year-old student in Elwyn's Davidson School, which helps students with mental retardation, Autism Spectrum Disorder, or other physical and mental disabilities transition into the work world. Standing in a West Chester kitchen and wearing a white paper chef hat, Leary lifted the pan, shook the oil and onions simmering inside, and grinned.