American Morning
A Soldier's Story: Recruit is 'changing before our eyes'
Editor's Note: We're tracking three recruits from their final days as civilians through to deployment. It's an unprecedented look inside the life of a soldier. CNN's Jason Carroll reports for American Morning's special series, "A Soldier's Story." Watch part one and two, and tune in to American Morning on Wednesday for part three.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://am.blogs.cnn.com/files/2009/12/soldiers-mclain-mask-art.jpg caption="Army recruit Will McLain wears a gas mask for a drill on the dangers of a potential sarin gas attack."]
By Adam Reiss, CNN
Correspondent Jason Carroll and I returned to Fort Leonard Wood Monday to check back in on the recruit we are profiling for our ongoing series, "A Soldier’s Story." You may remember meeting Will McLain when we first met him in his hometown of Rosamond, California.
We spent the first couple days of basic combat training with him and now he is with his platoon in his third week of basic training. Will is changing before our eyes both physically and mentally. He has lost ten pounds and is really on his way to becoming a U.S. Army soldier.
He has been assigned a battle buddy, Demetrius Daniels, 23, from Detroit, Michigan. A battle buddy is an interesting concept. The Battle Buddy system is the policy of pairing Initial Entry Training (IET) Soldiers into teams for the following reasons:
– Mutual support and assistance
– Teaching teamwork
– Developing a sense of responsibility and accountability for fellow soldiers
– Improving safety during training
– Reducing the likelihood and opportunity for sexual harassment, misconduct, and suicide gestures or attempts.
Essentially you do not go anywhere without your battle buddy, and Will and Demetrius seem to get along just fine.
On Monday, all the soldiers went through a drill in the NBC chamber. It is where they drill the soldiers on the dangers of a potential sarin gas attack. For the purposes of the test, they use small plastic pellets that they cook on a grill in the chamber. The result is stinging throat and eyes.
Soldiers go in fifteen at a time and go through several exercises before they are ordered to remove their masks. Most of the soldiers begin jumping up and down and try to do anything to ease the pain. One soldier couldn’t make it and ran from the chamber. Will was successful and passed the test.
Please tune in next Wednesday for part three of A Soldier’s Story with Will McLain.
Al Gore's take on leaked climate change e-mails
A groundbreaking climate change summit is underway in Copenhagen, Denmark. President Obama will be there next week. In preparation, he spoke with former Vice President Al Gore who has been sounding the alarm about global warming for years.
The former vice president and Nobel Peace Prize winner is the author of a new book called, "Our Choice: A plan to solve the climate crisis." He joined us for an exclusive interview on American Morning Wednesday.
Virginia school separates students by gender
Editor's Note: In part three of American Morning's special series, "Inside the Child's Mind," Kiran Chetry reports on how gender affects children when it comes to learning.
By Kiran Chetry, CNN
We know boys and girls develop at different stages as they grow, but there is growing research showing how boys and girls are wired differently when it comes to learning.
I visited one school where teachers are putting that to the test with single gender classrooms. It has its critics, but the school says test scores have shown improvement.
Faced with a gender gap in test scores, Woodbridge Middle School in Virginia formed single gender classrooms – testing the growing school of thought that boys and girls are hard wired to learn differently.
Dr. Leonard Sax, author of "Why Gender Matters," says the solution is to split them up.
“The best way for the boys is not the best way for the girls. The best way for the girls is not the best way for the boys,” says Sax. “The brain research is showing us quite clearly that the brains of girls and boys develop along different trajectories.”
Sax says math skills develop earlier in boys and language skills faster in girls.
“The surprising finding is that the coed classroom ends up disadvantaging both girls and boys, ends up reinforcing gender stereotypes. The girls end up thinking that abstract number theory is for boys, the boys end up thinking creative writing is for girls.”
TSA security secrets posted online
The TSA is trying to explain today how its screening manual – something no one outside the agency is supposed to see – was posted online, for all to see.
Some security experts are calling it the biggest security breach the TSA has been involved in since 9/11. Our homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve is looking for answers.
Read more: TSA reviews Web release of manual
Al Gore answers your climate change questions
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/12/08/gore.gi.art.jpg caption="Former Vice President Al Gore answers your climate change questions on American Morning Wednesday."]
By John Roberts, CNN
The intersection of the Copenhagen Climate Summit and the e-mail controversy colloquially known as “Climate-Gate” has cast new suspicion on what many people had taken to be decided science.
How much of an impact it will be remains to be seen. Professor Peter Liss, who has taken over as interim director of the prestigious Climatic Research Unit, says it is bound to have some impact, particularly among nations who are looking for reasons to resist the call for new curbs on greenhouse gases.
Supporters of anthropogenic global warming will no doubt get a boost from Nobel Laureate Al Gore, who will be attending the conference. Gore’s visit coincides with the release of his new book, “Our Choice,” in which he lays out in simple, but lengthy detail the green technologies he believes can reshape America and the world.
While Gore has legions of supporters, he also has his fair share of critics, who charge that the book is “emotionally charged propaganda” and that Gore – the venture capitalist – stands to profit handsomely from the very technology and policy he promotes.
The former vice president joins us tomorrow in the 7am hour of American Morning, and we’d like to throw open the discussion to you. What would you like to ask him about global warming, the environment and green technology?
Post your question below, call our show hotline at 1-877-MY-AM-FIX, or send us an iReport.
We’d really appreciate you being part of the discussion.
Autism: A journey of recovery
Editor's Note: New cutting-edge research is helping to unlock the mysteries of the child's brain and could give autistic children a whole different future. Watch part three of our special series, Inside the Child's Mind, tomorrow on American Morning.
By Kiran Chetry, CNN
As a baby, Jake Exkorn was everything his parents hoped for – happy and healthy.
“He hit all of the developmental milestones. He walked, he talked, he played,” says Jake’s mother Karen Exkorn.
But at 17 months, Karen says the light began to fade from Jake's face.
“At first he stopped responding to his name. And then he stopped playing. And then by his second birthday, he stopped speaking entirely.”
Karen worried it may be a hearing problem, or a speech delay.
“I never expected to hear the words, your child has autism. … It was completely devastating. It meant that there was no hope for my son. And yet I was determined to help my son in any way that I could. I knew that I wanted treatment for Jake that had science behind it. And a lot of treatments don't. But the one that had the most science behind it was a treatment called ABA.”
ABA – applied behavior analysis – is an intensive approach that uses repetition and rewards to teach autistic children the things that come naturally to most kids.
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