Help for students with ADD: Wireless microphones

Elementary school children are now wearing infrared microphones around their necks. These microphones are designed to raise the volume and clarity of teachers' and students' voices above the distracting buzz of competing noises -- the hum of fluorescent lights, the rattle of air conditioning, the whispers of children and the reverberations of those sounds bouncing off concrete walls and uncarpeted floors. The story is reported by the Washington Post.

"They love it," said Martha Walsh, a second-grade teacher at Maury. "It is kind of like they are movie or rock stars." One of her students, 8-year-old Thora Gibbs, reacted to that idea as insufficiently serious. "It's not like being a rock star," she said. "But it does help project my voice."

Boy these kids have it easy. Back in my days, I had to walk three miles barefoot in snow going uphill both ways!