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CNN Student News

Aired March 11, 2002 - 04:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching "CNN STUDENT NEWS" seen in schools around the world because learning never stops and neither does the news.

MICHAEL MCMANUS, CO-HOST: Another week begins here on "CNN STUDENT NEWS". First up, a look at the state of America six months after September 11.

SUSAN FREIDMAN, CO-HOST: Moving on, meet some young people making a difference in the world.

MCMANUS: And later, learn how Harry Potter is working his magic in China.

FREIDMAN: And finally, we examine the hoopla over home schools.

MCMANUS: Welcome to "CNN STUDENT NEWS". I'm Michael McManus.

FREIDMAN: And I'm Susan Freidman.

Exactly six months ago today, Americans witnessed the worst act of terrorism ever committed on U.S. soil. Terrorist hijackers brought death and destruction to the Twin Towers in New York, the halls of the Pentagon and a quiet field in Pennsylvania.

MCMANUS: Much has happened since then, the U.S. has declared war on terrorism and much of the world has pulled together to help. Healing has been continuous but is far from over. About half of all Americans who responded to a CNN-USA Today Gallup Poll say they have come to some terms with what happened September 11. If the poll is any indicator, nearly half of Americans fear for another terrorist attack.

CNN's Major Garrett reports on what President Bush is doing to stop that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Six months after the terrorists murdered thousands and changed the course of world history, President Bush on Monday will applaud America's resolve, praise coalition partners, and chart the next steps in the war on terror. Senior officials tell CNN a crucial part of the six-month commemoration will be to highlight specific contributions made by nations in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Top Bush advisers say future anti-terror missions could put even more pressure on the coalition.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Obviously, Afghanistan is not the only story. The President is also determined to find pockets of al Qaeda and global terrorist networks outside of Afghanistan.

GARRETT: But the President will also describe the new national mood, one where a more vigilant citizenry reacquaints itself with old habits and hobbies, while the Office of Homeland Security catalogs daily terror threats.

TOM RIDGE, DIRECTOR OF HOMELAND SECURITY: We are in a general alert right now. We're still at war with al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden. We still remain concerned about the presence of terrorists within the United States.

GARRETT: And as he did in his State of the Union speech, the President will warn of even greater horrors than those unleashed on September 11th, terrorists using weapons of mass destruction. And to avoid such a calamity, the Bush White House says it reserves the option of nuclear retaliation.

RICE: We all want to make the use of weapons of mass destruction less likely. The way that you do that is to send a very strong signal to anyone who might try to use weapons of mass destruction against the United States that would be met with a devastating response.

GARRETT (on camera): For the first time, top Bush aides now concede the President's "axis of evil" speech unintentionally aggravated key coalition partners. Many felt they'd been kept out of the loop as the President opened a perilous new front in the war on terror and mending those fences has now become a top priority as the White House marks six months since September 11th.

Major Garrett, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Despite bad weather this weekend, Operation Anaconda continued. U.S. warplanes pounded the al Qaeda and Taliban holdouts in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan. Meanwhile, hundreds of Afghan reinforcements are on standby ready to join the fighting.

Nic Robertson has that report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hugging the ground, CH-47 Chinook helicopters head towards the mountains in the front lines in Operation Anaconda. Improving weather appears to be aiding the coalition offensive. On the ground, U.S. special forces accompany local Afghan fighters towards their front line base and overhead a medical helicopter hints that casualties higher in the mountains. A few miles away in the town of Zormat, sentiment is not with the coalition force.

"I had to leave my village in the middle of the night," Jamali (ph) says, "and I can't get back to get my belongings."

"We have a lot of problems with the bombing. My children can't sleep at night," Mohammed (ph) says.

In part, sympathies are against the coalition it appears because, according to local officials, al Qaeda and Taliban forces get local help.

MAYOR HAFIZODLAH (ph), ZORMAT (through translator): The fighters are from Zormat and other places in Paktia Province and from Pakistan they are multi-ethnic. Also, there are some fugitives who don't have any other place to go.

ROBERTSON (on camera): It is the sympathies of those local fighters that negotiators are likely trying to win over as reinforcements gathering here in Gardez pause before entering the battle.

(voice-over): Preparations by the 600 to 1,000 man reinforcement force 20 miles or 30 kilometers to the north in Gardez are well underway. Commanders of the newly arrived troops have been meeting with U.S. special forces. And despite not being among the Afghan fighters trained to fight alongside coalition soldiers, from the outset of Operation Anaconda, they say they will work as a team.

MUHAMMED YACOUB, ARTILLERY COMMANDER (through translator): They use their equipment and we use our equipment irrespective of where we are. We have good coordination between us.

ROBERTSON: From an ethnically different area, many of the newly arrived reinforcements assure their foes are not local Afghans but al Qaeda. With little progress in whatever talks are underway, it appears these reinforcements will soon be headed to the front lines.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Gardez, Afghanistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREIDMAN: International news tops our "Headlines" today. Polls in Zimbabwe were ordered to remain open for one more day, but that hasn't stopped police in certain parts of the country from disrupting the election. One report from the capital city of Harare cites riot police chasing away 2,000 to 3,000 people waiting to vote. Many are linking this action and others like it to President Mugabe who could be unseated.

Charlayne Hunter-Gault has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The news weary voters had been hoping for.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to breaking news on the election story. The high court has ruled in favor of an election application by the MDC to extend voting by an extra day. Voting is now expected to end at close of business tomorrow.

HUNTER-GAULT: The Movement for Democratic Change hailed the ruling but worried about its impact.

LEARNMORE JONGWE (ph), MDC: But the issue is, is government going to comply. They have no political will or no political desire to ensure that the people of this country vote.

HUNTER-GAULT: The court order came at the end of a frustrating two days for the country's urban voters whose polling stations had been reduced by half. They were forced to wait in long, often chaotic lines for hours on end.

Presidential hopeful Morgan Tsvangirai voted at one of these crowded polling places early Sunday and spoke about his party's court application.

MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We wanted to make sure that everyone votes and that's our attention, especially in (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

HUNTER-GAULT: Already before the court ruling, election observers and other critics had accused the government of deliberately disenfranchising MDC strongholds like Harare. Voters in those areas expressed their determination.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We can even spend a week here. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've been (UNINTELLIGIBLE) here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've been (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to 10 years here...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... and do things our (UNINTELLIGIBLE) or (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Want to vote and want to (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

HUNTER-GAULT: These voters have vowed to stay here in this chilly night until every single ballot is cast. This, against a backdrop of a government announcement of a substantial decrease in the number of voters over two years ago when the opposition carried this province. If that trend continues, it is surely to add even more controversy to an already hotly contested election.

Charlayne Hunter-Gault, CNN, Harare, Zimbabwe.

(END VIDEOTAPE) FREIDMAN: How TV news has changed. In the past, network news divisions just covered the news; they didn't worry much about turning a profit. But now, news operations are expected to make money, and that, of course, has consequences. Case in point, the possibility of ABC News moving or even canceling "Nightline," the acclaimed news magazine.

Bruce Morton now with the bottom line.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The furor over ABC's NightLine is sadly just one more chapter in a fairly long book. We old people tend to think things were better in the good old days. But when it comes to TV news, they really were.

I remember a young colleague a couple years ago who'd been looking at archival tapes of old TV news casts, Huntley-Brinkley, Cronkite, somewhere back then. Technically they were pathetic, he said, but then added, they reminded my of why I wanted to go to journalism school in the first place.

What's changed is economics. Back then a Sarnoff at NBC, a Paley at CBS could and did say, "The entertainment programs make plenty of money. You guys just cover the news and do it well," but not anymore.

Now news is supposed to make money and, of course, that has consequences. First in coverage, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) stories are pooled now. Time-consuming, expensive investigative pieces are rarer.

The networks are all owned by big corporations, and that makes investigating harder. Will ABC investigate its owner, Disney? Will CNN investigate its, AOL? And the corporations have so much money and so many lawyers, investigating is risky for anybody. Lawsuits can cost you a fortune even if you win.

Second, in content. The old rules for sourcing -- if two people didn't tell that, don't write it -- have lapsed. The line between news and gossip has disappeared. And seeking ratings and more money, TV news often tends toward scandal and on light stuff. Serious analysis is scarcer than it once was.

I think it was Pete Hamil who said the height of Monica frenzy, "if you guys had to pay $50 bucks every time you used that hug, we could cure cancer." Probably so.

Another point, the all news networks aren't all news. There's more money in talk. Fox's evening lineup is mostly talk. CNN's ratings leader is Larry King, talk again. There's nothing wicked about that. If you're out to make money, talk often works better than news.

Money is the point here. Networks will still spend serious money on really big stories like the war in Afghanistan. But the overall trend was summed up by one news executive a few years ago. "News gathering is too expensive," he said. "Can't we just get the video from somewhere?"

Night Line never went that route, which is probably why the heavy-hitters at Disney are wondering if it might be out of date somehow.

I'm Bruce Morton.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Every year the magazine "Teen People" devotes an issue to young people whom they believe will change the world. At this year's ceremony held in New York, we found out just what makes some of these youngsters so inspiration.

Mara Wilcox reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARA WILCOX, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The teens came from across the United States, some of them having lived in other countries, all of them inspired to make a difference.

Alexandra Govere lived in Zimbabwe until she was nine. While she was there, she witnessed friends and relatives in her small village die of AIDS. That experience motivated her to start the charity Assisting AIDS Orphans. She feels that despite being only 14, she has made an impact.

ALEXANDRA GOVERE, FOUNDER, ASSISTING AIDS ORPHANS: You can never be too young. Anybody can make a difference whether you're rich or poor, black or white. It doesn't matter who you are, what age you are, if you want to make a difference and you work hard you can.

WILCOX: Abdul Majeed Arsala came to the United States in 1999 after the Taliban killed his father, mother and younger brother in Afghanistan. Now age 16, he believes that the most important thing for him to do is continue his education, something many of his peers in Afghanistan are unable to do. He plans to carry out his father's mission and help the people of his homeland.

ABDUL MAJEED ARSALA, AFGHAN STUDENT IN AMERICA: My first goal is to go back to my country to help those people who are in war for almost 22 -- 24 years of war. They don't have any education and they needed -- they needed those persons who are educated. These people are born and just -- and are in the fight and they don't know about the other world and about the west.

WILCOX: Matt Dalio grew up in Connecticut but he feels a strong tie to China having lived there for a year when he was 11. The 19- year-old founded China Care Foundation, an organization that helps handicapped orphans in China get adopted. He hopes to improve relations between China and the U.S. through his work.

MATT DALIO, FOUNDER, CHINA CARE FOUNDATION: I think that if the -- if China can see that there is an American -- a kind-hearted American wanting to do something good for them, that's one of those things that just kind of brings the two countries closer together.

WILCOX: Eighteen-year-old Iris Jacob is working to bring girls of color together. She wrote and edited a collection of essays written by young girls across the United States. She says her book gives girls of color a voice.

IRIS JACOB, AUTHOR, "MY SISTERS VOICES, TEENAGE GIRLS OF COLOR SPEAK OUT": Well I think that this book is going to make a big change. I think that the voices of so many girls who -- that haven't been heard are going to be heard and that'll make a big change I'm hoping.

WILCOX: Roxanne Tinger was motivated by the high rate of cancer in Long Island where she grew up. She developed a test to measure the effectiveness of a colon cancer vaccine. Her aim was to research something that would help people. She says that if she can meet her goals, anyone can.

ROXANNE TINGER, CANCER RESEARCHER: Everything was really a learning experience for me. You would start from, you know, step one. You'd send out -- you'd contact people, you'd speak to teachers. My teachers were such a huge imperative part of the process when I was in high school.

WILCOX: Hans Lee has been fascinated with automobiles since he was in elementary school. The 19-year-old invented a safety system that helps control an automobile in rough weather conditions and when making tight turns. He advises other teens to follow their interests.

HANS LEE, INVENTION DIFFERENTIAL TORQUE CONTROL EYE: When you see something you like actually go for it and get people to help you with it. Even if it looks impossible, just go for it.

WILCOX: The teens honored at the New York event told us they are just normal kids, passionate about their cause. They don't feel different than other teens and all agree that you don't have to be a certain age to make a difference.

(on camera): Twenty teens were honored in all by the magazine. To read about the other teens chosen, check out this month's issue of "Teen People" magazine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Exploring our world, here now is "CNN STUDENT NEWS" "Perspectives."

FREIDMAN: One of the great civilizations of the world lasted only a few hundred years and was located in South America. Its leader was known as the Inca and later the entire population would inherit that name. All this week looks for the legacy of the Incan empire. Today, a look at its rich history as Janice McDonald visits its capital in Peru.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JANICE MCDONALD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Now all but deserted, these massive stone gates once served as the entrance to the ancient Incan capital, Cuzco. While Cuzco is still a center of activity for the area high in the Andes Mountains, more than 500 years ago this town square was also the center of a vast empire.

The Inca Pachucutec named the city Qusco, meaning navel, where the empire came together.

ROXANNA DUBRILL NUNEZ, DIRECTOR, INKA MUSEUM: The name of the Incan empire was Tahuantinsuyu. Tahuan means four. It was divided in four great parts. The Inca empire was in the north until the southern part of Columbia of the actual country of Columbia. In the south, it was the north part of Chile, including Santiago, Chile that is now the capital.

MCDONALD: In fact, during its nearly 300-year existence, beginning in 1250 with Pachucutec's victories over regional tribes, the Incan Empire was the largest in the world.

NUNEZ: The social and the political organization is amazing in the Incas. How they were able to control the big territory that they conquered.

MCDONALD: This plaza where people now come to talk, chase pigeons or sell wares, used to be surrounded by Incan government buildings and palaces. It was the heart of a city built in the shape of a sacred puma.

The ancient Fort of Sacayhuama high on the hill is considered to be the head. Its wall built to form teeth. From here, runners called chasqui could relay messages to any point of the empire's 380,000- square-mile range in a matter of just days.

While they were considered fierce warriors, the Incan lifestyle was itself peaceful, with very little crime and no jails because that would require feeding precious food to the prisoners. Punishment was extracted swiftly.

(AUDIO GAP)

... was itself peaceful, with very little crime and no jails, because that would require feeding precious food to the prisoners. Punishment was extracted swiftly.

VICTORIA MORALES CONDORI, GUIDE: First, I cut the fingers or sometimes the hand, and after the last one, is to push down from the top of the mountains.

MCDONALD: All laws boiled down to three basic rules.

CONDORI: Don't steal, don't lie, don't be lazy.

MCDONALD: Lazy hardly seemed an option in a largely agricultural society. The mountains are still decorated with the terraces used for farming, some long since abandoned, many still very much in use. Incas had no money. People paid for what was needed by bartering or by working. Their ability to build is a marvel to this day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Original Inca wall. Nobody knows how to restore it or how to rebuild. We don't know what kind of mathematics they had or what kind of tools they had to get, you know, these angles. We don't have any written records left by our ancestors.

MCDONALD: Centuries later, some Inca-built walls built without mortar have withstood earthquakes. Some of the few walls remaining are part of what was called the Temple of the Sun, where the Cathedral of Santa Domingo now stands.

(on camera): This building may not look like much now, but it is the reason why the conquistadors came to Cuzco. In its heyday, its walls were covered in gold and its rooms were filled with golden statues.

(voice-over): The main area was built so that sun would enter the room and cast a blinding light on the bejeweled golden walls within. Outside, there is still a garden but it's a far cry from the Incan garden, which was said to have statues of llamas, plants, and even butterflies, all sculpted in gold. These pieces at the Gold Museum in Lima are only a small representation of what had existed. The conquistadors, led by explorer Francisco Pizzaro, began melting down the statues to be shipped back to Spain almost as soon as they arrived.

The Incas had not considered them a threat either through belief of their own superiority or because they mistook the bearded white men as long lost gods.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They remember a god that came and that was a very good person. And the appearance was similar to the Spaniards, and this god they remember (UNINTELLIGIBLE) went through the Pacific, through the ocean. You know that the Spaniards came by the ocean, too, and they were confused.

MCDONALD: Pizzaro and his men killed the ruler, Atahuallpa, putting his nephew Manco in power as a puppet ruler and dismantling the structure of the Inca's empire. As the people began to see the Spaniards as enemies, they resisted, but resistance was easily put down. In 1536, during a great battle at Sacayhuama, knives and spears were no match for the Spanish rivals, and it was a slaughter. The Incan empire was destroyed.

Sulma Morales and her friends Marlene and Alicia have grown up in the heart of what was once the capital of the Incan empire, Cuzco, Peru. They are Quechua, descendants of the Inca, a heritage they both are proud of and take for granted.

MARLENE QUISPE, AGE 18 (through translator): Why shouldn't we pass it on to our children? That's what they've always taught us. It started out with our ancestors and has been keep alive for centuries. It will continue to be that way forever.

MCDONALD: But if you listen closely, you will notice that some of the culture is already being lost. The girls are speaking in Spanish. The language of their parents is Quechua. Although Quechua and Spanish are both Peru's official languages, it's a language the girls and many of their friends speak only when they have to.

SULMA MORALES, AGE 18 (through translator): Most of us speak Quechua because our parents speak Quechua. They are the ones who encourage us to speak Quechua.

QUISPE (through translator): We don't study Quechua in school, never mind college, we learn it at home. From the day we are born, we hear our peasant parents' Quechua. We learn from them. At school they teach us our other language, Spanish.

MORALES (through translator): We only speak basic Quechua. We don't really speak it that well because at work they don't usually ask for Quechua speakers; they want other languages. The Quechua tradition is dying out.

MCDONALD: Peru's new president is among those who don't want to see that happen. Alejandro Toledo is also Quechuas and proud of it. He's trying at least to slow the language loss.

ALEJANDRO TOLEDO, PRESIDENT OF PERU: I am going to reinstitute the Quechua as a language in the school. We're not going to force anyone, but just as English or French, it's an option, with much more reason.

MCDONALD: He hopes the move will also spark interest in holding on to other traditions, traditions which seem old and passe when put against the new things the young people are being exposed to via television and computers. While home computers are rare in this poverty stricken country, cyber cafes such as this one are popping up all over. For three soles, or less than a dollar, you can spend an hour exploring the World Wide Web -- far more interesting to some than learning the ways of their ancestors.

ALICIA YUCRA, AGE 18 (through translator): We don't mean to say that our traditions are bad or good. We appreciate our culture and traditions, but believe that they should be as they are now.

QUISPE (through translator): Out of the traditions kept by our people, some are good and must be maintained by the younger generations as well. But there are other traditions, especially religious ones, which are bad. Those shouldn't exist anymore.

MCDONALD: The traditions of today are indeed evolving. Some things such as ancient building and farming methods are gone for good. Others, such as language and traditional dress, are hanging on. These teens want their lives to be a hybrid combining the past and the present.

YUCRA (through translator): I like my culture, and I wish to pass it on to my children. I want it to continue for generations to come, because I think it's interesting and that it should be promoted among other people, with changes, of course. That's an incentive for our culture and for more changes to be passed on from generation to generation. MORALES (through translator): In other words, so that my children don't lose my tradition. Quite the contrary, that they have more and be more than what I am -- that my culture continue to prevail in them, but go beyond it.

MCDONALD: While their children will likely inherit less of their culture than they did, it's up to these girls and their generation to determine just what traditions will remain.

Janice McDonald, CNN NEWSROOM, Cuzco, Peru.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREIDMAN: It's no secret that Harry Potter is taking the world by storm. Now tales of the young wizard are casting a spell on young people in China.

Jaime FlorCruz has more on Harry Potter's magical appeal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAIME FLORCRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Twelve-year-old Wang Dongdi is hooked on Harry Potter. Spending precious time and pocket money to buy books, postcards and paraphernalia, anything about the bewitching, bespectacled boy known in Chinese as Hali Borter (ph). What's so appealing about Harry Potter?

WANG DONGDI, AGE 17 (through translator): He's very courageous. He defeated his enemies using magic.

FLORCRUZ: Wang Dongdi had watched the movie on pirated DVD 18 times. But after seeing it in the movie theater, he was even more mesmerized.

DONGDI (through translator): The sound effects and the photography are extraordinary.

FLORCRUZ: Imagination deprived Chinese share Wang's obsession.

HAN XUEJIAO, AGE 10 (through translator): Most of the films I saw were poor reward (ph) movies or based on real life. Harry Potter takes us into the world of wizardry.

FLORCRUZ: Other moviegoers pick up unusual inspiration.

XU ZHI, AGE 8 (through translator): I want to have the magic cane to turn the whole world into gold, then we'll be rich.

FLORCRUZ: And rich imagination. But what do parents think of the Potter mania?

DONGDI (through translator): They first thought I was foolish. They told me to focus on my studies and stop ready Harry Potter books.

FLORCRUZ: But once persistence and more pragmatic goals converted his parents. WANG QIANG, FATHER: I take it now as a good thing because it helps widen his knowledge. He used to think it's not necessary to learn English because he's Chinese. Now he wants to read books and Web sites about Harry Potter but they're in English. This will push him to learn English.

FLORCRUZ (on camera): Pirated DVDs of this film have been selling here for as little as $1 each. Just the same, audiences are lining up to pay $3 to $4 each to watch it on the windscreen, testament of the bewitching power of Harry Potter.

Jaime FlorCruz, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCMANUS: Imagine getting the bulk of your education at home. Does it seem strange to you? Well it's a reality for about a million kids across the U.S. Parents who home school do it for reasons ranging from religion to fear of school violence. But critics say home schooling could lead to a lack of social skills.

Our Student Bureau now with a look at home schooling.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYLIE GANDOLF, CNN STUDENT BUREAU (voice-over): Volleyball is her favorite sport, she doesn't like math and her best friend's name is Kelly. Stephanie Davis is your typical high school sophomore, except she doesn't go to high school.

STEPHANIE DAVIS, HOME SCHOOL STUDENT: I've been home schooled since I was in third grade when our private school closed and my parents decided to home school us.

GANDOLF: In the year 2000's national standardized SATs, home schoolers nationwide scored a significant 70 points higher than traditionally schooled students. But critics, many of them public educators, think Stephanie and her friends miss a lot.

PAT KENNEDY, PRESIDENT, TEACHERS ASSOCIATION: No matter how much work they put into it, there is no way that they can replicate the diversity within a classroom of 20 or 25 children.

GANDOLF: But recent studies show that home schoolers actually score higher on social interaction tests than traditionally schooled students.

Dr. Jay Wile, a home schooling specialist, says a traditional school setting doesn't promote good social skills.

DR. JAY WILE, HOME SCHOOL SPECIALIST: In my opinion, school is one of the most artificial environments a student can find himself in. I mean if you think about it, never again will you be cloistered away with people that are your own age and essentially your own social economic status again.

DAVIS: You know I'm always going somewhere, I always have something to do.

GANDOLF: She goes to church twice a week and helps with the children's class. She plays volleyball in a league specially organized for home schoolers.

DAVIS: I love to play sports. I mean it's so much to me.

GANDOLF (on camera): Wile says social activities, like Stephanie's volleyball game tonight, aren't the reason that home schooled students score higher on social interaction tests. The key, he says, is self-confidence.

WILE: Most of these studies say if a person has a more positive self-concept, they just think better of themselves, they're going to be more socially confident. And these studies show that home schoolers generally have a more positive self-concept.

GANDOLF (voice-over): But critics like Kennedy see a gap. She says home schoolers sometimes have trouble socializing with people who are different from themselves.

KENNEDY: If you are placed into a setting all of a sudden where you have not learned to appreciate differences in people, I think it can set you up for a failure or set you up to be judgmental.

DAVIS: I can blend in in whatever situation. I'm meeting my education, I'm still -- I still have a social life and everything so I don't think I'm missing anything.

GANDOLF: Kylie Gandolf, CNN Student Bureau, Muncie, Indiana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

"Where in the World" a founding member of NATO, Head of State celebrates her 50-year reign this year, national flag is known as the Union Jack? Can you name this country? England.

FREIDMAN: Well, it looks like we've reached the end of our travels together for the day.

MCMANUS: That's right.

FREIDMAN: But you can keep exploring on your own on the Net.

MCMANUS: That's right, just head to CNNstudentnews.com.

For now, we are out of here. And I am Michael McManus.

FREIDMAN: And I'm Susan Freidman. We'll see you tomorrow.

MCMANUS: Bye-bye.

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