CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: A royal rule changed, the possibility of invisibility, and a fighter who is fighting back against bullying. That`s just some of what we are talking about today on CNN STUDENT NEWS.
A lot of young people are out looking for a job, but not working one. A new report says youth employment in the U.S. is at its lowest level since the Second World War. We are talking about people ages 16 to 24. The Annie E. Casey Foundation says that only half of them had jobs in 2011, and if you just look at teenagers, only one in four had a job last year. In the year 2000 almost half of them did. The reasons - the lingering effects of the great recession. A lot of the entry level jobs the young people used to count on like those at clothing stores or restaurants, for example, are going to more experienced or more educated workers. One side effect is that young people aren`t getting the early work experience that would help them later on.
Some organizations want to give students the chance to get that experience, but not through job - at school, and not during regular classes either. This is part of something called the time collaborative, and for around 20,000 students it means they are going to be spending more time at school. We are talking about more than 40 schools in five states. Next school year, they are going to be open an additional 300 hours, so it works out to about 90 minutes extra a day on average. It won`t necessarily mean more time in science or language arts classes, though that it`s possible. The organizers say the extra time could be spent on internships, on apprenticeships or music or arts programs. One goal would be to help low performing students do better. An analyst says the program could help increase test scores, but it can also increase dropout rates. He said that if the extra time looks and feels like the rest of the school day, then those at-risk students might not go for it.
A middle schooler who spoke to one of our affiliates said students don`t want more time in school. She said students want to get a break from learning. What do you say? We want to hear your thoughts on this. Let`s say your school adds the extra time, an extra hour and a half. How would you want to spend it? More academics, the focus on music and drama programs, getting internship or apprenticeship credit. Tell us and tell us only your first names on our blog cnnstudentnews.com.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: See, if you can I.D. me. I was born in London in 1926 and I still live there. I have a royal title, but I don`t actually run my country`s government. I ascended to the throne in 1952.
I`m the United Kingdom`s Queen Elizabeth II, and I have one younger sister, but no brothers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: Now, here is why that last part`s important. If Queen Elizabeth did have any brothers, even if they were younger than she, she wouldn`t be queen. It all has to do with the order of succession. In the U.S. , succession has to do with who takes over as president if something happens to the current president. Well, for the British monarchy, succession is about who becomes king or queen. This is Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. She is married to Prince William, Queen Elizabeth`s grandson and the couple is expecting a baby. Now, you might have heard about that. Right now, the British order of succession goes from the queen to William`s dad, Prince Charles, and then to Prince William. For more than 300 years, the law said that a monarch`s first born son was heir to the throne. If he had big sisters, he jumped in line ahead of them. But the royal rules of succession are changing. From now on, the firstborn child will be heir, so William and Catherine`s baby will be next in line for the throne and it won`t matter whether it`s a boy or girl.
Just eight days left for you to send us an "I-Report" and maybe get a place on our show. We want to know how are you celebrating the season of giving. You have to be at least 13 years old. The video has to be 30 seconds or less, and no music, just you and the camera. Please make sure to watch for our email. After you submit your video, you get all the details in the "Spotlight" section at cnnstudentnews.com
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today`s "Shoutout" goes out to Mrs. Ross` CWP class at Eastmont High School in East Wenatchee, Washington.
The word "camouflage" comes from what language. You know what to do, is it Latin, Celtic, Greek or French? You`ve got three seconds, go!
Camouflage comes from a French word that means "to disguise." That`s your answer and that`s your "Shoutout."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: And that`s what camouflage is meant to do: to disguise. Usually military troops or their equipment although you probably know somebody who just like to wear it from time to time. Now, you know camo when you see it. You might think that the patterns in it are kind of random, but that`s actually not the case. Chris Lawrence explains why there`s a lot to look at when you are designing clothing to make people disappear.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A lot is riding on the next generation design to outfit troops. It`s only been eight years since the Army spent $5 billion on camo that critics say didn`t fool anyone. Soldiers complained to the point the Army abandoned its one size fits all universal pattern.
(on camera): So, they were looking for camouflage that they could use everywhere.
GUY CRAMER, HYPER STEALTH/ADS: Correct. And it didn`t work anywhere.
LAWRENCE: Guy Cramer is one of the designers competing to win the Army`s next multimillion dollar contract. This summer, he showed us the science behind every shape, size and shade of these pixels.
(on camera): You now have your camouflage.
CRAMER: So we are trying to trick the brain into seeing things that aren`t actually there.
LAWRENCE (voice over): Digital patterns recreate shapes already found in nature. And 3-D layering creates depth and shadows where non exist. That`s today`s design. But developers already have one eye on tomorrow.
CRAMER: What`s coming up down the road, and very quickly, is the Harry Potter cloak.
RUPERT GRINT, ACTOR: What is that?
LAWRENCE: With that fictional cloak, Harry isn`t just camouflage, he is invisible.
DANIEL RADCLIFFE, ACTOR: My body is gone!
LAWRENCE (on camera): How invisible are we talking here? If I walk into a room with the soldier wearing one of these cloaks?
CRAMER: You wouldn`t see him at all. He would be completely invisible to you.
LAWRENCE (voice over): This is not make believe. The military has seen the so-called quantum stealth technology. It works by banding the light around an object, even concealing most of a person shadow. Imagine what that could do for a sniper hiding in the field or the American pilots who ejected over Libya when their fighter jets crashed last year.
CRAMER: They could actually pull out very similar to what they carry with a survival blanket, throw it over top of them. And unless you walked right into them, you wouldn`t know that they were there.
LAWRENCE: So, what was once firmly in the world of make believe, could quickly become quite real.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: All right, and this one is going to sound a little strange at first: a plan to stop bullying by encouraging fighting. It makes a little more sense when you find out that one of the program`s organizers is a mixed martial arts` champion, and his goal is to keep fighting in the ring instead of at his school. Have a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROB MCCULLOUGH: Hey, I`m Rob McCullough, and we can make an impact on bullying. This campaign is about anti-bullying and it`s about the epidemic that`s going on nowadays in our schools. And it`s about kids being picked on, kids, you know, being bullied and for them to find a safe haven through sports. Anti-bullying is similar to what we are doing with L.A. Boxing. We go to schools in neighboring areas that we have gyms, so that we know that there is a safe haven for these kids to go to.
I dealt with bullying growing up as a kid, because I was always the new guy at the school. I was always moving.
The message I`m trying to convey to these kids at the assemblies is that with a little hard work and motivation and a positive mental attitude, you can, you know, you can literally do anything you want to do.
Some of the people that we`ve had do assemblies with us, is Dana White, the president of the UFC, TRT`s Michael Bisping, Rampage Quinton Jackson. The list goes on. We are not fighting because we don`t like each other or because we are bullying each other, we are fighting because it`s a sport. Sport did that for me, and it did that for a lot of my friends that are professional athletes.
It gives you something to focus on.
Join the movement, impact your world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: You can learn more about Rob McCullough`s fight against bullying by clicking the "Impact Your World" link on our home page. Our last story today is sweet. It`s a gingerbread house. It`s the White House. It`s both. It`s the work of a woman in Alabama who calls herself "the gingerbread lady. Normally, it takes her about 12 hours to finish one of her confectionary creations. This one took 12 days. OK, it might just be a replica of a real life building, but it`s filled with a lot of personal touches, so it`s definitely not just like some cookie cutter copy. We don`t know how much it would sell for, but making it probably took a lot of dough and the story delicious, getting to make puns at the end, that`s just the icing on the house, yo. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day. For CNN STUDENT NEWS, I`m Carl Azuz.
END