Grades--parents and schools offer cash, prizes and threats to encourage or scare students into achievement. Children are trained early that As guarantee a successful life. School systems are judged successes or failures based on test scores. But are good grades really the holy grail of education? In this week's Scholars Speak Scott Key, education professor at Fresno Pacific University, points out that some famous names never appeared on an honor roll, and that the emphasis we put on grades determines the kind of citizens we get.

Not all is fun and games on school playgrounds. Many children, often the physically smallest and least socially successful, find they get the most attention not from friends, but from bullies.

Bullying has been around as long as children have gathered together, but does that make it unstoppable? Scott Key, professor in the Fresno Pacific University School of Education, doesn't think so, and presents ideas on how to make school safer in this Scholars Speak.

Air is the ultimate natural resource. Gender, class, age, skin color, political party have no bearing on who needs it or how much they need. So it just seems fair that everyone who breathes air has a role in making it and keeping it clean. Scott Key, FPU faculty member, explores what each of us can do in this week's Scholars Speak.