 Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from The Voice of America. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Dan Novak. This program is designed for English learners, so we speak a little slower, and we use words and phrases, especially written for people learning English. On today's program, Gregory Stockle has a story on the sleep behavior of penguins. Ashley and I have the education report on schools in the U.S. that operate outside state education systems. Later, John Russell presents the lesson of the day, but first... Almost all new parents struggle to get enough sleep while caring for their newborns. For some penguin parents, though, periods of sleep are especially short. Penguins are birds that cannot fly but use their wings for swimming. They live in or near the Antarctic. Researchers recently found that chin strap penguins only sleep for about four seconds at a time in order to protect their eggs and newborn chicks. They do this thousands of times throughout the day. A study on the findings recently appeared in the publication Science. The short microsleeps total around 11 hours each day. The microsleeps appear to be enough to keep the parents going for many weeks. Niels Rattenborg is a sleep researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence in Germany. He helped write the new study. He said these penguins blink their eyes open and shut, and they do it 24-7 for several weeks at a time. What's surprising is that they're able to function okay and successfully raise their young, he said. Chin strap penguins usually lay their eggs in November in nests made up of small rocks. As with many other kinds of penguins, mated pairs share parenting responsibilities. One parent usually watches the eggs and chicks alone while the other goes off fishing for family meals. Adult penguins do not face many natural predators in the mating season, but large birds called brown scoos eat the penguin eggs and small chicks. Other adult penguins may also try to steal the small rocks from nests. So penguin parents must always be on guard. For the first time, scientists followed the sleeping behavior of chin strap penguins in an Antarctic mating colony. They did this by attaching devices that measure brain waves. They collected data on 14 adults over 11 days on King George Island off the coast of Antarctica. Won Young Lee is a biologist at the Korean Polar Research Institute. He thought of the idea for the study when he saw mating penguins often blinking their eyes and possibly sleeping during his long days of field observations. But the team needed to record brain waves to confirm the animals were sleeping. For these penguins, microsleeps have some restorative functions, he said. He added that they would not survive without it. The researchers did not collect sleep data outside the mating season, but they suspect that the penguins may sleep for longer periods at other times of the year. Paul Antoine Liberelle is a sleep researcher at the Neuroscience Research Center of Lyon in France. He also helped write the study. He said scientists do not yet know if the gains from microsleep are the same as gains from longer periods of time. Scientists also do not know if other kinds of penguins sleep in such short periods. Researchers have documented a few other animals with special sleeping adaptations. For example, frigate birds can sleep with one half of their brain at a time while flying. But researchers say the chinstrap penguin microsleeps appear to be a new extreme. Daniel Piranio's Zitterbart studies penguins at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. He was not involved in the study. He noted that penguins mate in crowded colonies and their predators are around at the same time. He described microsleeping as an amazing adaptation that permits the penguins to be nearly always on guard. I'm Gregory Stockle. Nearly 9,000 private schools in the American state of Louisiana do not need state approval to give high school diplomas. Public schools, formal homeschooling programs, and traditional private schools all need state approval. Nearly all of the school's lacking approval were created to serve a single homeschooling family. But some have buildings, classrooms, teachers, and many students. A small percentage of Louisiana's students have ties to unapproved schools. The schools are being called Louisiana's off-the-grid school system. Some observers say they are a growing example of the nation's continuing effects of COVID-19 because families appear to be leaving traditional education. U.S. public school enrollment fell by more than 1.2 million students in the first two years of the pandemic. Many families sent their children to private school or told their state they were homeschooling. But the Associated Press and its partners say thousands of other students are unaccounted for. The students in Louisiana's off-the-grid school system are not missing. But there is no way to know what kind of education they are getting. The AP and the Advocate, a Louisiana newspaper, say that over 21,000 students are enrolled in the state's unapproved schools. That is nearly double the number from before the pandemic. Supporters of the system want to avoid state oversight. They say Louisiana's unapproved schools are an extension of the idea of parental rights in education. One such school in Louisiana is Springfield Preparatory School. The school calls itself an umbrella school for Christian homeschoolers. Most students there attend the school to get an education through classes or tutoring. However, school leader Kitty Sibley Morrison is also willing to give a diploma to anyone whose parents say they were homeschooled even years earlier. Sometimes it takes two or three times to explain to them that they are free, Sibley Morrison said. Their parents are in charge of them, not the state. Sibley Morrison said she is not selling diplomas. She is selling lifetime services for homeschooling families. We're not here to make money, she said. Yet a list of prices is placed on the front window of the school building. $250 for diploma services, a $50 application fee, $35 for a diploma cover, and $130 to take part in a ceremony. The number of students in unapproved schools like Springfield has nearly doubled. State records show there were 11,600 students in the 2017 to 2018 school year and over 21,000 in 2022 to 2023. There is little information available about these schools. The state calls them non-public schools not seeking state approval. To start one, an adult must only report their school's name and address, their contact information, and how many students they have. Most of the schools are small single-family homeschools. However, last year, 30 of Louisiana's unapproved schools reported they had at least 50 children enrolled. Laura Hawkins says there is no way for the government to know whether the schools are safe, good, or even whether they exist. Hawkins is a former official of the Louisiana Department of Education who worked on its school choice efforts until 2020. The department warns parents on its website that it cannot confirm whether these organizations even meet the legal definition of a school. Louisiana has two options for homeschooling. Parents who want their child to receive a state-recognized high school diploma can apply for the official home study program. They must apply using test scores or copies of the student's work. The work must show their child has received 180 days of schooling of the same quality as a public school. The state-recognized diploma is more widely accepted by colleges. It also permits students to be considered for a popular in-state scholarship program. Families can also choose to set up their own private school without asking for state approval. There are no requirements to prove a child is getting an education. The schools do not even have to provide the names of students who are attending. At least two unapproved schools have had abuse scandals. But the State Department of Education says it has no legal power to do anything. Today, over 12 states permit families to open a private school as a form of homeschooling, including California, Illinois, and Texas. Around half the states require those schools to teach basic subjects such as math and reading. Louisiana is not one of them. Springfield Preparatory occupies two buildings on Springfield's Main Street. State records say 250 students attend. But Sibley Morrison said the school does not keep the number. Some homeschooling families come for art or science. Others attend services like career guidance, test preparation, and explanation and support in their parental rights, said Sibley Morrison. Some, such as Arlia Martin, go straight for a diploma. Martin was expelled from high school in 10th grade after getting in a fight. She tried a military-style program for at-risk youths, but finished without her GED. The GED test provides what is equal to a high school diploma. At 17, I was already by myself. I had my son at 18, and it was just work, work, work, she said. Within days of meeting Sibley Morrison, Martin visited her office and got a diploma. The document was backdated to 2015 when she would have graduated high school. It also said she had completed a program for graduation approved by the Louisiana Board of Education, which is not true. After questions from AP, Sibley Morrison said there had been a mistake and that the document would be corrected. Signs at the school advertise state-approved diplomas, although the state has not approved the school. Sibley Morrison said she can use those words because she pushes families in her program to also sign up for the state-approved home study program. After learning that her diploma is not approved by the state and might not be accepted by some colleges, Martin said she did not feel bad. Friends and family members have gotten diplomas from the same school and have gone on to college and successful careers, she said. Sibley Morrison said parents are the only people who can decide if and when someone is properly educated. When parents say my child is ready to go into the real world, I take their word for it, Sibley Morrison said. Hi Dan, interesting story on unapproved schools. They are really growing in number. Yeah, I didn't even know these kinds of schools existed before I wrote this story. They're not approved by any state institution like traditional public and private schools as well as approved home school programs. Can you explain a little about what the parental rights movement is and how that relates to this story? The parental rights movement in education is a movement to get the state or the government out of children's education. You hear parental rights used in debates about how to teach things like race and sex and even about topics like COVID-19. Supporters of the movement say it should be up to parents, not schools, to decide what their child should be learning. But these unapproved schools take it a step further, right? Yeah, I would say these schools take it many steps further. The main objective of these schools is to completely avoid state oversight. Louisiana, where the story focuses, does not have any legal power to control them. So there's no way of knowing what kind of education they are providing. Right. It does not seem like some of these schools even provide an education. One girl interviewed for the story got a diploma just a few days after enrolling in the school. And I use diploma in quotations because it's kind of meaningless. It's not considered a degree by any state institution. It is not considered a degree by universities. It's really only considered a degree by the woman who runs the school. The girl just paid for the diploma. Thanks for this report, Dan, and thank you for taking the time to answer some questions. You're welcome, Ashley. VOA Learning English has launched a new program for children. It is called Let's Learn English with Anna. The new course aims to teach children American English through asking and answering questions and experiencing fun situations. For more information, visit our website, learningenglish.voanews.com. In this next report, Dan Novak tells us about long commutes for some schoolchildren in South Africa. We learn about the transportation difficulties that students in rural areas sometimes face. Pay careful attention to the word legacy. We will talk more about it after the report. 14-year-old Luyanda Hilali walks 10 kilometers to school. She lives in the little village of Stratford in South Africa's Quazulu Natal province. There are no school buses. There is only the long road where robbers and bad men can harm her. Luyanda is one of tens of thousands of children in South Africa who live a long way from their public school. The communities they live in are mostly rural and poor. Observers say students having to travel long distances to public schools shows the country's inequality when it comes to attending school. It has been nearly 30 years since the nation ended its apartheid system and the African National Congress Party took power bringing democratic change. There is a lack of school transportation paid for by the government. Girls face the threat of attack and robberies are common. Parents, local leaders and activists say the situation increases existing inequalities. The World Bank says South Africa is the most unequal country in the world. In Quazulu Natal, campaigners and activists are pressing government officials to provide transportation for over 200,000 school children. The children have to walk 3 kilometers or more to school. President Cyril Ramaphosa's government policy requires officials to provide transportation for the students who have to walk that distance. But school buses are not a concern in an area where unemployment is over 25% and people are poor. A 2020 Amnesty International report said a child's experience in South Africa still very much depends on where they are born, how wealthy they are, and the color of their skin. South Africa's education system, the report said, has deep roots in the legacy of apartheid, but which are also not being effectively tackled by the government. In Quazulu Natal, more than 30% of the province's 12.4 million people are unemployed. Many say they have to choose between buying food or paying $19 a month for public transportation. Sometimes these children go to school without eating breakfast, said Bongiwe Nalongothi Luyanda's grandmother. She is the most scared when her grandchildren are traveling. There are drug addicts around here. When they come across the children in the early hours of the morning, they rob them of their phones, threaten them with knives, and try to rape them, Nalongothi said. A school principal in a village about 50 kilometers from the coal mining town of Dundee told of his struggle to get more school buses approved. The principal said some of the school's female students had been raped by local criminals. The school has two old buses, but they can only carry about 65 children. There are more than 400 students at the school. The principal said he fears one of the buses could permanently break down or crash. In September 2022 reports said 18 students were killed in the province when their overcrowded minivan crashed on the way to school in the town of Pongola. Some parents have decided to pay to have their children live closer to their schools, but boarding a student is costly and leaves parents without help at home. Activist Tugobo Tsusane works for the nonprofit organization Equal Education. He said the campaign for better school transportation across KwaZulu Natal started back in 2014. It started after students wrote letters because they were walking for up to two hours to school. Government information says 1,148 schools in KwaZulu Natal are on a waiting list for school transportation paid for by the government. The provincial department of education did not wish to talk to the Associated Press for this story. The answer from the education department is that there is no money, so the children keep walking. I'm Dan Nowak. Before the report, we asked you to pay careful attention to the word legacy. Can you remember when you heard it? You heard the term legacy in a quote from an Amnesty International report. Let's listen again. South Africa's education system, the report said, has deep roots in the legacy of apartheid, but which are also not being effectively tackled by the government. Legacy is a noun. We spell it like this. L-E-G-A-C-Y. Please note that the word contains three vowel sounds. Legacy. The first vowel sound is E. The second vowel sound is A. And the last vowel sound is E. Legacy. We can define legacy as something that happened in the past or something that comes from someone in the past. In our story, the word suggests that something is a direct result of history. The word legacy itself has an interesting history. The online etymology dictionary dates the word to the 14th century. At the time, legacy, which came from Latin, meant the body of persons sent on a mission. Sometime around the 15th century, the word took on the sense of property left by will, a gift by will. Eventually, the word took on other meanings. One of the most important among these was the idea that something happened in the past and has effects in the present. A few words about how we use the word legacy. It is most commonly used before the short word of. So, for example, Google's Ngram viewer, an online database of thousands of books, tells us that the most common word by far after legacy is of. After the short word of, we often have a noun or noun phrase. That is why our story contained the words legacy of apartheid. The structure is legacy plus of plus noun. A final point about the word legacy. Google's Ngram viewer suggests that the word has become much more frequently used since about 1980. One way to interpret this change is that it suggests an increasing interest among writers about the effects or consequences of history. And that's the lesson of the day. I'm John Russell. And that's our program for today. Join us again tomorrow to keep learning English through stories from around the world. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Dan Novak.