Details various ways music teachers can provide children with the emotional resources to rescue and heal themselves. Primary among these is the establishment of trust. Recommends modeling stability, consistency, benevolence, flexibility, and a healthy perspective. Discusses the challenges and problems of being a surrogate parent. (MJP)

Suggests expanding the eclectic nature of a band program by creating a steel band, a Caribbean-based percussion ensemble. The steel band complements multicultural education and attracts students to the music program. Discusses maintenance, repertoire, and performance. Includes classification of pans and a list of schools with established programs.…

Explains and characterizes some of the basic concepts of East African music. Fundamentally an enhanced way of storytelling, East African music techniques are rooted in the play and rhythm of spoken language. Compares and contrasts East African and Western musical conventions. Includes a list of East African music resources. (MJP)

Advocates using portfolio assessment in music education, more as a teaching tool than a final evaluative instrument. Explains those advantages and disadvantages of portfolio assessment that are peculiar to music education. Discusses materials for inclusion. (MJP)

Includes three brief essays responding to the current controversy over the National Standards for United States History. James F. Adomanis defends the standards and decries the media circus. Brian Boland casts a skeptical eye towards trendy educational reforms. Philip Reed Rulon finds the standards arbitrary and restrictive. (MJP)

Describes a U.S. history survey course that incorporates cultural pluralism and family histories into the writing assignments. Students are encouraged to write about events that occurred in their families during the time periods being studied. Oral interviews and family documents supplement traditional research tools and secondary sources. (MJP)

Recommends using Chinua Achebe's novel of the 19th-century conflict between African tribal culture and English colonists in a world history class. Achebe's rich narrative, written in a graceful prose, is easily accessible to high school students. The novel replaces simplistic and abstract concepts with those more complex and concrete. (MJP)

Describes a University of Wisconsin program that maintains summer institutes and seminars between university, college, and high school history teachers. Priorities have included upgrading the critical-thinking and research skills of secondary school students. A serendipitous benefit has been an increased mastery of the recent literature by…

Presents a wide-ranging discussion centering on how computers are changing the university and society. Professor James O'Donnell provides numerous examples illustrating how the process of communication is adapting and reacting to the virtual environment. He also discusses the changing role and responsibilities of the university. (MJP)

Celebrates 30 years of programs and projects funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Profiles 11 funded projects from the 1960s through the 1990s. These include the Talking about Books program, Center for the Study of Southern Culture, Ken Burns's documentaries, and The Library of America. (MJP)

Examines the ways that hypertext technology is changing the understanding and teaching of literature. Hypertext routinely provides links from the literary text to critical commentary, graphic material, and biographical information. Includes a brief example of hypertext experimental fiction. (MJP)

Appraises several databases devoted to classical literature. Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG) contains the entire extant corpus of ancient Greek literature, including works on lexicography and historiography, extending into the 15th century. Other works awaiting completion are the Database of Classical Bibliography and a CD-ROM pictorial dictionary…

Describes an interactive computer simulation where the student assumes the role of a reporter searching for a missing biologist in Columbia. The search involves simulated news broadcasts, documentary footage, and interviews with Colombians, all in Spanish. The student accesses help via electronic archives (translated words) and faxing the editor.…

Describes a college-level course that uses classic texts, such as Plato's "The Republic" and Thomas More's "Utopia," to consider concepts related to the "good society." Expands this initial approach to include consideration of a postmodernist perspective. This perspective encourages consideration of texts and ideas outside of the Western…

Recommends using the work of psychoanalyst and concentration camp survivor, Viktor Frankl, as a counterpoint and complement to the death camp stories of Tadeusz Borowski. Frankl's work on his own and others' experiences provides a context and approach to Borowski's cynical and nihilistic stories. (MJP)