Racial disparities in the demographic composition of K-12 students and teachers has led university teacher education programs and school districts to endeavor to prepare all teachers, especially White teachers, to work with diverse students. However, often sidelined in these initiatives are the challenging tasks of preparing, recruiting, and…

Examines features of and sources for the discourse of Martin Luther King, Jr., as they relate to the language and assumptions favored by his listeners and readers in an effort to understand how speakers and writers can successfully argue from premises that audiences accept. Indicates how an understanding of King can help in composition…

Many theoreticians have indicated that a major task of the nonpresumptive rhetor is to gain presumption, thereby shifting the burden of proof to the opposition. Rhetorically, Martin Luther King, Jr., sought to effect this shift in the burden of proof through the use of hierarchies of values. At the top of his value system was the love of God. The…

Discusses a curriculum on the Holocaust and genocide. Expresses the belief that Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream of human equality can be a world dream. Argues that the curriculum is not a "Jewish" one, because it addresses examples of genocide from many cultures, and its authors are educators of various faiths. (SG)

Individuals such as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. successfully employed nonviolent strategies to attain significant political goals. Despite the implications of these achievements, psychologists rarely have studied predispositions to nonviolent behavior empirically. This study investigated the relationships among nonviolent…

Presented are ideas for learning activities that use books and stories to teach language arts, art, cooking, movement, health, music, and math to kindergarten and primary school students. Activities are organized around such topics as quilts, apples, teeth, hands, feelings, heroes, letters, and such events as birthdays, Mother's and Father's Day,…

Since 1993, New York City has a major advocate for the public school children at the New York State Department of Education: Associate Commissioner Sheila Evans-Tranumn. Herself a product of the New York City public schools, Sheila has a genuine and firm commitment to helping the public schools provide every child with a quality education. To…

The language-based education of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has proved more productive than the earlier apprentice learning since it offers cognitive development. The first priority of a modern curriculum should be such cognitive development, and language remains the most suitable tool for this purpose. Politically, the full enjoyment…

Oppressed people need to--and are currently trying to--obtain the power to define their humanity in their own terms. However, because it is easy for thrusts toward racial and ethnic consciousness to degenerate into racial and ethnic hate, it is necessary to define the ethnic self in ways that will not conflict with the needs of a world community.…

Between 1964 and 1968, "U. S. News and World Report" engaged in symbolic discourse with its readership through its coverage of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "U. S. News" faced a dilemma in the mingling of King's force as a symbol with the power exerted by the egalitarian principles that Gunnar Myrdal identified as components of…

This paper presents the position that concern for others is fundamentally a matter of cognitive definition of one's relationship to and responsibility for other human beings. Altruism changes as a function of an individual's overall level of cognitive-moral development. There are six forms of altruism, corresponding to Kohlberg's six sequential…

One of the major problems facing the profession of speech communication is the need for an increased concern with teaching the "basics" involved in listening carefully and speaking clearly and with vigor. Speech communication educators must take great care in defining the basics of discourse; they should teach the mechanics of grammar and syntax…

In this paper, it is noted that there are three reasons for studying the black gifted child. First, black destiny has in part been shaped by talented blacks--for example, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. Second, the black gifted are a minority within a minority. The gifted black female, subject to sexism, is even more of a minority. Third,…

The Mestizo (mixed ethnic heritage) Civil Rights Movement in the United States can be divided into five phases: Pre-Civil Rights, Civil Rights, Bilingual-Multicultural Education, Political Conservatism, and the current period, an Assault on Civil Rights. The paper describes how a personal research career has been influenced by the different stages…

Teaching school-aged children about the struggle for civil rights in the United States is a curricular objective. Schools have established traditions for teaching the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., and for celebrating Black History Month through the month of February. Using literature written for children is one tool that can be used to increase…