This article recounts a real-life conversation relating to beliefs, opinions, and attitudes. It asserts the country's democracy needs intellectual debate, but increasingly lacks the inclination and skills to have it. Like students within their homogeneous peer groups, American citizens increasingly inhabit intellectually gated communities.…

This Education Policy Brief examines the research regarding the efforts occurring in the United States to consolidate school corporations or form cooperative agreements for shared services. The brief also examines those policy levers which are contributing to the elevated discussion concerning consolidation and shared services in Indiana. Based…

This study consists of a review of selected educational reform issues from the past 10 years that deal with changing attitudes towards art and art instruction in the context of independent private sector schools. The major focus of the study is in visual arts and examines various programs and initiatives with an art focus. Programs include…

Problems associated with the poor academic and technical preparation of many workers can be addressed through the use of occupational analysis techniques coupled with the development of curricula based on the results of such analyses. This workplace literacy handbook describes five stages in analyzing business literacy needs and developing…

In northeast Texas, 47% of the adults over the age of 25 have not graduated from high school. Area agricultural businesses are rapidly implementing new technologies and quality control measures, both of which require literate and highly trainable workers. To meet these needs, a partnership project was undertaken between Northeast Texas Community…

Reasons for the high dropout rate from high schools are discussed. The author postulates that dropouts are the result of misconceptions of the process of education, academic difficulty, a poor learning environment, and a lack of participation in extracurricular activities. Speech presented at the Convention of the International Association of…

Describes Happy Medium School, Seattle (Washington), a school in which diversity is respected and exploring diversity is an essential part of the curriculum. Teachers at this school regard school as a part of each student's extended family and consider things that happen at home to be a legitimate topic for classroom discussion. (SLD)

This story of the internment of a Japanese American family during World War II is 1 of 14 stories of intolerance in America in "Us and Them," the text component of a "Teaching Tolerance" curriculum kit, "The Shadow of Hate." The kit includes a video, teacher's guide, and lesson plans. (SLD)

This article explains the use of the origins of American English and the dictionary to teach multiculturalism to elementary school students. It suggests classroom activities that help students explore the cultural roots behind words and appreciate the ways words have been created. Esperanto and the development of an international language are also…

Drawing from the work of Henry David Thoreau, urges us to see the relationship between the individual and his/her community. Thoreau had three chairs in his cabin: one for solitude, one for friendship, and one for society. Like Thoreau, school leaders could make a career of exploring the tension between public and private imperatives. (MLH)

Reports results of a telephone interview with history professor and social analyst Carlos Cortes, whose current main area of interest is the multicultural education that occurs outside the classroom, with special interest in the role of the media. Explores the concept of the societal curriculum. (SLD)

This commentary discusses the decisions of child protective service (CPS) investigators to substantiate mothers for failure-to-protect (FTP) in child sexual abuse cases. Four areas are identified in which the scientific literature remains inadequate to fully inform child maltreatment researchers, CPS practitioners and child welfare policymakers on…

The objective of this study was to determine employers' perspectives of employees' personal financial literacy. Executives rated credit card use and budgeting as the most important personal financial literacy skills that employees should have. They stated that strong personal financial literacy skills allow an employee to focus on work activity…

The author visited selected countries in Europe to examine the process of disabled minority group evolution and to identify practical knowledge useful in stimulating smilar development in the United States. Previous research revealed that many countries in Europe appeared to be far ahead of the United States in the development of organizations of…

ASCERTAINED WAS THE COMPARATIVE EFFECTIVENESS OF TWO TECHNIQUES OF TEACHING SEVENTH GRADE GENERAL SCIENCE--(1) A NON-PROGRAMED, PROBLEM-SOLVING APPROACH, AND (2) A PROBLEM-SOLVING APPROACH THROUGH SELECTED, OPEN-ENDED, LABORATORY EXPERIENCES. SPECIFICALLY, THIS STUDY ATTEMPTED TO DETERMINE WHETHER THERE WERE ANY SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE…