Instruction, like life, cannot always be planned, especially when teaching students the skills for interacting with real life situations and problems. (Author)

Staff development for artistic teaching involves no simple formula but encouragement of individuality and spontaneity. (Author)

Describes a system for dealing with complaints about inappropriate educational materials by using a committee made up of community residents, one teacher, one librarian, and one student from each high school. (Author/JM)

Although needed reforms of the social studies curriculum have been identified, recommendations for procedures for achieving these reforms are lacking. The author offers practical and simple steps to take in three areas: scope, sequence, and classroom realities. (Author/JM)

Change strategies must include informal school networks and norms. Implementation plans must involve teachers and principals prior to training. (Author/JM)

Simplified interpretations of brain function portraying rationality solely in the left hemisphere and creativity solely in the right are incorrect, but the two sides of the brain do differ in important ways. Conclusive implications of brain research cannot yet be drawn for educational practices, but certain inferences can be made. (Author/JM)

Describes and assesses six high school reform projects that concern the values underlying secondary schooling; changes in curriculum, instruction, and teacher preparation; preparation of students for college; communication among schools undergoing reform; the condition of secondary education today and proposed solutions to problems; and the…

Proposes a model high school curriculum featuring five clusters of knowledge, including cultural studies, citizenship and societal studies, science and technology, health and recreation, and skills in learning, communicating, and thinking. Presents a "stratified needs assessment instrument" to assess the instructional time to be devoted to each…

Discusses what type of education is most needed or useful. Favors a general education curriculum, not because it provides knowledge that can be directly applied, but because it helps students to think, feel, and imagine. (Author/RW)

Mortimer Adler discusses his "Paideia Proposal" for school reform, which recommends eliminating most elective courses while developing students' intellectual skills, improving their understanding of ideas and values, and introducing them to the world of work in the last two years of high school. (RW)

The focus of a common curriculum in general education should be on six shared human experiences, the use of symbols, membership in groups and institutions, production and consumption, relationship with nature, sense of time, and values and beliefs. (Author/RW)

Describes debates over general education and the common curriculum in Great Britain and Canada. In Great Britain, the central government's Department of Education and Science supports a core curriculum. In Canada, the National Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, may recommend a common curriculum to the provincial ministries of education.…

Responds to Andrew S. Hughes' preceding article in this issue of "Educational Leadership." Notes past American debates over basic and general education and warns that trends toward educational retrenchment in the U.S. and Great Britain may lead schools to limit the mass of students to basic literacy education. (RW)

Discusses the content and problems of contemporary social studies curricula. Recommends five guidelines for future social education, including teaching democratic culture, developing students' sense of community, studying the sociology of knowledge, analyzing social problems, and emphasizing global and future orientations. Suggests 12 steps to…

Future science curricula should recognize the interaction of science, technology, and society and should give students the skills for learning and applying scientific knowledge, an awareness of ethics and values in science, and a future perspective. The organization of science courses should vary with the type of learning desired. (Author/RW)