Re-examines the concept of academic failure and competition. Ideally, education should endeavor to find and develop each individual's strengths, rather than hammer away at academic weaknesses. Schools should help the individual master the basic skills for surviving and functioning well in society. Grades and competition do not further these goals.…

Reviews 1980s educational reform philosophies, characterizing this decade as driven more by debate than by change. The first wave's emphasis on the utilitarian value of education has endured in third-wave philosophy calling for business-oriented graduates to help reassert America's economic preeminence. A fourth wave envisions expanding…

The 1980s reform movement has been top-down, with national commissions, state laws, bully-pulpit speakers, and buzzwords like "accountability" and "excellence." A new reform agenda will probably focus on human and social needs, rather than economic and military-industrial preoccupations. President George Bush represents the kinder, gentler…

The U.S. and the Soviet Union face serious problems in trying to reform their education systems. Both countries need to prepare students for productive participation in the world economy, while also addressing significant internal priorities (minority group needs, educator demands as professionals, and changes in educational technology). Includes…

Based on recent critiques of Soviet and American textbooks, this article discusses educators' differing assumptions concerning what students should learn, who should decide what they learn, how students learn, how geography and history curriculum should be organized, and how much choice teachers should have. Includes eight references. (MLH)

Teachers need to match discipline methods with children's developmental levels. Young children need interventionist techniques stressing teacher power and control. Older children thrive when teachers employ strategies to enhance student involvement and self-discipline. A few other youngsters move to a self-directive stage; these students need…

Based on a two-year study of four elementary schools in a poor, crime-ridden section of Chicago, this article finds the public school an island of relative safety in an ocean of danger. Community-wide approaches are needed to stop lawlessness and fear in innercity schools. Includes seven references. (MLH)

According to the 21st annual Gallup/Phi Delta Kappa poll, the public favors school choice, a more standardized national curriculum, improvement of public school quality in poorer and innercity areas, reduction of class size in early grades, afternoon school and summer programs for children of working parents, and increased state and federal…

Explains proper and improper interpretations of the author's assertive discipline program. Teachers need to communicate clear rules for the classroom, teach students how to follow them, employ positive reinforcement, and use firm and consistent negative consequences for rule-breakers as a last resort. Includes five references. (MLH)

Claims that authors of a November 1988 "Kappan" article on special education are conducting a campaign to change special education in their own image. Asserts that special and regular education are interwoven, not separate or segregated, processes and that support teams are designed to help teachers improve student learning and behavior in the…

Insists that too many marginal students are wrongly classified and segregated from regular education programs. Special education classification programs have many problems, such as lack of validity and reliability, invidious causes, and inescapable isolation. Vast sums are spent without providing institutional benefits to children. Includes 17…

Identifies counterproductive grading policies and practices, such as varying grading scales; worshipping averages; using zeros indiscriminantly; following the assign, test, grade, and teach pattern; failing to match testing to teaching; ambushing students; grading first efforts; establishing inconsistent criteria; and failing to recognize…

Argues that the schools have failed neither their students nor the American public. When placed in a historical context, the schools succeed admirably at educating 75 percent of all the nation's young people between ages 6 and 18. Enforced curriculum uniformity is racist, elitist, and would produce even more dropouts. Includes 17 references. (MLH)

As an American alone in Barcelona, Spain, the author came to understand the everyday difficulties faced by her English-as-a-Second-Language students back in California. Being relatively affluent and well-educated is no substitute for being proficient in a foreign language, but practice helps. (MLH)

Young adults without a college education and their families are suffering declining economic status and diminished opportunities. Real incomes of males aged 20-24 years fell 25 percent between 1973 and 1986. Inspired by time-tested alternative paths to work and learning recommended by Howard Gardner, the Grant Commission on Work, Family, and…