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http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-07/uow-wow073007.php
    <http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/200...73007.php>Waters off Washington state only second place in world where glass sponge reefs found University of Washington scientists have discovered large colonies of glass sponges thriving on the seafloor 30 miles off the coast of Washington. The species of glass sponges capable of building reefs were thought extinct for 100 million years until they were found in recent years in protected Canadian waters, the only place in the world they have been observed until now. The discovery in Washington waters extends the range of reef-building glass sponges into open ocean.

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from the August 09, 2007 edition -
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0809/p13s01-legn.html

Money test results mixed for US students


Eight out of 10 high school seniors understand
economics basics, but less than half are deemed
proficient in a first-ever test.

By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Fresh out of high school, how many American
students understand the basic economic forces at
work in their own wallets or their country's trade policies?

For the first time, national test scores have
revealed what 12th-graders know about economics
and personal finance. The results aren't likely
to set off the same kind of alarm bells triggered
by national tests on reading and math, but
observers also see plenty of room for improvement.

Seventy-nine percent of a nationally
representative sample scored at or above a basic
level ` meaning they could understand and apply a
limited set of economic concepts relating to
microeconomics, the national economy, and, to a
lesser extent, the international economy.
Forty-two percent scored "proficient" or above,
because they could analyze a wider range of
economic issues; 3 percent were "advanced."

"The Nation's Report Card: Economics 2006" was
released Aug. 8 by the US Department of
Education's National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

The proportion of students at each performance
level are as good or better than other subjects
tested by NAEP, "so I would say that's
encouraging," says Darvin Winick, chair of the
National Assessment Governing Board, which sets NAEP policy.

"Obviously we'd like to see them better," he says
of the scores, but he's also heartened that "the
number of students that report having some kind
of exposure to economics or finance is quite
high" ` about 8 out of 10 seniors. This test is
the first in what will be a series that can show
if there's progress over time. Timing for the
next economics test depends on federal funding, but it is scheduled for 2012.
Advocates of economics education see a less rosy picture.

"If you have less than 90 percent [at the basic
level] it's a warning," says Robert Duvall,
president of the National Council on Economic
Education (NCEE), an advocacy organization in New
York that has coordinated training and curriculum
resources for teachers since 1949. (He spoke with
the Monitor before he had access to the results,
which were officially released at press time.)

"Our goal is that 100 percent of our students
would have a basic understanding ... and that at
least half the students would [be] advanced....
Otherwise, they are at a disadvantage as workers
and consumers and voting citizens," adds Mr.
Duvall, whose group produced voluntary economics
standards in the 1990s and had a say in the content of the new NAEP test.
For some policymakers, the score gaps between
different groups (similar to gaps in other
subjects), are yet another sign of social and educational inequities at play.
While 87 percent of white 12th-graders scored
basic or above in economics, only 57 percent of
African-Americans and 64 percent of Hispanics
did. In addition, 44 percent of Asian/Pacific
Islander students scored proficient or above,
compared with 26 percent of American
Indian/Alaska natives, 21 percent of Hispanics,
and 16 percent of African-Americans.

Another notable gap: Of students whose parents
did not finish high school, 59 percent scored
basic or above, compared with 87 percent of those
with at least one parent who had graduated from college.

The gaps indicate that "high school students `
low income students and students of color in
particular ` are not getting the preparation they
need to meet the demands of college and the
workforce," says Daria Hall, assistant director
for K-12 policy at the Education Trust in
Washington, a group focused on closing achievement gaps.

The portion of students taking an economics class
has been on the rise ` from 49 percent in 1982 to
66 percent in 2005, according to a study of high
school transcripts cited in the NAEP report. In
another measure, a survey of the 11,500 students
taking the NAEP test (in both public and
nonpublic schools), 55 percent reported taking a
general or advanced economics course; an
additional 23 percent had had business, personal
finance, or economics lessons in other courses.

"Students are doing what we're asking of them:
They are signing up for these more rigorous
courses, they're getting better grades, and yet
... [in some courses] the content and the quality
of instruction do not actually support the
knowledge and skills students need," Ms. Hall says.

The test looked at several areas. In a section on
the market economy, or microeconomics, 72 percent
of students were able to name and describe one
benefit and one risk of someone leaving a
full-time job to further his education. But less
than half (46 percent) could interpret a
supply-and-demand graph to determine the effect
of establishing a price control. In a section on
the national economy, 60 percent could identify
factors that lead to an increase in the national
debt, but only 11 percent could analyze how a
change in the unemployment rate affects income, spending, and production.
For Bruce Damasio, a high-school economics
teacher in Towson, Md., and president of the
Global Association of Teachers of Economics, "the
good news is that economics has now been brought
up to the big-league status." Because it's being
tested like other subjects such as math and
history, educators have a chance to see what
needs to be done to bring more students up to proficiency.

One basic task, he says, is to help teens
overcome their notion that studying economics is
like having to eat broccoli. "They're afraid of
it, but they do it all the time," Mr. Damasio
says. "They don't realize they're using economic
logic when they make decisions," whether it's
using a debit card or judging the opportunity costs in choosing a college.
"Once it's put in practical terms, they get it."

Test your econ skills

The first national sample of US 12th-graders'
knowledge of economics found that 79 percent
scored at the basic level or higher, and 42
percent scored at the proficient level or higher.
Here's a brief sample of multiple-choice
questions (the test also included open-ended questions):

What happens to most of the money deposited in
checking accounts at a commercial bank?

(A) It is used to pay the bank's expenses; (B) It
is loaned to other bank customers; (C) It is kept
in the bank's vault until depositors withdraw the
funds; (D) It is paid to owners of the bank as return on their investment.
52 percent answered correctly: B

In the United States, which of the following
forms of taxation currently represents the
largest source of tax revenue for the federal government?

(A) Property tax; (B) Sales tax; (C) Corporate
income tax; (D) Personal income tax.

36 percent answered correctly: D

If there were a decrease in the worldwide
production of oil, which of the following would most likely occur?
(A) Global consumption of oil would increase; (B)
Economic growth in oil-importing countries would
decrease; (C) International spending on research
into alternative energy sources would decrease;
(D) Global exploration for new oil reserves would decrease.

63 percent answered correctly: B

Source: The Nation's Report Card: Economics 2006

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http://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2007/08/08...ards/#comment-33298
    <http://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2007/08/08...nt-33298>Comment on A religious bias against good education? by Ed Darrell

On another blog, a fellow complained that his
education in a Catholic school wasn\t close to
brainwashing. I gather he thinks I\m being unfair.

Here is what I said (with typos and phrasing corrected):

Catholic schools have a strong commitment to
strong academics. Especially in the U.S., they
come out of a tradition that says the best
defense of religious freedom, the best way to
have a good life and live it, is to learn as much
as possible. Academics are front and center in
Catholic schools &#AD; because, most Catholics
believe, such striving for excellence is a way to honor God.

Consequently, the calculus class descriptions in
Catholic schools talk seriously about calculus.
They are not fluff documents designed to make a
surface appearance that they are godly &#AD; they are
loaded with respect for the subject, for education.

The class descriptions for the school in San
Antonio show little awareness for the class
subject material. They are dilettante documents.

Here\s the description for calculus at Pope
John-Paul II High School in Tennessee:

Calculus: (1 credit)

Calculus AB and Calculus BC are primarily
concerned with developing the students\
understanding of the concepts of calculus and
providing experiences with its methods and
applications. These courses emphasize a
multi-representational approach to calculus, with
concepts, results, and problems being expressed
graphically, numerically, analytically, and
verbally. The connections between these
representations are vital to the successful
understanding of calculus. Calculus BC is an
extension of Calculus AB rather than an
enhancement. Common topics require similar depth
of understanding and both courses are intended to
be challenging and demanding. Through the use of
unifying themes of derivative, integral, limits,
and approximation, and applications and modeling,
both courses become a cohesive whole rather than
a collection of unrelated topics.

Go to the website and look at the math program at
Pope J-P II, how it\s integrated from start to
finish. Notice the AP classes &#AD; not offered at
Castle Hills FB School in San Antonio. Notice
that, while no rational person would assume that
Pope John-Paul II High School administrators,
teachers, or educational experiences are without
God, there is a strong focus on the actual subject matter.
<http://www.jp2hs.org/page.cfm?p=38>http...s.org/page.cfm?p=38
The social studies curriculum, at Castle Hills FB
school, strongly hints that they ignore the facts
of history to propagandize. The biology
curriculum statement announces boldly that they depart from science.
That\s not the road to good academics, nor to
good citizens from the students enrolled.

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>Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 06:00:00 -0800
>To: "ArcticInfo" <arcticinfo@list.arcus.org>
>From: ArcticInfo <arcticinfo@list.arcus.org>
>
>Session Announcement and Call for Papers
>Teacher Professional Development Programs Promoting Authentic Scientific
>Research in the Classroom
>American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting
>10-14 December 2007
>San Francisco, California
>
>Abstract Submission Deadline: 6 September 2007
>
>For further information, please go to:
>http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm07/?content=...w=detail&sessid=546
>
>--------------------
>Papers are invited for Session ED13: "Teacher Professional Development
>Programs Promoting Authentic Scientific Research in the Classroom" being
>convened at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting on 10-14
>December 2007 in San Francisco, California.
>
>Session Description:
>This session will focus on scientists, educators, education researchers,
>evaluators, and funding agency program officers providing K-12 teachers
>with authentic research experiences in science and engineering.
>Presentations should highlight best practices for the Teacher Research
>Experience (TRE) model. Presentations by those who design, facilitate,
>evaluate, and fund TRE programs, as well as presentations by teachers
>and scientists who have participated in such programs, are especially
>encouraged.
>
>Suggested areas for presentations may include but are not limited to:
>- the enhanced transfer of knowledge from teacher/researcher to students
>through implementing a research program within the classroom;
>- how teacher professional development programs play an essential role
>in science education reform and teacher retention and renewal;
>- examples of effective programs and techniques for assessing TRE
>programs;
>- the transformation of the educational environment into an authentic
>research center;
>- how best to prepare teachers to become part of scientific research
>teams;
>- the use of online learning in teacher professional development,
>support systems for teacher researchers, research community
>collaboration, and program assessment and evaluation;
>- examples of the value to the scientific community of involving
>teachers in research;
>- recommendations for designing and implementing research experiences
>that align with national, state, and/or local reform efforts in science
>education; and
>- the framework for conceptual learning in terms of the curricula and
>embedded research activities.
>
>Presentations on new or ongoing successful models for long- and
>short-term teacher research experiences are invited from the fields of
>space science, environmental science, atmospheric science, Earth
>science, oceanography, etc. Scientist-teacher research teams are
>particularly encouraged to submit abstracts for the session. Printed and
>CD-based materials may be brought by participants to the session to be
>distributed to attendees.
>
>Conveners:
>Constance E. Walker
>National Optical Astronomy Observatory
>E-mail: cwalker@noao.edu
>
>Steven K. Croft
>National Optical Astronomy Observatory
>E-mail: scroft@noao.edu
>
>Gail Scowcroft
>University of Rhode Island
>E-mail: gailscow@gso.uri.edu
>
>Further information and abstract submission procedures are available at:
>http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm07/
>
>Information on oral and poster education sessions from the 2005 and 2006
>AGU Fall Meetings is available at:
>http://www.noao.edu/education/agu/
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------------- ----------
>ArcticInfo is administered by the Arctic Research Consortium of the
>United States (ARCUS). Please visit us on the World Wide Web at:
><http://www.arcus.org/>;

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http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/17/1939200

    <http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/...from=rss>Putting Anti-Evolution Candidates On the Spot
hmccabe writes "YouTube is currently taking submissions for their next debate, in which the Republican candidates will answer
questions. This seems like a good opportunity to challenge those candidates who say they do not believe in evolution. But since I am not an expert in the subject, I would be interested in how you all feel the question should be presented. For my own part, I think it is important to present the overwhelming body of evidence on the subject as incontrovertible fact, much the same way DNA evidence is presented during a criminal trial, and ask why the candidate feels they can pick and choose what facts they believe in. Moreover, I am wary of coming across like Christopher Hitchins, so vitriolic the candidate will defend themselves rather than answer the question. Perhaps the most important aspect of posing the question is to inform the viewers who watch the debate that this is really not a matter of opinion, but of science. So my question is: 'Hey geneticists, have you considered addressing evolution in the YouTube debates? Can you do it in 30 seconds?'"
<http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/...00&from=rss>Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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http://www.boingboing.net/2007/08/20/digital_community_jo.html

   <http://www.boingboing.net/2007/08/20/digit..._jo.html>Digital community journalism contest
David Pescovitz: Marc Fest of the John S. and James L. Knight
Foundation writes:
It's time to enter this year's Knight News Challenge, which awards big money for innovative ideas using digital experiments to transform community news.

The contest is run by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Last year's winners won awards ranging from $15K to $5 million.

Winning projects included:

* Open-source software that will let citizens find public information about their neighborhoods.

* Young journalists covering the 2008 presidential election on cell phones, for cell phones.

* Online games to inform and engage players about key issues
confronting New York City.

* Digital newscasts for Philadelphia's immigrant community
distributed through a new citywide wireless platform.

Anyone worldwide can apply at www.newschallenge.org.
<http://www.newschallenge.org>Link

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It's a hard way to learn your employer isn't always aware of their and your best interest (hasn't a clue).
mpb

Jared Ilovar's statement
Text of his e-mail to 'The Dispatch'
Wednesday, July 25, 2007 10:48 AM

I would like to respond to the recent articles in various newspapers regarding the data tape theft, data breach, and the decision to
terminate my employment as an intern.

I am the intern who was made the scapegoat in the situation
surrounding the theft of a data tape. First I would like to clarify any misconception of whether or not my car was locked. My car was locked and it is always locked. My car was broken into and the State Police discovered scratches on the car window indicating that the car had indeed been broken in to. It is my understanding that 5 or more cars were broken in to the same night as my car was broken in to in the parking lot of my Hilliard apartment complex. Once I realized my car had been broken in to and that the tape was missing I did what I thought was best. I went straight to my employer, OAKS, and told them about the theft of the data tape. I was instructed by OAKS to not tell the Hilliard police department there was sensitive data on the tape. I followed OAKS' instructions, as I always had done in the past. I then contacted the Hilliard Police Department about the
break-in and theft.

Interesting enough following my employer's instructions has caused me quite a bit of anguish. Because of my following their instruction about not telling the police department about the sensitive data on the tape I was looked upon as if I was the criminal. I was put
through a grueling three hour polygraph test, numerous interviews with various investigators, and countless phone calls. For the
record I was never involved in the theft of the tape and the
investigators came to the same conclusion. I was a victim of a
random car theft and now I am the scapegoat for the State of Ohio.
On the subject of instructions, I was NEVER instructed by my employer on how to properly secure, store or watch over the data tapes at night. About two months into my internship a fellow intern
instructed me on how to change the daily back-up tapes by putting in a new tapes and taking out the previous night's tapes. The extent of my instructions on what to do after I removed the tapes from the tape drive and took the tapes out of the building was, "bring these back tomorrow." I was the newest person in the door so I inherited the job of taking the data tapes out of the building. That was the extent of my instructions. When I left the OAKS building I was off the clock, remember I was not a salaried network administrator. I was an intern. According to the news media there was a project policy that was last updated in April 2002. I was unaware of this policy until after the fact. It is my understanding that the policy called for the network administrator to take the backup tape to his
residence. This theft could have occurred at any time. It is
unreasonable to assume that I would never make any stops along the route at night with the back-up tapes in my possession. Should I have left the tapes in my car that night, obviously the answer is no.
The article stated that I had remembered to take the tapes out of the car 85% of the time. Based on this statement Governor Strickland was quoted as saying, "It was not just a one-time mistake." Not just a one-time mistake? I wasn't aware that I was making any
mistakes. Given the fact that I took the tapes out of the building every night and brought them back everyday, how was that making a mistake? Remember my instructions from a fellow intern were "bring these (tapes) back tomorrow". Until my car was broken in to I was doing what I was instructed to do. Only AFTER the theft of the tape was I made aware that there was some type of policy regarding these back-up tapes. I have yet to actually read the policy. I have only heard that there was a policy. As an intern, I do not create
policy, I do not interpret policy, and I do not question policy. I do what I am instructed to do. Take the tapes out of the building and return them the next day.

For weeks, Governor Ted Strickland vowed not to make me the
scapegoat. Indeed, I am the scapegoat.

On Friday, July 20, 2007, I was called in to an office and handed a letter of resignation and told, "sign this letter of resignation or you are fired." This came as quite a shock to me. They put me on the spot. I was allowed to call my parents to ask for their
advice. My parents, who were also shocked by this development,
instructed me not to sign the resignation at that very moment and to ask my employer for one hour's time so that I could make the decision after discussing my options with my parents. I got off of the phone with my parents and I was denied an hour to make this important
decision. After they denied me an hour I asked for 20 minutes. After I was denied 20 minutes I asked for 10 minutes. Again, they refused to give me 10 minutes. Within a few minutes I was strong armed in to signing the letter of resignation. I'd like to mention that the people at the table forcing this letter of resignation on me were two of my superiors, employed by the State of Ohio, and an attorney for the State of Ohio. There I was the college intern under duress being forced to sign away what I felt was an opportunity of a lifetime. Please note that at this point and time I had not totally "refused" to sign the letter of resignation I had simply asked for one hours' time to make the decision. Within 10 minutes or less my parents had called me back instructing me to NOT sign the letter of
resignation. I explained to my parents that the State had forced me to sign the letter of resignation on the spot without regard to our request for one hour of time. My parents then instructed me to go reiterate the fact that I had only asked for one hours' time and that they, two adult supervisors and their attorney, had forced me to sign this letter of resignation. After some discussion and conferring between themselves my supervisors and their attorney did allow me to rescind the letter of resignation in writing. So yes, in the end, I refused to resign and my employment was terminated.

As a college student at DeVry University this internship with the State of Ohio was a great opportunity for me. While working at OAKS I was given the opportunity to get hands on experience working in computer networking. After my internship I had hoped to have the opportunity to interview for long-term employment with the State of Ohio. I have learned some valuable lessons throughout this entire experience.
Failure and responsibility starts at the top.

I will always ask for written instructions and/or policy
instructions. I will no longer assume I am following the rules and/or policy if I haven't actually been instructed of such rules and/or policy by a supervisor and/or administrator.

I would like to thank OAKS for the opportunity they gave me several months ago and I wish the outcome of all of this was much different than it is.
Governor Strickland said that he had been trying to protect me, the intern, and that he allowed me to remain employed while the
investigation continued. For this I want to say "Thank you." Having said thank you, I would like to ask Governor Strickland and/or his administration for an internship. I would ask at the beginning of this internship for any and all rules and policies with regard to job description. I would like to move forward. I have several months before I graduate in March, 2008, and I know I would be an asset to any office. Maybe Governor Strickland's office will give me the opportunity. " http://www.dispatch.com/dispatch/content/l...5/ilovar_email.html

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http://library.med.utah.edu/blogs/BHIC/arc..._grants.html#002482

Heinemann-Raintree Publishers Announce Book Grants
Deadline: October 1, 2007
Educational publisher Heinemann-Raintree (
<http://www.heinemannraintree.com>http:/...inemannraintree.com ) has announced the launch of a new grant program for educators, the "Making the Nonfiction Connection" Grant. This grant offers schools the opportunity to apply for Heinemann- Raintree nonfiction books valued up to $5,000. The purpose of the grant is to recognize and reward extraordinary educational programs that promote the use of series nonfiction and enhance nonfiction literacy. Two grants will be awarded, one for libraries and one for classroom use.
<http://fconline.foundationcenter.org/pnd/1.../10008511/heinemann
Anna Lalor Burdick Program Supports Human Reproduction Education Projects Deadline: November 15 and May 15, annually
An initiative of the Lalor Foundation (
<http://lalorfound.org/>http://lalorfound.org/ ), the Anna Lalor Burdick Program seeks to educate young women about human reproduction in order to broaden and enhance their options in life. The program focuses particularly on young women who have inadequate access to information regarding reproductive health, including the subjects of contraception and pregnancy termination, and as such may be
particularly lacking options in their lives.
<http://fconline.foundationcenter.org/pnd/1...10008512/lalorfound

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/arts/television/21pov.html

    <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/arts/tel...1pov.html>Review: Learning the simple life with Stanley of the North
(Daniel M. Gold/New York Times, 21 August
2007)<http://www.rssmix.com//agraham/stories/storyReader$4831>;** -- Arctic Son, the documentary to be shown
tonight on the PBS series P.O.V., follows Stanley
Njootli Jr., a 20-something would-be artist, from
his aimless existence in Seattle to the Yukon
Territory of Canada, a trip taken at his fathers
invitation. ... Stan Sr. is trying to help his
son, but is also recruiting him. Its a good life,
the father says, a simple life. And speaking of
his son, Its a better life for him, to live here.
This documentary does not address a potent
subtext: Old Crow and other Gwichin settlements
are near or within the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge in Alaska. Thus the life that Stan Sr.
hopes to pass on is itself threatened by the
continuing debate about whether to allow oil
drilling in the refuge, which draws the caribou
the Gwichin need to hunt as part of their
heritage and their survival. The story [director]
Mr. [Andrew] Walton tells this is his first
documentary primarily concerns a generational
divide and a clash of cultures, and he may have
thought it best not to blur that focus. But a
strong benefit of Arctic Son is a chance to see
something of the country and the lives that remain at the mercy of others. Today 01:56 PM | Label This |
<http://localhost/#GreatNewsTag_EmailItem_217406>Email
This | <http://localhost/#GreatNewsTag_BlogThis_217406>Blog This

Television Review | 'Arctic Son'


Learning the Simple Life With Stanley of the North

Jonathan Furmanski

Stanley Njootli Jr., left, and Sr. in the Yukon Territory of Canada. * E-Mail
    *
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/arts/tel...s&pagewanted=all>;
    *
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/arts/tel...l?ref=arts#>Save
By DANIEL M. GOLD
Published: August 21, 2007

]Arctic Son,^ the documentary to be shown tonight
on the
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/ti...line=nyt-org>PBS series ]P.O.V.,^ follows Stanley Njootli Jr., a
20-something would-be artist, from his aimless
existence in Seattle to the Yukon Territory of
Canada, a trip taken at his father\s invitation.

Father and son are strangers. Stan Sr. moved back
to Old Crow, a village of some 250 members of the
Gwich\in tribe, shortly after his son\s birth,
and Stan Jr. admits to being ]angry at him not
being there^ while Stan Jr. was growing up. When
the Air North plane lands, shakily, at the Old
Crow airport, and they meet, Stan Sr. asks, ]I
don\t get a handshake or a hug?^ No, he doesn\t.

Going to Old Crow is truly going to extremes:
there are no roads into the village, which is
roughly 40 miles east of the Alaskan border and
80 miles north of the Arctic Circle. For long
journeys, the primary mode of conveyance seems to
be Ski-Doos. The physical isolation of the
region\s raw, immense expanses is literally
awesome, but indifferent and humbling as well.

Meanwhile, these aren\t the most expressive of
individuals. The director, Andrew Walton, chooses
not to use narration, and neither man is very
talkative. There are long pauses between
statements, little extended dialogue and a tension that never really fades.
Almost reluctantly, Stan Jr. begins to enjoy
learning at least some lessons in the old ways:
how to harness a team of sled dogs, set a snare
for a rabbit and unfurl a net under the ice when
fishing in winter. When he catches a rabbit, he is clearly proud.
Stan Sr. is trying to help his son, but is also
recruiting him. ]It\s a good life,^ the father
says, ]a simple life.^ And speaking of his son,
]It\s a better life for him, to live here.^

Stan Jr. returns to Seattle, though the
wilderness and its creed of self-reliance have
bitten him and his old life of drinking and
partying holds a shade less appeal. It\s not
clear what his decision will be, but he does make
his way north again by the end of the film.

This documentary does not address a potent
subtext: Old Crow and other Gwich\in settlements
are near or within the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge in Alaska. Thus the life that Stan Sr.
hopes to pass on is itself threatened by the
continuing debate about whether to allow oil
drilling in the refuge, which draws the caribou
the Gwich\in need to hunt as part of their heritage and their survival.
The story Mr. Walton tells &#AD; this is his first
documentary &#AD; primarily concerns a generational
divide and a clash of cultures, and he may have
thought it best not to blur that focus. But a
strong benefit of ]Arctic Son^ is a chance to see
something of the country and the lives that remain at the mercy of others.

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http://www.boingboing.net/2007/08/23/hula_renaissance.html

    <http://www.boingboing.net/2007/08/23/hula_...ssance.html>Hula renaissance
David Pescovitz: Smithsonian magazine looks at
the history and tradition of hula and its
reemergence from the 1950s and 60s Hawaiiana boom
that threatened to turn the beautiful dance into
a kitschy coconut bra-wearing simulacra of
itself. Apparently, there's quite a renaissance
of serious hula happening today, in Hawaii and beyond. From Smithsonian: Kumu hulas (hula masters) generally teach their
students both hula kahiko (traditional hula)
which involves chanting accompanied by percussion
instruments, and hula 'auana (modern hula) which
features songs, mainly sung in Hawaiian, and
instruments such as the ukulele and guitar. Early
hula kahiko costumes for women featured skirts
made of kapa, or bark cloth. Men wore the skirts,
too, or just a loincloth, called a malo. A lei
for the head and its counterpart for the ankles
and wrists -&#AD; called kupe'e -&#AD; were made of
plants or materials such as shells and feathers.
Hula 'auana emerged in the late 1800s, when
international visitors introduced stringed
instruments to the culture. It was at this time
that the ubiquitous grass skirts came on the
scene as well, though costumes for hula 'auana
are often more Western in appearance&#AD;fabric tops,
skirts and dresses for women, and shorts and
pants for men, but with lei and kupe'e as
adornments. These accessories, however, depend
upon which type of dance is being performed. "In
hula kahiko," says Noenoelani Zuttermeister, a
kumu hula who teaches at the University of Hawaii
at Manoa, "a circular lei would be worn on top of
the head, whereas in hula 'auana, the dancer may
affix flowers to one side of the head."

But while hula historically has involved a
merging of different cultural forms, kumu hulas
of today want blending stopped. Rather than
integrate Japanese or, say, Mexican dance
traditions with Hawaiian hula in Tokyo or Mexico
City, (kumu hula Rae) Fonseca says hula must be
kept pure, wherever it is performed. "It's up to
us teachers to stress that where we come from is
important," he says. Zuttermeister strongly
agrees: "If the link is not maintained as it
should, then we're not passing on something that
is hula and we're not being true to our culture."

<http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/...ng/iBag?a=zld1R3>;

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>16. What To Expect Your First Year Teaching [pdf]
>http://www.teachersfirst.com/whatexpect.pdf
>
>The Teachers First website has been offering up high-quality lessons,
>teaching units, and web resources for teachers for almost ten years. Along
>with these resources, they have also created a number of papers and
>presentations that are designed to support the careers of teachers who are
>just entering the profession. One such resource is the helpful 48-page
>manual by Amy DePaul titled "What To Expect Your First Year of Teaching".
>The document was prepared under the auspices of the U.S. Department of
>Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement and it contains a
>cornucopia of insights and observations from both veteran and first-year
>teachers. Visitors can skip around the report at their leisure and they may
>also wish to forward it along to other fellow educators. [KMG]

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http://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2007/08/25/you-had-to-be-there/
    <http://timpanogos.wordpress.com/2007/08/25...to-be-there/>You had to be there
Jim Easter at Some Are Boojums wondered what it
would look like if we assumed in history what
creationists claim about biology, geology,
paleontology, archaeology and astronomy &#AD; ]No one
alive today was there, so no one can say what
happened.^ His detailing of the ]10 Questions to
Ask Your History Teacher^ is a parody of [...]



<http://www.someareboojums.org/blog/?p=21>Ten
Questions to Ask Your History Teacher

One of my objectives in self-improvement is to
stop correcting people who misuse the phrase ]begs the question.^ As has been said about teaching a pig to sing, it
wastes your time and annoys the pig.
But even if we feel awkward telling people
]that\s not what [begging the question\ means^, we still need an example of what it does mean.

Luckily, the Discovery Institute has supplied a
valuable teaching tool in the form of a
<http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/05/03/...92524.shtml>list of ten questions, each one more question-begging
than the last, for students to ask their biology teachers.

Now, some people would recommend that anyone who
starts a sentence with ]Why don\t textbooks
discuss the [Cambrian explosion\,^ be smacked
with a rolled-up newspaper until he stops peeing on people\s brains.
But not me!

I think what we need is a lot more
question-begging, willfully ignorant, smug,
supercilious hooey posing as innocent requests for fairness and balance!
I feel so strongly about this that I\ve even
generated a starter kit for those who want to
bring this noble crusade to the rest of the academic disciplines.
So &#AD; kids, the next time your history teacher
starts trying to force-feed you Revolutionary
]theory^ as if it were ]fact^, you know what to do!
Ten Questions to Ask Your History Teacher

Q: ORIGIN OF GOVERNMENTS: Why do history
textbooks claim that the modern British monarchy
originated with the ]Norman conquest^, in ]1066 ,
when nobody has ever seen a calendar for that
year, and there has never been an English king named ]Norman^?
Q: WASHINGTON\S BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT: Why don\t
textbooks discuss the ]Civil War,^ or the fact
that all US governmental bodies appear together
at that time, instead of branching from a
Constitution &#AD; thus contradicting revolutionary theory?

Q: THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: Why do
history textbooks claim that the ]Revolutionary
War^ started with a ]Declaration of Independence^
and quote its words, then claim that a
suspiciously old-looking document in Washington
D.C is the same document because it contains the
same words, &#AD; a circular argument masquerading as historical evidence?
Q: GEORGE WASHINGTON. It is well known that the
infamous ]cherry tree^ story was faked, and that
]George Washington^ never said ]I cannot tell a
lie^ &#AD; that is, if he ever existed. Why do
textbooks use drawings or ]artist\s conceptions^
of ]George Washington^ as evidence that he
existed? Why does no single history textbook
anywhere point out that there are no photographs
- zero! - of ]George Washington^ in existence?

Q: ALEXANDER HAMILTON. Why do some history
textbooks give Alexander Hamilton\s year of birth
as 1755, and others as 1757? Why do historians
refuse to discuss, or even acknowledge, the
controversy? Why do many textbooks even claim
that this (probably imaginary) figure was killed
in a duel with ]Aaron Burr^? Take out a $10 bill
and see whose picture is on it. Do you think this
duel actually occurred, and that the US then
decided to put the loser\s picture on its currency?

Q: WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELAWARE. Why do
history textbooks all use the same picture of
]Washington Crossing the Delaware^ &#AD; when
historians have been aware for years that the
picture was staged? Any idiot knows that you
can\t get ten guys in a canoe without capsizing,
and ]Washington^ is standing up? Get real.

Q: SILLY HATS. Why do textbooks claim that
Revolutionary Fashion can explain the use of
Tricorner Hats by the colonists &#AD; even though
these hats were not used in the French
Revolution, and there are no such silly hats anywhere else in history?
Q: REVOLUTIONARY WAR. Why do textbooks represent
the Revolutionary War as having been won through
a series of ]small victories^ when, every time
you look at an actual battle the colonists fought
against the British, as likely as not they got
their asses handed to them? Do you think a nation
as magnificently complex as the United States
could come about through a random, undirected
sequence of military engagements?

Q: GOVERNMENTAL ORIGINS. Why are artists\
drawings of a bunch of middle-aged guys in poofy
wigs used to justify Revolutionary claims that we
are all descended from a parcel of ninnies who
didn\t have the sense to be at the beach in July
&#AD; when historians cannot even agree on who they
were or what their actual hair looked like?

Q: THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION A FACT? Why are we
told that the American Revolution is an
historical fact &#AD; even though many Revolutionary
claims are based on misrepresentations of the facts?

And remember &#AD; when some liberal revolutionist
starts spouting off about imaginary events
supposed to have taken place in 1776, all you
have to do is look him in the eye and ask ]Were you there?^

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>'Letters to a Young Teacher' by Jonathan Kozol and 'A Class Apart'
>by Alec Klein
>By Erin Aubry Kaplan
>The ideals of public education are still a long way off in this land
>of plenty.
>http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/eBWR80Mm2NO0G2B0IsSV0Ex
Letters to a Young Teacher' by Jonathan Kozol and 'A Class Apart' by Alec Klein The ideals of public education are still a long way off in this land of plenty. By Erin Aubry Kaplan
August 26, 2007
If only it could have been one book.

Such was my wishful thinking, infused with a certain anger, as I read "Letters to a Young Teacher" and "A Class Apart," two up-close
accounts of two radically different public school experiences written by, respectively, veteran educator Jonathan Kozol and Washington Post reporter Alec Klein. Of course, I figured just by the titles and authors that I was in for much more contrast than convergence. Kozol, 70, is the unsparing social critic and fierce public-school advocate whose last work, "The Shame of the Nation," detailed the almost
intractable nature of public-school inequality in America 50 years after Brown vs. Board of Education; Klein, 40, is a journalist who in his book appears less influenced by political ideology than by the tenets of modern feature writing, which include a conscious
neutrality on deeper education issues.

"Letters" uses the time-honored literary device of correspondence to steadily illuminate the long-standing concerns of the letter writer and those of Francesca, a novice first-grade teacher who toils in the tough, mostly black Roxbury area of Boston and who functions as
Kozol's younger alter ego; "Class" is much more diffuse, full of characters, situations and odd moments meant to feel like an almost random year-in-the-life look at exclusive, high-powered Stuyvesant High School in New York City -- Klein's alma mater, by the way.

A quick comparison of the two yields a predictable picture of one school beset by poverty and racial isolation and is nearly hostile to the needs of its pupils, and another that is a bright, open oasis of resources and creativity designed to exploit every bit of talent and brain power that its student body is assumed to have in abundance. That the Roxbury school is elementary and Stuyvesant (Stuy for short) is secondary doesn't blunt the point. Wishful thinking, indeed.

And yet, there is hope -- that is, there is some basis for comparison and, perhaps, fruitful commiseration between schools that are so unlike but that still share a singular responsibility for educating young people as thoroughly as possible. Both schools are part of similar systems -- dealing on a daily basis with bureaucratic and political headaches such as budget cuts, inadequate staffing and the installation of forbidding security devices imposed by a central office. Both are obsessively defined by numbers and test scores.

Most important, both writers are oriented by a persistent idealism born of their experience. True, Kozol's experience is much broader -- he views things through the lens of a teacher and activist, while Klein does so mostly as a former student at one of the country's most celebrated high schools. But faith in the potential of public schools to be great agents of change is what matters.

"Letters to a Young Teacher" could have collapsed under the weight of its own sincerity, but to Kozol's credit, it doesn't (although it's hard to imagine that he didn't prep these letters for publication, so measured are they and so witheringly analytical -- often in the same paragraph). Although it sounds contrived, the "Dear Francesca" that begins each chapter (this name, Kozol tells us, is used to disguise the teacher's identity) turns out to be an appropriately personal, old-fashioned way to hold forth on a gray topic like the endangered state of public education, especially given that Francesca's charges are about 6 or so. Also, the conceit of a conversation between a wise elder and his young acolyte is a welcome departure from an extended activist essay that, however impassioned, can quickly sound like an echo chamber.

Kozol clearly revels in being a kid again. He visits Francesca's class frequently and vicariously delights in the whole bumpy journey of first-time teaching (Kozol also spent his first teaching year in the Roxbury area in 1960). "Letters" allows Kozol to freely
reminisce, reflect, recall his own mistakes and to connect with a new generation of students. The basic revelation here is that Kozol, the perennial bearer of bad news about segregated and underfunded
schooling, is also an indefatigable idealist who is as inspired by inner-city kids as he is appalled by the conditions in which they are expected to learn. Making matters worse is the American
education-industrial complex, which traffics in jargon and stresses things such as high-stakes testing as primary "accountability tools" that in Kozol's mind are uncreative, punitive and rob black and
Latino students of their humanity and sense of self-worth.

In "The Uses of Diversity," a brief, devastating chapter, he explores our ongoing abuse of the concept of diversity -- calling schools with only black and brown faces "diverse," for instance, or teaching kids on Martin Luther King Day that non-diversity is a thing of the past -- and suggests that it is one of the worst intellectual crimes of the age. Yet none of this dampens Kozol's enthusiasm for the
education game. What "Letters" does best is chart the positive
tension between his lifelong indignation and the renewable joy of being in the classroom, something essential to all good teaching whether one is in Boston, Manhattan or Los Angeles.

Klein may not be the best person to tell the story of Stuyvesant, a school for the gifted and talented that is the most rarefied of
several New York public high schools that have entrance exams.
Admittedly, it's hard to generate sympathy for students geared from birth for a fabulous success that most of us will never experience. But Klein doesn't help by coming off at times as smug and
self-congratulatory, and by forcing drama in many story lines that are really observations.

"A Class Apart" is not without some intrigue. There's freakish math whiz Milo, who's only 10 but already on a high-school track; his teacher Mr. Siwanowicz, brilliant but chronically depressed and
living with his parents; slight, self-destructive Jane, who shoots heroin and pens some of the most incisive poetry her English teacher has ever read. But all this obscures the larger picture, which is that Stuy is a factory turning out super-students -- that is,
students who live and die by test scores, rankings, GPAs and the various rituals of college prep, preferably Ivy League. Klein's
students are likable, sweet but dull; they risk nothing. I expected more from genius.

The chapter "Open House," a quick profile of Stuy's demographics, bolsters Kozol's argument that diversity has become an elastic idea that means whatever people want it to mean. According to Klein, in a city where 70% of public school students are black and Latino, Stuy has 2% black enrollment and Asians account for 55% of the student body. To Klein, these are simply facts, not a paradox. Of the three black students he follows in the book, two are apolitical and, as it happens, biracial. (Klein's emphasis on this is bothersome -- is his point that being half-white makes these students better than black? More deserving?) Nor does Klein challenge a reverence among his
subjects for the American dream, a writ of individual
hyper-achievement that has supplanted an ambitious but short-lived American dream of integration. Klein uses problematic words such as "quotas" when he addresses criticisms of Stuy's lack of diversity. To Klein, having Asians, Russians and gays on campus is diversity. He is not wrong, but his vision is incomplete.

In his epilogue, Klein lauds Stuy for its solid Jeffersonian ideals. "The founding father," he says, "believed in the ideal of making education available to every citizen as a way to ward off tyranny, but he also believed in fostering an aristocracy of talent." Klein wants it both ways in public school, which is admirable, but what he doesn't or refuses to realize is that aristocracy beats availability hands down. "Aristocracy" is not simply about money: Plenty of Stuy parents are of modest means. But they are repeatedly characterized as hard-working, immigrant cabdrivers and deli owners who cherish
education; by implication, native blacks and poor Latinos living beyond Stuy's multimillion-dollar facade do not.

But back to commonality. Among Kozol's more uplifting chapters,
"Teachers as Witnesses," is an open letter to educators, reminding them that they are natural activists and agitators and that despite the education-industrial complex, they should never shy away from that role. He tells a story of how he once read Langston Hughes' poetry to his students, to great response, and subsequently got fired because Hughes' poetry was "out of compliance." Kozol says teachers must always question compliance, an attitude certainly shared by the unorthodox teachers at Stuy whom Klein so affectionately describes. That kind of intellectual activism is as much the job of a teacher at a vaunted school as it is for a teacher anywhere else: Compliance can be used to maintain an unsatisfactory status quo; it can allow low expectations to masquerade as high ones. Schools like Stuy
internalized this decades ago, but many others have not. Summing up the students' grueling year and the liberation of graduation, Klein remarks: "There is only what lies ahead." How different that sentence plays in Roxbury. U.S. education, alas, is far from being one story. Erin Aubry Kaplan is a contributing editor to The Times' Opinion page. *

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>Take notes: websites for students
>By David Colker
>What did students ever do without the Web? Maybe
>learn less about topics their parents would
>prefer remain under wraps. &#B6; But undeniably, the
>Internet is a tremendous research and study
>tool. &#B6; In that spirit, here's our annual guide
>to free sites in a variety of topics that crop
>up from grade school through college. &#B6; The list
>begins with five super-sites that go to the head of the class.
>http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/eBWR80Mm2NO0G2B0IsSO0Eq
Take notes: websites for students
By David Colker, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 26, 2007
What did students ever do without the Web? Maybe
learn less about topics their parents would prefer remain under wraps.
But undeniably, the Internet is a tremendous research and study tool.
In that spirit, here's our annual guide to free
sites in a variety of topics that crop up from grade school through college.
The list begins with five super-sites that go to the head of the class.
ACADEMIC ALL-STARS

* www.crf-usa.org/links/research1.html: The Los
Angeles-based, nonprofit Constitutional Rights
Foundation, which sponsors youth programs to
promote civic responsibility, also offers on its
site hundreds of links to a variety of school subjects.

* www.ipl.org: Started as a class project at the
University of Michigan, the Internet Public
Library provides a clickable index of research
sites in numerous fields. It's now maintained by
a consortium of colleges and universities.

* vos.ucsb.edu: The Voice of the Shuttle (the
name refers to weaving on a loom) from UC Santa
Barbara has been compiling links to academic topics for more than a decade.
* www.doaj.org: More than 800 professional
journals concerning science, education, the arts
and other topics can be searched on this
Directory of Open Access Journals site.

ANATOMY

* www.bartleby.com/107: The 1918 version of Henry
Gray's "Anatomy of the Human Body" (not to be
confused with the TV show "Grey's Anatomy")
provides descriptions and vibrant illustrations.

* www.innerbody.com: An interactive guide to not
only the skeletal but also the digestive,
muscular, cardiovascular and other systems.

ARCHAEOLOGY

* archnet.asu.edu: Links to museums, digs and
academic papers, maintained by Arizona State
University. It's organized by topic and geography.

* www.cyberpursuits.com/archeo: In addition to
links, this site provides a guide to recent magazines and journal articles.
ART HISTORY

* witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHLinks.html: Comprehensive
set of links to sites dealing with art periods, artists and museums.
* www.metmuseum.org/toah: The Metropolitan Museum
of Art's timeline of art history, from cave drawings to the present.
BIOLOGY

* www.biology-online.org: This site, maintained
by current and former students worldwide,
contains not only links but also tutorials and a
forum where questions can be posted.

* www.biology.arizona.edu: This University of
Arizona site features links organized by topic.

CHEMISTRY

* www.chemicalelements.com: There are lots of
websites dealing with the periodic table of
elements, but this one is particularly well
designed and easy to use. It was created in 1996
as an eighth-grader's science fair project.

* www.chemdex.org: The University of Sheffield in
England maintains this site, which has more than 7,000 links.

*
antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/index.shtml:
Need practice? This Frostburg State University
site features quizzes, tutorials and animated demonstrations.

CONVERSION TOOLS

* www.sciencemadesimple.com/conversions.html:
Online metric conversions, and vice versa, of
distance, area, weight, speed, temperature and other measurements.
* www.minneapolisfed.org/research/data/us/calc:
Inflation calculator from the Federal Reserve
Bank of Minneapolis shows average changes in
prices between any two years, from 1913 to the present.

DEMOGRAPHICS

* factfinder.census.gov: This site was put
together by officials at the Census Bureau, so
it's not exactly user-friendly. But with a bit of
patience, you can unearth detailed U.S. population information.

LANGUAGES

* babelfish.altavista.com/tr: Translates words
and whole sites from English into 12 languages
and vice versa. But often inexactly.

* www.verbix.com/webverbix/index.asp: Conjugates verbs in 81 languages.
* www.ethnologue.com: Information on the world's 6,912 known living languages.
LITERATURE

* www.gutenberg.net: Even before the Web as we
know it was born, this wonderful literary service
began digitizing public-domain works. There are
now more than 20,000 downloadable books on the site.

* www.cliffsnotes.com: The famed Cliffs Notes
study guides to literary classics can be read on the website for free.
* www.sparknotes.com: Similar to Cliffs Notes,
but in some cases more comprehensive. There are
also message forums here, so you can discuss the books with others online.
MATH

* www.algebrahelp.com: Algebra practice problems
and other helpers, such as lists of prime numbers.

* www.mathplayground.com/flashcards.html:
Remember flashcards? Here's an online version of
them plus other math games, mostly on the grammar-school level.

* www.webmath.com: A review of problems and
formulas, from grade-school arithmetic level to high-school calculus.
MUSIC

* www.music.indiana.edu/music_resources: From
Indiana University comes this list of music
links, organized by genre, composer and
performer. It includes classical and popular music.

* www.carolinaclassical.com/links.html: Extensive
links, organized by musical eras from the Middle Ages to the present.
* www.essentialsofmusic.com: Brief biographies of
composers and descriptions of eras.

PHILOSOPHY

* plato.stanford.edu/contents.html: The online
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, founded in
1995, is a work in progress that at this point
provides 1,000 essays by professionals in the field.

* www.utm.edu/research/iep: The Internet
Encyclopedia of Philosophy is aimed at a more
general readership than the Stanford site.

* www.epistemelinks.com/index.aspx: This site
offers thousands of links to information on more than 450 philosophers.
POLITICAL SCIENCE

* thomas.loc.gov: The Library of Congress site
includes the daily Congressional Record and updates on pending legislation.
* www.psr.keele.ac.uk/official.htm: Links to the
websites of governments worldwide, including some governments in exile.
PSYCHOLOGY

* allpsych.com: A hodgepodge of links and
information, including a glossary of basic terms,
self-evaluation tests and career guides.

* www.psychology.org: Nearly 2,000 links to publications and resources.
WORLD FACTS

* www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook: Not
everything the CIA does is secret. Its handy
World Factbook provides data on numerous
counties. A listing includes a nation's
population, geography, government type,
industries, agriculture, languages and broadcast
stations. The site is updated about every two weeks.

david.colker@latimes.com

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>Leaving art out of history
>By Richard Pells
>American academics' focus on social history ignores the
>contributions of music, art and literature. The loss is ours.
>http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/eBWR80Mm2NO0G2B0IsSc0EC



Leaving art out of history
American academics' focus on social history ignores the contributions of music, art and literature. The loss is ours.
By Richard Pells
August 26, 2007
How did George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" reflect both the Jewish and African American experience in America? Why was Ernest
Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises" so influential for modern fiction and journalism? What was Abstract Expressionism, and why did Jackson Pollock become a cultural hero for many Americans in the 1950s? How did Marlon Brando's performance as Stanley Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire" transform American acting, first on stage and then in the movies?
If you are a college student taking a course in American history, you are unlikely to get the answers to any of these questions. The
questions won't even be posed. Nor will the names of American
painters, composers, novelists or filmmakers appear in the lectures or on reading lists. The vast majority of American historians no longer regard American culture as an essential area of study.
Instead, what they care about is social history -- the struggles and hard-won accomplishments of women, workers, African Americans,
Latinos, Asians and Native Americans in a country often inhospitable to the poor and the powerless.

This disinterest in American cultural and intellectual life is a recent development. From the 1940s until the 1960s, a generation of American historians wrote books and taught courses that emphasized the significance of American artists, writers, musicians and film directors. These historians had personally experienced, as soldiers or visiting professors abroad, the struggles against totalitarianism during World War II and the Cold War. So they were preoccupied with explaining what was distinctive and democratic about the American "mind" or the national "character." And culture was one of the most persuasive ways of identifying what distinguished the United States from its enemies, whether in Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union.

The next generation of American historians came of age during the Vietnam War, the civil rights and women's movements, and the
immigration from Latin America and Asia. The convulsions of the 1960s forced faculty and students to ask: Whose mind? Whose character? Whose novels or music? The earlier fascination with American art and literature now seemed elitist and oblivious to the historical
predicaments of ordinary people. Starting in the 1970s, it became unfashionable for historians to write or teach about America as a community of shared beliefs and values, defined by its artists and intellectuals. The new scholarship concentrated instead on the
divisive repercussions of race, class, gender and ethnicity.

We have learned a lot from these revisionist interpretations of
American history. We know more today about the inequities in the nation's past. Yet the fixation with social history has led to a severe case of tunnel vision among American historians, an almost exclusive preoccupation with the exploited and victimized, along with an oppressive orthodoxy about what kinds of courses should be taught and who should be hired at universities.

More important, social history is often too narrowly conceived, so that (especially in an age of globalization) it doesn't really
explore the cultural encounters between the United States and the rest of the world. One of the fields in social history currently in vogue is the "borderlands." Borderlands could mean an analysis of how American and foreign cultures collide with and alter one another. For most historians, however, borderlands has assumed a limited
geographical designation: a study of Latin American (mostly Mexican) immigration to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. This
migration has obviously had a significant effect on American politics and society. But such a restrictive focus on a particular region and ethnic group does not encourage a recognition of the broader
participation of the United States in the emergence of a global culture.
Of course, if students want to learn more about American culture, they can choose a class in art, film or American literature. But because most universities require courses in American history, the indifference to culture among historians has had devastating
consequences for the quality of American education.

Like all professors, historians regularly complain that their
students are culturally illiterate -- that they're familiar with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, but not with Charlie Chaplin, Aaron Copland, Charlie Parker, Arthur Miller or even Marilyn Monroe. Yet this lack of knowledge is not the students' fault. How can students be expected to have heard of any preeminent American artists and actors if their history professors never mention them in class?
Universities are turning out students who can tell you about
midwives, sharecroppers and blue-collar workers but not about
architects, poets or symphony conductors.

But maybe the situation in our universities, if not in our history departments, is not quite so bleak. For one thing, non-academics (such as Neal Gabler and Richard Schickel) continue to write about the history of American culture. And "presidential" historians (such as Doris Kearns Goodwin and Michael Beschloss) write bestsellers about Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson.
Students read the books of these authors. And over the last 10 years, new fields, such as environmental and international history, have become increasingly important as students and the rest of us become more concerned with such problems as global warming and the specter of terrorism.

Meanwhile, students have greater access than any previous generation to the great works of American culture. They can buy, rent or
download Sidney Lumet's 1960 television production of "The Iceman Cometh," with Jason Robards and a very young Robert Redford. They can see Dustin Hoffman in 1985 as Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman." They can learn something about Gershwin's blending of the minor
chords in the songs of Jewish cantors with the blues of African
American jazz by viewing the films of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, or about Parker's life and music by watching Clint Eastwood's "Bird." And they can grasp why Brando became a revolutionary actor as well as a cultural icon by watching "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "On the Waterfront."

Whether students take advantage of these opportunities is uncertain. But if some of them do, they may figure out for themselves why
American culture still matters not only to those of us who grew up admiring Pollock, Orson Welles and Saul Bellow but to people all over the world who are affected every day by American movies, music and literature.
Richard Pells is a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin. His books include "Not Like Us: How Europeans Have Loved, Hated and Transformed American Culture Since World War II." A longer version of this article appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

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CHANNEL ISLAND
CBS puts kids in reality TV's tender care
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/...ment&track=ntottext 'Kid Nation' doesn't exactly sound like summer camp.
By Scott Collins, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 26, 2007
OTHER TV executives must be envious. In the midst of an August
notably devoid of buzz for new fall shows, CBS is already getting a huge burst of PR for one of its efforts.

Unfortunately for the rest of us, the show in question is "Kid
Nation," the reality series that dumped 40 children at a New Mexico ranch for six weeks without any contact with parents or tutors. And although CBS says an army of child psychologists and others was on hand to keep the peace, it's unclear how many of these
network-employed grown-ups were interested in the welfare of
something besides a TV show.

What's clear is that the kids were overseen by TV producers and film crews who egged on the little ones to act out a junior-varsity
version of "Survivor."

As a parent who's covered the television business exclusively for nearly a decade, I just think of the phrase "healthy environment for kids," and the first thing that pops into mind is the set of a reality-TV show.
"She feels like it was summer camp," Peggy, the mother of a
12-year-old "Kid Nation" resident, told my colleague Maria Elena Fernandez, who's been following the story. (CBS says it won't give out last names to protect the kids' privacy -- as if the kids will still have any once this thing airs on national TV.)

The show's executive producer, Tom Forman, also used the "summer camp" comparison.

Sure, it's a lot like camp, if by "camp" you mean a place where the organizers won't let you participate unless you sign a 22-page,
single-spaced, legally exhaustive contract allowing them to whisk your child to unspecified "remote" and "inherently dangerous"
locations. And wash their hands of any responsibility for the kid's life or safety (including any failure to conduct thorough background checks or to keep kids free from HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases: Who says our society won't give pedophiles an even break?). And, yes, stick a camera in the child's face anytime except for
bathroom breaks.

The kind of camp this brings to mind has nothing to do with canoes, hiking and s'mores. The nation in "Kid Nation" makes North Korea sound utopian.
"It's ghastly and a shame," Paul Petersen, a former child actor, told me, referring to "Kid Nation." Petersen runs A Minor Consideration, a nonprofit watchdog and advocacy group that monitors child labor in the entertainment industry. "I've never seen anything like this, in terms of wanton disregard for the lives of children."

Faced with questions, authorities in New Mexico have admitted that a crackdown on the producers is now probably "moot," given that
production wrapped in May. But last week, New Mexico's attorney
general announced an investigation into whether state laws had been broken, valiantly slamming the door on the now-empty barn.

CBS, meanwhile, is defending itself with statements that sound
drafted by the same lawyers who wrote that 22-page contract. The series was produced "within all applicable laws in the state of New Mexico at the time of the production," the network says, with
"procedures and safety structures that arguably rival or surpass any school or camp in the country."

Love that "arguably." Well, who's going to argue? Certainly not the parents, who signed away their rights to speak publicly about "Kid Nation" without CBS' permission and face a $5-million penalty if they disobey. (Once I made clear my feelings about the show, a CBS
spokesman declined on Friday to make any parents available for this column.)
You might say: Oh, what's the big deal? Kids act on TV shows all the time, don't they?

Sure they do; CBS owes part of its ratings success, in fact, to
13-year-old Angus T. Jones, the kid on the sitcom hit "Two and a Half Men."
But children's work on most shows, including those produced in
California, are governed by state laws designed to protect kids. That's why child actors like Jones have restricted working hours, specific educational requirements, access to accredited "studio
teachers" and the like. Whether those laws work well or even at all is open to debate -- the histories of Lindsay Lohan, Michael Jackson, Gary Coleman and many other former child stars make you wonder, don't they? -- but those are the laws.

But really, who wants to get buried under a bunch of boring old
statutes when there's a reality series at stake? CBS filmed in New Mexico, where child labor enforcement is perceived to be much more lax than in California. The network also says the "Kid Nation" kids weren't employees, although here's betting the network won't mind reaping profits from whatever it calls what the kids were doing on its behalf.
Federal child-labor laws may not apply, because Hollywood has enjoyed an exemption for kid actors since the 1930s. "Kid Nation" suggests it might be time to revisit that exemption now. Want television network executives to take this issue seriously? Threaten their supply of photogenic juveniles who can do "adorable" on cue.

Meanwhile, who will protect children from the ravenous eyes,
rapacious fingers and ratings-ravaged brains of TV executives? That should be a job for their parents, although the ones of the "Kid Nation" participants seem to have checked their brains and their judgment at the office door of Forman, the show's producer.

When asked whether she was concerned about her child's safety on the "Kid Nation" set, Shari, the mother of a 15-year-old boy from Nevada, told The Times' Fernandez: "You can't stop living and put yourself in a bubble because of safety. You lose out on some of life's
experiences that teach you the most." (Yeah, like the time Mom left you for six weeks in the desert with a reality-TV crew.)

Suzanne, the mother of a 10-year-old Florida boy, said she asked her son how he'd feel if the show ended up revealing an embarrassing personal secret on national TV. "And he said he was fine with it, and I have confidence in him," she said.

Really, the faith that these parents have in the responsibility and sensitivity of reality-TV producers they hardly know is nearly as touching as the speed with which they surrender to their minor
children the power to make and cope with life-altering, and possibly life-threatening, decisions.

Maybe the kids of "Kid Nation" weren't the only little children who needed protecting here.

Some skeptics on the Los Angeles Times' Internet message boards have dismissed the criticism of "Kid Nation" by saying everyone should hold fire until the show airs (CBS has sent out only a brief
highlight reel so far). But we already know all we need to about the circumstances under which "Kid Nation" was produced; the actual
content is beside the point. This isn't about the show's artistic merits.
This ultimately comes down not to parents or courts or TV execs, but to you and me. One doesn't get the sense CBS is ashamed of the
controversy. Quite the contrary: They're vowing to air "Kid Nation" and are even making plans for another installment. Bad PR? There ain't no such thing, not in the TV world.

If adults want to engage in the freak-show exhibitionism that passes for much of the reality-show genre, that's their prerogative. But this is about kids. Remember them? Kids, whom our society pays
endless lip service to protecting. Remember them before you tune in to "Kid Nation."

The Channel Island column runs every Monday in Calendar. Contact Scott Collins at scott.collins@latimes.com