As part of a two-year initiative on education, Business Week has published a white paper by Denis P. Doyle calling on the business community to “take the reins” of school reform.
The advertising-sponsored monograph, entitled “Endangered Species: Children of Promise,” appears in the magazine’s “Corporate Elite” special issue, dated Oct. 20.
In what Business Week describes as an effort to “focus national attention and foster creative approaches to revitalizing American education,” it will also present the paper’s conclusions at regional conferences across the country beginning next March.
In addition, the magazine will contribute 10 percent of the advertising revenue generated by the white paper for grants to educators who have created and implemented successful programs in their schools and communities.
Mr. Doyle, who is senior research fellow at the Hudson Institute and co-author of Winning the Brain Race, writes in the paper that the private sector must assume leadership of school restructuring because “no one else will, and if business fails to do so, business itself will fail.”
The key motivation for business, he observes, is not altruism but the importance of education as “the source of economic growth and prosperity.”
Outlining a plan for action, he cites the need for “three C’s” in programs involving schools and business: communication, cooperation, and collaboration.
The business community “must expect no less of schools than it expects of itself,” Mr. Doyle concludes.
The special issue of Business Week will remain on sale at newsstands until Dec. 19.
A new interdisciplinary journal dedicated to promoting leadership and exploring public issues made its debut in October.
Aimed at present and future leaders in academia and business, The Aspen Institute Quarterly will feature essays by prominent figures in those sectors and will include reviews of books on national and international problems, according to the journal’s managing editor, William J. Hingst.
The quarterly is published by the Aspen Institute, an international think tank concerned with the “capacity of leaders to deal effectively with issues that challenge democratic institutions,” and will serve as an extension of the ideas addressed by the institute in its executive seminars and policy programs.
Among the contributors to the publication’s inaugural issue are the philosopher and educator Mortimer J. Adler, Shirley M. Hufstedler, the first U.S. Secretary of Education, and John W. Gardner, former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare and founder of Common Cause.
The subscription rate for the 144-page journal is $30 for one year, $55 for two years. Inquiries should be addressed to the Aspen Institute, P.O. Box 444, Wye Center, Carmichael Rd., Queenstown, Md. 21658.
The noted children’s author Scott O’Dell died of cancer last month in Mount Kisco, N.Y. He was 91.
Mr. O’Dell’s novel Island of the Blue Dolphins won the John Newbery prize in 1961, awarded by the American Library Association for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. Three other works by Mr. O’Dell were named Newbery honor books.
A descendant of Sir Walter Scott, Mr. O’Dell was also awarded the 1972 Hans Christian Andersen Medal, given to the author whose works have made a lasting contribution to literature for the world’s children.
Island of the Blue Dolphins, which was made into a movie in 1964, depicts the life of a 19th-century Indian girl who lives alone on an island off the Pacific coast.
Mr. O’Dell’s most recent novel, My Name Is Not Angelica, was published last month by Houghton Mifflin.
Another children’s author, Walter Farley, creator of the popular “Black Stallion” novels, died of heart failure last month in Venice, Fla. He was 74.
The 21st and final work in the series of stories about horses and children will be published by Random House this month. The Young Black Stallion was written by Mr. Farley with his son Steve.
Since the publication of The Black Stallion in 1941, more than 12 million copies of his novels about the Arabian horse and his other books for children have been sold in 14 countries.
Two films--The Black Stallion (1979) and The Black Stallion Returns (1983)--were made from his novels.
The Australian author and illustrator Graeme Base is the artist for a poster issued by the American Library Association to commemorate the observance of 1990 as “International Literacy Year” by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.
In the poster, Mr. Base, creator of the international best-selling alphabet book Animalia, depicts the animals of the world getting along together because of their ability to read.
International Literacy Year has been organized by unesco to advance the goal of eradicating illiteracy by the year 2000.
The full-color poster can be ordered for $6 by writing ala Graphics, 50 East Huron St., Chicago, Ill. 60611; or by calling (800) 545-2433. Orders totaling less than $20 must be prepaid.
In honor of the “Year of the Young Reader,” the American Center for Design and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress have published a book featuring visual interpretations of each letter of the alphabet.
ZYX: 26 Poetic Portraits is designed to stimulate interest in language by presenting the alphabet in a creative manner.
The Chicago-based acd, formerly the Society of Typographic Arts, is a national association of graphic artists.
Twenty-six designers, illustrators, and photographers contributed to the volume; verses by the poet Rhodes Patterson accompany the illustrations.
Copies of ZYX: 26 Poetic Portraits are available for $50, prepaid, from the acd, 233 East Ontario St., Suite 500, Chicago, Ill. 60611.--jw & lc
