“Listen to us,’' plead the young voices that compose a recent edition of The Boston Globe Magazine titled “In Our Own Words: A Special Issue By and About Urban Youth.’'
In what the editors say is an unprecedented effort, the staff of the magazine transformed the Feb. 6, 1994, issue into a forum for the city’s young people to create their own “self-portrait.’' Through their poems, paintings, essays, and photographs, adolescents and young adults from the Boston area reveal their innermost thoughts, creating a collage of individual fears and dreams that tells their collective story.
“It’s one way for urban youth to tell us something about themselves. It gives them a voice, through the press that sometimes stereotypes them, to tell us what they think about the issues that affect them,’' explained John Koch, coordinator of the six-month project.
Sample copies are available in limited supply. Write to: “In Our Own Words,’' The Boston Globe, Public Relations Department, P.O. Box 2378, Boston, Mass. 02107.
Excerpts from the issue will appear in an upcoming issue of Education Week.
A free guidebook of federal resources to supplement mathematics and science teaching will be available next month to elementary and secondary educators.
The Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for Mathematics and Science Education will publish 10 regional “Guidebooks to Excellence’’ that contain information from 16 federal agencies.
The resources available include teacher training opportunities, federal-agency speakers, field-trip sites, and regional teacher centers of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
To obtain a copy of the guidebook, write: Eisenhower National Clearinghouse, Ohio State University, 1929 Kenny Rd., Columbus, Ohio 43210-1079.
To better meet the needs of the elementary and secondary school markets, two large publishers have entered into agreements to purchase independent education publishers.
Houghton Mifflin will pay $138 million in cash for the Chicago publisher McDougal, Littell & Company, according to a recent report in Publishers Weekly. The acquisition is seen as a strategic move that will augment Houghton Mifflin’s strong elementary list with McDougal, Littel’s strength in the secondary school market.
Similarly, to improve its position as a supplemental education publisher, the Tribune Company, a multimedia publisher in Chicago, has agreed to pay about $100 million in cash for the Wright Group, a Seattle concern that for 19 years has published and distributed whole-language books and education materials for grades K-6.
