The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has resumed publication of its quarterly magazine, New Perspectives.
Publication of the journal was temporarily suspended in 1986 when the Congress cut the commission’s budget from $11.7 million to $5.7 million.
“Each issue of the magazine will examine all sides of one topic relating to civil rights,” writes editor John C. Eastman in the winter issue, the magazine’s “second inaugural.”
The return issue of New Perspectives addresses as its central topic the merits of Proposition 48, the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s controversial regulation governing academic standards and freshman athletic eligibility.
It also includes a tribute to Clarence M. Pendleton Jr., chairman of the commission from 1982 until his death in 1988.
Copies of the magazine are available at no charge from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20492.
Teachers College, Columbia University, is inviting public and private elementary- and secondary-school teachers to submit essays describing their experiences as first-year teachers for possible publication in a volume that will be used to recruit others into teaching.
With funding from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Teachers College plans to publish the best essays in a volume entitled In the Beginning.
Scheduled for publication next fall, the book will include essays of 1,500 words or less that discuss the challenges, frustrations, and rewards of the first year of teaching.
A national panel of judges--including Ernest L. Boyer, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, and Mary Hatwood Futrell, president of the National Education Association--will select the top 60 entries in the contest.
Authors of the 10 “most engaging” essays will receive $500 awards; the next 50 top writers will receive one-year subscriptions to Education Week.
Authors should submit their essays by May 1 to Pearl R. Kane, project director, and Camilla M. Vitullo, contest coordinator, at Box 125, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, N.Y. 10027.
Another essay competition, sponsored by the children’s magazine Cricket, invites young people between the ages of 5 and 14 to write about their favorite books.
Cosponsors of the “Year of the Young Reader/Cricket Essay Contest” include the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association; the Center for the Book and the Children’s Literature Center of the Library of Congress; the Book-of-the-Month Club; and Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Students between the ages of 5 and 9 are asked to write about “a best friend” from any book they have read; 10- to 14-year-olds should discuss a book that has “touched you and changed you in some way.”
The sponsors encourage librarians and teachers to organize local competitions and submit the winning essays to Cricket for national judging. Children may also send their submissions, which should be 350 words or less, directly to the magazine.
The entries, due by April 25, will be judged by the children’s book author Lloyd Alexander and Cricket’s editorial staff.
In both age brackets, the first-prize winners will receive a two-day, all-expense-paid trip for two to Washington; second-prize winners will be awarded a set of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and third-place winners will receive a set of the children’s Britannica.
The winners’ names--and several of the prize-winning essays--will be published in the July 1989 issue of the magazine.
Entries should be mailed to Lloyd Alexander, c/o Cricket League, P.O. Box 300, Peru, Ill. 61354.
The Library of Congress has published a volume of essays meant to evoke the character of children’s books in the 1920’s and 30’s.
Stepping Away From Tradition: Children’s Books of the Twenties and Thirties gathers four papers delivered at a 1984 symposium sponsored by the library’s Children’s Literature Center and Center for the Book.
The collected essays “provide a valuable firsthand account of key books, authors, illustrators, publishers, and librarians of the 20’s and 30’s who contributed so much to making this period one that truly stepped away from tradition,” writes Sybille A. Jagusch, the volume’s editor and chief of the Children’s Literature Center, in her introduction.
Copies of the book are available for $25, plus $3.50 per order for handling, from the Publishing Office, Box J, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540.
In two recent business transactions, Simon & Schuster Inc. added several educational-product lines to its offerings for teachers.
The New York-based company--the publishing arm of Gulf and Western--acquired Fearon Education and Fearon Teacher Aids from David S. Lake Publishers of Belmont, Calif.
Fearon Education produces supplementary materials for secondary-school instruction in language arts, social studies, science, mathematics, and life skills.
Fearon Teacher Aids publishes teacher-resource books for kindergarten through 8th grade.
Simon & Schuster also acquired Good Apple Inc. of Carthage, Ill., a publisher of teacher-resource materials for preschool through 9th grade.
Grassroots projects that promote reading and combat illiteracy are being invited to participate in Family Circle magazine’s second annual ''Leaders as Readers” recognition-awards campaign.
The program--cosponsored by the Council for Periodical Distributors Associations, Pizza Hut Inc., the International Reading Association, and the Kellogg Foundation--is intended to recognize the role that local reading programs can play in promoting literacy.
Applicants for the 1989 awards will be asked to describe reading problems in their communities, outline their programs, and document the results.
Awards include $100,000 in prize money and donations of books and magazines.
Entry forms for the competition are available in Family Circle and at participating Pizza Hut restaurants. Entries must be received by May 1.
The program is being administered and judged by the ira; winners will be announced in November.
For further information, write: Leaders of Readers Recognition Awards, ira, 800 Barksdale Rd., P.O. Box 8139, Newark, Del. 19714-8139.
The College Scholarship Service, the financial-aid division of the College Board, has prepared a Spanish-language version of its guide, Meeting College Costs.
Like its English counterpart, Enfrentando los Gastos de la Universidad is an eight-page booklet that estimates expenses and financial need, offers information on sources for aid, and explains the practices used in awarding financial aid.
The booklet can be ordered for $7 per package of 50 copies from College Board Publications, Box 886, New York, N.Y. 10101-0886. When ordering, please specify the title and item number: 236263.--jw
