Issues

November 1989

Teacher Magazine, Vol. 01, Issue 02
Education For Your Information
National Runaway Switchboard: 800-621-4000 (in Illinois call: 800-9726004). A crisis intervention network of trained volunteers offers confidential help to children under 18 years of age who are thinking of running away or have run away. Children can also receive professional advice via conference calls.
November 1, 1989
2 min read
Education Abused Responsibility
Most of the teachers surveyed said they didn't report their suspicions to the proper authorities because they were not sure of their ability to spot abuse, they did not know about the reporting requirement, and they feared legal retribution. Ninety-five percent of the districts studied had a written procedure for reporting suspected abuse, but 43 percent of the teachers from those districts did not know their schools had such a policy.
November 1, 1989
1 min read
Education Hooked on Teaching
"Try me,'' the girl said. "Give me a logic problem.'' He did. Soon she asked for another. Then Stephen gave her a whole worksheet. She asked for a grade and another worksheet. "After a while, I'd given her four or five worksheets,'' Stephen recounts. "Then some friends asked for a sheet of problems, too.'' Stephen had discovered teaching.
November 1, 1989
8 min read
Education A Measure Of Self-Control
Minnesota has become the first state in the nation to give teachers a voting majority on a fully autonomous board that sets standards for entry into teaching.
November 1, 1989
4 min read
Education The 'Half-Told Story'
The report analyzes the five high school textbooks appearing most often on textbook adoption lists.
November 1, 1989
1 min read
Education Testing A New kind Of Test
At times, the motto of the school reform movement has seemed to be: "If it moves, test it.''
November 1, 1989
5 min read
Education Class Dismissed
Spurned by his adopted hometown, Lowe returned to Dayton, Ohio, where he grew up, to perform his community service. None of it was in the schools.
November 1, 1989
2 min read
Education No Stroll In The Park
The 38-year-old DeWitt has been race walking since he was a sophomore at the University of WisconsinParkside. He got into the sport almost by chance. As a member of the school's track team, he had tried just about every track and field event, without much success. During one meet, there was a sudden opening for a race walker. DeWitt gave it a try. "It was the first time I ever won,'' he says. The victory sparked his interest in the event.
November 1, 1989
1 min read
Education Setting Them Free To Care
In the days that followed, when I thought about the students' behavior on the bus, I was angry, not at the students, but at their ignorance and their heartlessness. How could they have not known better? The bus was gone. I knew that I could never reach that group to say: "Listen! Do you know what is going on here? Do you know what it is like to be poor and homeless, to be eating on the street?'' But I could reach my own students, and so began the connection between Archbishop Carroll High School and the Zacchaeus soup kitchen.
November 1, 1989
3 min read
Education People

When Jesse Talks...
November 1, 1989
3 min read
Education Gifts
The little boy rushed over to me crying. I picked him up and carried him to the rocking chair.
November 1, 1989
1 min read
Education A No Vote For The National Board
When it decided in July that teachers should not be denied national certification solely because they did not graduate from an education school, the newly formed National Board for Professional Teaching Standards knew it was inviting opposition from some quarters.
November 1, 1989
2 min read
Education Crusaders In The Classroom
Maggie McCool loves animals. A soft-spoken 16-year-old from Franklinville, N.J., Maggie has been a vegetarian since she was 5, and last year she decided to stop wearing leather and wool, and to stop eating dairy products and eggs. She loves animals so much that several years ago she and her brother joined a patrol of "beaver defenders'' to chase away hunters from a private animal refuge.
November 1, 1989
16 min read
Education The Ultimate Civics Lesson
Dade's remarkable success at getting students to register results from close cooperation between district administrators, social studies teachers at each of the county's 25 high schools, and officials at the county elections department, according to Paul Hansen, the school system's former director of general education and social sciences. Hansen coordinated the voter program until this fall when he became a school principal.
November 1, 1989
2 min read
Education The Demo Man
The slides he projects--charts, diagrams, lists, and pictures--evoke a range of reactions: He has the audience laughing one minute and squirming uncomfortably the next. More than anything, a Hodgkinson lecture forces people to think about some provocative, often unpleasant, demographic realities. He does this not simply by spewing important bits of data, but by drawing unexpected connections between often familiar facts.
November 1, 1989
7 min read
Education Getting Kids Off Tough Streets
The sad, frustrating answer is no. Although the brutal rape in Central Park was not inevitable, it was not the teachers who fell short. In a system that reacts only after devastating damage has been done, these caring, experienced professionals were overcome by powerful forces beyond their control.
November 1, 1989
5 min read
Education Starting From Scratch
Throughout this decade of school reform, some educators and policymakers have wistfully yearned for the opportunity to wipe the slate clean and design an entirely new school system.
November 1, 1989
4 min read
Education Side By Side
Her teacher handles the question adroitly. "Well, did you touch anything? Did you ride on the bus?'' she asks. "Tell me about that.'' While her classmates return to their seats and take up pencils and paper, the girl hammers out her report on a braillewriter located off to the side of the classroom.
November 1, 1989
13 min read
Education Mainstreaming The Debate Goes On
Although Olivia Norman's experience clearly illustrates the advantages of mainstreaming, the debate over where to educate special-needs children is anything but settled.
November 1, 1989
7 min read
Education What Makes A Good Teacher
Underdal was one of 40 teachers-- 20 elementary school literacy teachers and 20 high school biology teachers-- who compiled portfolios last year as part of Stanford University's Teacher Assessment Project. The closely watched project is a three-year, $2.5 million effort to develop a new generation of assessments for teachers. It is viewed as a key element in the move to professionalize teaching.
November 1, 1989
5 min read
Education Suicide's Grim Tolls
Five years ago, the newspapers and airwaves were filled with reports of suicide's staggering toll on America's youth: an average of 13 lives a day in the 15-to-24-year-old age group.
November 1, 1989
2 min read
Education In A Manner Of Speaking
The two delicate muscles that make up the vocal cords lie within the larynx. During speech, the cords are stretched; outgoing breath, forced between them, vibrates and produces sound. The sound varies with the tension of the cords and the space between them.
November 1, 1989
3 min read
Education NEA Local in Illinois Geta A Lot, Gives A Lot
Rather than engaging in traditional collective bargaining, the teachers-- who are represented by an affiliate of the National Education Association-- and administrators formed joint committees to draw up the agreement. They decided to eliminate all work rules set in previous contracts and replace them with statements of principles and a system of checks and balances to make sure the principles are upheld.
November 1, 1989
1 min read
Education College Recommendations
A high school guidance counselor at a Midwestern suburban school had a difficult decision to make. One of his students--an outstanding hockey player with a solid B average--was applying to a highly selective college. The student asked the counselor to write a letter of recommendation on his behalf.
Ellen Flax, November 1, 1989
9 min read
Education For The Social Studies: A Time-Up, Not An Overhaul
For years, critics have called for a massive overhaul of the social studies, arguing that greater emphasis should be given to history and geography. Now, a report by a special task force concurs with some earlier criticisms, but, surprisingly, concludes that a tune-up probably will do.
November 1, 1989
2 min read
Education Family Ties
Located in a 3,000-square-foot space on the first floor of a three-building complex, the St. Paul facility offers part-day kindergarten for 4- and 5-year-olds, with child care for the remainder of the day.
November 1, 1989
3 min read
Education Coming In Out Of The Cold
To date, the most practical conductor of electricity--copper wire--works well, but is far from perfect. Electrons flowing through the wire waste energy as they bump into copper atoms--like runners on a rough track, tripping over rocks and dirt.
November 1, 1989
6 min read
Education Ending The Isolation
While I delighted in O'Brien's instant success with my students, I could also feel myself getting angry. How could it have taken me so long to learn such a basic thing about teaching drama? For 20 years, I had plodded on, having them read the plays at home, listen to recorded performances in class, and analyze the speeches in detail.
November 1, 1989
4 min read
Education Letter to the Editor Letters
Richmond, Calif
November 1, 1989
3 min read