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Too many critics argue that the problems of city schools are not solvable, obscuring the fact that we often know what needs to be done to improve our urban schools. [...]

I tremble for our nation when I hear extremists discrediting our public school system, the only truly ecumenical program left in our community....[The public schools] do more of the Lord's [...]

While schools cannot--should not--attempt to provide answers to controversial questions, they do need to teach children to pose those questions themselves and to examine them objectively. Regular forums in public schools in which various social issues are analyzed and discussed from a variety of viewpoints are one possibility. (Author/DCS)

Global tensions necessitate increased understanding of the Soviet Union by Americans. Educators can help by convincing their professional organizations to support activities aimed at increasing the availability of information and by making sure that local efforts to provide information to students are clearly unbiased and are purely educational in intent. (PGD)

The author contends that education is implicated in the perpetuation of social inequity if it continues to present itself as the institution through which equality of opportunity is realized. Educators will make a step toward equity when they recognize that students do not have equal opportunity. (MD)

In the last decade, human rights has become a highly visible isssue in United States foreign policy. Schools can't sidestep this controversy, since human rights concerns are an inextricable part of U.S. political heritage. Schools can use a number of teaching approaches to help students understand the complexities and contradictions involved. (2 references) (MLH)

Social consensus concerning drug use and abuse may be only skin deep. Despite numerous "anti" campaigns, Reagan administration is saying "no" to funding for drug treatment and prevention programs, while tobacco advertising and growing incentives continue unabated. Despite these and other societal addictions, schools must reason calmly and offer youngsters a healthful, affirmative vision of society. Includes one reference. (MLH)

Discusses the amount of violence that children are exposed to and proposes that this can be counteracted in the schools by teaching more about the history of nonviolence in social change movements in this country. Includes five references. (MD)

Students are often served up a "simplistic stew" that reinforces news media and political pronouncements about the Soviet Union. It's time to remove the "enemy" label and build positively on American and Soviet shared humanity by providing accurate information about both countries. Includes one reference. (MLH)

Despite legal protections since the 1960's, racism remains a serious problem for society and for schools. Physical attacks on minorities, racial clashes in schools, redlining, and stereotypes with racial overtones (like "welfare queen") are fairly commonplace. Schools need to teach appreciation of cultural differences and acknowledge minority contributions. Includes seven references. (MLH)

Grim statistics on poor children, homeless families, and child abuse belie our civic leaders' public assertions of love and concern for children. Children are often not well-served in their relationships with adults. Educators need to cooperate with others to create social policy that treats children as valued persons, not commodities. Includes five references. (MLH)

Despite differing opinions on discussing nuclear policy in the curriculum and how students are best prepared for citizenship, educators can work together to assert the right of United States citizens to have access to information necessary to participate in the policymaking process. (MLF)

Discusses a study of systematic data that support the widespread perception that commercializing activities in schools have been on the rise. Influence of the activities on the structure of the school day, on curricula, on children's access to technologies and on the quality of education; Methods used for the study; Schoolhouse commercializing activities in the context of John Dewey Society's concept of the democratic educative experience; Findings and suggestions.

Wisconsin's Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) program was designed as a 5-year K-3 pilot project that began in the 1996-97 school year. The program requires that participating schools implement 4 interventions including reducing the pupil-teacher ratio within classrooms to 15 students per reacher The SAGE evaluation uses a quasi-experimental. comparative change design utilizing descriptive statistics, linear regression, and hierarchical linear modeling. In addition, qualitative analyses of life in SAGE schools and classrooms are conducted. Results of the 1996-97 and 1997-98 first grade data reveal findings consistent with the Tennessee STAR class size experiment. Also, individualization emerged as a key characteristic of instruction in SAGE classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offers reflections on two important divisions in curriculum field. Split between academic particularists whose work focuses on school practice and those whose work does not; Split between those who believe curriculum reform is possible without social reconstruction and those who do not; Virtues and problems of diversity.

Brief therapy has often been regarded as "problem solving therapy." This article discusses the development of a solution-focused approach to clinical practice. Solution-focused therapeutic tasks and interventions are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Administrators can solve some of the chronic, interpersonal problems they face daily by using concepts from the systems theory and techniques developed by systemic family therapists. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article outlines the basic concepts in systemic therapy, including the nature of systemic behavior, the "punctuation" of behavior, the value of seeing behavior as "cooperative" rather than "resistant," and the concept of exception. Specific strategies school administrators and teachers can use when handling problem behavior are presented, with examples. (PGD)

Economics is an applied social science whose technical formulations are embedded in a political, social, historical, and cultural matrix. It is the responsibility of educators to understand and to keep abreast of the nation's changing political economy. (IW)

Analyzes three characteristics of American public culture that help explain our civic quietism: (1) lack of meaningful information for making informed decisions; (2) lack of democratic rights in the workplace; and (3) lack of a cooperative social vision. American schools as presently organized provide few opportunities for learning and experiencing democratic principles. (MLH)

Two issues are important in the controversy over religion in the schools: whether or not the approaches being advocated by religious groups are educationally sound, and the constitutional issue of the public's right to control its schools. (MD)

The article discusses the curriculum issue in teacher education which is child abuse in the U.S. Family violence has been increasingly viewed, over the past years, as a social problem that is widely spread. Such violence usually involves a child or children in the family against single or both parents. Child abuse has statistically been alarming. Statistics also showed that a high percentage of all the abuses are mostly directed to school children. Such children display behavior and learning problems within the setting of the school. It is important for the teachers to play an active role in the early identification of the victims of such abuses. Schools however, are in a good position because no social institution could touch the lives of children in many ways most of the time.