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Author(s): Jeff Zorn [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0001 2299 4243, grid.263156.5, Santa Clara University, , 95053, Santa Clara, CA, USA [Displayed Quote]Two things flow from this racism-is-all myth: (1) [...]

Author(s): Jeff Zorn [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) Santa Clara University, 0000 0001 2299 4243, grid.263156.5, , 95053, Santa Clara, CA, USA 'We were right about the war. We were right [...]

Author(s): Jeff Zorn [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) 0000 0001 2299 4243grid.263156.5Santa Clara University, 95053, Santa Clara, CA, USA The key connection between A.J. Angulo's two recent books, Diploma Mills : [...]

Author(s): Jeff Zorn[sup.1] Author Affiliations: Jeff Zorn is emeritus senior lecturer of English at Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA 95053; jzorn@scu.edu. (1) Santa Clara University, 95053, Santa Clara, CAUSA [...]

Author(s): Jeff Zorn[sup.1] Author Affiliations: Jeff Zorn is senior lecturer of English at Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA 95053; jzorn@scu.edu. (1) Santa Clara University, 95053, Santa Clara, CAUSA Jonathan [...]

This article presents the author's critique of "Students' Right to Their Own Language" (SRTOL), a resolution affirming the legitimacy of dialect from the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). "Students' Right to Their Own Language" remains the official position statement of the guild of college compositionists on dialect difference, lionized to this day as a first principle of "liberatory" English teaching. The sound, kind impulse behind SRTOL was to support the aspirations of poor, nonwhite, and culturally marginalized students. The document itself, however, offered underachievement and provincialism to the students it purported to serve. Even its advocates concede that SRTOL reads as committee prose with the different hands not smoothly blended, but no one has said firmly enough, or demonstrated patiently enough, how little sense SRTOL makes. The author's critique develops six points, all with wide-ranging importance for English education, and more generally for U.S. education, today. STROL (1) never begins to examine a "right" to one's own language; (2) offers no consistent view on the importance of dialect; (3) wildly overrates its "sophisticated" knowledge in sociology and linguistics; (4) both draws on and feeds into a reactionary politics of ethnic-cultural chauvinism; (5) clumps people into homogeneous, internally undifferentiated groups, missing individuals (in particular, individual student-writers) entirely; and (6) tries to shame English teachers for professional work of which one should be proud. Here, the author shows that SRTOL is a shameful piece of work whose ongoing endorsement warps and stains language education in the United States.

Tries to clarify the ethics and pragmatics of test-based diploma denial by setting out and evaluating the two camps' positions. Notes the author's aims are taxonomic, hoping to organize a confusing array of arguments; and partisan, hoping to guide further action on these very significant debates, especially as they involve the practice of English teaching at the classroom level. (SG)

The writings of Martin Luther King Jr. deserve to be read in undergraduate humanities classes but not in the spirit advocated by former Secretary of Education William Bennett. It is argued that Bennett downplays the struggles against racial discrimination and chooses the most conservative King pieces for the literary canon. (SLD)

Presents an essay describing the rude misbehavior of two sets of high school students in two distinct cultures: white prep school boys whose transgressions are written off as harmless, and urban African-American and Asian-American students whose off-putting behavior gets no such exemption. Suggests that this misbehavior and the reaction to it turn on foreknowledge of the students' futures. (SR)

Suggests that the "Standards for the English Language Arts" (copublished by the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association) makes good sense about literature and almost none at all about literacy. Argues that for 99% of the school population, the de-emphasis of the "Standards" on formal written communication is "entirely misguided." (RS)

Argues the artificial, propagandistic quality of demonizing the enemy, a technique used by both sides in the Persian Gulf War. Asserts that principled and effective foreign policymaking requires intelligence and moral courage, whereas demonizing the enemy requires only a phrase book and the will to injure. (PRA)

The former secretary of education in the US, William Bennett, was an enthusiastic supporter of the writings of Dr Martin Luther King. He suggested they should form part of required reading for all Americans. Some observers take issue with this support of Dr King's philosophies, arguing that the pieces chosen downplay King's struggles against racism, and that the speeches chosen are too conservative. It is suggested that far from satisfying Dr King's search for the truth, his philsophical studies left King with many questions unanswered.

Describes the findings of the National Assessment of Educational Progress's "Reading Report Card" issued in September 1993. Critiques the report for methodological reasons. Argues that the report is virtually worthless regarding the reading skills of American students and should receive a failing mark. (HB)

Grades the Educational Testing Service in taking over the National Assessment of Educational Progress literacy project with a "C-", claiming Part One earned a "D" for abandoning some of the most cogent and winning strategies of previous NAEP studies and Part Two earned a "C" for providing confusing unexplained data. (NH

Introduction: Total intra-corporeal robot-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC) with total intracorporeal neobladder formation is relatively new in the treatment of bladder cancer. We present our experience and believe it is the first Canadian reported series with this technique., Methods: This is a case series of 4 patients, who underwent total RARC, pelvic lymphadenectomy and creation of an intra-corporeal ileal neobladder. Surgical technique is described and perioperative variables, pathologic data, and complication rates are reported., Results: The mean patient age was 61.8 and the mean body mass index was 27.01 kg/m(2). The mean operative time, estimated blood loss, time to full diet and length of stay were 522.8 minutes (standard deviation [SD] 74.5), 237.5 mL (SD 47.9), 9 days (range: 3-24) and 12.8 days (range: 6-31), respectively. All patients completed postoperative functional evaluation showing a mean neobladder capacity of 575 cc (range: 500-720). Surgical margins and pathological nodal status were negative in all patients with no evidence of disease recurrence or progression on follow-up. Three of the 4 patients suffered a complication within 90 days, with one occurring later in the first year. All early complications were Clavien grade I-II (grade I [n = 1]; grade II [n = 2]) and the later complication was grade IIIa. The mean follow-up was 632 days (range: 562-730). The limitation of our study is its small sample size with highly selected patients to compensate for the learning experience. The follow-up is short; however, the outcomes are comparable to early experiences reported at other institutions., Conclusions: In our initial experience, RARC with total intracorporeal neobladder formation is safe. We expect that with experience the expense of robotic surgery can be compensated with early ambulation and shorter stay.