--- Begin Message ---
FYI----My understanding from a reliable source is that the former
presidential candidate is
referred to in the Globe article is Kemp...
===========================================================
CHANDRA LEVY CASE
THE WEEKLY GLOBE reports charges by James Robinson - attorney for one of
Gary Condit's ex-lovers - that Chandra Levy was killed on orders from
two well known politicians - a governor and a former presidential
candidate - who belonged to an alternative sex ring. Robinson alleges
that "this story is bigger than Watergate" and that Levy was killed
because she was ready to blow the whistle on the sex club. The Globe
offers no evidence to support Robinson's claim.
From: The Progressive Review <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: UNDERNEWS MAY 8
Date: Wed, 8 May 2002 18:50:18 +0000
============================================================
Sponsor a child today through Children International. Give
a desperately poor child hope for a brighter future. For
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============================================================
UNDERNEWS
May 8, 2002
THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW
Inside the Beltway, Out of the Loop, Ahead of the Curve
Edited by Sam Smith
Since 1964, Washington's most unofficial source
1312 18th St. NW #502, Washington DC 20036
202-835-0770 Fax: 835-0779
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WORD
The important thing is not so much that the child should be taught, as
that every child should be given the wish to learn - John Lubbock
POST CONSTITUTIONAL AMERICA
ROBYN E. BLUMNER, ST PETERSBURG TIMES - When the USA Patriot Act passed
in October, it authorized long-term immigrant detentions at the attorney
general's say-so but included at least some due process: Immigrants
could not be held more than seven days without charge or the start of
deportation proceedings; and every six months the attorney general had
to review the terror-suspect certifications and report to the judiciary
committees in Congress. It was one way Congress could provide some
oversight and accountability. Well, the first certification report was
submitted to Congress last month. It was a six-line, thumb-your-nose
letter written by an assistant attorney general indicating that not a
single immigrant has been certified as an alien terrorist. Not one.
. . . What about those 104 immigrants still sitting in jails and
detention centers around the country as detainees of the Justice
Department? These aliens are surely being treated as terrorist suspects.
In violation of every tradition of American justice, their incarceration
has been steeped in secrecy. We don't know who they are or why they are
being held, and it is all being justified as necessary for national
security. So why hasn't the department certified at least some of them
as alien terror suspects under the USA Patriot Act? Apparently, Ashcroft
didn't have to. He found he could lock immigrants up secretly and for
long periods without this new statutory power. Ashcroft has simply
written himself new regulations that incorporate all the USA Patriot Act
detention powers and more, but without the pesky requirement that he
report to Congress.
. . . Ashcroft is increasingly emboldened by the silence of Congress
and the media to this series of outrages carried out in the people's
name. Why isn't every media outlet demanding to know about the 1,200
people picked up after Sept. 11 and the 104 immigrants still held in
secret detention? Why does the public seem to care so much more about
Chandra than whether public officials uphold our national principles?
The answer is Ashcroft's ticket to ride.
ECOLOGY
JAMES RIDGEWAY, VILLAGE VOICE - While Bush talks about an oil shortage,
the real crisis is sneaking up on us in the form of a horrendous
worldwide water scarcity. Droughts in the U.S., once a feature of the
Midwest, are now occurring regularly all across the continent . . . The
scarcity of fresh water is causing the birth of a booming new business.
Where provisioning of water once was the work of public utilities,
private corporations are increasingly doing the job. Two huge
French-based transnational corporations — Vivendi Universal and Suez
—monopolize more than 70 percent of the existing water market, according
to Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians in her new book, Blue Gold.
Suez operates in 130 countries, Vivendi in more than 90. There is also a
burgeoning business in bottled water, with market forecasts projecting
20 percent annual growth. Here, three big companies — Coca Cola, Pepsi,
and Nestle — are gobbling up the business. Nestle alone owns 68
different bottled-water brands, including Perrier. Last year some 1
billion liters of water were bottled and sold.
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0219/ridgeway.php
||| ASSOCIATED PRESS - A nuclear reactor in Ohio is found to have a
large hole nobody thought possible, burned almost through its six-inch
protective steel cover. Cracks of a type never seen before are
discovered at a reactor in South Carolina, triggering widespread
inspections. Both events caught industry leaders and government
regulators by surprise, and they are fueling new questions about aging
nuclear power plants and plant inspection programs.
http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2002105070228
ALL IN THE FAMILY
28-year-ol Sharif Street - son of Philadelphia's mayor - is challenging
80-year-old Frank Oliver for a state legislature seat in the May 21
primary.
FEEDBACK
DAN, WATSONVILLE, CA - A friend -- admittedly quite Zionist -- raises a
good question about Jenin. If Israel's intent was to level downtown
Jenin without regard for civilian casualties, why didn't they do it from
the air? Israel lost many soldiers in Jenin -- 13 in one ambush, plus
more later. If Israel really had no regard for Palestinian civilian
casualties, why send in troops to go house to house? Why not do it all
from 15,000 feet? Obviously, they didn't do it because the world would
rightly have branded them wanton killers. But isn't that what is
happening anyway?
LABOR
STEPHEN FRANKLIN, CHICAGO TRIBUNE - Despite a decade-long global effort
to reduce child labor, the problem persists on "a massive scale" and has
worsened in nations torn by war and economic distress, said an
International Labor Office report. About 180 million youngsters -- one
of eight children ages 5 to 17 -- are exposed to "the worst forms of
child labor," said the report from the 83-year-old organization based in
Geneva. Among these young workers, 8.4 million are pressed into slavery,
prostitution, pornography or forced military service, the report
estimated . . . The global spread of AIDS is one reason for the problem,
the report suggested. About 13 million children have been orphaned as a
result of the disease, and many have turned to work to survive, the
report said . . . The largest numbers of child workers are found in Asia
and the Pacific, where they make up about 60 percent of the world's
child workforce. Children in Sub-Saharan Africa follow, accounting for
23 percent of this workforce.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0507-05.htm
SHORT HISTORY OF THE HUMAN RACE
Tuli Kupferberg
OLDUVAI GORGE: The human race blinks
GREECE: The human race thinks
THE INVENTION OF GUNPOWDER: The human race kinks
WORLD WAR 1: The human race stinks
WORLD WAR 2: The human race shrinks
WORLD WAR 3: The human race extincts
JUST POLITICS
||| CUMULATIVE VOTING HAS BEEN USED to elect three members to the school
board in the Amarillo Independent School District. Many believed this
year's school board election would be a true test of the new voting
system that was first used in Amarillo in 2000. For the minority
community, seeking to elect their own community member to the board,
cumulative voting certainly was a success. Of the 5 people seeking the 3
positions on the Amarillo school board, Janie Rivas was the only
minority candidate. Rivas was successfully elected, gathering 2,458
votes, the second highest vote total.
With cumulative voting, the voter can distribute their votes more freely
amongst the candidates. The number of votes remains the same as the
number of positions elected, 3 votes in this year's election. However
the voter has more choice in distributing their votes, giving their
favorite candidates anywhere from one vote to all three. Amarillo is the
largest U.S. jurisdiction to use cumulative voting, and it is among 57
places in Texas that now use this method.
||| STEVEN HILL & ROB RICHIE, CTR FOR VOTING & DEMOCRACY - France's
two-round runoff system, while having some obvious benefits [over the US
system], also presents problems. In fact, it may have elected the wrong
person. Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who placed third and failed to
make the runoff, may have been the candidate preferred by the most
voters. But Jospin's center-left voters split their support among seven
candidates who together garnered at least 40 percent of the vote.
Divided, none of the left candidates polled enough votes to make the
runoff.
Le Pen, with virtually the same popular vote as he won in his other
failed presidential runs, benefited from this vote-splitting. Seen
through this lens, there hardly was a major surge of right-wing populism
in France. Instead, what we saw was a major breakdown of their two-round
runoff system.
Runoffs also have been problematic in the U.S., particularly in southern
states and major cities. Turnout almost always plunges in the second
round, particularly among racial minorities, the poor and young people.
Also, the one-on-one, winner-take-all nature of runoffs can exacerbate
divisions, as evidenced by the racially charged rhetoric in the mayoral
elections in New York and Los Angeles.
A better method for ensuring majority rule is called 'instant' runoff
voting. With an instant or 'same-day' runoff, voters indicate their
runoff choices at the same time as their first choice by ranking them on
their ballot: 1,2, 3. If no candidate has an outright majority of first
choices, voters' runoff rankings are used to determine the majority
winner.
The result is that the majority prevails in one election, instead of
two. Split votes and spoiler candidacies that plague French and U.S.
elections are prevented. Candidates are spared the expense of raising
money for a second election, and taxpayers are spared the expense of
paying for this completely unnecessary second election. And the final
election isn't beset by huge drop-offs in voter turnout.
CTR FOR VOTING & DEMOCRACY
http://fairvote.org
LAW AND JUSTICE
TEXAS' EXECUTION RATE is soaring, despite a rapidly increasing
nationwide focus on the problems with the death penalty and despite the
fact that executions in other states are expected to drop for the third
consecutive year. So far this year, Texas has accounted for 10 of the 24
executions that have occurred. Nationwide, ten executions were scheduled
for the month of May, seven of which were scheduled to take place in
Texas. Beyond the month of May, nine executions have been scheduled
nationwide, eight of which are in Texas. All told, by summer's end,
Texas could well account for more than half of the executions taking
place in the United States. Meanwhile, more than 100 people have now
been released from death row due to actual innocence. In Maryland, Lt.
Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend has called for a moratorium on
executions. In Illinois, the Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment
recently released a report containing 85 recommendations aimed at
preventing the execution of innocents. Of the key recommendations
included in the report, none are believed to have been implemented by
the state of Texas.
GREAT MONUMENTAL MOMENTS
RUSS BAKER, NEWSDAY - The House of Representatives is expected to easily
pass a bill from Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) that will rename Central
Islip's federal courthouse after D'Amato, thereby forever associating
the administration of justice in these parts with the former three-term
senator from New York. D'Amato, who lost a reelection bid in 1998 and is
now a lobbyist, avid golfer and squire of beautiful women to hot
parties, has expressed delight with the honor. Others, including
investigative reporters and prosecutors around the state and the nation,
must be scratching their heads in disbelief . . . The only category in
which D'Amato stood out as a public servant was sheer chutzpah in taking
care of constituents, which earned him the nickname of Senator Pothole.
Asked how he could justify diverting HUD antipoverty funds to the
building of a swimming pool for his comfortable Island Park neighbors,
he explained: "They wouldn't go in the ocean."
http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpbak072697088may07.story?coll=ny%2Dv
iewpoints%2Dheadlines
YOUTH
MATT JOHANSON IN LA TIMES - Anyone who spends much time with teenagers
has noticed their unfortunate use of the word "like" outside the
parameters of affection or comparison. As a high school teacher, I
probably hear more than 100 superfluous "likes" a day . . . I offered to
award 10 extra points each to their final exam scores if they could make
it until the end of the term without more than 10 extra-grammatical
"likes."
Drew, pessimistic about the group's chances but eager for the extra
credit, instantly devised a strategy to get the points. "Nobody say
anything from now on!" he ordered his classmates, who broke out in
laughter. They agreed to try, though. That day I noticed Tiffani stop
and furrow her brow as she thought through a sentence before speaking.
"What do we have for homework this week?" Tiffani asked slowly, in
possibly the most grammatical sentence she's spoken this term. Then she
sighed in relief and cried, "That was so hard!"
Our resident wiseacre, Harris, tried his best to set off my alarm. "I
like ... that video we watched, Mr. Jo," he said with a smirk. "Not
bad," I told him. But they didn't win the points. Some students quickly
forgot the challenge and slipped back into old habits, and others
sabotaged the experiment for a joke. "Like, we're never gonna make it!"
cracked John.
They needed to last 15 days until the fall semester ended. They reached
their 10th "like" on the first day in about 15 minutes. I was sorry they
didn't at least make it interesting and offered to let them try again
with more favorable rules. "Forget it, Mr. Jo," said one. "It's like
impossible."
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/suncommentary/la-000031769may05.sto
ry
CHANDRA LEVY CASE
THE WEEKLY GLOBE reports charges by James Robinson - attorney for one of
Gary Condit's ex-lovers - that Chandra Levy was killed on orders from
two well known politicians - a governor and a former presidential
candidate - who belonged to an alternative sex ring. Robinson alleges
that "this story is bigger than Watergate" and that Levy was killed
because she was ready to blow the whistle on the sex club. The Globe
offers no evidence to support Robinson's claim.
LAND OF THE FREE
||| JAYDA EVANS SEATTLE TIMES - The Mariners changed to a "don't ask,
don't tell" policy regarding T-shirts worn that display any variation of
the word "suck." Unlike the Mariners' home stand against the New York
Yankees last month, a smattering of fans wearing "Yankees Suck" or
"Mariners Management Sucks" T-shirts were allowed to freely walk into
Safeco Field and enjoy last night's game against the Toronto Blue Jays.
"This issue is better off going away," said Randy Adamack, vice
president of Mariners communications, while a one-man protest with a
megaphone campaigned outside the ballpark for free speech . . . During
the last of the three games against the Yankees in April, several fans
were told to remove or reverse their "Yankees Sucks" tops, which they
had purchased outside the stadium. Dave Chesson, a 40-year-old
Bellingham resident, was among the group, and he decided to file a claim
with the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU is still investigating
whether Chesson has a case.
. . . One benefactor from the "suck" ballyhoo is Mike Prebo, a
55-year-old resident of West Seattle. Prebo has been selling the
"Yankees Suck" T-shirts outside a gas station on Occidental Avenue since
2000. During the series against the Yankees, he estimated he sold 600 of
the basic tops. He was outside Safeco Field again yesterday, trying to
fulfill the demand since the shirt went national.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/134450331_mfans08.html
||| ADAM LIPTAK, NEW YORK TIMES - A Louisiana law school is giving one
of its students an unusually comprehensive legal education. In addition
to offering him the standard classes and exams, it is suing him. The
dispute centers on a Web site maintained by Douglas Dorhauer, a student
at the Paul M. Herbert Law Center at Louisiana State University in Baton
Rouge. The site is called lsulaw.com, and it includes a school calendar,
law-related links and comments by Mr. Dorhauer, some of them critical of
the law school.
These days it also includes copies of cease-and-desist letters from the
school's lawyers and the trademark infringement suit Mr. Dorhauer
received last month, two days before his second-year final exams. The
lawsuit says Mr. Dorhauer is trading on the school's good will and
confusing people. It asks that he be prohibited from using the site's
name and requests an unspecified amount of money and the law school's
legal fees.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nyt/20020506/tc_nyt/welcome_t
o_our_law_school__young_man__we_ll_see_you_in_court_
GREAT THOUGHTS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION
A friend is someone you know about, someone you can trust. A brand's a
bit like that. You meet this friend through advertising . . . Without
advertising, how would you recognize your friends? - International
Association of Advertisers
HEALTH
MARC KAUFMAN WASHINGTON POST - Infants breast-fed for nine months grew
up to be significantly more intelligent than infants breast-fed for one
month or less, according to a study published in today's Journal of the
American Medical Association. Supporting the conclusion that
breast-feeding improved intelligence, researchers found a strong "dose
effect" -- a gradual improvement based on the number of months of
breast-feeding up to nine months, when the effect ended. Results from
the study, of more than 3,000 young men and women from Copenhagen,
Denmark, strongly support the long suggested, but unproved, conclusion
that breast-feeding makes babies not only healthier, but smarter.
http://washingtonpost.com
MIDDLE EAST
TOBY HARNDEN, DAILY TELEGRAPH, LONDON - Ariel Sharon was among friends
in Washington, where pro-Israel sentiment is stronger than ever and
Christian conservatives are forming close ties with Jewish groups. In
opinion polls, on right-wing talk radio and in the editorial columns of
the liberal press, support for Israel is unswerving. Last Friday, some
250 Christian leaders from across America gathered at the Israeli
embassy in Washington.
"Some very interesting alliances are forming," said Gary Bauer, a
prominent Christian conservative. "Many evangelicals believe that the
land of Israel is Covenant land that was promised by God to the Jewish
people. I believe Israel and the United States have got a confluence of
interest. We're both democracies, and I see Israel, as I see Great
Britain, as a defender of Western civilization." For the time being,
differences with Jewish groups over issues such as abortion has been set
aside. . . . More than half of Americans sympathize with Israel; only
14 per cent with the Palestinians.
Jewish groups exert a political influence disproportionate to the two
per cent of the population they represent. Ten out of 100 senators are
Jewish, and congressional staffers on Capitol Hill privately concede
that to vote against Israel is financial, and therefore political,
suicide for an American politician.
Even a hint of criticism of Israel in the media provokes a furious
response. Jews have cancelled subscriptions to the Los Angeles Times,
and in Boston contributions to National Public Radio have been withdrawn
because of what was seen as pro-Palestinian reporting.
. . . Mr Bush is considered the most pro-Israel president since Ronald
Reagan and some Jewish leaders who have previously voted Democrat have
said they will back him in the 2004 election. Democrats usually capture
80 per cent of the Jewish vote but polls are showing that Republicans
are picking up some of this support.
YOUTH
MELANIE MARKLEY, Houston Chronicle - Only 10 percent of Texas teachers
believe a test should decide whether students are promoted or held back
a grade, a recent survey found. David Henderson, who has conducted the
biennial teacher survey since 1980, said this is the first time he has
asked teachers their opinion about the state's new testing policy. Next
year's third-grade class will be the first required to pass a
state-required test in the third, fifth and eighth grades before they
are promoted to the next grade.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/1401441
FLOTSAM & JETSAM
Back to school
My worries over being named president of the John Eaton Elementary
School parents association in the mid 1970s were aggravated by reminders
that I would be the first man to hold the post. I recalled a Howard
University professor telling me how he had integrated a bowling league
in the 1950s only to find that he subsequently felt obligated to bowl
every week whether he wanted to or not. "I realized what I really
wanted," he said, "was the right to be as bad a bowler as everyone
else."
The problem with this recollection was that, as far as I could
determine, there had been no bad presidents of the Eaton Home & School
Association and there had been some fairly extraordinary ones including
– I was also reminded – Joan Mondale, soon to find herself an even
harder job.
Fortunately I was surrounded by a fine board, a wonderful principal, and
a community that regarded the school as a favored garden, a place to
plant children and happily watch them grow.
In between, that is, fund-raisers, meetings, crises, anger, desperate
phone calls and so forth. Such as the distressed call I got from a
member of the board who had started the school's first Christmas tree
sale. Even before Christmas, a priest had shown up on the lot with a
brown paper bag filled with needles he claimed had descended from his
tree.
There were periodic fiscal crises and their consequences such as the
inability to get any play blocks for the kindergarten. The downtown
administration - which swallowed up three of every four dollars spent on
our students before it even got to the school - was so bad at paying
bills that the only play block company that would deal with it had sent
blocks with splinters in them. In the end, the parents association
bought the blocks from a neighborhood store.
There was also the highly visible – and similarly irate – journalist
whose son's paper on Egypt had been failed by the teacher because it was
50 pages long instead of the required 15. And the substitute teacher who
dozed at her desk, even through the students pasting a "Do No Disturb"
sign on her back.
Most embarrassing of all, however, was our entrance into the citywide
school safety patrol parade. The children had proudly chosen the slogan
for the banner - WATCH OUT FOR CARS OR YOU'LL END UP ON MARS - and
students and parents worked hard and long to create a fifteen foot high
missile out of chicken wire stuffed with pink Kleenex to be mounted on a
pickup truck. But as the Eaton safety patrol marched down Constitution
Avenue with their badges, red shirts, and Sam Brown belts, what should
have been applause became instead laughter and guffaws and pointing. I
took another look at our entry and immediately realized the error. The
Eaton contingent consisted of one extremely pregnant faculty advisor
marching in front of her young troops and a truck carrying what seemed
to many onlookers to be a fifteen foot high phallus. We won no prizes
that day.
[]
Because there were not enough parents in Cleveland Park who sent their
kids to John Eaton and because the school had a good reputation, its
excess desks were filled by children from around the city, most of them
black, thus integrating an otherwise nearly all-white neighborhood
between rush hours.
There were also a number of latinos and children of diplomats who lived
nearby, including the son of a Yugoslavian official who, as far as I
could tell, only learned two English phrases the entire year: "WWDC 1260
AM" and "Channel 20." A parents bulletin around that time reported 20%
of the students to be native Spanish speakers. There were children whose
families came from 34 countries and Puerto Rico and about 20% of the
school was African American. Despite the linguistic and cultural
variety, the school scored above national norms in reading and math in
all but 6th and 7th grades (where a large number of the immigrant
children were concentrated.) Even then, the scores slipped only slightly
under the national average.
The ethnic mix was rounded out by a commune of born-again Sikhs who
lived nearby. One of the boys would regularly stop at our house to join
my son on the final four-block trudge to school. One day I opened the
door to find Habajin in his blue turban, blue outfit, and blue running
shoes complemented by a fish net on a pole precariously balanced on his
headpiece. My immediate reaction at 8 am was that I was all for
religious tolerance but this was pushing things too far. Habajin,
perhaps sensing my antipathy towards blue Sikhs with precariously
balanced fishnets early in the morning, quickly explained that he had
found the icon in a trash can along the way.
Pat Greer, the newly appointed principal, would not have been fazed. If
all our governmental institutions were run by people as pragmatic,
sensitive, intelligent and imaginative as she, we would live in a much
happier country. For example, when the potentially difficult issue of
religious celebration arose, Pat adopted the principle laid down by the
theologian Reinhold Niehbur, who said once that you don't solve the
conflict between church and state by doing away with the church. And so
the assembly before the year-end vacation included a traditional
American Christian segment, a latino Christian portion, a Jewish
presentation and, as a climax, Habajin, decked in full blue uniform but
without the fishnet, telling the Legend of the Sword. Everyone had a
good time and Pat and I agreed not to let the ACLU know what we were up
to.
Similarly, I once got a call from Pat saying that she had caught two 8th
graders using pot. (The school at the time, among its other innovations,
went from kindergarten through 8th grade). She explained that she had
called the 2nd District and asked them to send over an officer but that
he was to do nothing but scare the hell out of the kids and then leave.
Sounds good to me, I said, but of course those were the 1970s when we
still naively thought teachers and principals knew more about teaching
kids than cops, judges, and the President.
I gained even more respect for Pat's ability to maintain order after
substituting in a first grade class for an ill teacher, the dimmest
moment coming when – after trying every organizational stratagem I could
imagine – a girl in a pretty dress walked sternly to the front of the
room, put her hands on her hips, looked straight up at me, and announced
without equivocation, "I hate you."
[]
Twenty years later, in a speech to a global cultural diversity
conference in Australia, Pat Greer explained her approach:
"While the 1970s can be characterized as a decade where shared
decision-making was not evident in schools, John Eaton school was
different . . . Parent involvement and shared decision-making is alive
and thriving at John Eaton School. And our students are thriving, too.
Why? Because together with our staff, parents, community and students we
have created a community of learners where students and staff alike are
secure enough to take risks and dare to do things they never imagined
they could . . .
"John Eaton School is child-centered. That means that we value and build
on the strengths that each and every child brings to our school and to
our classrooms. That is especially important to us in our multicultural
environment. Our learning environment builds on the heritage and
background of all of our children. The result is that our students are
eager, curious students, students who are focused on learning and are
responsible for their own learning. Long before children put pencil to
paper, or fingers to computer keys, they are encouraged to think about
what they are learning. Our emphasis is learning by doing, not rote
memorization. We also stress relevancy; what students learn is relevant
to their daily lives.
"Our parents, teachers and staff are caring, talented, resourceful and
positive role models for our students. And I am a highly visible school
principal. I know each student by name and I greet them each morning
when they arrive at school, and again when they go home at the end of
the day. I talk to my students; I visit their classrooms; and I
sometimes work with them in their classrooms. And I welcome them into my
office when they want to talk to me. . .
"If John Eaton were displayed as a jigsaw puzzle and you removed all the
pieces that represented our parents, called the Home & School
Association, there would be a large empty space in the centre of the
puzzle."
[]
The curriculum at the school was colored by two impressive biases. One
was a prejudice towards writing. The kids were always writing something:
diaries, plays, stories, speeches, advertisements. The school clearly
understood the shortest route to good writing: do it. The other emphasis
was the arts, particularly drama and music. With excellent teachers and
adequate time, the kids threw themselves into their projects as though
Broadway rather than high school was the next step. The encouragement
came right from the top – not only from the principal but from Mr.
Urqhart, her administrative assistant, who - dressed in his most
colorful suit - would sing a single applause-stirring number in his
mellow bass voice in each of the big shows – the only adult permitted to
thus intrude.
I became conscious of how serious the dramatic side of Eaton was one day
as I was taking a group of 4th graders home from an event. One kid
stepped carelessly into the street and a companion called her back,
saying, "Be careful, you could ruin your whole life that way.' Another
added, "yeah, or even your career." Once safely in the car, there
commenced the sort of surreal debate that only the young can withstand.
The topic (clearly involving the stage rather than the lesser trades)
was: what is more important - your life or your career?
[]
My greatest triumph came as the executive committee of the parent's
association sat in the office of the regional superintendent of schools,
a post we all thought had been created for the sole purpose of making
our lives more difficult. The superintendent began the meeting by
bragging about her office's new paint job, accomplished, she explained,
with the aid of the whole staff volunteering over a weekend.
I listened respectfully and then asked one of the most important
questions of my life:
"That's wonderful. Where did you get the paint?"
I could tell from her face that I had hit home. Indeed, the regional
superintendent had raided the paint supply at the school warehouse and
once having admitted done so, she could not refuse us similar access.
Which is how, one weekend, all of John Eaton was repainted by faculty,
parents, and students without a hitch save for a gallon of white being
up-dumped in the girl's bathroom.
[]
One of the things you learn as a president of a parent's association is
how differently the young see the world. This was reflected in a memo I
wrote a few years later while serving on a committee planning a major
capital expansion of the school. I wrote the committee chair about my
interview with a focus group of two – an eight year old and a six year
old. The results were humbling:
ME - They're going to fix up John Eaton. What would you like to see
changed?
8 YEAR OLD - Nothing.
ME - What about replacing the play equipment with something new?
8 YEAR OLD - What's the matter with it?
ME - How about bright colored play equipment?
8 YEAR OLD - It wouldn't match the school.
I pressed the six year old in hope of getting amore favorable response
to progress. His goals: "I wish they would chip off the paint and put
the colors red, white and blue . . . I would like the sinks in the boys
room unplugged 'cause it goes too slow . . . And could there be more
soap? . . . Would like the water to stay on so you don't have to hold
it . . . I want bigger cubbyholes. They're just about this small."
8 YEAR OLD - Bigger coat rooms
ME - How about the auditorium?
6 YEAR OLD - I want the floor painted brown again
8 YEAR OLD - They need a better gate. There's a hole in it and the ball
goes through it and into the street all the time.
6 YEAR OLD - Can the kickball places be painted over so you can see
where the bases are?
I wrote our committee chair: "The rather terrifying thought occurred to
me that we might be embarking on a multimillion dollar project that the
kids would do for a few thousand. Tough. They'll just have to suffer. I
mean, where would the economy be if we grownups were as easy to please?"
[]
At another DC public school a teacher asked the question, "What do
people need to get along?" A student had written, "cooperation" and the
teacher had crossed it out and written, "rules." In a few decades, the
whole nation would try to run education that way, with lots of tests to
make sure the instructions were being obeyed.
But it didn't work because it lacked the combination that on most days
had made John Eaton work: competence, to be sure, but - just as
important - cooperation, enthusiasm, and love. - SAM SMITH
This article will be permanently posted at http://prorev.com/eaton.htm
FIELD NOTES
LUKE HELDER, your internet service provider would like to contact you.
Helder, 21, is the man charged in the mailbox bomb case. He is also a
grunge rock musician, whose site produces this result: "Temporarily
Unavailable. The Angelfire site you are trying to reach has been
temporarily suspended due to excessive bandwidth consumption. The site
will be available again in approximately 3 hours! Are you the owner of
this site? To check your daily bandwidth usage, click here. To obtain a
higher bandwidth limit, click here."
Another site, however was working the last time we checked.
http://artists4.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/Apathy_MN/shows-0.html
TODAY IN HISTORY
1784 - First recorded deaths from hail in the US occurs, Winnsborough,
North Carolina, where hailstones up to 9 inches in diameter kill several
men and numerous farm animals.
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