Participation in competition festivals--where students and ensembles compete against each other for high scores and accolades--is a widespread practice in North American formal music education. In this article, I use Marx's theories of labor, value, and phantasmagoria to suggest a capitalist logic that structures these competitions. Marx's…

Certain global leadership forces -- competitiveness, tolerance, and creativity -- are so pervasive they can be illustrated on the part of any country. However, nations also have unique dynamics to consider within our interconnected world. This is the overarching issue being expressed in this essay wherein the author deconstructs Canada's official…

In many of the U.S. History courses the author has taught, she has encountered students who refer to the second-wave feminists of the 1960s and 1970s as "bra-burners." Unsurprisingly, these students know very little about the origin of this epithet, and frequently, they know even less about the women's movement generally. Second-wave feminism, and…

In this article, the coeditors of "Voices from the Middle" present an interview with James Maguire, author of "The American Bee: The National Spelling Bee and the Culture of Word Nerds." During the interview, Maguire talked about his experiences with the National Spelling Bee to provide some insight to middle-level teachers and students. Maguire…

Geography faces stiff curricular competition from the continuing emphasis of policy makers on the three R's and science. In many places, this competition seems to have squeezed out any systematic attention to geography or the other social studies, particularly in elementary school. What's more, it doesn't look like things are going to turn around…

Mathematical contests should be decentralized to allow access to non competitive activities so as to enable students to participate and succeed in Mathematics. These activities should be compellingly interesting so that students enjoy learning about proofs and abstract structures rather than just solving problems.

Several approaches to teaching games as part of the physical education curriculum are discussed. Details are provided of a tactical/strategy based approach in which students become familiar with the nature of the game as well as learn specific skills (IAH)

The process of competition parallels the stages of play and motor development. Appropriate activities are discussed along with teaching methods. The need to educate students, teachers, and the public about appropriate competition is stressed. (MT)

Noting that advertising students in smaller colleges have little opportunity for exposure to major advertising companies as role models, the advertising class at a North Dakota university was given the opportunity to design an actual magazine layout to promote the university's Aerospace Science Center. The winning ad, as judged by the dean of the…

Ethical and unethical coaching behaviors and competition in relation to the teaching/coaching role are explored in three questions: (1) Is there a common ground of competition that teachers of all subjects share? (2) Is there a type of competition peculiar to coaching? and (3) What ethical considerations are called for in coaching competition? (JN)

In the schools, each day, teachers see cell phones, laptops, iPods, personal digital assistants, computer games and more. They are struggling to cope with this technological profusion as new devices seem to appear almost daily. With the pace of technological change, the emergence of new technologies, demographic changes and trends towards…

Reasons why elementary teachers should use social interaction activities as the core of their social studies program are discussed. The two main vehicles for involving children in guided and purposeful social interaction are the real classroom social system and simulated real-life social activities. (RM)

Competition in sport and physical education programs has been used to motivate the learning of skills, increase physical fitness, and to create environments purportedly conducive to the development of desirable personality qualities. However, the way in which competition is conceptualized is of great importance. In direct competition, achievement…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the international debate over the university as the service provider for school administrator preparation programs from the United States perspective. Design/methodology/approach: The author's approach is that of using historical analysis in developing a conceptual position the author argues…

One of three related documents exploring the problems inherent to current high school forensic coaching, this paper explores the issue of risk in debate and how this risk can be reduced. The paper first examines how the 'risk of losing' affects coaches and debaters alike, noting that in providing adequate direction by helping to test the evidence…