If South African apartheid is considered a matter of professional as well as personal concern, then there are two clear levels of potential involvement, the professional organization level and the school/classroom level. What educators can do at these two levels is discussed. (RM)

Discusses lack of literature on controversial subjects that can help prepare children and young adults to deal perceptively with complexities of modern world. Highlights include meeting the issues head-on, glorifying armed conflict in video media, avoiding issues of nuclear war, and intellectual depth and dealing with controversial issues. (12…

How classroom debates can be used in a developmental psychology course to teach students about controversial issues and to help them improve their thinking and oral communications skills is described. Evaluations indicate that students consider debates to be a positive learning experience. (Author/RM)

The existence of nuclear weapons is the most pervasive political and military fact of the past 40 years, and children need to be informed about nuclear concerns if they are to become good citizens. It is therefore educators' responsibility to teach the subject, however uncomfortable. (PGD)

This article examines school sex educators' views toward selected topics and their importance to the sex education curriculum. Findings indicate that teachers feel the topics were necessary, with biological aspects and sexual health care being most important. Details of the methodology used in the study are discussed. (DF)

Suggests strongly that teachers of English should help students become more skillful at analyzing the messages on war they receive, so they can confront the nuclear predicament and begin developing alternatives. (CRH)

This article offers guidelines drawn from the last 200 years of ethical theory to aid educators in discerning between "uncontroversial" questions to which they can assume the correct answer is known and legitimately "controversial" questions requiring great care to be fair to the various points of view. (Author/DCS)

Drawing on research evidence from across the world, this book offers a wide-ranging perspective on the ways in which we understand and study young children. The book summarizes current debates in child development, and looks at different ways of understanding early childhood and the various methods used to gain understanding, featuring: (1)…

Excessive drinking creates countless personal disasters, including job losses, bankruptcies, suicides, divorces, crimes, lost friendships, and ruined family life. Nearly 1 in 10 adults meets criteria for chronic alcohol abuse or alcohol addiction, and 1 in 4 Americans feels the pain caused by alcohol problems. How can a democratic society safely…

If we are to expand the degree to which the community supports academic freedom in the public schools, we must begin by providing students in our schools with an opportunity to explore the role of academic freedom in an open society. (Author)

The philosophy underlying a British project that helps teachers apply systematic inquiry to their own teaching is explained. An example of using the teacher-researcher approach to improve teaching in a humanities course is given. (PP)

Gives comments from teachers and students about a course, "Facing History and Ourselves: The Holocaust and Human Behavior." Adopted by approximately 300 schools, the course teaches students to think about how the roles and responses of individuals and groups during that period and in the nuclear age are applicable to their lives. (MLF)

Ten recent editions of secondary school-level United States history textbooks were analyzed to determine coverage and balance of the Vietnam War. Treatment of topics such as Vietnamese culture, the roles of wartime leaders, the aims of the United States government, the antiwar movement, and costs of the war are discussed. (PP)

Religions are unfalsifiable in the short run but open to long-term influence by science. Conversely, scientists sometimes extend their findings to mythic proportions. The struggle between evolutionary science and pseudo-scientific creationism rests on tensions resulting at this interface. Good education and social fairness require greater…