Media reports suggest widespread illiteracy among adults who may not be able to read, write, speak, or otherwise communicate competently enough to meet the demands of modern society. No consensus has been reached regarding a definition of illiteracy or supporting statistics. Estimates of adult illiteracy range form 0.5% to 50%, meaning that of the…

Twenty-eight years ago three students in Des Moines, Iowa who wore black armbands to protest the war in Vietnam were suspended from school. When the 1969 landmark Supreme Court case of "Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District" brought public school pupils under the First Amendment umbrella, many educators began to…

The 24 essays in this collection explore the ways in which young people are represented in the media in Australia. Australia's media are full of bad news about young people as perpetrators or victims of crime. The first six chapters explore a range of theoretical issues that connect media reports of young people with processes of governance in…

The 33 papers presented at this conference are, as follows: "Child Participation in an Everyday Adult Practice" (Andrew Brent Andressen); "Education for Sustainable Development in Southern Philippines" (Caridad Bernardino); "Distance Education and Instructional Technologies: Cultural Transmission or Cultural Erosion"…

Intended to be used by groups of young people under the supervision of adults, this workbook is for young people who want to learn about public affairs and to become involved in their communities. There are exercises that may be completed independently by each person, and exercises that may be used by the entire group. The guide can be used by…

America's educators have the ability and the responsibility to help at-risk students learn that they can succeed and that they must make the most of life. Educators should provide a caring environment, encourage students to take risks, and provide support when risk taking is not always successful. Rural students, like urban and suburban students,…

It is recognized that the character of American society is changing. Schools face a difficult set of conditions as they attempt to respond to the challenge of increasing the academic achievement of America's multicultural children. A number of proposals have advocated collaboration between human services and schools to provide a more systematic…

This essay provides an overview of the goals and activities of the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), an advocacy group headquartered in Washington, D.C. that works to improve the well-being of American children through systemic change and whose goal is to make it unacceptable for any child in the United States to grow up homeless, hungry, sick,…

This paper draws a parallel between the social problems the United States faces today and the problems the country faced in the latter part of the 19th century. Contemporary efforts of educators to address social problems with new curricula can be likened to similar efforts made by 19th century educators. The 19th century effort included the…

In an effort to address the needs of the increasing number of children who are coming to school with physical and emotional health conditions that prevent them from learning to their full potential, school systems have begun to alter the scope and nature of their school health services. Given their direct access to children, families, and school…

The high school experiences of gay young men, the management of these experiences, and the relationships of these experiences and their management with organizational and personal factors provide the focus of this study of a small, carefully selected sample of gay young men who attended public high schools in the state of Washington. An…

This paper contains preliminary findings from a 1989 survey of over 400 rural health programs serving chronically ill, handicapped, or high-risk children. Respondents identified major problems affecting service delivery. Follow-up research is continuing, but present data indicate that transportation problems, for both clients and staff, will…

This report was written in an effort to establish a new strategy for reducing the odds of failure for thousands of Arizona's vulnerable children and their families. It echoes the sentiments of a growing number of policymakers, concerned citizens, and parents who hold that the cost of child and family problems is so dramatic, and the amount of…

The successes of the Japanese educational system have been widely praised by western educators in recent years. But this success appears to have a dark side; an educational framework that places students in fierce competition with one another and in which school-related violence and suicide occur with disturbing frequency. This paper focuses on…

Taken from a computer search of the ERIC system, 1975 through August 1983, this selected, annotated bibliography contains several hundred citations related to conflict. The entries are arranged according to the following sections: communication (thought transfer), decision making, human relations, interpersonal relationships, organizational…