Reports on a study of 38 social problems textbooks and their treatment of issues related to poverty. Points out that most of the books ignore poverty's historical background and the impact of the 1980s on poverty. Includes questions used for analyses and a list of the reviewed textbooks. (CFR)

Serves as an introduction to seven articles which focus on the differences between school renewal and school reform and their implications in a democratic society. Embedded in both terms are basic views of the world, human nature, and the way individuals do business. Renewal considers matters of justice, equity, and diversity; reform affirms…

Describes and evaluates a seminar course taught jointly between Stanford University and Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology using video-conferencing over the Internet. The need to address social issues in addition to technological issues is discussed, and participant evaluations are reported. (Author/LRW)

Identifies leading causes of mortality and morbidity in the United States, describes youth behavior that contributes to these causes, and outlines ways in which a school program might address these health and social problems among students. Also describes research and development strategies to help schools implement health programs and suggests…

Gilles de la Tourette's Syndrome (GTS) is considered a neuropsychiatric condition characterized by multiple motor and vocal tics. With some cases, a variety of neurocognitive, social, and emotional difficulties are present. Describes core features of GTS and highlights how symptoms and their features may interfere with school functioning. School…

The Character Education Partnership, a national coalition, has developed 11 principles to help students internalize desirable societal values. Successful character-education programs require committed school leadership, a common vocabulary, staff development, integration with academics, a focus on respect for others, and service learning. Program…

Discusses results of a survey of youth experts who work with or for teens in libraries, schools, and other areas to determine the most important issues affecting youth. Highlights include intellectual freedom; information access; reading; literacy; social issues, including youth violence; teen culture, including Internet chat; education issues;…

Argues against the international project called "Sex Education for the Schoolchildren of Russia" that is a sex education program intended for students in the seventh through ninth grades and is carried out by the Ministry of General and Professional Education of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation…

Highlights the work of author/illustrator Patricia Polacco. Discusses her picture books in terms of themes, including family stories; "passed down" stories featuring a babushka; stories that emphasize diverse communities; stories that contain magic or a miracle; and stories that help to raise social consciousness. (SR)

Discusses the need for professionals in the field of behavioral disorders to take a leadership role in addressing larger issues and problems of great concern to our society, including ensuring school safety, identifying children vulnerable to gang membership, dropout prevention, and youth violence. (CR)

Defines the new social movement, environmental justice, in the outdoor-education terms of humane orientation, ecopolitical approach, and appreciation of work. Discusses institutional racism in the mainstream environmental movement, the environmental expression of social injustices, and outdoor educational strategies to combine appreciation of the…

Focuses on using drama in social studies by describing the use of the flippy play, a narrative illustrating social problems and written and drawn on flippable panels. Discusses the process for creating a flippy play, beginning with researching, developing, and constructing the play, building the flippy frame, and then producing and pacing the…

At one Wisconsin middle school, a successful student motivator is an improv troupe that develops and performs unscripted, improvisational skits about social issues affecting adolescents. Skits stop at a critical decision-making point or show the devastating effects of a negative choice. Discussion reinforces the message. (MLH)

Points out the growing crisis among American adolescents, with approximately half of adolescents at moderate or greater risk for engaging in unsafe sexual behaviors, teenage pregnancy, and teenage child-bearing; drug and alcohol use and abuse; school underachievement, failure, and dropout; and delinquency and crime. Calls for increased research on…

Introduces a special journal issue on children and poverty, reviewing child poverty rates in the United States, the nature and dimensions of poverty, and the state of child poverty research. Also examines processes mediating the influences of poverty, contextual influences on children in poverty, and child outcomes, with reference to the remaining…