Discusses student responses to a fourth grade teacher's efforts to engage students in social action. Indicates that most students felt they could be passive good citizens and that social action would fail anyway. Argues that schools need to promote active citizenship. Examines an alternative model of citizenship education that promotes individual…

This paper traces the political and educational movements of both African-American and hearing-impaired U.S. individuals since 1960 and compares their common as well as disparate experiences in terms of social and political background, social attitudes, family relationships, education, and employment. Four suggestions are offered for advancing the…

Discusses the importance of school-community relationships and the role of schools and education professors in working to better society and end racism, sexism, and poverty. The article stresses the need to change the practice of ignoring social problems by searching for a language of compassion and communication. (SM)

The Washington Governor's School for Citizen Leadership gathers a diverse group of high school students and presents a curriculum focusing on experiential, integrated learning. The school emphasizes expressive arts, interpersonal and team skills, and critical thinking; and seeks to ignite students' social responsibility and empower them to take…

Amid the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Brazil was the Global Forum, a gathering of representatives of more than 9,000 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Brazil's array of NGOs and grass-roots support organizations began developing in the early 1960s. The "pedagogy of the oppressed" developed by Paulo…

This article profiles Han Dongfang of China, winner of the 1993 George Meany Human Rights Award given by the AFL-CIO. An organizer of the first democratic labor organization in the People's Republic of China and advocate of individual freedom, Dongfang has faced persecution in China and remains a stateless person. (SLD)

Social capital and generalized trust are declining. Civic "watering-holes" like bowling leagues, fraternal organizations, choral societies, and "do-gooder" groups are drying up. Schools must spur greater parental involvement, make schools smaller, stress community service, teach civics, fund extracurricular activities, and…

Experiential learning generally, and service learning specifically, can teach citizenship skills necessary to a democracy, unify the curriculum, better serve at-risk students, and accommodate different learning styles. Gives arguments and criteria for integrating service learning into mainstream education and examples of programs utilizing service…

Believes that with the turn of the millennium, the United States should undergo a self-examination of the state of democracy in the country. Addresses various concerns in relation to societal reform movements and idealism, the country's performance on the world stage, inequalities still prevalent in society, and the call for social justice. (CMK)

Demonstrates how students can be involved in designing a curriculum to meet their needs. The article shows how part of an ESL (English-as-a-Second-Language) program for displaced factory workers turned into an experience for social activism. (CK)

Describes a class project where New York City second graders worked with the community board of transportation to rename a street for an African American woman. The students succeeded in renaming 134th Street in honor of Mary McLeod Bethune, an African American educator. (MJP)

Presents interview with the director of an innovative program for troubled and delinquent youth in Czech Republic. Gives examples of developments in the field of high-risk youth including greater freedom given to teachers to develop new curricula, improved communication between diagnostic institutes and regular school systems, legislation to allow…

People who work on campuses and make decisions are just beginning to recognize that the way their institution organizes itself and behaves constitutes a type of out-of-class curriculum. Efforts to "green" the campus must encompass all aspects of university life. Author offers guidelines to help bring institutions into compliance with the…

Presents a guide to direct teachers of all grade levels to antismoking resources on the Internet. The paper discusses the importance of basic knowledge and facts about smoking and health risks, beginning at an early age; tobacco marketing awareness; and social action to reinforce knowledge. (SM)

In the formulation of new humanities--knowledge, truth and social action brought together in the defence of what makes us human in this place and time--there is also the need to identify the obstacles to honouring our humanity. This paper continues the task of critically examining contemporary forms of inhumanity, in this instance as perpetuated…