Natural disasters and other traumatic events often draw a greater charitable response than do ongoing misfortunes, even those that may cause even more widespread misery, such as famine or malaria. Why is the response disproportionate to need? The notion of reference dependence critical to Prospect Theory (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979) maintains that…

While learning about the types of weather events that occur in the local area, students in grades 4-6 were asked to consider how structures can be built to withstand extreme weather conditions. Teams of students designed, constructed, and tested buildings to withstand hurricanes and designed the tests they would use to evaluate their structures.…

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program is designed to train Americans to safely help themselves and their community in the event of a widespread disaster. This program is designed for adults. Despite youth increasingly becoming recognized as valuable resources, able to equally partner with adults in leadership and decision-making…

As mobile phones reach the remote corners of the world, they bring with them a sense of great optimism. Hailed as a technology that "can transform the lives of the people who are able to access them," mobile phones have the potential to play a positive role in the lives of many of the world's poor. Such claims are often reported…

Individuals who are indirectly exposed to disasters may be affected psychologically. The impact of the 2010 Haiti earthquake reverberated throughout the Haitian American community in Miami, Florida. Many within the community held strong transnational family and friendship bonds to their homeland. We examined associations between indicators of…

Resilience, the ability to spring back from adversity and successfully adapt to it, is becoming an increasingly popular focus in research on the intervention and prevention of mental breakdown. This article aims to assess the resilience of adults exposed to the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake 1 year after the occurrence of the earthquake, to explore the…

In this essay, Marianna Papastephanou discusses three books--Michalinos Zembylas's "The Politics of Trauma in Education"; Sigal Ben-Porath's "Citizenship Under Fire: Democratic Education in Times of Conflict"; and Kenneth Saltman's "Capitalizing on Disaster: Taking and Breaking Public Schools"--from the perspective of the material causality of…

This paper is part of an extensive study of secondary school students' preconceived ideas about climate change. Here, we undertake a survey in the province of Valencia (Spain) to ascertain secondary school students' notions of the causes and consequences of climate change. Results show, among other things, that students clearly relate the misuse…

This reaction article applauds the authors of the Major Contribution for their thoughtful and thorough consideration of the myriad issues that accompany disaster mental health work. The reaction highlights three themes that emerged in the articles of the contribution: opportunities for collaboration, opportunities for the application of social…

As north Georgia continues to experience its worst drought in more than a century, many colleges in the region are struggling with water woes, with some seeking lessons from colleges that have survived droughts before. Climatologists say that the drought may intensify this spring and summer, and that emergency measures are overdue. Now that the…

As charters and other public and private schools of choice have created a new landscape in many urban areas across the country, some districts have adopted the idea of creating "portfolios" of options. Central to the philosophy of a portfolio district is continuous improvement, as lowest-performing schools are transformed or replaced.…

As charters and other public and private schools of choice have created a new landscape in many urban areas across the country, some districts have adopted the idea of creating "portfolios" of options. Central to the philosophy of a portfolio district is continuous improvement, as lowest-performing schools are transformed or replaced. In…

Purpose. The purpose of this research was to further an understanding of how the federal government is addressing the challenges of interoperability for emergency response or crisis management (FEMA, 2009) by informing the development of standards through the review of current congressional law, commissions, studies, executive orders, and…

Council for American Private Education (CAPE) is a coalition of national associations serving private schools K-12. "Outlook" is published monthly by CAPE. This issue contains the following articles: (1) Off-Year Elections Signal Hope for School Choice; (2) Schools Lend Helping Hand to Haiti; (3) Obama's State of the Union (SOTU) address; and (4)…

Hurricane Katrina inflicted traumatic experiences on many children in New Orleans and the surrounding area. The literature has shown a significant relationship between Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms and lowered academic achievement in children. This longitudinal study investigated the relationships between attendance, academic…