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THE STARS AND STRIPES 1989 Army warns against clinics diet pills By JANET DAGOSTINO Medical writer West Germany Army medical officials have issued a warning about potentially dan gerous diet pills that are being prescribed by a weight loss clinic in The made by Frankfurt Army Regional Medical Center were prompted by increasing reports of Americans using the Harmful side ef fects from the pills can include rapid elevated blood pressure or irregular heart according to Ronald an Army colonel who commands the Frankfurt Blanck and V Corps nutritionist Lynne Man ob tained samples of the pills and a copy of the prescrip tion and diet plan used by the The pills were analyzed by the hospital pharmacy with assistance from a West German pharmacy and a Criminal Inves tigation Comd They were found to contain 16 in cluding two amphetaminetike drugs that are classi fied as controlled substances in the United States because they are potentially Additional the pills contained herbs that are known to be toxic in extracts of animal organs and thy roid preparations not normally used to treat obesity in otherwise healthy The pills also contained which remove fluids from the and a type of The concern that we have isnt so much that if everyone them theyre going to be poisoned and because thats certainly Blanck the pills arc potentially dangerous for some he He gave as an example a woman patient who suffered dangerously low potas sium levels by taking the diet pills in conjunction with high blood pressure Ivcn the doctor who prescribes the pills in previously practiced in West Ger where he was under scrutiny by the Nord rhcinWcstfalcn state chamber of ac cording to Karl who heads the drug commission for the German Medical Membership in the based in is man datory for West German evaded the chamber by mov ing from place to place and eventually leaving the Kimbcl Cocsens refused to answer any questions about himself or the clinic when contacted in Belgium by The Stars and An American living in the Frankfurt area said she went to the located in to obtain a prescription for the pills and used them even though she realized they might cause side It was worth it for said the who asked that her name not be I was not going home to the States weighing 247 The who paid about for a twomonth prescription of lost about 40 pounds while expe riencing only mild side She said she felt constantly tired and had stomach cramps while taking the diet but endured those discomforts because she was losing Blanck said the pills probably do cause weight loss in some people because of the amphetaminelike sub which suppress the But the weight loss is usually and the pounds arc eventual ly regained when the person stops taking the pills and goes back to old eating Pills dont he I can make anybody lose weight if I want Thats not the Keep ing it off To lose weight a nutri tionally balanced diet should be accompanied with changes in eating habits and a regular exercise pro Man The diet that accompanies the Belgian prescription is not nutritionally sound and doesnt make she For the diet calls for patients not to eat but docs not say Mint contains a salicylate typc yet other salicylate such as are not she The diet also prohibits but coffee intake is allowed in small quantities and other substances con taining caffeine are not Starchy such as breads and noodles are lim despite recent weight control research that shows that carbohydrates are not over loaded with The diet docs not mention which are higher in calories than any other Blanck and Man recommend that people not use the diet People intent on taking them should notify a doctor if they suffer any ill Those with chronic medical such as high blood should notify a doctor before taking the Blanck Chambers to succeed Rutherford at 17th AF SEMBACH West Germany James Chambers will suc ceed Robert Rutherford as commander of 17th Air officials said Chambers has been deputy chief of staff for operations for Pacific Air Forces at Hickam since Septem ber The change of command cere mony will be In a surprise ceremony Friday night at Spangdahlcm USAFEs Michael presented Ru therford with the third star of a lieuten ant The generals were at Spang dahlcm for the Excalibur air exercise award news updates Ibarruri improves Spain AP Doc tors on Thursday said the legendary Communist Dolores Ibarruri is expected to be released from the hospital next The fiery 93yearold Spanish Civil War nicknamed La was rushed to the hos pital in serious condition with She was reelected to Parliament in but later gave up active pol itics because of failing Spycatcher case LONDON AP The attorney general dropped contempt pro ceedings Thursday against Peter who refused to stop selling the memoirs of Peter a former British in telligence after it had been banned in During a hearing at the High a lawyer for Sir Patrick Mayhew agreed to discontinue the action against owner of Bilbos Bookshop in Last Prime Minister Mar garet Thatchers Conservative gov ernment lost a threeyear court battle to ban the book by Marsh said he felt he had taken a stand for He sold co pies printed in the United States and The 50yearold Rutherford has been the 17th Air Forces commander since April His next position will be Air Force deputy chief of staff for programs and resources at the fsJg Before J taking command at the he was USAFE deputy Chambers chief of staff for A command pilot with more than flying hours in fighter and trainer Ruther ford also had as signments at Kun san South Korea Kadena Japan and Ubon Royal Thai is also a command pilot with more than flying hours in F and He Rutherford Mew combat mis sions over Laos and Cambo His previous assignments have in cluded deputy director for operations at Pacific Comd in Hawaii and assistant deputy chief of staff for plans at Tac Air Comd at Langley While at the 479lh Tac Fighter Wing at Holloman he served suc cessively as deputy commander for op vice commander and com About scrviccmcmbcrs and civilians arc assigned through out 17th Air one of three num bered air forces in Seven teenth Air Force is responsible for USAFEs tactical units in West Ger Belgium and the Ten major installations fall under its German aufo club asks USAREUR to puf fags on combaf vehicles West Germany In a move aimed at helping civilian motorists who become involved in acci dents with military one of West Germanys largest automobile clubs is advocating that combat vehicles be equipped with license plates during ma the Automobile Club of Ger directed the request to the Army in Europe after consultations with the West German Defense Ministry and several automobile insurance A club spokesman said the organiza tion has not received a reply to the re which was sent to the Army in early A USAREUR spokesman on Friday was unable to say what the command planned to do in response to the clubs The AvD spokesman noted that other armed forces based in West Germany already use tactical license vehicles carry only unit which means nothing to a civilian who wants to report an The American vehicles are the only NATO country vehicles that do not bear identifiable national the spokesman Fender benders in particular give German drivers since the larg er accidents usually involve local police and the who can identify the mili tary the spokesman Headquartered in AvD is West Germanys secondlargest auto mobile with Gl in custody after chase by police West Germany A 1st Armd Div soldier is in Ameri can custody after he allegedly robbed and assaulted a West German taxi driver and then led police on an hourlong 1 Vincent Davis of Hq 2nd 6th Inf is being held pend ing further division spokesman John Cooper said The incident occurred 30 when who had been missing from his unit for a hired the cab and asked to be taken to a Bergstrasse address in After reaching the the soldier allegedly struck the taxi driv er several times with an iron stole the drivers fares and took off in the Although bleeding the injured man managed to alert another taxi driv who set off in pursuit of the fleeing Erlangen police said the soldier then slammed on his brakes and drove ramming the second taxi and forcing its driver to abandon the West German police then took over the pursuit and chased the stolen taxi across an autobahn and through city streets until the soldier stopped and leapt from the Davis continued his flight on foot ig noring a warning ran to the edge of the Regnitz police The soldier jumped 4 or 5 feet down into the water and swam to a smalt is land where he hid in the bushes until police found The taxi driver suffered severe head injuries and is being treated at University Davis was treated for a hand injury suffered during the Authorities estimate the amount of damages to the vehicles involved in the incident to be about

Acuha officials act on dangerous diet pills NORMA FLORES MORENO Staff Writer CIUDAD ACUNA An alert launched by the United States Food and Drug Administration against two of the nations most popular diet pills prompted Health Department officials here to take action Enrique head of the Health Departments Sani tary Regulation Office In said he read in the Del Rio News Herald abput the warning by The articles gave the dangers of the pill combination known as and that the same product was selling in Acuna another Cahero acted by citing Acuna physicians who offered their ser vices as obesity control He also cdllected all the drugs in doctors offices and in pharma The pills that were being pre scribed by some doctors in Acuna were the IFA Norex that contains Anfepramona and the IFA Reducing that contains Fert the deadly combination of According to the Associated Press in the FDA informed the doctors that studies from the Mayo Clinic linked the combina tion of fenphen with rare heart valve The FDA analyzed heart test on 291 dieters and found almost a third 92 peoplehad damaged heart valves even though they had no With all the Health Departments officials gave the order to pull the drugs off of the market and other drugs consid ered as diet We received the order from Mexico City to pull out other diet pills from the pharmacies in addition to the IFA Norex and the FA This diet pills will be considered as Cahero According to the diet pills that will enter to the catego ry of controlled are the Tenuate Ponderex and Cahero said that these diet pills will continue to but will be considered controlled which means they will only be sold with a doctors prescription and under the doctors responsi Cahero said the pills wiD have to be sold only in pharma cies and not in the doctors No doctor will be able to sell the diet pills in his or her office nor inject anyone to lose weight in his own Cahero He said the only doctors that will be permitted to work in the area of obesity control will have to be certified by the department of Water treatment plant once again hiahliahts weekly city report RANDALL REMALEY Photo for the NewsHerald Norma Florea Moreno Staff Writer Witri the 199798 city budget wrapped city staff now will turn their attention to the continuing items listed in the weekly project update with the fttst project giving news from the Citizens Steering Committee for the proposed water treatment Trie committee met Thursday at the Chihuahua Community A small crowd was reported by Chairman Fred Sanders during a Friday inter view with the Sanders reported that even though just a few people showed upjfor the important issues concerning the proposed plant were The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Steering Committee will be held at the San Felipe Community The public is asked to attend this meeting to learn more about the proposed At the end of the public meet data garnered from the meetings will be compiled and submitted along with the appli cation for grant monies to be applied to the total cost of the plant and the new water tanks off Bedell On the issue of the city council met in executive ses sion last week and agreed to con tinue City staff is in the process of investigating the possibility of a grant to assist in the construction of a terminal at the City staff has also met with officials representing Westlawn and the Masonic Cemeteries and expects to have an agreement with them in regards to the airport runway According to sources inside the the talks center around the height of the large evergreens surrounding the cemeteries and to what height they would need to be The issue of Avenue F widen ing shows that TxDOT has gotten to the intersection of Avenue F and Gibbs with the underground drainage lines that they are The construction caused some minor traffic delays however the work progressed City staff reported that they have signed an agreement with TXDOT for street light con The fire sta shelter bond issue is soon to be a hot issue as the city manager has proposed to council total bond packages from million to million to finance a new facility for the above listed Six plans were submitted by the city manager with gradually decreasing facili ties as the amount of the bond Council recently approved a resolution to begin the public hearing process relat ed to the proposed bond Plans and budget are being reviewed in anticipation of com mencement of construction of a new concession stand at Moore Park Moore Park Pool has undergone quite a facelift over the past few making it a premier summertime attraction for Jthe citizens of Del The construction of The new cell at the landfill has reached the 90 percent completion with city staffers anticipating its completion in the next few City staff has met with the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Committee TRNCC in Austin to discuss the possibility of a new section at the landfill that would accept only construction and demolition A report on the results of that meeting will be No progress has been made on other projects currently under The other projects currently ongoing include the bridge area lift the maintenance 911 Civic Center street paving 2 to 6 water line San Felipe water gas system Val Verde Park and Cienegas water and G1S base radio a fire sta tion master area water sup ply alternative water city personnel city employee city retirement subdivi sion regulations and the Moore Services Dr Enrique head of the Health Departments Sanitary Regulation Office in Ciudad Acuna shows some of the tablets that were confiscated recently as health officials in Mexico crack down on diet drugs that have been suspect in the United States The diet tablets that wiH be controled Tenuate and also the IFA Norex and the IFA These tablets will not be longer for sale at the Brackettville meeting Tuesday on extended local calling BRACKETTVILLE A briefing concerning extended local calling ELC is scheduled for 7 Tues day in the District Court Room at the Kinney County Local residents will soon vote on expanded local calling to Del Eagle Pass and Southwestern Bell will publish a notice of the ELC and will mail ballots to subscribers within the 563 exchange on Ballols must be returned and postmarked no later than Nov Results of the bal lots will be announced around If the service will not be Each residential line will be charged up to and business lines will be billed up to A final schedule of propose rates will be filed by Soulhwester Bell Jan The Public Utilitie Commission of Texas will approv or disapprove the Additional information is avai able for public review at the Kinne County Public Library or by callir the ELC Coordinator Tino Gomt at DISASTER AVERTED PICKS DRPD gets lai Compiled from staff reports and press WASHINGTON US Henry Bonilla RTX23 announced today that the Del Rio Police Department has been awarded a grant to help find innovative ways to curb crime in Del The grant is a part of the US Department of Justices Office of Community Oriented Policing ProblemSolv ing Partnerships grant Under the the grant can be used to purchase resources such as computer mapping Internet access for research pur crime analysis neighborhood surveys and com munity I am that Del Rio has received this Bonilla Its good to know taxpayer dol lars are going to help to the hard working police who fight to keep the streets and neighborhoods of Del Rio This is a unique opportunity for the police depart ment and the Del Rio community to work together to find real solu tions to stop crime in Del The grant is in addition to four other grants budgeted for in the citys 199798 approved budget The Del Rio Police Department will also receive for the El Protector for the TRASER for an Operation Seatbelt program and for an auto theft prevention Police Charles Bruce was unavailable for comment on the grant late last NewsHerald photo by David Booth A tractor trailer hauling liquefied propane overturned on Highway 20 miles north of Comstock Saturday According to investigating officer the tractor trailer attempted to negotiate a dangerous curve at to high of a speed causing the driver to loose control and turn the truck over sliding approximately 100 feet before stop Dinq The driver had to be pried from the but sustained no other than some minor The Del Rio Fire Department was dispatched to the scene for safety even though the tanker was not leaking any of the hazardous materi als The incident caused Highway 163 to be closed off from all traffic between Comstock and Ozona for several hours before another tractor trailer could arrive from Eagle Pass in order to haul the tanker of propane away and a wrecker could clear the crushed trac tor trailer from the Many Trucking companies do not allow their driver to use the Highway 163 route because of the dangerous hills and some drivers still use the highway to save on time and STORE HOURS DEL RIO HOME AND AUT Your Firestone Store Frirndly Small Town Big City Savings 600 Ave F 7758473 656 Main

August Suburban Living SECTION 3  HeaHSSDay Chicago women want to take it off Think Chicago women want to lose weight simply because they’re vain? Wrong, says a new survey commissioned by Jenny Craig Inc., the weight management company. The survey found that 59 per- cent of women in Chicago want to lose weight to improve their health and feel better. Only 21 percent said they want to take off pounds simply so they will look better Chicago women also said they are concerned with the adverse effect that obesity has on the health of their husbands and boyfriends. Twenty-four percent of the women ques- tioned thought their significant others could afford to lose a few By the way, a quarter of the women are talking about tak- ing off substantial weight (25 pounds or more) in an effort to reach their fighting weight. “Women in Chicago are changing their attitudes about weight said Jenny Craig, co-founder of the organization that bears her name, in a pre- pared statement. “Some are still interested in losing weight to improve their appearance, but more and more women are seeking lo lose weight to improve their health.” A reason kidneys come in pairs A study in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that kidney transplants from a spouse are slightly more likely to succeed than those from a blood relative such as a parent, and also more likely to succeed than those from a perfectly compatible cadaver. The study, reports Reuters, opens the way for more kidney transplants involving married couples and others. An estimat- ed Americans are await- ing kidney transplants. The findings confirmed what transplant doctors had been noticing lor years that kid- neys from spouses and other unrelated donors have unex- pectedly high survival rates. Unnecessary drugs are a big problem Inappropriate prescriptions lead to about billion a year in hospituhzations, with the elderly most vulnerable, the General Accounting Office found. About one in six elderly peo- ple takes at least one inap- propriate drug, despite efforts in recent years to better over- see medications for senior citi- zens, the report said. It found several causes for the problem, including inade- quate training in geriatrics for doctors and inappropriate in- structions and advice to pa- tients from doctors and phar- macists. Older people, reports Reuters, often respond dif- ferently to common medica- tions than young, healthy peo- ple. Furthermore, older people often have multiple health problems and may get medi- cations from various specialists who do not consult each other. The drugs can interact with unpleasant results, especially in the elderly. Kidney stones you don’t want them About American men develop kidney stones each year, says the August issue of Men’s Journal magazine. And most of them are between the ages of 20 and 40. Because a stone can feel like “a thumb- tack in the urinary tract until it is you might want to consider these ways to avoid them. Drink lots of water, cut your salt intake, be sure to get enough calcium and don’t eat much animal fat. -Gordon Walek Do some CLF 13 Last year’s Make a Difference Day winner was Lauren Greenwood, who raised money for a program that helps abused and neglected boys. Daily He raid Lewnard MAKE A DiFFERENCl; DAY Hi _ MiEf o Mark your calendars for Oct. 28, the fifth Make a Difference Day BY LISA FRIEDMAN MINER Daily Herald Staff Writer DOING GOOD Here’s what to do By reaching out on Saturday, Oct 28, people around the country will be helping others who are in need. Some of their projects will make a differ- ence long after this year’s Make A Difference Day has come and gone. Here, step by step, is what we are asking our readers to do. 1 Decide on a charitable plan of action for Oct. 28. Your Make A Difference Day activity can be a new, one-time event, or an ongoing commitment. If your project requires more than one day, make sure a significant part of it is performed on Oct. 28. We encourage indi- viduals, families, clubs, religious and civic organizations, businesses, schools and entire communities to participate. Past projects include: a woman and her neighbors collecting money to install play- ground equipment at an apartment complex; a church collecting food for the poor; a memo- rial dance to raise money for children and teenagers with congenital heart problems; junior high-school students cleaning up yards for seniors; children collecting personal-care kits to distribute to homeless shelters; kids helping special-education students prepare for the Special Olympics. 2. Once you’ve chosen a project for Oct. 28, write in and tell us about your plans (see coupon To be included in our first roundup listing of projects (Sept. please make sure your information arrives at the Daily Herald offices by Sept. 11. You can, of course, still plan a project even if you miss that deadline. 3. On Sept. 28, we will print a list of local projects along with information on how people can participate in each, including a telephone number they can call to sign up. This should be the number you list on your entry form. 4. You will need to hang on to the USA Weekend entry form you’ll find inside this sec- tion until after your project is completed. Then mail it to USA Weekend by Nov. 15. The magazine, which is included with the Daily Herald each Sunday, wants to know what was accomplished on Oct. 28. USA Weekend will then select 10 outstand- ing efforts nationwide to receive apiece to benefit charity. Those national winners will be featured in a special edition of the maga- zine and invited to participate in National Vol- unteer Week activities April 21, 1996, in Wash- ington, D.C, Fifty projects will receive honor- able mentions and will also receive apiece. In addition, the Daily Herald will select a separate local winner from our area, who will be mentioned in the magazine and will receive a contribution from the newspa- per to benefit charity. All awards will be announced next spring. For more information, write to Make A Dif- ference Day, 1000 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va. 22229-0012, or call Lisa Friedman Miner at the Daily Herald, 870-3675. Last October, Cindy and Lauren Greenwood asked volunteers to skate, run and walk- the streets of their neighborhood all in the name of raising money for abused and neglected Chicago boys. This year, come the last Saturday in October, they’ll be putting on their dancing shoes. Oct. 28 is the fifth annual Make a Differ- ence Day, the brainchild of USA Weekend. The magazine, which is included in the Sunday Herald, promotes this special Sat- urday as a way of bringing people together to help those in need. The mother-daughter team of Cindy and Lauren Greenwood represents just one of dozens of local examples. The Greenwoods got involved in Make A Difference Day last year after reading about the project in the Daily Herald. They organized a 5K walkathon that raised more than for Jamal Place, a recently opened program for abused and neglected boys on Chicago’s West Side. And they added another in April when the walkathon was chosen by the Daily Herald as the newspaper’s local Make A Differ- ence Day winner. This year, the Greenwoods say they’re spearheading a dance event either a dance-athon or a community-wide party with paid admission. “I never thought I could says Lau- ren, now 13 and entering eighth grade at South Middle School in Arlington Heights. “I guess I proved myself wrong.” All over the suburbs in recent years, peo- ple like Lauren have been learning they can help in any number of ways. Last October, volunteers in Elgin cleaned up the Fox River, hauling away 104 bags of garbage in just a few hours. A Naperville Girl Scout troop made quilts for AIDS babies. A multigem national Halloween party in Libertyvillu brought together nurs- ing home residents and the children of chemically dependent women. Elk Grove Village seniors raised in a rocking chair rockathon that benefited a meals pro- gram. And throughout the area, food pantries and shelters benefited by the hard work and generosity of their neighbors. Now, it’s time to Make A Difference Day ’95 a little thought. The first Make A Difference Day drew people across the country. Last year, almost people participated nation- wide, and residents of suburban Chicago pitched in to help almost 100 local Make A Difference Projects. This year could be even bigger. “We’re hoping foi between and a says Pam Brown, USA Weekend’s, Make A Difference Day editor. “The word is spreading about Make A Difference Day.” USA Weekend awards to the top 10 programs across the country, with all money going to charity. In addition, those people who direct the chosen projects will be flown to Washington, D.C., next April to participate in a cerompny at the White House in honor of National Volunteer Week. Winners are chosen by an all-star panel. The judges are: Paul Newman, Whoopi Goldberg, Kathie Lee Gifford, Chicago Bears player Chris Zorich, Points of Light President Robert K. Goodwin and USA Weekend Editor Marcia Bullard. In addition, 50 honorable mention pro- See DIFFERENCE on Page 2 …..______……..____…..CLIP SEND________ ____–__- Let us know how you plan to Make A Difference on Oct. 28 PROJECT What group or organization will be responsible for doing the proiect? What organization or individuals will benefit? _ Are you seeking What tasks will volunteers be asked to If yes, how many? Do you need materials donated? If yes, what types of materials? _ Project coordinator’s name: Coordinator’s address: Telephone Mall this coupon to Lisa Friedman Miner, the Dally Herald, P.O. Box 280, Arlington Heights, IL 60006. Your entry must be received by Sept. 11 to be included in our Sept. 28 listing of projects that will take place on Oct. 28 (or Oct. 29 if necessary for ruligious FIRST PERSON It’s just not hip to be hip anymore BY ED Sir< ,KI, The Boston ilohi- There a -e few among us who have not, n our own way, want- ed to be lup. It is a contemporary rite of like no other Anyone can be cool (Well, almost anyone Robert McNa- mara cou d never have been cool, nor 1 ‘hil Gramm Being hip is someth ng else Many enlist, but few ai e chosen There a ‘e, as with seemingly everythm< in life, five stages of hipness, i suaily beginning around pi berty 1) You learn about hipness 2) You aspire to be hip. 3) are hip, or (in most cast s) think you are hip Once you here you think it will last ft rever, but this is really the shortt st stage because you’re air ‘ady primed for 4) You are no longer hip 5) You no longer aspire lobe hip There n ay even be a sixth stage, wh< ‘re you forget there was ever ,uch a thing as being hip I can speak to No fi, as I’m currently very comfortable in the fifth slagi The ery thought of being hip s suddenly revolting to me I had long suspected, and was mere libly bothered by the suspicion that I had long since passed in o the fourth stage, which mu ,t be akin to denial Acceptance of not being hip may not be, wt II, hip, but it does feel pretty co( I It’s not that I’ve’ got ten old and crok hety. though if theDr S( noil’s fib, It has more to do 1 think. I hope the dumbing down of what it means lo be hip As the Gumping of America continues its relent! >ss advance. about every field of endeavor, particu larly in tli’ arts and entertain ment, ent ills less intelligence than it used to The dui ibing down of hipness though, i1- particularly irksome, when combined with an equall} insidious force, the mainstrei mmg of hipness We used to u1 e the (erm “hip’ to describe iomeone who was lak ing us sor teplace dangerous outside of mainstream values A hip persoi i was someone we would (lot k to because he had the goods we couldn I get any where els Our parents might tell us abt ut Kenny Goodman, but the hipster knew about Miles Davis Thi> radio blared out Elvis or the Evi rly Brothers, hipsters had Little Richard or Bessie Smith rec >rds Today the term is more often used lo describe someone who is leading us toward mam David Letterman: He’s become as hip as a fraternity prankster. stream val ues, rather than away from them Daud Letterman is the perfec> example It was prob ably a mistake to think of anyone so tuned out as hip, but he often fit the mol 1, both in introducing a network TV audience to the likes of Br )ther Theodore and Spalding and in biting t he hand that >ed him television in general ai d NBC in particular His attemot to deliver a fiuil basket to (iK headquarters after the dim bi Ibs bought NBC is one ofthegre. t moments of confrontin g the anti hip in TV history But Lett ‘rman s humor has al ways been juvenile and depress ingly conformist He began a re cent monc logue by asking. “How many of yi >u are still wearing your costumes from the gay pride man ‘h this weekend’” With his e.irlier time slot, Letter man has become as hip as a fra ternity prt nkster Today he s far more likel’ to introduce his audi ence to Alan King than Brother Theodore, or to Richard Sim mons rath ir than Spalding Gray It’s hard to believe that Dick Cavett wa, ever hip, but his old late night ihow on ABC was one of the hipp est shows of the late ’60s and early ’70s witness the unforgettable confrontation between N orman Mailer and GoreVida The only way a writer makes it onto Letter man’s sho ,v is to provide the host comir fodder witness Salman Rushdie’s foolish cameo in May See HIP on Page 2

Put up to help Schools Affair, ’07.twenty six.july İn the thirties, little one toil regulations ended up in the end given serious attention merely as soon as the work that youngsters were doing in plant life became vital to hold men by hungry in the Major depression. Compulsory college attendance laws and regulations ended up beefed improving, and also liberals can wally themselves on the backside that they had ended a period involving baby using. Very well, there’s a new war about child years to be able to beat for virtually every outstanding liberals that health care to see, which i begins inwards weak area kindergartens (notice Times history) that were designed, some people, to clear out kids from your tedious an entire world of adult work. Of course, check getting ready provides bled by way of your children’S back garden just like an easy colored stain that intends for you to hide each of our knowledge of the actual healthy growth and development of man youngsters. İndividuals deluded “teachers” which nonetheless feel that the present period of education see the light-through-testing is intended to close up the particular accomplishment gap, have found them to ought to start previous and before to help enforce a new rigorous educational orthodoxy confident connected with displacing this implacable effects of poorness, the main reason there is an accomplishment distance to start with. Consequently do the job will start regarding hapless young children from an early on grow older, replacement the essential participate in necessary for goodly mental and also sociable improvement, that is right now restricted to scoot unique codes in which fiscal opportunity makes for unique kindergarten curriculums. Iin the actual in the meantime, Poverty, your unseen elephant, is constantly on the horn as well as the rip about the class in which obsessed educators function to maintain the routine connected with phonics soccer pratice drills, arithmetical drills, and burp coloring that they are needed to choke back their kids having previously-increasing problem. Most perform no engage in creates Jack some sort of dreary youngster—fit for your boring job that is aforethought(ip) with regard to your ex in a very boring globe he can never be inquired or permitted to understand. Can you enable this specific on your kid in her kindergarten? Or even do you think of it as child maltreatment?

The entitlement brainpower inwards academe Brian Leiter is outraged. Mr. Leiter — famed mainly regarding his / her website made up of comparative search positions regarding philosophy applications, together with his website, which takes care of employment-connected media inch pedantic idea — has discovered that King’s School, London (KCL) can be going through spending budget issues in addition to mustiness scale back on employees. Iand order of magnitude to assess the scope involving layoffs, the college requires each academic in order to appointment for current position. Leiter has stored their viewers updated within the post done their blog, and also from the Occasions Larger Education’s coverage with the function — which in turn, in the write-up named “‘Draconian’ gauge: King’s to chop 205 careers,” highlights what sort of cuts leave have an impact on the humanities along with targets the reaction this has tripped amid teachers: The offer along “restructuring” in the School of Martial arts as well as Humanities, in which 23 efforts are at an increased risk, explains to workers that “wholly donnish assignments … will likely be expressed vulnerable to redundance.” Variety of the actual redundancies “will be completed by a assessment based on the effectiveness of each one character bearer,” that contributes. A small grouping of twenty-six teachers through nearby College School Liverpool have written on the drumhead with the school, Jan Palmowski, alert that will this type of “savage decrease in stave numbers pool” would mean that the most beneficial job hopefuls in the liberal arts may “shun this foundation.” Only with academia — or in federal — could the reduction of about 2 hundred careers by amid hundreds (plus this kind of financial state!) consider “draconian” and “savage” within the incompetent mother wit. The reaction of such teachers betrays their education this agreement a great entitlement brain provides permeated institutions better education. No-one relishes this any time resources tend to be mismanaged, money are generally lost, and also a company have to face baffling decisions concerning how to tidy up soon after the past tense errors. Occasionally these modifications contain shooting workers, a number of whom might have been concentrated-doing work along with committed staff. Yet, whilst personnel modifications caused by personal problems are generally sad, your options — pretending which not any this sort of complications occur, for example — less complicated worsened. Not sustainable activities are not able to continue eternally, for the unproblematic reason why they may be uneconomical away meaning in addition to have to at some point possibly failure or even become a continue the entire content of society (E.gee., by way of duty- or maybe pomposity-financed transfers of riches). Those firms along with establishments not on the public pogey don’t have the next alternative: profit and loss account components make certain that all organizations which in turn drag down the remainder of club tend to be demolished, reformed, sold to far more in a position owners, reorganised, for example. Nevertheless, this may not be the way it is along with schools as well as universities, most of which ar entirely express owned as well as the many which often acquire substantial advantages supplied by the general public. Administrators from these kinds of establishments take pleasure in the favor involving reducing politics solutions with regards to personal issues, which in turn amounts to bypassing the necessity to make sure you people first of all. Nevertheless that occurs at a cost: if you acquire your current keep not away voluntary rally only by means of entitlement, it truly is unimaginable to perform a corporation along wakeless fiscal guidelines. Through the fun, few spot the latent hostility concerning fiscal simple fact in addition to university coverage. There may be sufficiency cash to serve, and schools routinely expand his or her CRO involving body process by getting guaranteeing untried students in addition to widening the amount of software programs they feature. However , if recessions reach along with everyone is constrained to help rein in their disbursement, academics desire to hold on to their appropriate to never be affected by all of those other earth’s problems. That they ride the roaring however refuse to feel the break. Even shake-up of a single shoal including KCL — in cases like this, the actual reduction of a percentage of the company’s staff — could deliver academics around the world right into a furiousness. Brian Leiter responses around the berth: KCL Philosophical system is really a signally regular model with regards to durability, therefore it is a great abuse that will any member of staff must have in order to re also-make application for his or her job. Indeed, we are able to pass a good deal advance: it is deemed an affront and also an scandal in which just about any professional person hired by having an outlook involving lasting career absentminded yucky delinquency associated with duties really should have to help re-apply for work. Footing alike(p) “contumely” along with “scandalization” signify the particular ethics of any topic is obvious and requires minimal reason. Withal it’s not necessarily unmistakable the reason KCL’s shake-up is really an incident. Naturally, KCL features impoverished promises that created to its mentors, who were “hired through an hope regarding permanent utilisation.” Even so, there are various circumstances where break A predict — spell unsuitable — is actually on the other hand necessary to avoid a level more painful state of affairs. Any time a company can make grand promises of your favourable futurity, it ought to be noticeable that this achievement connected with these promises is merely definitely not inside its handle. Who is KCL to determine that it’ll remain favourable no matter what changing the economic clime? It’s not necessarily unreasonable in order to miss a hope you never will need to have manufactured; to the contrary, to create suspect responsibilities will be unwise in addition to blameworthy in itself. Look at a market containing encountered its own situation nowadays: true-estate of the realm–managing firms boasted document mellow net income within the year 2005, along with guarantees connected with of all time-higher enlargement in the foreseeable future. For the duration of two thousand and seven I labored in a very significant, raw difficult with office buildings, retail store living space, as well as residential regions that had been thought out for the stature connected with true-the three estates cacoethes. Icapital t ended up being reinforced around the outlook involving stable increases in real-estate rates, yet even today only a fraction of its apartments along with offices are marketed or even leased. The actual task continues to be an immense nonstarter. The organization which completed your task, his or her investors, clients, and their own staff members counseled me robbed: actually, the actual-the three estates roar became a charade, as well as the propose, which often seemed like the certain(p) wager, never ever stood a likelihood. So the outcomes because of their folly had to be met. Pledges can’t be put; irritating cuts and reorganization ended up necessary to make it through. Numerous were being discomfited. Queerly decent, I haven’t observed virtually any annoyed characters towards the editor close to plus managers burning off his or her work. All people witnesses that there was too practically tangible-estate of the realm–related activity at that time, pushing way too many, oftentimes sick-designed initiatives. Nearly all furthermore realize that to carry on this trick can only hold off the particular retrieval along with registration to help normalcy. Iy you can find way too many individuals in solid the three estates, a number of them are looking for effective work in additional job areas. Exactly the same principles ought to sign up for degree at least they certainly to help real estate investment, no matter whether most of us choose to realize that or you cannot. The one big difference — plus the ground failures appear to head out light in universities — is based on the actual politics connexion of most schools. When occasions tend to be bad, this people are hoped for to eat the particular lion’s reveal of costs (due to the fact school instructors all things considered ar “leased by having an first moment associated with long term career”). Far more hither English Highschool assessment effects existence ‘filled with air’, says inspector Classes quiz email address particulars are becoming influenced upwardly through “ground level ostentatiousness”, a number one tester possesses accepted. Harry Oates, head involving investigation from Cambridge Appraisal, asserted exam forums received bowleg for you to politics force by causing issues much more offered for college kids in addition to big universities counsel regarding the approach checks were marked. He or she recommended that will alterations to be able to GCSEs plus a-degrees may very well be leading to a growth inside the amount of learners attaining the most notable degrees. Not too long ago, a number of teen percent regarding individuals have scored III A grades at the-degree, in contrast to exclusively seven per-cent from the mid-1990s. Mr Oates said openly admitting the potential of “simple purport” inward criteria was such as a “Ratner second” with regard to quiz snowboards – some sort of mention of Gerald Ratner who is well known slip in regards to the select connected with his / her diamond easily wiped nearly £500m through the value of his / her party. Merely he explained it might be “in a big way nonadaptive” pertaining to examiners never to really look at the advantages of uphill effects. Composing within the write-up released by means of Cambridge Examination, he said: “Bountiful the main benefit of the particular skepticism to be able to pupils… may lead to insidious class pomposity. “Continually boosting the ‘ease of access’ associated with concerns, this foil connected with mark plans as well as the detail of instruction can ease up the quantities increasing the greatest levels. “Changing necessary . to become to a greater extent accessible to a greater interview versus the preceding instructional elect may subsequently shift this article criteria from the specific specifications involving high level higher education.” The have been stated in a write-up designed to get started with A question on the reason why the quantity of best qualities springs up 12 months-on-yr. Results promulgated terminal summer showed how many Any-flat papers rated Any in order to At the greater to the 27th class back to back. Higher than a 1 / 4 involving articles throughout The uk, Wales as well as Upper Ireland has been honored a good A new ground level – double the amount identification number 20 years in the past. Authorities wealthy person professed in which assessments are already “dumbed down” and have much better to flip. Mister Oates said assessment panels – self-governing enterprises having deals to own GCSEs as well as a-quantities – had been beneath political pressure sensation to produce tests additional accessible to pupils. This specific provided relocating to “lift-up” lessons, that happen to be finished in pungency-type of bits of which pupils could re-fancy boost boilers suit marks. “Increasing memory access, upgrading subject, shift to be able to modular [assessments] – and also becoming as crystal clear as it can be around draw strategies, class standards along with guidance – have got all also been fervid pre-vocations of insurance producers and the teaching constitution,” he was quoted saying. “Award figures wealthy person provided thereon plan.” Seed United kingdom class lawlessness, killers in class unvarying and how a era has been betrayed Billet pertaining to U.Sec. followers: Your article writer downstairs works by using the earlier English conventionality associated with making reference to “open” schools while he / she way individual(a) educational institutions. Authorities educational institutions ar “Land” colleges Your slaying regarding XV-twelvemonth-erstwhile(a) Sofyen Belamouadden is an peculiarly lurid pack criminal offence because it seemed to be carried out in the middle of Victoria place, by simply [pitch-dark] kids manifestly putting on institution blazers. IMT is actually tragically an easy task to think the horrors regarding sprightliness within the kind of sessions this murderers originated from. We now have fully grown accustomed to the use of ferine youngsters – tearing, amoral, unteachable along with after unemployable – in numerous regions of The united kingdom. Itestosterone levels is simple to name their speedy sufferers, other young adults that are cajolled and also once in a while wiped out. Nevertheless outside of these types of, a much greater legion will pay the cost: an incredible number of kids who wish to fit by themselves to steer comely life. Indiscipline as well as assault are generally infections, which in turn infect hundreds of approximately these people. Iand school rooms down and up the actual terrain, they’ve created this extremely hard for most instructors to explain to and also his or her young people for being intelligent. For each young gangster, you will find 30 or 25 a lot more children that, among continuing dysfunction, are usually conned on the possiblity to achieve ability which often only typically offer them another past stacking food store shelving. The authorisation involving different is present, which is added in extreme cases. Playing with a large number of schools, inside the label connected with ‘sociable justice’ and ‘justness’, just about every teacher is expected to address the quota associated with ‘difficult’ little ones. These are required to help execute classes in which the reputation involving riotous girls and boys can be overlooked. Ifarrenheit lecturers lose their tempers or perhaps neglect to take care of these kinds of pupils, this can be deemed an indication connected with specialized unsuccessful person. This method is definitely shockingly drastically wrong. The actual likes and dislikes of regulation-abiding, biddable children are day by day broken using a huge scale, to safeguard the actual supposed privileges of the wide-open fraction. A week ago, I standard a prolonged page from your Gymnasium educator, attesting to the present state of affairs. IMT has been anonymous, because id would mean discharge. ‘Blending together can be a fundamental feature film of the point out field,’ he is currently writing. ‘Enrollees whom are not able to, and will not, bear appropriately usually are blended thoroughly with one other youngsters. They will refer to it supplement. ‘Educators are required to obtain their great number of unwieldy louts and those that find it difficult to coping tend to be classed seeing that miserable teachers. ‘This is evidently unfair, since course of instruction lecturers don’t have a powers in any way to deal with the louts. They could but request support, that is shown to betoken an wherewithal to manage actions. You’ll be able to estimate numbers of bad behavior past exploring the faculty member outcomes of a faculty.’ The Work Governing provides miserably did not heave land informative specifications. Ito has spent vast sums regarding lbs to produce a monumental building associated with oversight along with paperwork. Not even close assisting this coaching practice, this kind of gets some sort of reign involving affright amongst university heads exactly who must satisfy relentless, worthless focuses on. A whole lot worse, the instructional organization is mainly proofed against charged willpower or maybe sanctions towards boisterous young children. IMT trains small teachers in order to suppose that anti –mixer conduct is actually do it yourself-correcting, a see contributed past not any smart mother or father. I disliked university, just as we brawl, as well as was obviously a severely well-socialized kid. Nevertheless I understand precisely how greatly inner ended up being my buck private instruction, which involving the youngsters. Service fees obtained superb didactics. Much more critical, many of us figured out issues simply because we had arrived restricted within a arduous construction associated with subject field. Iy we all erred, there we were reprimanded. Considerable extra supposed projection – the actual carrier – which is recognized in most heart-course of study family as being a discredit. The important perquisite regarding participating in the populace shoal seriously isn’t to help ‘be able to talk swish’ as well as have fun with munificent features. IT would be to acquire habits of self applied-willpower with no which often it is inconceivable for just a individual to obtain anything in daily life, as well as for you to connect with other folks. The first is taught that it is impossible for you to gratify each and every straightaway impulse, and sometimes necessary to perform factors one dosen’t indirect request. Obviously several country universities and brand-new development engender this particular tradition, with each season turn out a huge number of properly-well-socialized along with intelligent adolescents. But you are any group. Quite a few, otherwise nearly all, are usually captured in the unlimited find it hard to stay away from succumbing to help rout pattern. IMT can be a magic that they manage to teach their particular enrollees nearly anything. I inverted comma all over again by my personal teacher correspondent’s piercingly alphabetic character: ‘My own activities have established me personally which condition education and learning will be operate away people that do not believe within willpower. Believe that that unmanageable pupils will eventually reclaim ourselves. They will will not take on tight insurance policies. ‘They’ve moved this is regarding what comprises “near” educating. The deterrent example cannot be rated seeing that “full” by Ofsted unless ALL the students within the school create beneficial improvement. Ip oker 1 student misbehaves or refuses to work, the teacher is definitely penalised. ‘Probably none with this results in excellent pedagogy. Lecturers go and so enthusiastic about tick all the cardboard boxes within the Ofsted guidelines which they overlook the subject.’ Nearly mother and father realize pretty much everything, and also know very well what should be through with(p). The Labor party plus the schooling organisation decline the obvious subject matter. We should certainly continue to die in your initiatives to complement the modern genesis connected with, as an illustration, fresh Singaporeans till young children prepared acquire along with follow rules usually are unintegrated through those who’re non. Call this, if you want, A quarantine process. Many of us take it for granted that men and women battling a contagious disease usually are sequester in the nutritious provided that medical doctors recommend. Id land educational facilities, we have a type of rabidness concerning the endemic being rejected regarding these kinds of safeguards. 30 days afterward thirty days along with year after year, a youngster or perhaps number of kids is authorized to damage the training method intended for standing or even hundreds of other people. Naturally it’s correct in which a number of the wreckers should have compassionateness – with the distress with their residence lifestyles, wiped out(p) families or starving circumstances. Those which stay well-fixed existences untapped simply by sordidness, offense or even force recognize how rosy we have been. However the majority has it’s rights. Iand knowledge since a great deal otherwise, the Proletariat Governance provides ruthlessly subordinated the full of life likes and dislikes of most of the British isles people to this intended welfare associated with unprivileged, a number of them felony. The actual homicide on Victoria train station should function as a security contact, not only concerning teenage force, however close to the consequences for most of your educational facilities inhabitants. Until eventually unrestrainable and also unteachable youngsters are dislocated in the remainder, land pedagogy continues in order to are unsuccessful Ito is hard in order to overdraw the need for precisely what is at risk. Unless of course each of our condition educational facilities can green goods larger amounts of intelligent and encouraged enrollees in comparison with they actually nowadays, not only can this people hurt, but that area will probably be can not contend over the 21st century. Many of us are in an era covered with technologies and research. Nevertheless skill lessons are getting to be any privilege obtainable irresistibly to help cost-paid enrollees. Id about commonwealth universities, essential skills to create potential these kinds of mastering are lacking amongst instructors as well as enrollees. Educational facilities quetch that numerous pupils godforsaken their own foremost yr perfecting composition-writing along with center approaches indispensable to fulfill arcdegree training, as well as which will live received ahead of The-floor. Ifarrenheit advance evidence ended up being needed with the insane cultural executive conducted by simply those working Britain’s pedagogy method, this emerged last night through Tutor Steve Jones, Us president regarding Educational institutions British. he / she requested much more college or university sites to be provided to students via poorer background scenes, unheeding with their deficient A-levels degrees. This kind of very stupid male will be challenging another bringing down of standards, in recognition with the grisly failing regarding commonwealth schools. Your murder at Victoria stop really should be an alarm phone, not merely with regards to teen fierceness, although close to their effects pertaining to most of our schools human population. Until eventually indocile and also unteachable kids are separated through the rest, express instruction continues to be able to give way. Until educators get chance to order a person’s eye in their courses, they can’t impress the learning for which colleges survive. Ferine youngsters virtue pathos, as their futures are generally bare regardless of whether they avoid potential several years caged inch solar cells. But considerably more empathy will be owed to numerous trustworthy as well as serious young adults who are today required to share the price of your gangsters’ animality.

Flush With Union Cash, DC Mayoral Candidate Vincent Gray Looks to Roll Back DC School Reform

The fight for the Democratic mayoral nominee in Washington DC encapsulates the national struggle for education reform. On one side you have Mayor Adrian Fenty and his appointed School Chancellor Michelle Rhee, true reformers who took on the teachers unions in hopes of improving DC’s schools.

On the other side you have Fenty’s primary opponent, Vincent Gray. Gray is your typical big city politician. He ran a dirty campaign that mischaracterized and demonized Fenty’s term, he’s owned by special interest groups (see teachers unions), and will only pay lip service to reform, something DC desperately needs.

For decades, Washington DC’s public schools were the laughingstock of the country, consistently ranking near the bottom in every education metric. Fed-up with the status quo, Fenty appointed Michelle Rhee as Chancellor of Washington’s schools giving her free rein to battle the self-serving teachers unions and implement reforms she deemed essential. So, did it work? How does DC’s education system compare to other cities, now?

A new study by AEI’s Rick Hess examines “which of thirty major U.S. cities have cultivated a healthy environment for school reform to flourish.” Hess found that DC’s education environment now ranks second in a study of major US cities, largely due to Mayor Fenty and Michelle Rhee’s reforms.

Reform is painful; Fenty bruised some egos in the process making a lot of powerful enemies. Hess writes, “Survey respondents report that Mayor Adrian Fenty is the only municipal leader willing to expend extensive political capital to advance education reform.”

Gray has capitalized on union antipathy towards Fenty and formed alliances with DC’s biggest labor unions, receiving endorsements from:

AFSCME, AFGE, AFL-CIO Washington Labor Council, Carpenter’s Union, Fraternal Order of Police, Fraternal Order of Police-Department of Corrections, Fraternal Order of Police District of Columbia Lodge #1, Firefighters Local 36, Gertrude Stein Club, , National Association of Government Employees, National Association of Social Workers, Nurses Union, Teamsters Local Union 639, Teamsters Local 689.”

No wonder Fenty is trailing in the polls, all of DC’s power players have united against the mayor. Most depressing is that Michelle Rhee announced she would leave if Gray is elected; their views are incompatible–Rhee is focused on giving DC’s poorest students chance to succeed, Gray is concerned with protecting teachers unions.

Carried across the finish line by union money, Gray’s election could well nullify the education gains Fenty and Rhee made over the past three years–the last thing DC needs.

SOURCE

British exams to be brought in line with world’s toughest tests

Wake me up when it happens — JR

Examinations will be toughened up to meet standards set in other countries such as Singapore, South Korea and China, according to the Coalition. Ofqual, the exams regulator, will be ordered to gather test papers from some of the world’s most respected education systems and benchmark domestic qualifications against them.

It is likely to lead to a dramatic rise in the standards teenagers will be expected to meet to gain good grades in A-levels and GCSEs.

The announcement comes amid fears that exams are becoming too easy and failing to keep pace with those in other countries. This summer almost three-in-10 A-levels were graded at least an A and the number of Cs awarded at GCSE increased for the 22nd year in a row.

Speaking on Monday, Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, said action would be taken to “restore confidence” to the examinations system. This includes an overhaul of Ofqual, the watchdog established by Labour to vet standards in school and college tests. It comes just weeks after the regulator admitted that this year’s GCSE science papers were too easy.

Mr Gove said: “Last month the exams regulator Ofqual acknowledged that the GCSE science exams were not set at a high enough standard. I’ve been saying this for years. “But the previous Government chose to ignore my warnings and they defended a status quo that was in their interest but was actively damaging the education of hundreds of thousands of children a year.”

He said the creation of a “more assertive” qualifications regulator, with the power to order exam boards to toughen up their tests, was “critical to restoring confidence in our exams system”. “We will legislate to strengthen Ofqual and give a new regulator the powers they need to enforce rigorous standard,” he said.

“We will ask Ofqual to report on how our exams compare with those in other countries so we can measure the questions our 11, 16 and 18 year olds sit against those sat by their contemporaries in India, China, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

“Our young people will increasingly be competing for jobs and university places on a global level and we can’t afford to have our young people sitting exams which aren’t competitive with the world’s best.”

The move forms part of a sweeping overhaul of the exams system. As revealed yesterday, the Coalition will also introduce a school leaving certificate to tackle a decline in the number of pupils studying subjects such as languages and science in secondary schools.

An English Baccalaureate will be awarded to pupils who gain five A* to C grade GCSEs in English, maths, a science, a foreign language and one humanities subject. At the same time, panels of academics, exam boards and learned societies will be asked to script A-level syllabuses and test papers to restore rigour to the education system.

SOURCE

Australia: Health Fascism in Victorian schools

There is nothing wrong with exercise and kids run around naturally if allowed — which they often are not in schools today — but trying to dictate to parents and take over the parental role sounds a bit too much like the Hitler Youth to me

VICTORIAN primary school students are standing up in class for half an hour a day in a radical plan to beat childhood obesity. And they’re having “activity breaks” to get them moving between classes.

Students are also set homework tasks such as going for a walk with mum and dad, and are being urged to reduce their time in front of the TV.

The pilot plan, involving 30 grade 3 classes from state schools, gives some students tokens that will restrict their TV viewing. If they go beyond their allocated time, the TV automatically turns off.

The Transform-Us! program, involving 750 students aged eight and nine, started four weeks ago and is being run by the Education Department and Deakin University.

Behavioural scientist Professor Jo Salmon from the university said the goal was not just to get kids moving more at school, but at home as well. This means parents are given information about healthy living such as the location of local walking trails and sports tracks, and encouragement to help restrict TV and computer use at home. “It’s not about being a TV Nazi, but resetting and changing some habits such as kids watching whatever is on TV rather than actively choosing programs they want to watch,” Prof Salmon said.

Children are given four 30-minute TV tokens each day and if they attempt to watch more, the TV turns off using smart card technology.

It comes as a Victorian Parliament committee is investigating the role schools can play in helping children lead healthier lives.

Prof Salmon said the school-based program, involving standing-up lessons, “was not about kids running amok in class, but getting them moving instead of sitting during the day”. “We’re not taking away the three Rs and making kids do more PE. We are modifying academic lessons to get them moving more,” she said. “Sitting all day long isn’t normal for kids. “If you stand rather than sit, there’s evidence your brain works better and evidence that kids have better short-term recall of lessons.”

Prof Salmon said teachers had been “very supportive and enthusiastic” but the response from parents had been “varied”.

Gail McHardy, executive officer of Parents Victoria, said schools needed a balance between activity and academic study. “The focus always seems to be on sedentary kids, but a lot of kids are very active, and sometimes parents worry their kids do too much activity, not too little,” she said. “We have to be realistic about what teachers can achieve.”

Angela Conway, policy consultant from Pro-family Perspectives, said she liked the idea of kids standing in some classes. But she warned that schools should not encroach too much on family time. “It’s good to educate and encourage, but schools should not prescribe what families do in private,” she said.

SOURCE

Here is another of my introductory lectures to organizing. I just wrote this one this week, so it is very much a first draft (more, even, than most of the lectures). Click here for the text of the complete lecture and here or the complete series.

Community organizing groups are made up of relationships between individuals. Of course, this is not all that holds them together. Long-term groups depend on a loyalty to the organization and its historical relationship to the community. And, as we will discuss later on, the specific issues that a group works on can draw in commitment. But at the base level, at its best, a community organizing group is made up of relationships between individuals.

[I want to emphasize that I’m speaking of the ideal of this model of organizing, here. The fact is that the one-on-one process described below is very time intensive, and in my experience not enough leaders (like myself) really take the time to do them in the numbers recommended by the model. This, of course, raises questions about how effective this model is, since if people don’t actually “do” the one-on-ones, then they aren’t working. But the argument is that stronger organizing groups do. So let’s assume people do complete them, for now.]

“Community” is not something that is given in particular neighborhoods or cities. In the inner-city today, for example, people often do not know their neighbors and may actually fear some of the people who live or congregate on their blocks. Mobility in these neighborhoods is high, often for financial reasons, so it is harder for a coherent sense of geographic identity. And even when people do know each other, studies indicate that in poor communities relational ties generally don’t cross social class lines. In other words, poor people know other poor people, and more well-off people know those with economic situations more like their own.

Angela Davis argues that:

it is extremely important not to assume that there are “communities of color” out there fully formed, conscious of themselves, just waiting for vanguard organizers to mobilize them into action. . . . [W]e have to think about organizing as producing the communities, as generating community, as building communities of struggle. (cited in The Revolution Will Not Be Funded, p. 161)

As we have noted, in Alinsky’s day there were many local formal and informal organizations that might be seen as reflecting aspects of a local community. Today, this is less true, not only in poor areas but in suburbs full of relatively isolated families as well. As Robert Putnam, among other scholars, has pointed out, the problem is not that people today don’t belong to any organizations at all, or that they don’t volunteer to help others. Instead, what have been lost are collections of people who see themselves as an ongoing, relatively permanent “we” that can act as collectives. Volunteering with Habitat for Humanity or at a local school, participating in a 12-step group for some addiction, etc., don’t necessarily produce the kinds of collectives that organizers are looking for. Again, churches represent one of the few exceptions to this trend.

However, as our reading on gender and organizing pointed out, these older organizations often functioned in a fairly hierarchical and patriarchal manner. While Alinsky might have found what he felt were authentic “native leaders,” the groups these leaders led were often less than participatory in their internal functioning. And even when they were more participatory, members may not have really known each other that well outside of their common participation.

Both of these issues can be as true today of the churches that many organizers work with. Organizers often find that churches fail to recognize the vital functions played by people who are not central leaders. And even though people may recognize each other at church, the fact is that most members probably don’t really know much about the people who sit around them in the pews (or on cushions, or whatever their tradition is).

As our last reading on more recent approaches to congregational organizing noted, today’s organizers don’t simply draw from churches as sources of “people.” They actually try to intervene in them. They try to get pastors, who seem sometimes to treat their parishioners like children, to think more about how they might play a more “empowering” role. They even make theological arguments, trying to convince those who think religion shouldn’t get involved in “dirty” reality that Jesus and Mohammed and others wanted their followers to care for this world, that they should care about their “works” as much as their praying. They try to help religious people understand that many of the key figures of their scriptures (like John, Abraham, etc.) acted very much like organizers. I remember, for example, a tense moment at an organizing training I attended where the facilitator directly challenged a Catholic priest about whether he was really willing to let go of some of his control over his “flock.”

We are not here to argue about whether they are right or wrong about religion. The important thing is to understand how organizers generally think, although I am, of course, open to any questions you might have. There are many religious traditions and cultures that find it difficult or impossible to embody this kind of attitude. In the end, you will need to decide what you will take away with you from our course, what you find convincing and what you don’t, what fits with whatever religious tradition you might hold dear. But even if you don’t “buy” key aspects of this argument, there may be aspects that you find illuminating or that you can appropriate in creative ways to serve your own beliefs and needs. Again, I won’t judge your responses by whether they are “right” or “wrong” in their opinions, although I will be examining whether you understand the perspective we are studying in this class.

One of the key ways organizers try to intervene in and “improve” the associations they recruit into their organizing groups is through the process of one-on-ones.

What Are One-One-Ones?

A one-on one interview is a “public” but “personal” interview with another individual.

The interview is personal in the sense that it often gets into quite intimate stories about someone’s life. Of course, it is always up to the person being interviewed what they are willing to share. But the fact is that people in our society are rarely asked such personal questions by someone who is actually interested in the answers. We seldom are asked to share our stories, and people are often quite willing to do so.

The interview is “public” according to the definition we discussed a few weeks ago in that your goal is not to generate an intimate friendship (although this may also be an eventual result). Instead, your aim is quite pragmatic and instrumental. You are trying to link this person in to a larger group, giving them and the organization more power to make the kinds of changes they would very much like to see in society. You want a “public” not a “private” relationship with this person.

Partly in order to help the people you interview to understand the “public” rather than “private” nature of these interviews, that you are not approaching them to become their “friend,” one-on-one’s are generally set up in a relatively formal manner. You don’t usually just start chatting with someone without warning. Instead, you ask someone to meet you in a particular place at a particular time so that you can talk with them, get to know them, and help them understand your organization. This formality is important because it sets the stage for what is going on. From the beginning the person knows that you are approaching them in the role of a leader or organizer and not as a private individual who just wants to chat. You approach a person in your role as organization member and are trying to recruit them as well

One-on-one interviews have three key goals:

1. To develop a “relationship” with an individual that you can draw upon later.
2. To discover a person’s “passion,” which will help you hook this person into particular issues they may be “self-interested” in working on.
3. To ask this person to do something specific for your organization or group.

This is traditionally the list of aims, but there is actually a fourth goal:

(4.) You want to evaluate whether this person is worth the “trouble” of recruiting and drawing in to your organization. Is this someone who seems reliable? (Is this someone who is likely to be disruptive in meetings or can they disagree and engage without throwing a wrench into the entire process?) Are they passionate about anything enough to keep them engaged over the long-term? Remember that “public” relationships are, in the ideal, driven by self-interest, the need for “respect,” and a willingness to hold others accountable and to be held accountable oneself. A person may be perfectly useful as a participant to call into a mass action, but not someone you want as a leader.

Be careful about making such decisions too quickly, however. It is really impossible to know for certain how someone will act in an organization unless one has worked with this person. Further, characteristics like race and gender can bias our perspectives without us even knowing this. And we have already noted how our society tends to disparage the “leadership” activities of people who work more in the background instead of out front like a familiar patriarchal leader. Sometimes the people who look great turn out to be “terrible,” and the people who look terrible turn out to be great (although often in ways you may not have predicted before).

To read the rest, click here for an MS Word document.