--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DGD00001 Date: 12/08/96 From: DALE HILL Time: 01:05am \/To: LORI HATHAWAY (Read 2 times) Subj: 21 Gun Salute - #2 here's the second one.... ------------------------- 21 Gun Salute The use of gun salutes for military occasions is traced to early warriors who demonstrated their peaceful intentions by placing their weapons in a position that rendered them ineffective. Apparently this custom was universal, with the specific act varying with time and place, depending on the weapons being used. A North African tribe, for example, trailed the points of their spears on the ground to indicate that they did not mean to be hostile. The tradition of rendering a salute by cannon originated in the 14th century as firearms and cannons came into use. Since these early devices contained only one projectile, discharging them once rendered them ineffective. Originally warships fired seven-gun salutes...the number seven probably selected because of its astrological and Biblical significance. Seven planets had been identified and the phases of the moon changed every seven days. The Bible states that God rested on the seventh day after creation, that every seventh year was sabbatical and that the seven times seventh year ushered in the Jubilee year. Land batteries, having a greater supply of gunpowder, were able to fire three guns for every shot fired afloat, hence the salute by shore batteries was 21 guns. The multiple of three probably was chosen because of the mystical significance of the number three in many ancient civilizations. Early gunpowder, composed mainly of sodium nitrate, spoiled easily at sea, but could be kept cooler and drier in land magazines. When potassium nitrate improved the quality of gunpowder, ships at sea adopted the salute of 21 guns. The 21-gun salute became the highest honor a nation rendered. Varying customs among the maritime powers led to confusion in saluting and return of salutes. Great Britain, the world's preeminent seapower in the 18th and 19th centuries, compelled weaker nations to salute first, and for a time monarchies received more guns than did republics. Eventually, by agreement, the international salute was established at 21 guns, although the United States did not agree on this procedure until August 1875. The gun salute system of the United States has changed considerably over the years. In 1810, the "national salute" was defined by the War Department as equal to the number of states in the Union...at that time 17. This salute was fired by all of U.S. military installations at 1:00 p.m. (later at noon) on Independence Day. The President also received a salute equal to the number of states whenever he visited a military installation. In 1842, the Presidential salute was formally established at 21 guns. In 1890, regulations designated the "national salute" as 21 guns and redesignated the traditional Independence Day salute, the "Salute to the Union," equal to the number of states. Fifty guns are also fired on all military installations equipped to do so at the close of the day of the funeral of a President, ex-President, or President-elect. Today the national salute of 21 guns is fired in honor of a national flag, the sovereign or chief of state of a foreign nation, a member of a reigning royal family, and the President, ex-President and President-elect of the United States." Source: Headquarters, Military District of Washington Michael Furman US Army Recruiting Battalion Seattle Washington contact: 6LBN-IM@emh2.usarec.army.mil --- TriDog 10.0 * Origin: The SPECTRUM BBS * 701-280-2343 * Fargo, ND * (1:2808/1) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DGD00002 Date: 12/08/96 From: SHEILA KING Time: 09:52am \/To: ALL (Read 4 times) Subj: exit exam??? From the Dec. 4, 1996 Daily Report Card: -> *1 GED BROUHAHA: SHOULD IT SERVE AS H.S. EXIT EXAM IN MASS.? -> Last week the Massachusetts Board of Education endorsed -> three programs to boost student achievement: ending a physical -> education requirement, requiring new teachers to pass a test, and -> mandating that high school seniors take the GED to determine if they -> should graduate (multi cites). -> Of the three, the GED proposal has encountered the most -> controversy -- so much so that Gov. William Weld (R) and state -> Board of Education chairman John Silber have proposed a -> compromise plan. Some educators complained that the GED sets too low -> a standard for graduating seniors. "The GED does not -> incorporate a terribly elevated level of knowledge," said Michael -> Sentance, education adviser to Weld. "We're trying to get beyond a -> basic level to set higher standards for our schools, and we -> need a test that judges whether we've done that. We don't need to -> waste our time with a distraction like this," he added. -> State Rep. Harold Lane Jr. (D) remarked that, "The greatest -> way to confuse people is to give tests like the GED that don't -> measure what we want to measure." He threatened that the -> Legislature would pass such a requirement only "over my dead -> body." And Paul Reveille, chairman of the Massachusetts -> Education Reform Review Commission, said the board's recent GED vote -> "is a massive and highly problematic detour from the hard -> work of genuine education reform." -> The BOSTON GLOBE reports that some board members regretted -> their vote after Silber vocalized his notion of denying diplomas to -> students who failed the GED (Aucoin and Zernike, 11/28). -> Board members are scheduled to reconsider their vote at their -> next meeting on 11 December. -> As the public and educators deluged Weld and Silber with -> calls against the GED plan, the two joined forces to develop a -> compromise that will be considered by state board members later this -> month, writes the paper. The new proposal would require all high -> school seniors to take the test next spring, but would wait until -> 1999 to withhold diplomas for those who cannot pass the -> test. Rather than deny students a diploma, "Failed GED" would be -> stamped on the diplomas of students unable to pass the test. -> According to the paper, Weld said the compromise would "get -> a source of pressure into the mix as soon as possible" while -> creating "a middle ground between making the GED a condition of -> graduation this year, and not having any consequences -> whatsoever." He also surmised that "If I were a graduating -> senior, I would not want 'Failed GED' on my diploma. So it may be a -> motivational tool, as well as a diagnostic one." -> Senate President Thomas Birmingham (D): "Perhaps this year -> we'll have to rely on the GED, but we will not be relying on the GED -> tests in three years. We will be relying on the standards -> that should have been promulgated already, and the tests -> developed pursuant to those standards." --- PCBoard (R) v15.3/M 10 * Origin: Castle of the Four Winds...subjective reality? (1:218/804) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DGD00003 Date: 12/08/96 From: SHEILA KING Time: 09:53am \/To: ALL (Read 4 times) Subj: Math Ed Software From the Dec. 4, 1996 Daily Report Card: -> *2 REAL-LIFE MATH: CARNEGIE MELLON'S SOFTWARE PACKAGE -> BUSINESS WEEK highlights Carnegie Mellon's Lifetime Math -> program, in operation at Pittsburgh, Pa.'s, Langley High School -> (Baker, 11/25). The program centers on software that gives -> students real-life tasks "ranging from choosing cellular-phone -> service to renting cars to equipping a basketball team with -> sneakers." -> Albert Corbett, a cognitive scientist who helped develop the -> software, said that students who took the beginning algebra -> course were twice as likely as others to continue on to a second year -> in algebra, reports the magazine. -> BUSINESS WEEK emphasizes that Lifetime Math software is the -> "core" of Langley's math instruction in algebra and geometry, -> "not a supplement to classroom instruction." The magazine -> concedes that the program's weakness is that students will learn how -> to problem solve without acquiring basic knowledge. Several -> companies attempted to develop math programs that stressed -> thinking skills, with the result that "kids got stomped on the -> SAT," notes Illana Weintraub, founder of MathMedia Educational -> Software in Northbrook, Ill. -> Lifetime Math is used in 46 high schools in Pittsburgh, -> Milwaukee adn Pensacola, Fla., writes the magazine. Carnegie -> Mellon charges schools $16,000 for as many copies of the software as -> it needs, and training is included. -> According to BUSINESS WEEK, Langley High School students who -> used the program scored 100% higher than a comparable group of -> Algebra I students in a problem-solving tests and 15% higher on a -> standardized exam drawn from the math portion of the SAT. From the -> magazine: "The real test will come when graduates encounter algebra -> and geometry at work." --- PCBoard (R) v15.3/M 10 * Origin: Castle of the Four Winds...subjective reality? (1:218/804) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DGD00004 Date: 12/08/96 From: SHEILA KING Time: 09:55am \/To: ALL (Read 4 times) Subj: Math & Sci Standards From the Dec. 4, 1996 Daily Report Card: -> *4 STANDARDS: WHY NOT GO NATIONAL? -> BUSINESS WEEK reviews two international studies released -> last month that compare math and science scores of U.S. students -> versus their foreign counterparts (Pannar, 11/25). The studies, -> released by the National Science Foundation and the National -> Center for Education Statistics both revealed that American -> students are lagging in math and science (See DRCs 10/23/96 and -> 11/22/96). -> William Schmidt, professor of education at Michigan State U -> blames the lack of a "single, coherent vision of what students -> need to learn" for the failure of U.S. students to score well on math -> and science tests, reports the magazine. Schmidt, who is -> the U.S. research coordinator for the study released by the -> National Center for Education Statistics also points out that the -> typical U.S. math teacher "offers a variety of problems and -> exercises in a scatter-shot, 'episodic' fashion," writes BUSINESS -> WEEK. -> A decentralized school system is the cause of this "lack of -> vision" in teaching math and science, according to Schmidt, -> writes the magazine. While national standards in math and -> science have been developed, they have been implemented in a -> "rather haphazard way," writes the magazine. If more schools -> bought into the standards, classroom instruction would improve -> and textbook publishers would have an incentive to develop higher -> quality books, claims Schmidt. -> However, some educators loath the new math and science -> standards. "The math standards are too touchy-feely," complains E.D. -> Hirsch Jr., author of "The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have -> Them." Others agree with Hirsch, complaining that the -> standards leave out basic arithmetic skills because they -> discourage rote learning. -> National Council of Teachers of Mathematics President Gail -> Burrill counters that "computational skills are as important as they -> were" in the math standards produced by her group. BUSINESS WEEK -> adds that the science standards call for less time to be -> spent in high school biology on taxonomy in order to spend more time -> on genetics, biochemistry and other topics. -> According to the magazine, the math and science standards -> "hold promise" because they "introduce coherence without -> rigidity." U of Michigan professor Harold Stevenson also lauds -> national standards. Stevenson: "National standards say a child -> should understand say, the relationship between a circle and a -> cylinder. But they don't say how and when to explain that." -> Yet, "American schools will never adopt a national -> curriculum under duress," writes the magazine. BUSINESS WEEK -> points to an emerging clearinghouse, Achieve, established by the -> National Governors Association, which will "permit state -> officials to measure academic performance in all subjects against -> other states." Stanley Litow, IBM vice-president for corporate -> community relations, holds that Achieve should "drive the quality of -> the standards up" by featuring programs and standards that -> work and those that fail. --- PCBoard (R) v15.3/M 10 * Origin: Castle of the Four Winds...subjective reality? (1:218/804) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DGD00005 Date: 12/08/96 From: SHEILA KING Time: 09:56am \/To: ALL (Read 4 times) Subj: Multi-Age Classrooms From the Dec. 4, 1996 Daily Report Card: -> *5 ONE-ROOM SCHOOLHOUSE: ALIVE AND WELL IN AMERICA -> NEWSWEEK Magazine reports on the return to multi-age -> classrooms (Leslie and Halpert, 12/6). "Call it Grade -> Conflation. Spurred by reform proposals around the nation, -> educators are discarding traditional age groupings. Instead, -> they are once again turning to multi-age classrooms," writes the -> magazine. -> For example, Ky. state law mandates that every school in the -> state offer multi-age classes for children age 5 to 9. In -> Cincinnati, school officials plan to convert all classes from K -> through 10th grade to multi-age classrooms by 2001, writes the -> magazine. -> According to NEWSWEEK, contemporary multi-age classrooms are -> more akin to the "popular but flawed open-classroom experiments of -> the late 1960s" than they are to the one-room schoolhouses of -> yesteryear. The theory holds that instruction can be more self- -> paced in multi-age classrooms, with children moving from easier to -> more difficult material quicker than if they had to wait to be -> promoted to the next grade. -> Critics lambaste the concept as too chaotic, reports -> NEWSWEEK. "Kids everywhere running around," is how one Ky. -> parent describes multi-age classrooms. But proponents are not -> deterred. "We are building this from the ground up," said Linda -> Edin, a teacher at Landsdowne Elementary School in Lexington, Ky. --- PCBoard (R) v15.3/M 10 * Origin: Castle of the Four Winds...subjective reality? (1:218/804) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DGD00006 Date: 12/08/96 From: MATT SMITH Time: 03:14pm \/To: RON MCDERMOTT (Read 3 times) Subj: Re: US EDUCATION RM> DT> doors. One quarter of all children in the United States under the RM> DT> age of DT> six live in poverty and children comprise 40% of all RM> DT> people living in poverty. Bracey points out that "The United RM> States RM> DT> has more than twice the proportion of children in poverty than RM> all RM> DT> other industrialized nations. In the United States, 53 percent of RM> DT> black children and 42 percent of Hispanic children are in RM> poverty. RM> PK>Why don't we do something to change all this? RM> RM> 1. It would cost too much. RM> 2. Not enough people care enough. RM> 3. It has proven to be very difficult to effect social change RM> through external means. Mainly number (3). Poverty in America is largely the result of self-inflicted behaviors, and no social program can "rehabilitate" the employability of the young man who made himself unemployable by choosing to drop out of school, get into crack, and be a convicted felon. Nor can any social program keep a girl from choosing to be sexually active and simultaneously choosing to not use contraception. RM> 5. When we became a technological people, the differences RM> between members of our society became more obvious, thus RM> causing more differentiation. RM> 6. The demand for intellectual skills rose as the demand for RM> manual or unskilled labor decreased. These very important factors in the causation of a permanent underclass are beyond any social program's abilities to remedy. No social program will return the workforce to the days when it was dominated by high-paying jobs demanding few skills. My grandfather came here from Eastern Europe speaking no English and in a week was working in a factory putting nuts on bolts at a reasonable wage. No social program will return Pittsburgh's economy to that. RM> 7. For everyone to earn a comfortable wage, or to live in RM> relative comfort, we must either educate everyone equally RM> (which I don't think can be done), or we must create the RM> need for more manual or unskilled labor. Something like RM> another frontier, for example, would offer the opportunity RM> for those who work with their hands to live comfortably... RM> Our best hope for this might be the colonization of the RM> oceans or space... I notice NASA's astronaut program isn't taking dropouts! --- Simplex BBS (v1.07.00Beta [DOS]) * Origin: NighthawkBBS, Burlington NC 910-228-7002 HST Dual (1:3644/6) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DGD00007 Date: 12/08/96 From: MATT SMITH Time: 03:23pm \/To: RON MCDERMOTT (Read 3 times) Subj: Re: SEX HARRASS. IN SCHOOLS RM> -> *4 NAME CALLING OR HARASSMENT: JURY RULES IN SOUTH KORTRIGHT RM> -> Eve Bruneau, a student who filed suit against South RM> -> Kortright Central School District for allegedly allowing male RM> -> students to harass her and other girls, lost her case (news RM> -> services/WASH POST, 11/22). A federal jury yesterday rejected RM> -> her claim, saying that "it was unreasonable to look at adolescent RM> -> name-calling with adult expectations," writes the paper. RM> RM> If the decision was in the nature of "boys will be boys", RM> then the jury consisted of a bunch of jackasses..... Depends on the age of the students. Sexual-harassment law for _workplaces_ deals with the behavior of mature _adults_. Court decisions defining "sexual harassment" didn't have 12-year-old _boys_ in mind. When I was 12, I remember that kids teased each other over all kinds of things. Sexual-harassment law was defined by judges having a very different scenario in mind, and both judges and jurors are very aware of how non-adult 6th-grade kids are! RM> SK>Students (boys) called the girls names like "dog-faced bitch" RM> SK>and grabbed at their breasts. I think 11- and 12- year old boys RM> SK>ought to realize that this isn't appropriate behavior. RM> I agree... I think a LOT of what routinely happens should RM> be recognized as inappropriate behavior; Most of which is _not_ sexually-related. Most teasing of kids by other kids in that age range has nothing to do with sex, and jurors and judges know that. They are not willing to judge a 12-year-old boy by the standards a 45-year-old manager is judged in a sexual-harassment case. --- Simplex BBS (v1.07.00Beta [DOS]) * Origin: NighthawkBBS, Burlington NC 910-228-7002 HST Dual (1:3644/6) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DGD00008 Date: 12/08/96 From: CARL BOGARDUS Time: 10:08pm \/To: MILES MAXTED (Read 2 times) Subj: Accelerated Reader Advantage Learning Systems, Inc. P.O. Box 8036 Rapids, Wisconsin 54495 Thia is where you can get the Accelerated Reader program. They do distribute outside of U.S.. --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: VETLink #13 Las Cruces NM (505)523-2811 (1:305/105) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 265 EDUCATOR Ref: DGD00009 Date: 12/08/96 From: CARL BOGARDUS Time: 10:10pm \/To: ALL (Read 2 times) Subj: Quality Ed #11 Quotations from: The TEAM Handbook for Educators 1994 by Joiner Associates Inc. 3800 Regent Street P.O. Box 5445 Madison, WI 53705-0445 1-800-669-8326 "11. (a)Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor. Substitute leadership. (B)Eliminate management by numbers, numerical goals. Substitute leadership. For Educators: *If a school system accomplishes its purpose, it will have graduates successfully applying what they have learned to their personal, family, social, and professional lives. Graduates will also have learned how to continue learning. *Any other measures of success--test scores, GPAs, merit scholars, sports victories--are surrogates that we hope will indicate whether or not education is taking or has taken place. When we focus on these indicators, we risk displacing the purpose of schools from education to grade making. These surrogates become an end in themselves. Looking good replaces doing well." Pg 2-6 --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: VETLink #13 Las Cruces NM (505)523-2811 (1:305/105)