This book guides citizens in using the Internet for community, social, and political action. Following an in-depth introduction, chapters include: Chapter 1, "Getting Connected" and Chapter 2, "Tools," explain the two Internet tools central to organizing for activism--electronic mail lists and the World Wide Web, and the hardware and software…

This document contains the first five issues of a newsletter for college faculty on countering the publicity campaign against "political correctness." The first issue from Fall 1992 describes the organization's founding and first year, analyzes a lawsuit brought by a faculty member at Massachusetts Institute of Technology against her…

This book suggests the adoption of a critical pragmatic approach to the problems of educational change. It offers a set of criticisms by which theories and reform proposals may be judged and tested, and proposes the reconstruction of schools in place of school restructuring. A primary question to be asked is, "How shall social institutions be…

A course entitled "Schools and Democratic Society" was prepared between September, 1992 and March, 1993 as the result of a cooperative effort between the Polish Ministry of National Education and the Mershon Center of The Ohio State University. This document presents the rationale for the course. As Poland moves through the transition…

This document summarizes a civics course for primary schools in Poland, grades 6-8. The curriculum was developed as part of the Education for Democratic Citizenship in Poland Project, a cooperative effort of the Polish Ministry of National Education and the Mershon Center, The Ohio State University (United States). The project aims to help schools…

Two articles provide perspectives on computers and gender and on multicultural education. The first article, "Beyond Equal Access: Gender Equity in Learning with Computers" (June Mark), explores the lack of access girls and young women have to computers and the implications for future educational opportunities as well as career options. A…

This volume of proceedings presents papers in four sections: the keynote address, the presidential address, a focus book symposium, and concurrent sessions. The following papers are included: (1) Keynote Address, "Living With Our Deepest Differences: Reforging a Public Philosophy for Public Education" (Charles C. Haynes); (2) Presidential Address,…

A study examined the Ronald Reagan Administration's rhetoric about the invasion of Grenada to determine its ethical quality and whether the American public could make a fair judgment about the incident based on this rhetoric. Examination of President Reagan's rhetorical efforts revealed numerous violations of democratic ethical standards.…

The most ambitious connection that libraries can make in our time is the link between an individual and the rest of the world. Libraries are the places where books and other records of human memory and imagination are transmitted from one group of people to another, and librarians are the impresarios of the process. Personal experience and long…

The Freedoms Scale was developed to assess the attitudes of slow learning and nonacademic secondary students in Canada toward democratic values, and, in particular, toward civil liberties. Vignettes were developed around situations describing threats to an individual or group's constitutional rights. Students were asked how they feel (e.g.,…

After World War II, an optimistic, rationalist ideology infused with Jeffersonian values influenced worldwide educational growth. The idea of a universal, free, compulsory system replaced an older elitist ideology. The equality ideology held that (1) cultural integration was necessary for national unity and (2) a shortage of trained manpower was…

The history of political education is coincident with the history of republican political theory. The basic elements of classical republican theory of government were that sovereignty resided in the people and that authority was exercised through representative institutions. Only populations which possessed republican virtues--respect for law and…

The current debate about social studies education is the focus of this paper, and the questions and the charges raised by recent surveys and reports are addressed. Survey results from the Ravitch and Finn, the Chandler, and the National Catholic Educational Association studies reflecting student ignorance of social studies knowledge are discussed.…

This paper examines four major research studies spanning approximately 45 years which provide solid evidence that democratic schooling is possible and is an extremely important factor in the education of young citizens for a democratic society. The objectives, methodology, limitations, and results of each study are examined. From the studies, the…

The paper investigates whether the 1976 presidential debates contributed to political participation among all sectors of American society. Evidence was obtained from 353 eligible voters in Madison, Wisconsin, before and after the debates. Effects were evaluated by taking correlations between the level of respondents' exposure to the debates and…