"Positive Support" examines potential benefits of matching high-risk youth with faith-based mentors. Drawing on surveys and interviews with young people who participated in the National Faith-Based Initiative, we found that mentored youth were less likely to show signs of depression than the youth who were not matched with a mentor. This in turn…

On October 15-16, 2005, FPRI's Marvin Wachman Fund for International Education hosted 45 teachers from 14 states across the country for a weekend of lectures and discussion on Teaching 9/11 and the War on Terrorism. Sessions included: (1) Presidential Leadership in Times of Crisis (David Eisenhower); (2) Terrorism in Historical and Comparative…

As part of its 1996 welfare reform bill, the U.S. Congress enacted a $50 million per year program to fund abstinence education. The welfare reform law addresses the problem of births to single adolescents by enforcing child support payments, giving states financial incentives to reduce nonmarital births, and creating the abstinence education…

The increasing percentage of children living apart from their natural fathers is an unpredicted, and not widely discussed, trend. Fatherlessness is a major force behind many disturbing U.S. social problems. The institution of marriage acts as culture's chief vehicle to bind men to their children. The absence of fathers from children's lives is one…

Teachers' scientific knowledge about societal science issues must be one of the prerequisites for the process of science teaching. Innovation in science teaching and its implications for students' scientific literacy depends on the understanding that teachers bring with them into the classroom. The purpose of this study was to investigate how…

This paper provides an overview of research on community service in adolescence and outlines a theoretical approach that relates service participation to identity development. After building the case that the 1990s has been a period of increased interest in the prosocial effects of service participation among school-aged youth, this paper…

This lesson for grade 12 is designed to increase student awareness of citizen participation elements of democracy. Students assume the teacher's role and design a lesson to teach citizen participation in democracy, including methods to combat citizen apathy. Students are provided with background information, detailed instructions, on-line…

As the world grapples with increasing environmental, social, and security problems, population is rarely considered a cause or contributing factor. The relationship of population to the human condition, and to the condition of the Earth, is often subtle and complex. But population growth affects almost every aspect of life from education to…

America's substance abuse epidemic has come to rural America. Adults in small metropolitan and rural areas are just as likely as those in urban America to use and abuse illegal drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. Young teens in small metropolitan and rural areas are more likely to abuse substances than those in large metro areas. Based on a wide variety…

Because the numbers responding to the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) social issues survey were so small, any generalizations about the views of the membership of NCSS policy directions must be made with extreme caution. With this limitation in mind, survey results are discussed. (RM)

Discusses interests of various social groups in supporting trend to help students relate science to current issues and practical applications, pointing to issues in science/technology/society (STS) curricula that need to be addressed by science teachers and describing some organizational decisions that need to be made in developing STS curriculum…

Black Studies, it is suggested, should be an interdisciplinary field that will not incite fear or misgivings any more than other higher education interdisciplinary programs. A clear distinction is needed between Afro American Studies as an academic discipline and as a social answer to pressing problems. (MLW)

In the wake of the United Nations' Year of the Child, U.S. public policy affecting the welfare of children at risk is found wanting. The misguided notions underlying many official positions, along with suggested modifications based on well-researched principles of child development, are presented. (Author)

Rather than emphasizing only the virtues of American history and culture, teachers should design their social studies curricula to reflect the gap that exists between American ideals and the reality of American life. (JN)

The modern university is seen as an alien phenomenon in the Arab world, where it lacks societal support. Kuwait University is a microcosm of the Arab university with peculiar problems arising from unequal admissions standards, traditional societal values, paucity of indigenous staff, inexperienced administrators, etc. (MLW)