Gerda Weissmann Klein was 15 years old in September 1939 when Germany invaded the city of Bielitz (present-day Bielsko), Poland. In her memoir, "All But My Life," she recounts the horror of losing family and friends, of life in concentration camps, of the death march and of liberation in 1945 by an American soldier named Kurt Klein, who…

Teachers have a significant role to play in developing citizens committed to social justice. They can best fulfill this role by guiding students to examine injustice, seek out multiple perspectives on social problems, and develop concrete strategies for improving their communities and nation. This work is best supported by the development of a…

The author describes his approach to retelling Arthurian legends, where he wrote two stories in tandem: one a historical novel in which a boy, eager to serve as a squire and to go on crusade, is given a piece of obsidian, the other of stories, the Arthurian legends, that this boy sees in the obsidian. These became a trilogy. He states that while…

This article discusses how civic engagement came alive in a Family and Consumer Social Issues class. College students are at a critical age to develop a lifelong interest in civic engagement. Students in a Family and Consumer Social Issues class were required to attend two meetings of a public board or agency of their choice. Their assignment was…

John Dewey and Emile Durkheim are philosophical giants in the field of moral education. This paper compares and contrasts their respective visions for moral education and contextualizes the comparison in the profound intellectual and social changes modernity was casting throughout the world. They were transitional figures that attempted to make…

This study examines the role of school social workers as potential agents of change in the educational system, with a special focus on their major demographic characteristics in Texas and along the Mexico border region. The border region of the state has chronic poverty and limited educational attainment levels and demonstrates a need for…

Contemporary university administrators are usually wimps, and timidity in facing easily enraged campus radicals only invites outrageous demands which, in turn, subvert intellectual life. This must be changed. For much of human history leaders had to display physical valor and this trait should be restored to the college administrator job…

It is essential to help foster students' social awareness in addition to their academic skills. Through discussions of stories that emphasize social issues such as racism and prejudice, students have the opportunity to develop and explore their own beliefs. But what do they really learn, and how? In this article, the authors document their efforts…

Despite economic and social challenges facing California, Children Now advocates that the foundation of state vitality and well-being is a healthy, educated and skilled population, and urges efficient investments in children. State leadership is called upon to: (1) Ensure every child has affordable health insurance coverage; (2) Invest earlier in…

A clear assumption in much of the current theory about cultural studies in composition is that the classroom is an appropriate and necessary site for teaching strategies for social resistance. Students who learn to challenge their culture through reading and writing critically about its artifacts and codes will carry these empowering skills into…

More specifically than the general concept of "development," the use of entertainment media as a tool for social intervention implies the purposive utilization of the mass media to engineer specific changes in knowledge, attitudes, or practice. Thus, this type of use of the entertainment media is inseparable from the notion of "what…

This document describes current and recently completed projects at the University of Chicago's Chapin Hall Center for Children, an interdisciplinary research body which considers the needs of children and ways to meet those needs through public policy. The descriptions of current funded projects are divided into three sections: (1) "Exploring…

The essays in this collection discuss the "image" as both product and process. Representing such diverse disciplines as rhetoric, composition, clinical psychology, journalism, photography, communication, education, and sociology, the essays describe how images function and how they are linked with language and explore the role of images…

Although not every American is touched directly by violence, it is hard for anyone to escape the problems of violent crime completely. This book, designed for the education of young readers, discusses violence and explores reactions to it. It is stressed that violence is not a new problem in the United States or in the world, but rather a…

Homelessness affects people of all backgrounds, races, and religions. Whether the number of homeless people is 300,000 or 3 million, as some estimates claim, there are too many people in America who struggle to find shelter daily, making homelessness one of the most serious problems facing the nation today. This discussion, designed for the…