Scholastic Update articles from February 1998

Scholastic Update archives from February 1998

Coming together on race. (dialogue about race among high school students)(Cover Story)
February 9, 1998... FOCUS: How Teens in One High School Are Working to Achieve Racial Harmony Teaching Objectives To help students understand how interracial dialogue can promote mutual respect--but why dialogue alone may not be enough to bridge the gap...

Affirmative reaction. (two experts debate affirmative action)
February 9, 1998... The most divisive issue in American race relations today is affirmative action--programs designed to increase minority presence in workplaces and universities. Most of these programs were begun in the 1970s to make up for past racial...

America's original sin. (slavery)
February 9, 1998... The nation is still wrestling with the thorny legacy of slavery Over the winter holidays, while millions of Americans were thrilling to movies like Scream 2, millions of others were lining up for a movie about, of all things, slavery. The...

Families of many colors. (multiracial families)
February 9, 1998... Multiracial families are changing American's view of race in America--while looking for their own identity Meet the Bodhi family. Several years ago, they attended a breakfast to celebrate Martin Luther King's birthday. On the way home, Gabe...

I hear America singing. (Alan Lomax, founder of the Library of Congress's folk song archive)
February 9, 1998... One man's effort to capture the nation's lost voices shines a light on our past During the 1930s, a curious scene was repeated again and again all over the American South. A beat-up Ford would pull up in front of a sun-blasted...

Mexico's blues. (increasing violence between rebels and the Mexican government and its supporters)(Brief Article)
February 9, 1998... For America's neighbor to the south, recent massacre of Indians is the latest upheaval in a nation in turmoil Last December 22, as the Maya Indians of Acteal, Mexico, were going about their morning routines, several dozen gunmen suddenly...

Janet Reno's biggest case. (federal probe into Pres Clinton' fundraising activities)
February 9, 1998... Can Attorney General Reno and her justice Department administer the law fairly? The verdict is still out. December 2, 1997: Another day, another tough decision for U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. For more than a year, Washington,...

France: a parliamentary democracy in crisis: the French cherish their public services, but can the country afford them?(Cover Story)
February 23, 1998... Clea Raffin's family did not move to their new apartment just so Clea could go to Parc High School. But that was certainly one point in favor of the neighborhood. Parc, an imposing building next to the swan-filled public garden in Lyon,...

Saudi Arabia: the rules may be severe, but this monarchy's oil profits support a cushy lifestyle.(Cover Story)
February 23, 1998... Several years ago, a few professors at a college in Saudi Arabia began complaining that the system of job promotions at the college was unfair. One professor invited the others over for dinner, and soon the group was meeting for regular gripe...

Cuba: for Cubans, communism means better schools and health care, but no political freedom.(Cover Story)
February 23, 1998... Every morning, Cuban country music blares through the loudspeakers, jarring Javier Rodriguez awake. Soon after, his teachers are rapping at the door, urging him and the 30 other students in his dormitory to get up. After a breakfast of...

All the world's governments: from democrats to dictators and princes to parliaments, here's a guide to governing the world.(Cover Story)
February 23, 1998... How many times have you turned on the evening news and heard something like this: "Good evening. President Sadistic Insane, the newly installed dictator of Sadistovania, declared today that he would not pull his troops back from the border...

Imagine a perfect world: from the ancient Greeks to today's Trekkies, humans have always dreamed of the ideal government.(Brief Article)
February 23, 1998... In the early 1960s, Gene Roddenberry, a young television scriptwriter and producer, whiled away his spare time imagining how earth, and hundreds of other planets, might be governed 300 years in the future. Out of this dreaming came...

Loose lips sink ships.(government propaganda in World War II)(U.S. History: The 1940s)
February 23, 1998... During five long years of U.S. involvement in World War II (1941-45), not a single battle was fought on the American mainland. But while the war left the nation's land intact, it turned every American's life upside down. In one way or...

Crisis in the White House.(presidential scandals in U.S. history)
February 23, 1998... Throughout his long career in politics, President Bill Clinton has suffered through many scandals. But nothing like this. On January 21, investigators from the Justice Department's office of the special prosecutor, or independent counsel,...