Anglo-Americans tend to lump Hispanics together, forgetting that the category covers a wide range of cultural backgrounds. Mexican culture is different from Puerto Rican culture, and so on. In this program, three Hispanic Americans-New York Justice Frank Torres, a Puerto Rican; Cuban-born former Miami mayor Xavier Suarez; and Mexican restaurateur Gordino Velasco-discuss what unites and divides the various groups. The Puerto Rican perception of themselves...

A recent survey by the U.S. Department of Justice states that one out of every four kids is bullied in some way - and that estimate, according to other reports, is too conservative. Why is bullying so widespread? What are the various forms it can take? How should a bullying victim react to intimidation and physical aggression, or - ideally - avoid becoming a victim in the first place? This video addresses those questions as it looks at the root causes...

As the digital revolution sweeps across America, many young people are experiencing what has come to be known as the digital divide. The first hour of this program examines the push to wire America's schools, addressing crucial issues such as integration of technology into curriculums, budget trade-offs that leave low-tech subjects starving for scarce funds, and the need for ongoing hardware and software support. In the second hour, more experts,...

This program examines a unique community based education program in rural India. At Barefoot College, located in the Indian State of Rajasthan, education takes place off campus, in nearby impoverished villages, among all age groups, with a unique interdisciplinary curriculum intimately encompassing rural village life and the issues villagers must grapple with. While seemingly far removed from the American experience, it offers telling lessons for...

This book celebrates differences! On every page, find one item that's different from all the rest.

By any measure of test scores and graduation rates, public schools are failing to educate a large percentage of Chicana/o youth. But despite years of analysis of this failure, no consensus has been reached as to how to realistically address it. Taking a new approach to these issues, Marcos Pizarro goes directly to Chicana/o students in both urban and rural school districts to ask what their school experiences are really like, how teachers and administrators

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What we now call an IQ test was originally developed by Alfred Binet at the start of the 20th century as a way to measure developmental delays in schoolchildren. But with the eugenics craze at its peak, Binet's concept was soon appropriated and exploited by those who wished to guarantee the ethnic purity of their society. This program looks at the history of IQ assessment, from Ellis Island evaluations to William Shockley's racist declarations in...

Why is it that involvement in physical activity for girls drops off more rapidly than for boys? This is a serious concern, as participation in school physical education programs has been shown to have a positive influence on a person's physical activity later in life. Do girls lose the attention of PE teachers who favor nurturing the physical development of boys, or do they make a conscious choice not to participate in the PE system? If so, are they...

In this program, three bilingual and bicultural women discuss their experience with language and identity, and the ways in which culture has influenced both. Eriko, who is Japanese but educated in the U.K., finds it easier to express herself in English than in her native tongue. Kazuho is also Japanese, but moved to the U.S. as a child before returning to Japan as a teen. She shares her perceptions about language as a reflection of Asian and American...

Orca Footprints is a nonfiction series for middle readers that answers kids' questions about the state of the natural world, resource sustainability and how to be global citizens. Using the Orca Footprints series, this guide helps educators build an inquiry-based unit plan based on three learning mod-ules: Our Earth, Our Work and Our Global Community. The guide includes introductions to fourteen Orca Footprint titles with ideas on how to present and...