Word: blight
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...city schools are less centers of learning than custodial institutions complete with wardens (principals) and guards (teachers) striving to control a mob of prisoners (students), some so preoccupied with the three Cs -- crack, crime and casual sex -- that they have no time for the three Rs. But the educational blight is not confined to underclass ghettos and barrios. Despite efforts to upgrade the math skills of U.S. students, a recent survey indicates that nearly half of American 17-year-olds cannot perform simple calculations that are normally learned in junior high school. Other surveys have documented equally dreary student performance...
...blight is global, from the murky red tides that periodically afflict Japan's Inland Sea to the untreated sewage that befouls the fabled Mediterranean. Pollution threatens the rich, teeming life of the ocean and renders the waters off once famed beaches about as safe to bathe in as an unflushed toilet. By far the greatest, or at least the most visible, damage has been done near land, which means that the savaging of the seas vitally affects human and marine life. Polluted waters and littered beaches can take jobs from fisherfolk as well as food from consumers, recreation from vacationers...
...Black history and women's history are very similar in that some people still consider them unusual and new and not yet paradigms of historical study," says Assistant Professor of Afro-American Studies and History David W. Blight, who teaches courses on Reconstruction and modern Afro-American history. He says the newness of these fields leaves unresolved questions about what it is and is not appropriate to teach in the classroom...
...example, Blight says teaching about slavery is especially difficult. "The only thing you can do with slavery is to look it in the face, to try to keep some scholarly detachment and yet to tell the truth about it as we find...
...keys to resolving such problems is to establish the historical purpose behind the academic presentation, Blight says. But perhaps most important, he adds that there must be trust and respect between the instructor and students, so that when conflicts arise they can be resolved effectively...