Word: fad
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Students across the U.S. are about to find out if she's right. Mandatory volunteerism, once the province of chichi private academies with a runaway sense of noblesse oblige, has become the latest reform fad in public schools. Though Maryland's statewide requirement is unique, nationally almost one-fifth of students surveyed last year said they attend schools that mandate service. Even cash-strapped urban schools are joining in. In September, Chicago announced that it will demand 40 volunteer hours from its students, starting next year. Philadelphia officials have debated similar mandates, and Miami began requiring 75 hours of service...
While it may be cold outside right now, the popularity of the Queen of Green, Martha Stewart, and last year's $73.6 million in sales for gardening-supply giant Smith & Hawken are clear signs that getting dirty is a full-fledged American fad. Couple that with our perpetual scramble for the latest and greatest techno gadget, and that means the more green technology, the better--everything from automated tractors to high-tech barbecue grills. After all, for aficionados, life outdoors is much more than just keeping lawns in shape and boxwoods trimmed...
...element of Miller's script is a "lone cellist," here ingeniously expanded to two, probably as underapreciated as it is slightly overused. Like voices calling and responding to one another, they act, unlike much musical interscenic filler, to further contemplation with subtle gradations of emotion rather than the current fad of ironic comment or scene-labeling through dastardly clever epoch-hopping musical selection. Bach (played by Laura Lee'00) and Gounod (Luba Mandzy '01) trade strains here, at the same time softening and commenting upon the rough edges of Miller's emotional landscape...
...years from now, Buddhism as a fad will be discarded in the American popular imagination, as were Marxism and other revolutionary countercultural movements. But serious Buddhists will still be in the world, as they have been, working ceaselessly (and discreetly) for the benefit of all. DIMITRI B. BAKHROUSHIN New York City...
Your cover asks, "Should they be cheered--or feared?" Neither. A movement like the Promise Keepers, whose attendance has grown in six years from 4,200 to 1.1 million, is a fad. Like every fad based on emotion and superstition, it will, in time, disappear. The answer to your question: Ignore them! FORREST G. WOOD Bakersfield, Calif...