Word: nationalism
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...addictive, the 18-term California Democrat recounts three decades of slugfests over public health. Waxman's legislative trophy case--bolstered by numerous bipartisan victories--is impressive. Among the highlights are battles to secure funding for HIV/AIDS research at a time when at least one colleague still favored quarantining the nation's gay men on a remote island; passing toxic-pollutants regulation in the wake of the 1984 Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, India; and slapping nutritional labels on packaged food despite protests from lobbyists. Though brimming with wonky details, the book is a fast-paced civics primer for anyone...
Duncan, as the nation's educator in chief, has repeatedly plugged a longer school day and year. He views today's standard six-hour, 180-day calendar as way too old school, a holdover from not only 19th century agrarian society but also mid-20th century Donna Reed-style parenting. "Our children are no longer working in the fields," Duncan says. "And Mom isn't waiting at home at 2:30 with a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich. That just doesn't happen in many American families anymore." (Read an interview with Duncan...
Educators have been eyeing more class time for decades. The landmark 1983 federal report A Nation at Risk, which highlighted the growing achievement gap between the U.S. and other countries, recommended that school districts "strongly consider" a seven-hour day and a 200- to 220-day academic year, which would hew more closely to the schedules in higher-performing Europe and Asia. Although the practice has yet to go mainstream, there's a big push to add school hours in underperforming urban districts. One champion of this movement is Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, who on July 8 introduced the Time...
...nation's most closely watched experiments along these lines is Massachusetts' Expanded Learning Time (ELT) Initiative. Launched in 2006, the program involves 26 low-performing schools that have each added approximately 1½ to 2 hours per day to their school calendar. "We're in the early innings of proving how to extend school hours responsibly and effectively," says Chris Gabrieli, chairman of Massachusetts 2020, which helped originate the ELT idea. "But clearly, focusing on the students that are furthest behind is where it makes the most sense. Middle-class kids, they get a lot more learning time outside...
...mayor remains upbeat. "I don't say this in an exaggerated way, but in five years, we're going to shock the nation," Booker says. "In a way that you're kind of resuscitating people's belief in democracy and belief in the American ideals." If you're a politician who could possibly face Booker down the road, clip that quote. The city is burdened with the same drug, crime and urban-decay issues it had four, 10, 20 years ago. Booker talks a big game, and three years into his term, he has certainly impressed. But despite Booker...