Word: reds
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American education is every bit as polarized, red and blue, as American politics. On the crimson, conservative end of the spectrum are those who adhere to the back-to-basics credo: Kids, practice those spelling words and times tables, sit still and listen to the teacher; school isn't meant to be fun--hard work builds character. On the opposite, indigo extreme are the currently unfashionable "progressives," who believe that learning should be like breathing--natural and relaxed, that school should take its cues from a child's interests. As in politics, good sense lies toward the center...
Since the Reading Wars of the '90s, the U.S. has largely gone red. Remember the Reading Wars? In the '80s, educators embraced "whole language" as the key to teaching kids to love reading. Instead of using "See Dick and Jane run" primers, grade-school teachers taught reading with authentic kid lit: storybooks by respected authors, like Eric Carle (Polar Bear, Polar Bear). They encouraged 5- and 6-year-olds to write with "inventive spelling." It was fun. Teachers felt creative. The founders of whole language never intended it to displace the teaching of phonics or proper spelling, but that...
...Wars, what comes next will be dreary times-tables recitals in unison, dull new books that fail to inspire understanding, and drill, drill, drill, much like the unhappy scenes in many of today's "Reading First" classrooms. And that would be just another kind of math fiasco--of the red variety. Kids will learn their times tables for sure, but they'll also learn to hate math...
...another casualty of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. Many artists left the country. Now back, they're thrilled at being rewarded instead of hounded for expressing their feelings in their work. Fundamental issues like politics, ideology and spirituality remain important themes. Images of Mao Zedong, the Red Guards and other icons of the recent past are central to the works that have brought many of them fame...
Daisuke Matsuzaka has never thrown a pitch in the majors, but that didn't stop the Boston Red Sox from paying the Seibu Lions $51.1 million just for the right to negotiate with the Japanese sensation. The righthander has even inspired some suspicious lore: his "gyroball," a supposedly unhittable sinking fastball (it sounds like a ruse). So buyer beware: while a few highly paid Japanese imports, like Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui of the New York Yankees, became All-Stars, others have memorably struck...