Word: rigidness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Founder Thelma Farley taught in public schools for 20 years before becoming fed up with what she calls the "rigid, bureaucratic monolith" of public education. Kids need to learn continuously all year, she believes, and schools need to stop invading the little family time Americans have left. So in 1982 she started Beacon, which in 18 years has grown from seven students to 300 on two campuses, with a wait list. The 240-day elementary-school calendar is not as daunting as it seems. Families can take vacation time whenever they want (a carefully individualized curriculum makes this possible...
Taking its name from the biblical garden, Eden holds that even the best traditional nursing homes have been modeled on hospitals--with their rigid hierarchies, overdependence on medication and sterile cultures. Staff members at Eden homes have equal status and make decisions in teams. "Staff treat elderly the way they're treated by management," says Thomas. "You can have as many cockatiels as you want, but it won't matter if you don't overhaul the culture." That can be hard, says Anita Tesh, associate professor of nursing at University of North Carolina at Greensboro. "Once people see the atmosphere...
...German airship is the first of many that will soon be soaring over Europe. In the Netherlands a company called Rigid Airship Design is building a 591-ft.-long dirigible, which it hopes to begin testing at the end of next year. The company aims to carry as much as 30 tons of cargo or 240 passengers. In Berlin a company called CargoLifter launched a high-profile public stock offering on May 30 to fund the building of an 853-ft. colossus--49 ft. longer than the ill-fated Hindenburg. "I've been watching the airship industry for 15 years...
Kenan welcomes the passing of certain aspects of that rigid culture. "The monolith of the black church, for example, has some outdated ways of thinking that can hold a people back," he says. At the same time, he laments the demise of those elements that have proved so nurturing, particularly Chinquapin's understanding of family. "Because of slavery, the idea of nuclear family didn't exist among black Americans," says Kenan. "So people depended on a network of family, but now many of those networks are breaking down." Kenan found his nostalgia echoed across the country as he researched...
Suddenly it seems the once radical Robertson is offering a third way between the rigid order of the old world and the chaos of Napster, a chance to make money out of wide but shallow channels of online music and still make a buck or two selling CDs in stores. That should be music to the dinosaurs' ears...