Volume 12, No. 4 - Summer 1998

What Will Be The Future of Teacher Unionism?
By Bob Peterson
A review of United Mind Workers: Unions and Teaching in the Knowledge Society by Charles Taylor Kerchner, Julia E. Koppich, and Joseph G. Weeres, and thoughts about the evolving role of teacher unions.

NEA-AFT Unity: History in the Making
A Rethinking Schools Editorial
A look at the potential opportunities -- and the dangers -- as the nation's two national teacher unions consider merging.

Internet Filtering: Beware the Cybercensors
By Barbara Miner
This second installment in a Rethinking Schools series on censorship looks at the fallacies and misconceptions about so-called "Internet Filters" which claim to protect children from online smut. Not only do they let pornography in, they also exclude lots of worthwhile information -- sometimes on purpose.

Resources on Censorship and the Internet
Addresses, phone numbers and -- of course -- Internet addresses for more information.

Teachers as Learners: How Peer Mentoring Can Improve Teaching
Two teachers describe how evaluations by their fellow teachers gave them a valuable new perspective on their teaching practice.

The Hows and Whys of Peer Mentoring
by Marc Osten and Eric Gidseg
Practical nuts-and-bolts information on how the authors structured and maintained a peer mentoring program in their school.

The Standards Movement: Quality Control or Decoy?
A Speech by Asa Hilliard
Excerpts from remarks on the standards movement by the noted Georgia State University professor.

What the Tour Guide Didn't Tell Me
By Wayne Wah Kwai Au
A classroom teacher explains his unit on "Tourism, Colonialism and Resistance in Hawai'i."

The Price of Paradise
By Wayne Wah Kwai Au
A closer look at The Price of Paradise, a resource guide on the resistance movement in Hawai'i

Resources on Hawai'i
Where to get more information.

Teacher Alert!
By Harvey Daniels, Steven Zemelman, and Marilyn Bizar
A Reader Opinion raps the phonics fad sweeping the country -- sometimes by state mandate.

Exploding the Western Canon
By Donn K. Harris
San Francisco diversifies its English requirements -- and the media distort the issue.

Feds Mandate Abstinence-Only Sex Ed
By Priscilla Pardini
A look at how religious fundamentalists successfully pushed stealth legislation aimed at gutting sex-education curricula.

"Vows of Abstinence Break More Easily than Latex Condoms"
Outspoken former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders on the fallacies of the abstinence-only approach to sex ed and the critical need for comprehensive sexuality education.

The History of Sexuality Education
A thumbnail history of this controversial issue.

A Look at the "Sex Respect" curriculum
A critical look at the misinformation and biases that permeate the most popular abstinence-only sex education curriculum.

Resources on Sexuality Education
Where to turn for real help with questions about teaching and sexuality.

"SEX, etc."
Teens write about sex in this newsletter for other teens.

The Bell Curve: Stealth Book of the 1990s?
By Barbara Miner
Notorious author Charles Murray wonders aloud whether his controversial book helped demolish affirmative action.

Where's the R-Word? Speaking Out on Textbook Silences.
By Bob Peterson
Why is the word "racism" missing from so many elementary-school history textbooks? Can you really teach US history without it?

Always Consider Yourself a Student: An interview with classroom teacher Bisse Bowman
A 35-year teaching veteran, who insists that social-justice issues should be introduced in early elementary-school classes, describes her curriculum and her commitment to progressive teaching.

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