By Stan Karp

Teachers know that crises like these pose multiple challenges. To ignore them is to reinforce some of the most irresponsible tendencies of U.S. education. But to address them thoughtfully and responsibly is a daunting task for overextended and, at times, unprepared educators.

The web can be an invaluable tool in such circumstances - if one looks in the right places. This often means bypassing mainstream sources of news information.

For example, to find student-friendly material about the Timor crisis, I recently visited the "Time for Kids" web site (http://www.pathfinder.com/TFK).While Time was offering kids a prominent feature about the charitable contributions of Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, my inquiry about the Timor crisis was met with: "There are no matches for East Timor. Please modify your search."

I modified my search by looking elsewhere. Z magazine's ZNET, (http://www.zmag.org) had extensive current and background info about the situation, including a detailed question and answer page, prepared by Noam Chomsky and others, about East Timor's history and U.S. and U.N. involvement. (http://www.zmag.org/CrisesCurEvts/Timor/qanda.htm)

The East Timor Action Network (http://www.etan.org) also had extensive background and current info. News and biographies of leaders of the East Timor resistance movement can be found at http://www.easttimor.com/leaders/leaders.htm. At Mother Jones (http://www.motherjones.com/east_timor) you can sign up for e-mail news bulletins on the changing situation.