American Educator
Summer 2001

 

Table of Contents

Overcoming the Language Gap

Make Better Use of the Literacy Time Block
By E. D. Hirsch, Jr.

Low-income children whose decoding skills are good tend, nevertheless, to have big deficiencies in vocabulary and comprehension. We can do something about that.

Invest Generously in Teacher Professional Development
By Louisa C. Moats

A report from the front lines: Bringing the best that reading research has to offer into the classroom requires much more than handing teachers a good beginning reading series.

How to Prepare Students for Algebra (PDF)
By Hung-Hsi Wu

The best kind of "pre-algebra" curriculum occurs naturally in mathematics: The proper study of fractions provides a ramp that leads students gently from whole number arithmetic up to algebra.

Religious Freedom in the World
A Global Comparative Survey Sponsored by Freedom House

As Americans, we take for granted what Jefferson called "freedom of conscience." But this most basic human right is under assault in many areas of the world.

A Forgotten Hero of Liberal Education
By Diane Ravitch

William Chandler Bagley got branded a "reactionary" for insisting—75 years ago—that all children should have access to a liberal education, regardless of their IQ.

The Education of Laura Bridgman
And the Epistemological Debates of the 19th Century
By Ernest Freeberg

What Is a Man?
3000 Years of Wisdom on the Art of Manly Virtue
By Waller R. Newell

If we cut our boys and young men off from the nobly inspiring tradition of manly virtue that stretches across the ages, they may turn to coarse, sometimes violent, substitutes.

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