COVER STORIES
Dr.
Joseph G. McCarthy:
Shaping New Lives, Buoying Human Spirits
by Joan Baum, Ph.D.
Although everyone knows that physicians and dentists are
(in)famous for invoking the first-person plural with their
patients, as in “we must open our mouths, we need to
consider the possibilities, etc.,” there probably aren’t
many medical professionals, ?specially award-winning practitioners
and researchers at the top of their field, who really mean “we”Ñwho,
like Dr. Joseph G. McCarthy, the Director of the Institute
of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery at NYU, declares, “I
never say ‘I,’” and then goes on to talk
about the “team” that
does the job. READ
MORE
Taking Care of Business at Murry Bergtraum HS
by Rob Luchow
The business world is known for its fast-paced lifestyle
and years of schooling and training. Located at 411 Pearl
Street in the Finance District, Murry Bergtraum High
School starts students... READ
MORE
Eleanor Roosevelt High School Opens Its Doors
by Katarzyna
Kozanecka
“Do one thing every day that scares you,” said Eleanor
Roosevelt, wife of a great president, and a great woman in her
own right. This September, a new high school named after her
will open in its permanent home... READ
MORE
Unlimited Talent at Talent Unlimited HS
by Katarazyna Kozanecka
Bearing violins, sheet music, scripts, ballet shoes and their
voices, students from all over the city come to Talent Unlimited
High School on 68th Street and 2nd Avenue in New York. For
four days each December and January, the line of... READ
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Taking Education Outside of the Classroom:
NYC Museum School
by Rob Luchow
Most high school students learn about buoyancy from a textbook
or a lab experiment. Students at the New York City Museum School
(NYCMS) understand buoyancy from observing it on a sailboat
at South Street Seaport. READ
MORE
Teaching
Students to Care for Their Planet: Environmental Studies
HS
by Rob Luchow
How many high schools offer the opportunity to eat a raspberry
on a student-designed rooftop garden? Environmental Studies
High School (HSES) does. Located on 444 West 56th Street, HSES
teaches its students the importance of... READ
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SPECIAL EDUCATION
Inclusion:
What Are We Doing?
Perspectives From The Field
by Marjorie
Aug
In the mid-seventies a landmark act for educating special
education students was passed to ensure the rights of special
needs students to receive appropriate instruction in a regular
education setting, based on the individual needs of each
student. READ
MORE
Dancing with Wheelchairs in New Mexico
by Jan Aaron
“Like other people, little girls in wheelchairs and older
people, too, want to dance,” says Shira Greenberg, founder
and artistic director of Keshet Dance Company based in Albuquerque,
NM. She adds: “Anyone—regardless of age, physical
abilities, or expertise can become a beautiful dancer.” READ
MORE
EDITORIALS
Decisions, Decisions
by Stuart Dunn
A great many decisions have been made recently which will
have enormous impact on education for years to come. The
Supreme Court has decided that race may be a consideration
in college admission, but that it may not be given a fixed
weight. I support these decisions, although I believe the
emphasis on diversity is excessive. READ
MORE
SPOTLIGHT ON SCHOOLS
Study Shows Drug Testing in Schools Not Enough
Drug testing in American schools is a relatively new and
somewhat controversial procedure. Fought by the ACLU
on the grounds of being intrusive to students’ rights,
the Supreme Court of the United States first allowed
student athletes to be tested in... READ
MORE
Heads of School Speak - PRIVATE
Every Student Should Be Required
to Read...
by Howard Schott
What a huge question this is! Choosing from the wealth of great
literature while selecting materials that are relevant to today’s
youth presents a unique challenge to the responsible educator.
READ
MORE
$45 Million State-of-the-Art Fire Training
Facility Opens
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta
recently opened the Fire Department’s new $45 million
fire training facility at the Fire Academy on Randall’s
Island. This much-needed facility included the construction
of three new... READ
MORE
Teachers College, Columbia U Profs Discuss NYC School Funding
Following the recent decision by the New York State Court of
Appealsin CFE vs. State of New York that requires State leaders
to establish a commission to correct school financing formulas
by giving more money to NYC schools, Teachers College, Columbia
University, excerpts experts from issued the following comments.
READ
MORE
Maxine
Greene, Philosopher & Aesthete
by Joan Baum, Ph.D.
What’s immediately apparent about Maxine Greene, Barnard
class of `38, the philosopher queen of aesthetic education,
who has, in fact, been referred to as “the most important
American philosopher [on education] since John Dewey” and “the
consummate spider woman,” for her groundbreaking interdisciplinary
research, is her memory.
READ
MORE
Teaching Kids How to Read
by Jill Lewis
If you can read this sentence, you probably don’t know
what it’s like to look at a line of letters and be utterly
baffled. Unfortunately, too many children throughout New York
are struggling with such simple sentences as, “See Sam
run.” READ
MORE
Leadership Academy Launched at Tweed
Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein recently announced the opening
of the New York City Leadership Academy and greeted the first
class of 90 aspiring principals. Deputy Mayor Walcott joined
Chancellor Klein at the... READ
MORE
Summers Come, Careers Go
by Jill Levy
As the summer progresses, many of you will be leaving us for
a well-deserved retirement. Some were not ready to take this
important and daunting step but acted because of changes
on the horizon or the threat of layoffs. READ
MORE
COLLEGES
Barnard
College Holds Young Women’s
Leadership Conference
by Christina Cuomo Perpignano
“With so many different ‘Leadership Programs’ available
to high school students, how could this program be any different?” That
was my initial reaction when I was given the information on
the Young Women’s Leadership Institute conference that... READ
MORE
Boston
U’s HS
Scholars Program
Boston University has officially marked the 30th anniversary
of the nation’s largest and longest-running scholarship
program for urban public high school students. With the $5.4
million in four-year, full-tuition scholarships... READ
MORE
NY Women in Communications Elects New President
Joannie C. Danielides, President, Danielides Communications,
Inc. has been elected to lead the nationally acclaimed communications
organization—New York Women In Communications, Inc.
(NYWICI) as... READ
MORE
College & University Presidents Serve as Alcohol & Drug
Prevention Leaders
The Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention
announced new members of the Presidents Leadership Group (PLG),
a body of higher education presidents and chancellors who have
made student... READ
MORE
Goldman
Sachs & Institute
for International Ed
Teach Business Skills to College Students by Katarzyna Kozanecka
“Unfortunately, most of the world never thinks from a business
perspective,” said Steve Mariotti, president and founder
of the National Foundation for Teaching Enterprises (NFTE). In
other words, he said, people working in the... READ
MORE
MEDICAL UPDATE
What Color
is Your Summer?
A visit to The New York Botanical Garden
Saturday, August 9,
2003, Chinese Garden: The Cheung family takes you on a special
guided tour of their garden. See bitter melon, tomatoes, and
Chinese celery. READ
MORE
New Study Supports Adding Nutrients
to Infant Formulas
The results of a new study show that Enfamil LIPIL with Iron
which is supplemented with the fatty acids DHA (docosahexaenoic
acid) and ARA (arachidonic acid) helps to significantly improve
the visual development of infants compared to non-supplemented
formula. READ
MORE
Vital Role of Nursing Assistants Acknowledged
The American Health Care Association (AHCA) and the National
Center for Assisted Living (NCAL) urge all Americans to salute
the dedicated work of nursing assistants throughout our nation
who, under the most challenging of circumstances, provide
compassionate, selfless service to our nation’s most
vulnerable seniors and persons with disabilities.
READ
MORE
College Provost will Lead State Medical
School Association
Ralph A. O’Connell, M.D., New York Medical College provost
and dean of its School of Medicine, has been elected president
of the Associated Medical Schools of New York. READ
MORE
Four CCNY Grads Receive Salk Scholarships for Medical School
A Brooklyn resident whose goal is to find a cure for lupus,
a Pakistani immigrant involved in a complex cancer research
project, and a soon to be wed graduate with an interest in
DNA are City College’s 2003 Jonas E. Salk Scholarship
recipients. READ
MORE
BOOKS
Logos
Bookstore’s
Recommendations
by H. Harris Healy, III, President,
Logos Bookstore READ
MORE
2 Reviews:
The Irony of Early School Reform and School Choices
by Merri Rosenberg
Given the current political and educational climate, where
there is much hand wringing about the plight of American public
education—and specifically that of the nation's urban
public schools—it's a useful reminder that such ferocious
debates are nothing new. READ
MORE
Beat the August Heat with Summer-Theme Books!
by Selene S.
Vasquez READ
MORE
MUSIC, ART & DANCE
Richard Kogan, M.D.: Music,
A Window to the Soul
by Pola Rosen, Ed.D.
Listening to Dr. Richard Kogan passionately perform the technically
masterful passages of Chopin’s Polonaise at an interview
at Weill Medical College of Cornell University recently,
transported me to a state of rhapsody. READ
MORE
MOVIES AND THEATER
Camp & Spy
Kids 3-D: Great Summer Fare
by Jan Aaron
Actor screenwriter Todd Graff’s first feature, “Camp,” is
about a bunch of self-described “freaks” who
spend their summer at Camp Ovation, a musical workshop for
youngsters in upstate New York. Know any kids you’d
like to send to a place like this? READ
MORE
METROBEAT
Driving Crime Down and Revitalizing Neighborhoods Throughout
The City
by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
Good news has a way of building on itself; success breeds
success. Because New York City is the safest big city in
the nation, and because we’re both addressing our short-term
budget problems and going ahead with... READ
MORE
Mentoring USA Enhances
Self-Esteem Development for Immigrant Youth
by
Matilda Cuomo & Preeti
Parasharami
Ana, an immigrant youth from the Dominican Republic, once said
to her mentor, “[By moving to the United States] I have
lost my sense of language, culture and self identity.” Ana,
who attends PS 20, speaks of the difficulty or ‘disconnect’ many
newly immigrated youth experience when attending city schools.
READ
MORE
Hearings
On High-Stakes Testing Planned
by Assemblyman Steven
Sanders
Later this fall, I will chair hearings on New York State’s
high-stakes Regents exams, the subject of much debate. All
too often, high standards, which the Regents and State Education
Commissioner Richard Mills are to be congratulated for developing,
are confused with high-stakes, Ado or die exams. READ
MORE
TECHNOLOGY IN EDUCATION
Codetek’s
VirtualDesktop
by Mitchell Levine
Education technological environments aren’t like corporate
ones. In the corporate IT world, there’s no need
for “legacy” hardware;
in fact, the description is a euphemism for “disposable.” READ
MORE
Advanced
Force’s
DeviceLock
by Mitchell Levine
Longtime readers of Education Update’s Technology and
Education section undoubtedly are aware of the almost 1.1 Billion
dollars the New York City school system has spent on technology
and technology education. READ
MORE
Intercue
Professional PDA Form generation suite
by Mitchell
Levine
This product satisfies what I think suffices as the truest
definition of “revolutionary”- an idea which solves
a problem which people don’t yet realize they have. READ
MORE
Now
Software’s
Now Up-to-Date and Contact
by Mitchell Levine
A lot of attention’s been paid to the flashiest and most
sexy elements of education technology in the last several years:
servers, platforms, laptops, and other boutique hardware. READ
MORE
SmartDraw Diagramming Utility
by Mitchell Levine
The SmartDraw graphics package for charts and diagrams is actually
the most fun software utility that I’ve used in some
time. Almost any teacher of statistics or social studies
has had the difficulty of trying to communicate a vital topic
to their class that has unfortunate stigma of being, at least
from the vantage point of a typical student, “dry.”
READ
MORE