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JULY 2010

Dr. Joseph Fins: A Leader in Brain Research
By Joan Baum, Ph.D.
Dr. Joseph J. Fins, newly elected president of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (he assumes the position in 2011), is in the forefront of one of the most timely and controversial emerging medical fields....READ MORE

The Muller Technique Introduces East to West
By Joan Baum, Ph.D.
Jennifer Muller, the award-winning artistic director of a world-renowned dance company, The Works, has the distinction of having a signature style named after her....READ MORE

Putting Today’s Democracy Into Perspective
By Rich Monetti
It’s been said that there is no present and future, just the past happening over and over again....READ MORE

Preventing High School Dropout Rates
By Sybil Maimin
As high school dropout rates reach 50 percent in low-income communities and the global economy becomes increasingly competitive, College Summit, a national nonprofit that strives to reverse dropout trends by empowering high school students in poorer areas to aspire to college, is showing success in dramatically improving graduation numbers....READ MORE

School of One: A More Active Approach to Learning
By Yuridia Pena
At I.S. 228 in Brooklyn, a large classroom is filled with boisterous middle-schoolers, some sitting, others standing, huddled by tables and desks, busily working in groups independently or with a tutor....READ MORE

Childhood Excursions Provide More Than Just Fun
By Giovanny Pinto
Days after attending a speech at the Schomburg Center on the challenges facing adolescent boys of color, particularly in education, I was still fixated on what was said....READ MORE

Closing the Opportunity Gap
By Dr. Danielle Moss-Lee
I hate the term “achievement gap.” Words have power, and I think “achievement gap” fails to provide the context necessary for transformation for all our children....READ MORE

Tenor Placido Domingo Takes On Baritone Role of Simon Boccanegra at La Scala
His Repertoire Now Includes Over 130 Roles — And Counting!
By Irving Spitz
Veteran tenor Placido Domingo, having recently recovered from abdominal surgery only a few months ago, was back in the international limelight and gave his dramatic portrayal of the Doge in Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra” at La Scala in Milan....READ MORE

Donizetti’s ‘The Elixir of Love’ and Janácek’s ‘Katya Kabanova’ at the English National Opera
Both the delightful comedy and gloomy tragedy are unqualified successes
By Irving Spitz
Jonathan Miller’s entertaining production of Donizetti’s “The Elixir of Love” originally premiered in Stockholm, was seen subsequently at New York City Opera, and has now arrived at the English National Opera....READ MORE

You Cannot Start Without Me:
A Portrait of the Eminent Russian Conductor, Valery Gergiev
By Irving Spitz
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Allan Miller has put together a fascinating DVD documenting the life of Valery Gergiev, who is unquestionably the world’s busiest conductor....READ MORE

Enticements for Educators: Oceans is a Dazzling Disney Documentary
By Jan Aaron
“Oceans” opens with a young boy staring in wonder at the ocean and turns all of us into children of wonder with 103 minutes of eye-popping underwater exploration of the world’s oceans....READ MORE

Preparing & Packing for the Perfect Camp Experience
The countdown to camp is fast approaching, and the American Camp Association has the following tips to help families prepare and pack for a fun-filled camp experience...READ MORE

City Wrestlers Compete In Mayor’s Cup Tournament
By Richard Kagan
An outstanding citywide wrestling event took place recently at the 369th Regiment Armory in Harlem....READ MORE

Cardozo Senior Andrew Nunez Shines On and Off the Field
By Richard Kagan
It is a chilly, overcast spring day, and it doesn’t seem like baseball weather....READ MORE

JUNE 2010

GUEST EDITORIAL
Great Teachers Yield Excellence for Students
By Chancellor Joel I. Klein
The past decade brought long-overdue accountability to public education and cast a spotlight on a shameful achievement gap that had gone unaddressed for generations....READ MORE

GUEST EDITORIAL
America’s Misguided Education Policy
By Diane Ravitch, Ph.D.
Education is at a crossroads in the United States today. After eight years of the regime of No Child Left Behind, we are worse off than when we started...READ MORE

COLLEGE PRESIDENTS SERIES
Alan Kadish, M.D., Touro President and CEO
By Lisa K. Winkler
Little did Alan Kadish know that he’d see his future mentor at his own medical school graduation party....READ MORE

Preparing for the 21st Century:
Hong Kong’s Educational Reform and Attraction for Foreign Youngsters
Hong Kong is a place where East meets West. People from different parts of the world come to Hong Kong for education, business, enjoyment, and for exposure to the blend of Chinese and Western cultures. Hong Kong provides an attractive learning environment for preparing students to meet challenges in a globalized world...READ MORE 

Married Music Teachers Les and Abby Learn From Each Other
By Joan Baum, Ph.D.
Performers and music teachers Les Horan and Abigail Lumsden not only finish each other’s sentences, they knowingly and lovingly take each other’s “measure” and riff on intuitions...READ MORE

Panelists Address School Food
By Judith Aquino
Greater efforts are needed to offer free breakfasts in classrooms, confirmed guest speakers at the School Food Matters panel discussion recently hosted by the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School in Manhattan...READ MORE

Harold S. Koplewicz, M.D., Receives Prestigious Award for Outstanding Contributions to Adolescent Psychiatry
Recently, at the annual conference of the American Society of Adolescent Psychiatry, Harold S. Koplewicz, M.D., received the William A. Schonfeld Award for his outstanding achievement, excellence, and dedication throughout his career in psychiatry. Adam Raff, M.D., the president of the society, presented the award....READ MORE

Arthaus Musik’s DVD series on Great Artists: Jackson Pollock
By Dr. Irving Spitz
Arthaus Musik, one of the leading DVD labels for classical music, offers a wide range of opera, ballet and orchestral performances....READ MORE

Outstanding Principals Initiated as Cahn Fellows at Teachers College
By Sybil Maimin
Again and again, we hear from researchers and from teachers that an effective and supportive principal is the key to a high-performing school....READ MORE

WOMEN SHAPING HISTORY 2010

What’s Up Down South
Exclusive Interview with Michelle Rhee, Chancellor of District of Columbia Public Schools
By Adam Sugerman
The 2007 version of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins suffered through a disastrous one-win season. A few weeks before the saga ended, the organization hired football guru Bill Parcells to run its football operations...READ MORE

Doris Cintron, Dean
The City College of New York
How did you choose your current career?
I came from Puerto Rico when I was four years old. I grew up in the South Bronx and attended New York City Public Schools...READ MORE

Veronica Kelly, Director Special Projects, The Bowery Mission
By Joan Baum, Ph.D.
Doubters, cynics, stand aside. Veronica Kelly, volunteer extraordinaire for The Bowery Mission, is The Real Thing: a dedicated, deeply committed advocate of The Bowery Mission’s special program for women, a former medical sales representative who, on retirement in 2000, began to turn her skills to helping establish and then serving the 131-year-old institution’s Upper East Side residence for homeless women...READ MORE

Janet Alperstein: Leading the Way in International Education
By Joan Baum, Ph.D.
Women can indeed empower other women, especially if role models run in the family....READ MORE

Nancy Ploeger, President,
Manhattan Chamber of Commerce
How did you choose your current career?
I fell into it, as I have done my entire working life. One thing just led to another and I was very lucky to have met great people who mentored me and gave me a chance...READ MORE

Pat Winchester: The Good Dog Foundation
By Emily Sherwood, Ph.D.
When Pat Winchester was recently transplanted from Virginia with her husband, James, who was offered the job as chief of nephrology at New York City’s Beth Israel Medical Center, she quickly set about making herself useful in the Big Apple...READ MORE

JAN/FEB 2010 GUEST EDITORIAL

GUEST EDITORIAL
Lincoln, Abolition
and Economic Freedom
By Lewis E. Lehrman
To read carefully Lincoln’s parable of the ant suggests a lost truth: during most of his political career Lincoln focused not on anti-slavery but on economic policy....READ MORE

FEBRUARY 2010 COVER STORIES

BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Remembering Du Bois
By Amy Bass, Ph.D.
The creation of Martin Luther King Day as a federal holiday, which recognizes the importance of civil rights movements in American history, was hotly contested by many...READ MORE.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr.: A Teaching Moment
By Louise Mirrer, Ph.D.
On August 28, 1963, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and spoke of the “great beacon light of hope” our sixteenth president kindled when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation “five score years ago.”...READ MORE

SPOTLIGHT ON SCHOOLS

UNION PRESIDENTS SPEAK
The Cost of Education Cuts
By Ernest Logan, President, CSA
In recent years we’ve been told that New York City principals and assistant principals have become so empowered that they might as well be CEOs and other high-ranking officers of their schools....READ MORE

UNION PRESIDENTS SPEAK
A Story of Broken Promises
By Michael Mulgrew, President, UFT
Tens of thousands of children across the city are crammed into overcrowded classrooms....READ MORE

Charter Schools Celebrate 10th Anniversary
By Sybil Maimin
At a proud celebration of the 10th anniversary of charter schools in New York state, charter enthusiasts gathered at the Harvard Club to hear a distinguished panel detail some of the history, successes and ambitions of the young movemen....READ MORE

COLLEGES & GRAD SCHOOLS

COLLEGE PRESIDENTS SERIES
President Ricardo Fernándz, Lehman College: Making a Difference
By Emily Sherwood, Ph.D.                
Nestled on an unexpectedly pastoral 37-acre campus off of Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, CUNY’s Lehman College is a study in contrasts....READ MORE

COLLEGE PRESIDENTS SERIES
President Tomás Morales, College of Staten Island: A CUNY OASIS
By Sybil Maimin
Just a picturesque ferry ride or bridge crossing from Manhattan is a unique component of the City University of New York little known outside its home borough of Staten Island....READ MORE

CUNY Vice Chancellor Iris Weinshall: Reshaping the University
By Joan Baum, Ph.D.
Vice chancellor for facilities planning, construction and management Iris Weinshall’s easy-going and amiable manner belies the dynamic force that keeps her constantly on the move to ensure the efficient maintenance and operation of CUNY’s 23 campuses and to initiate, superintend, and implement budgeted developments for the physical plant....READ MORE

Touro College Mourns the Passing of Its Founder and President, Rabbi Dr. Bernard Lander
Touro College mourns the passing of its founder and only president, Dr. Bernard Lander, who died in New York City on February 8, 2010 at the age of 94....READ MORE

SAT Tips
Model Answer for a Perfect-12 SAT Essay!
By Frances Kweller, J.D.
Many people believe that compromise is not always the best way to resolve a conflict....READ MORE

DECEMBER 2009 GUEST EDITORIAL

GUEST EDITORIAL
University Research:
America’s Best Stimulus
By CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein
Seatbelts. Global Positioning Systems. Laser cataract surgery. Doppler radar. Cable TV. Just a few familiar inventions — and just a few of the many discoveries that resulted from research conducted at universities. ...READ MORE

SPOTLIGHT ON SCHOOLS

Classics Are Cool
By Sandra Priest Rose
Third-graders in a public school in New York City’s largely Hispanic Washington Heights area declared that their favorite part of the year was stories from The Odyssey in a children’s version....READ MORE

Harold McGraw III & McGraw-Hill Increase Financial Literacy For Teachers &  Students
The McGraw-Hill Companies recently hosted nearly 200 schoolteachers from all five boroughs of New York City, and across the country, for a professional development session designed to help them educate their students about important personal finance topics so they can make sensible money decisions as adults....READ MORE

The Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education: Three Outstanding Educators Honored
By Emily Sherwood, Ph.D.
Three outstanding educators who have dedicated their careers to improving education in this country — Ms. Sarita Brown, Dr. Joseph Renzulli, and Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond — were honored recently at the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education ceremony at the New York Public Library....READ MORE

BOOKS

Liz Smith Wows Them At Marymount
By Dr. Pola Rosen
Liz Smith, once the highest-paid columnist in the world, is still much beloved if one judges by the multitude of smiling faces who packed themselves into Marymount Manhattan College’s Regina Peruggi Room recently for The Writing Center’s popular Irish Voices Series....READ MORE

SPECIAL EDUCATION

Imagine Academy Commits To Future of Autism
By McCarton Ackerman
At a time when the demand for autism education is at a record high, one Brooklyn school is not only striving to meet those needs, but preparing to face an even greater demand in the future....READ MORE

Sterling School Fights To Help Overcome Dyslexia
By McCarton Ackerman
Although the New York State Education Department recognizes many forms of learning disabilities, one school in Brooklyn was created in response to a disability that isn’t....READ MORE

CAMPS

Camp Is for Every Child
By Peg L. Smith
CEO, American Camp Association
Watching my son after he returned from summer camp was the first hint that remarkable growth was underway....READ MORE

Ready, Set, Camp!
Finding the Right Camp for Your Child
You are considering a summer camp, but how to choose?...READ MORE

MEDICAL UPDATE

Insurance Coverage Status Affects Mortality Rate in Pediatric Trauma Patients
Differences between private insurance, public insurance, and no insurance may determine quality of treatment
Boston, Mass.—A study led by Heather Rosen, MD, MPH, research fellow in the Department of Plastic Surgery at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School, found that uninsured children were over three times more likely to die from their trauma-related injuries than children who were commercially insured, after adjustment for other factors such as age, gender, race, injury severity and injury type in an analysis of data from the National Trauma Data Bank....READ MORE

MUSIC, ART & DANCE

The Dallas Opera: A Promising Beginning at a New State-of-the-Art Opera House
By Irving Spitz
Last October saw the opening of the new Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House in Dallas....READ MORE

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER GUEST EDITORIAL

GUEST EDITORIAL
The Road to Hell?
By Howard Gardner, Ph.D.
If the proverbial inter-planetary visitor observed educational policymakers around the world, she would soon infer their single preoccupation: “How to raise scores on international comparisons like the TIMMS or the PISA tests.”...READ MORE

A MEMORABLE VISIT TO YALE

Yale University: Lux et Veritas
By Joan Baum, Ph.D.
The three interviews with Yale University researchers that appear below constitute prime examples of the motto of Yale University—“Lux et Veritas,” light and truth—a Latin translation of a Hebrew phrase that appears on the seal of Yale University. An accepted interpretation holds that the Biblical expression refers to the intention of God’s will as it was revealed to a high priest and through the priest to the people. Lux et Veritas is, of course, an appropriate motto for Yale, which was founded in 1701 to provide and promote academic and religious training. Such a mission was typical of the time, and it continues to inspire the scholars featured in these articles, for whom the highest form of research means embracing the ethical dimensions and societal implications of their work, especially as that work affects the education of children.

Dr. Edward F. Zigler, Founder, Zigler Center in Child Development & Social Policy
By Joan Baum, Ph.D.
Though he proffers that he’s getting a bit long in the tooth, in the same breath he speaks determinedly about the books he’s continuing to write and edit that promote his passion: universal pre-school education....READ MORE

Fred Volkmar, M.D. Chief, Child Psychiatry & Director, Yale Child Study Center
By Joan Baum, Ph.D.
When the word “autism” was coined in 1912 by Swiss psychiatrist Paul Eugen Bleuler, originally a follower of Freud, it was understood as a form of “schizophrenia,” a term also invented by Bleuler one year earlier....READ MORE

Marc Bracket, Ph.D. Director, Zigler Center, Emotional Intelligence
By Joan Baum, Ph.D.
In his early thirties, Marc Brackett, Ph.D.—associate research scientist and associate director of the Health, Emotions and Behavior Laboratory at Yale and the psychology director of the Zigler Center Emotional Intelligence Unit—can lay claim to what others may achieve only after a longtime career....READ MORE