Education Update - April 2007

Dr. Harold Koplewicz Establishes New Educational Program for Asperger Adolescents at NYU
By Joan Baum, Ph.D.
The effervescent, indefatigable idealist, Dr. Harold S. Koplewicz, founder and director of New York University’s Child Study Center is once again moving quickly and efficiently with his top directors to expand psychiatric programs and services for children and their families in NYC. MORE

Inclusion for People with Disabilities
By Sybil Maimin
A much-needed conference on “Building a Culture of Inclusion for People with Disabilities,” recently held at UJA-Federation of New York, offered strategies, goals, and personal experiences that clearly have universal applications. MORE

In Their Own Words: MMC College Students Discuss Their Learning Disabilities
By Jacqueline bonomo, Ed.D.
In my almost ten years as full time learning specialist and Assistant Director of the program for Academic Access at Marymount Manhattan College, I have felt the deep gratification of witnessing the graduation of students who, a generation or two ago, might not have even attempted college. MORE

From the NYU CHILD STUDY CENTER: ASK THE EXPERT:
What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
By Glenn S. Hirsch, M.D.
Freud discovered the unconscious; or rather the effect of unconscious motivation in our every day lives. MORE

Adults with Disabilities Take Action to Help Others
By Liza Young
In a recent panel discussion entitled, “Opening the Gates of Community, Identifying Needs, Advocating for Access, and Becoming Inclusive,” moderated by Jeri Mendelsohn and Elise Hahn Felix, Co-Chairs of the UJA-Federation of New York’s Taskforce on People with Disabilities, panelists, with great insight and compassion, shared their views regarding challenges to inclusion, and the missions of the organizations they run to optimize life experiences for individuals with disabilities. MORE

A Tribute to Poet Laureates Around the Nation
John Hollander, Connecticut . . .MORE
Robert Dana, Iowa. . . MORE

In Memoriam: Ronald Croft
This is a tribute to a great man, Ronald Croft, a church organist and beloved father of Dr. Rodney Croft, a surgeon in London. MORE

EDITORIAL & LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Guest Editorial:
The Minds That We Will Need in the Future
By Howard Gardner, Ph.D.
So much of our current discussion about education is about matters that could be deemed technical or political—Should we have charters or vouchers? Should NCLB be maintained, revised, or scuttled? How do we recruit and retain the strongest teaching candidates? Is home schooling good or bad? Against this background, it is salutary to step back every once in a while and ask a big question: What minds should we be cultivating in our young persons? MORE

Guest Editorial:
America: Time to Make a Sound Investment in the Arts
By Robin Bronk
Isn’t it time America invested in arts education again? MORE

Letters to the Editor - April 2007
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COLLEGES & GRAD SCHOOLS

The Dean's Column
Friday the Thirteenth!
By Dr. Aldred S. Posamentier
The number 13 is usually associated with being an unlucky number. MORE

LANDMARK COLLEGE
Assistive Technology a Boon to Problem Learners
By Sybil Maimin
Landmark, a two-year college in Putney, Vermont, which prepares students with learning disorders for successful matriculation in four year schools of higher education, achieves its ambitious goals with the help of various tools, including cutting edge assistive technology. MORE

The Charlotte K. Frank Education Classroom at Hunter College
By Merideth Halpern
Hunter alumna Dr. Charlotte K. Frank (MsEd ’66) has contributed $100,000 to the College for the creation of a new model classroom equipped with the latest technology equipment for faculty and students. MORE

City Tech to Combine Humanities & Technical Education
By Sybil Maimin
An innovative program to combine the humanities with technical and professional training of students is being developed at Brooklyn’s NYC College of Technology/CUNY (City Tech). MORE

HUNTER COLLLEGE
Classes in Tai Chi
By Joan Baum, Ph.D.
He’s amused by the perception that primarily slow-moving people of a certain age study Tai Chi, as though its emphases on improving body strength, flexibility and energy apply only to those who on doctors’ orders are watching their blood pressure, bone density and waistline – all of which are positively affected by studying Tai Chi and related martial arts. MORE

TEACHERS COLLLEGE
New Visions in Education
By Sybil Maimin
A large crowd, including many advocates of alternative and humanist schools, greeted David T. Hansen at Columbia University’s Teachers College recently where he spoke movingly about the purposes and possibilities in education. MORE

SPOTLIGHT ON SCHOOLS

Corporate Contributions to Education
An Interview with Deloitte COO Joseph Fennessy
By Emily Sherwood, Ph.D.
It’s a cold, sleet-driven Friday morning in March and Joe Delaney is late for work at his Manhattan office of the global accounting firm, Deloitte. MORE

BOOKS

Dr. Alice Belgray, Chair, Children’s Book Committee at Bank Street College Announces 2007 Awards
By Emily Sherwood, Ph.D.
“Books may well be the only true magic,” author Alice Hoffman is quoted as saying. MORE

Logos Bookstore’s Recommendations
By H. Harris Healy, III, President, Logos Bookstore
It is the month of April, this year the month for Passover and Easter. MORE

CAMPS

Memoirs of an Ex-Camper
By Justine Rivera
When I was nine years old, I went to a sleep away camp for the first time. MORE

A Camp with an “I Can” Attitude: Supporting Children Facing Challenges
By American Camp Association
Special is one way to describe every day at Camp Twin Lakes outside Atlanta for campers facing physical and emotional challenges--just another ordinary, spectacularly amazing, packed day is another way—a camp where kids get to be kids first, and challenges? MORE

A Horace Mann Student Looks Back at Life on a Farm
By David Maimin
It was the first summer of WWII in 1942 when all eligible 18-34 year olds had been called into military service. MORE

CAREERS

Ken Burns Speaks at the Oxonian Society (Part II)
By Dr. Pola Rosen and Liza Young
Ken Burns, legendary documentary film maker of American history, nominated for two academy awards, and several Emmy awards, and for whom the intriguing “Ken Burns” cinematic effect was named recently appeared at the Oxonian Society, participating in an engaging discussion with Joe Pascal, Oxonian Society President, regarding his earliest roots in documentary film-making, his passion for the civil war and challenges and triumphs in documentary film-making. MORE

Forensic Pathologist Mark Taff Describes Real Life Crime Solving
By Emily Sherwood, Ph.D.
For many years before his profession was made glamorous by such television shows as CSI and Law and Order, forensic pathologist Dr. Mark L. Taff has been routinely investigating sudden, suspicious and violent deaths in New York City and its environs. MORE

CHILDREN"S CORNER

From The Superintendent’s Seat
Taking a Leadership Role at School
By Dr. Carole G. Hankin with Randi T. Sachs
We all know that it is important that schools and parents work together in the best interests of the children in order to provide the best possible education. MORE

MEDICAL UPDATE

Dr. Perri Klass: Doctor, Writer, Professor, Literacy Advocate
By Lisa K. Winkler
Maybe Perri Klass’ love of books began as a young child, when her parents, both professors, read to her and brought her to libraries. MORE

Nutrition: Part 3
Overweight? Eating Too Much Junk?
Call a “Fat Buster.”
By Lisa K. Winkler
If you have termites, you call an exterminator. MORE

METROBEAT

Public Schools: Headed in the Right Direction
By Mayor Bloomberg
For the first time in a long time, our public schools are headed in the right direction. MORE