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The National Humanities Faculty working papers in this document represent reports of faculty participation in humanities projects around the country and emphasize program content that might be useful to teachers developing their own humanities programs. Arleigh D. Richardson's report is a description of the program he visited and is written by the teachers who developed it. The program, geared for the average student, stresses the interrelated and values content of the humanities. The result of John Cawelti's visit to a black, inner-city school is a detailed model for an 11th grade course, "Who We Are," that would involve the whole student. Roland B. Kimball, after visiting a Connecticut high school, suggests an outline and activities for a 9th grade humanities program that centers on the life of the students' community. John Anthony Scott's report on the theme and content of an American studies course is a specific program with a human and historical orientation to be implemented by integrating literature with historical topics. John Cawelti contributes another paper: his thoughts on the construction of an integrated curriculum that would develop the basic analytic and interpretive skills of the social studies, science, and the humanities, independently, and then set up problems requiring the interworking of the different skills. (JH)

This paper attempts to spell out some possible solutions to major problems confronted by new town planners and local school districts faced with new towns suddenly appearing within their borders. A number of possible alternative routes that developers and school districts might explore in attempting to cope with such problems are also discussed. The problems considered concern the wisest approaches to planning educational systems for new towns; ways of providing educational space on short notice; ways of financing the educational programs and new facilities for new town children in the face of grave financial shortages; ways of governing the new town educational system; and possible problems created by the costly overlapping and duplication of municipal services. (Author/MLF)

The major contention of this paper is that the emphasis in developing countries on non-formal alternatives to formal schooling can be related to a major reconstruction now underway of the concept of economic development. The earlier concept of development is defined as economic growth reflected in increased gross national product, principally through industrialization. A number of variables which need to be incorporated, however, are left out of this economically based model: humanitarian and survival needs, nationalism, the growing aspirations of people in developing nations, the limits of industrialization, the role of rural development, employment as a problem and goal in its own right, and an imperative for decentralized planning. In the midst of crisis characterized by greater demand, higher costs, wastage in sequential schooling, and a growing educated unemployed, education must cater to the demands of modernization: basic literacy, manpower training, and a professional elite. The shortcomings that have required a new look at development and the shortcomings in education suggest a way of establishing priorities for implementing non-formal education. Special attention should be given to low-cost, short-duration, need-based, aspiration-accommodating, employment-linked, decentralized, and highly distributive education. Further, wider use of local resources, established oral traditions, and an immediate reward structure are features to consider. (JH)

The two essays contained in this discussion paper examine means for determining alternatives to formal education. "The Strategic Uses of Comparative Learning Environments" assumes that different environments are conducive to accomplishing different goals. In the future there is a need to find out more about the structural properties and construction of learning environments and to achieve a better fit between educational means and ends. Eight structural elements that affect learning environments are listed: the age mix and social composition of the adults and children; the nature of the reward structure; the proximity of the situation to action, meaningful work, use, and normal living; the timing of the experience with respect to employment; abstract versus concrete content; and the duration of relationships. "Systemic Capacity as a Problem in the Design of Alternatives to Formal Education" presents a hypothetical schooling model made up of the "givens" of schooling. These givens include evaluation, schooling as means rather than end, certification, time-performance accounting, literacy, content specificity, pedagogical transactions, and demand for an acculturating mechanism. The systemic capacity, or range of things that the learning environment can do, is gauged by possible variations in these givens. A question list is included to form the backbone of a correlation of structure and function within the idea of systemic capacity. (JH)

The need for planning in educational systems may be interpreted as the need to identify, prepare, and devise new or revised procedures through which explicit systemic goals may be realized. Usually such efforts have a specific time orientation. Planning is further related to policy in the sense that policy is a legitimized procedure or course of action. The logic suggests that planning should precede procedure specification and formal policy action. Computer simulation is a relatively new approach to the study and further understanding of complex entities and situations. The computer program is the embodiment of the real world event or entity of interest. Its primary advantage is the computer's capability of storing, manipulating, recombining, and reporting the past, current, and future states of numerous variables which together comprise the total behavior of a complex event or system. In this sense, the computer exceeds the intellectual capacity of the average person who would experience difficulty comprehending the totality of input variables, interaction effects, and current states of the system. (Author/WM)

The study attempts to specify and verify the decisionmaking processes utilized by groups when faced with a multistage rating task. It is also designed to upgrade group efficacy by introducing some procedural guidelines which group members are asked to follow in resolving differences. This "structured" intervention encourages members to seek out differences of opinion and dissuades them from using "conflict-reducing" techniques such as majority vote or trading. In addition the study examines aspects of interpersonal styles on group functioning, in particular self-oriented, individualistic behavior which is apparently dysfunctional to group processes. The major implication of the study is that it is indeed possible to improve group performance, even in groups with potentially"poor" members, via a simple structures intervention. (Author/WM)

This book is intended for educational leaders who want to take action to improve the school climate. It describes how to provide leadership for developing lasting and significant improvements in school climate. It also shows the growing necessity for a positive and humane school environment and gives reasons why the school's climate is crucial to its success. A school's climate is described in terms of (1) goals for the school's learning programs, (2) factors that comprise climate and determine its quality, (3) elements of a school's operation that contribute to a positive climate, (4) basic human needs that any school must address if it is to be a viable educational institution, and (5) goals for an effective staff development program. Additionally, the book outlines how to take the first and most significant step toward climate improvement, which is to assess and analyze the climate within a school or school system. (Author/MLF)

This volume was organized at the request of the SMSG Panel on Research for their use in identifying needed research in mathematics education. The five papers provide a review of research in each of their areas up through early 1969. Papers included are: (1) Attitudes Toward Mathematics, by Lewis R. Aiken, Jr.; (2) Classroom Teaching of Mathematics, by James T. Fey; (3) Piagetian Studies and Mathematics Learning, by D. B. Harrison; (4) Computers in Mathematics Instruction, by Larry L. Hatfield; and (5) Problem-Solving and Creative Behavior in Mathematics, by Jeremy Kilpatrick. Extensive references follow each of the papers. (RH)

The primary objective of social science instruction should be to encourage and nourish the problem-solving ability of young people. The practice in analytical thinking necessary to achieve this objective requires practice and exercise over a long period of time. Economic education and education in the other social sciences must, therefore, be introduced in the early elementary grades. The fundamental ideas of each social science discipline should be taught at each grade level beginning in kindergarten or grade 1. As the child moves from grade to grade, each concept is taught in greater depth and complexity. This paper identifies eight fundamental ideas for building an economic curriculum. How these fundamental ideas of economic knowledge can then be related to the child's experiences is discussed in detail. Specific games and class activities are discussed. The fundamental economic concepts discussed should be useful to secondary educators as well as to those at the elementary level. (Author/RM)

Chapter XIII of the book "Blindfolded," by Earle Ashley Walcott is presented. It explores the character's flight from the house of his employer after an argument about his identity. It highlights the conversation Dudley had with Dicky relating what had transpired at the night of Henry's death. It also relates the arrangements made with the undertaker, for his cousin's burial, and with detective Coogan who gave him a letter.

Chapter VII of the book "Blindfolded," by Earle Ashley Walcott is presented. It explores the conversation of Mother Borton and Dudley, in which Mother Borton revealed some information that could help Dudley-Giles Dudley solve his problems about the death of Henry Wilton. It also talks about the people who can be a threat to Dudley's life and the people who could help him.