Search

This chapter illustrates Rachel’s development as she begins to shed her skin, so to speak, to reveal an individual who was coming into her own as a young adult, a teacher, a wife, and as a spiritual and spirited advocate for peace.

This chapter accounts for Rachel’s childhood as a farm girl with exposure to people of difference (African American and Italian) who worked on the farm. Her religiosity and spirituality are described in terms of Quaker belief as well as in her meetings with people from different faith traditions. Throughout her childhood, we see Rachel as socially awkward and spiritually curious.

Using a series of diagrams and tables, this chapter synthesizes Rachel’s work, and it compares and contrasts it with work in Folklife Education today. Rachel’s work is seen as a “best practice” as it has been tested over and over and has an established place in the curriculum and the community. Folklife Education is a “validating practice” in that there will never be folklife education programs like those designed by Rachel, but they can be applied to work in Folklife Education today. This conclusion affirms what was written earlier: that Intercultural Education could not survive without folklore, and that Folklife Education’s practitioners have much to draw from Rachel’s work and incorporate in work today.

Given the success of the Assembly, Rachel decided she wanted to develop her own intellectual capacities in thinking about the Assembly as a reliable tool for the encouragement of tolerance. In 1929 Rachel left Woodbury and started graduate school in Educational Sociology at Teachers College/Columbia University. At Teachers College, Rachel began to develop an advanced method for creating and evaluating the Assembly through the addition of five wishes to be achieved through the program: wishes for new experience, recognition, response, security, and experience outside of the self. These along with emotion, intellect, and social interaction formed the total structure of the Assembly and a new program, Group Conversation/Neighborhood-Home Festival. Academe and philanthropy became aware of the value of Rachel’s programs, and in 1934, the Service Bureau for Intercultural Education was formed. This chapter explores the programs, the Bureau, and Rachel’s involuntary resignation.

This chapter examines Rachel’s participation in a workshop offered by philosopher Gerald Heard. From Heard, Rachel learned how to release aspects of her professional past that impeded her ability to move on spiritually and professionally, using methods of meditation adapted from Vedanta religious practice which took on the form of a three-tiered ladder consisting of (1) purging the self of damaging experiences; (2) becoming enlightened and labor free; and (3) achieving union, a oneness of self in the midst of others.

The lengthiest of the chapters, Snap Shots, refer to academic and public thinking related to areas of Rachel’s life and work, from Education to Folklore, Educational Sociology, Cultural Anthropology, and religion. It is a reference tool, a description of fields that contextualize Rachel’s work. It starts out with the “me” of how I came to Rachel’s work to the “we” of the fields that relate to our training and our thinking.

Rachel left the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in 1923 and returned to teaching in 1924, taking a post with Woodbury (NJ) High School where she again taught social studies. Among responsibilities outside of the classroom, Rachel and her colleagues were required to serve as monitors during weekly assemblies at the school. Noting how dismal the assembly topics were, Rachel did what she called “Dreaming Ahead.” She envisioned, and with assistance from other teachers, students, parents, and community members, created the Assembly, featuring representatives from ethnic groups in the Woodbury area. It was with the Assembly that Rachel formulated a tryptic approach of appealing to the emotions, developing the intellect, and encouraging social relations. These formed the spine of all of Rachel’s work.

Purpose of the article: This paper represents a pilot study examining determinants of the development of market active micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in South Moravian Region (SMR). The reason is their socio-economic role which is important for many economies and growing recognition of the importance of removing constraints to help established SMEs support to maintain and improve their competitiveness, leading to the need to understand the factors contributing to this. Methodology/methods: The empirical evidence is based on a quantitative data gathered through an email questionnaire which yielded 76 qualified responses with fewer than 250 employees. The analysis is based on descriptive statistics and validation technique based on chi-square nonparametric test. The analysis was conducted in SPSS for Windows, version 11.5. Scientific aim: The objective of this study is to identify various pressures and constraints in the strategic behavior of small business with discussion to the following four dimensions: product development, market development, development of business cooperation and investment strategies for development of competencies. And further, test of independence (differences) of these determinants by size category and industry affiliation of respondents, which may influence the importance of a wide range of different circumstances for each individual firm and the complex interaction of forces that affect it. Findings: The results of this study clearly show that it is necessary to take into account the factor of size and sectoral dimension, which affect the selection and perception of the importance of determinants and their subsequent translation into strategic decisions. In general, an economic decline, pressures on the quality and a range of offered products, a lack of managerial competence and excessive costs of innovation activities are the most frequent determinants of development activities of SMEs in the SMR. However, due to the overall testing of variables by size and sector showed significant differences in the selection of external, competing and internal determinants which influence strategic behaviour of SMEs. Conclusions (limits, implications etc.): The study has its scope limits owing to the character of the crosssectional research performed at a fairly small sample from a single region. Therefore the results cannot be generalized in any way. And also, the area of unequal representation (representativeness) of the respondents in the size and sector category may lead to a distorted evaluation of statistical data analysis.

Much of the recent literature on poverty assumes that the social and spatial isolation of impoverished inner city neighborhoods contributes to the poor job prospects of their residents. In this case study we examine a neighborhood, the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, New York, in which there is a concentration of poor people living in close proximity to blue-collar jobs. However, few local residents hold local jobs in the private sector. A survey of local employers revealed that most Red Hook jobs were filled via social networks that exclude local residents. Local residents, particularly African Americans, often lacked the social capital — connections and references — needed to obtain these jobs. Further, many local employers considered Red Hook residents undesirable employees for a variety of reasons including “place discrimination” as well as racial discrimination. By contrast, public sector employers often preferred local residents, although their ability to hire them was limited by formal educational requirements. These findings lead us to question the efficacy of policies, such as “empowerment zones,” that assume that bringing jobs closer to where poor people live will necessarily improve their' employment opportunities.

Linked to lower Manhattan by the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, as well as by major subway lines, Fort Greene is just minutes away from Wall Street, City Hall, Chinatown, Little Italy, and Greenwich Village. Primarily a residential neighborhood, Fort Greene has been known for its racial and social class diversity since the 1840s. Two important characteristics differentiate it from other diverse urban neighborhoods. First, although Fort Greene shifted from mostly White to predominantly Black during its long history, its property values have increased and it has maintained a significant White population, currently about 15 percent. It neither tipped racially nor became poorer. Second, by the 1980s the social class differences between Black and White gentrifiers in the neighborhood's south end and the low-income residents concentrated in public housing projects became more salient than the racial differences between area residents. This article highlights some of the social policies, institutions, and groups that have contributed to Fort Greene's long and unusual history of racial and social class diversity.

The Psalmist wrote, "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness" (King James Version 100:2). When Vaughn Ward passed away on December 7, 2001, we can be reassured that the angels welcomed her with thunderous noise. I had known of Ward since the early 1970s. In the short time I knew Ward in the 1990s, her passion, energy, sincerity, and curiosity proved infectious and heartening. Ward was born on February 11, 1939, in Clayton, New Mexico, in the northeast part of the state. During her childhood, she also had homes in the piney woods of Timmons, Texas, and Hinton, Oklahoma. After graduating high school, Ward enrolled in the English program at the University of New Mexico, where she graduated in 1961. She then headed east to teach, explore community life, and meet her life-mate, George. George had been trained as a lawyer, although that was not his passion. Rather, folklore and folksong were. By the time he and Ward married in 1964, their colleague in folksong, Ken Goldstein, suggested they enroll in the folk studies program at Cooperstown, which they did. Ward completed the required coursework for the master's but did not receive the degree. Politics were involved, a subject for another paper on the dynamics of gender in graduate school. Ward taught English throughout the country, focusing on high school. With each class, she infused folklore into her curriculum, and she made sure that her use of folklore was consonant with school standards wherever she went. Like her predecessor, Dorothy Howard, Ward knew that, in order to have successful programs that utilized nonstandard materials, the prog am would need to have a connection with the culture of the school. By 1967, the Wards were settled in the Schenectady are . Ward continued to hone her craft in teaching and writing by enrolling in the Bread Loaf School at Middlebury College (Vermont). Founded in 1920, the Bread Loaf School provided teachers and writers with a progressive perspective-a perfect environment for the ever-thoughtful and curious Ward. Ward's approach to education and folklore was unique and revolutionary. Her healthy respect for her students enabled them to use English classes to collect folklore at h me and in the community, and her understanding of how schools worked enabled her to make connections between school standards and folklore. She was a revolutionary who wore many hats. Her interest in folk music put her at the forefront of the Fox Hollow Folk Festival. And with her students, she created the Niskayuna Fes ival, or Nisky Day. Her support of musicians brought her to assist in the founding of Caf6 Lena in Saratoga Springs, New York. Ward's interest in community br ught her to found the Adirondack Liar's Club and the currently operating Black Crow Network, which ser es tradition bearers as they pursue their heritage. In her own ight, Ward made quite a joyful noise, up until the last day when s e and her family ate India food and told stories. By the next morning at 6:15 A.M., Ward passed in peace.

During the construction period of a saltpeter plant from 1928 through 1929, 21 young men of equal age were heavily exposed to asbestos dust for 1 a. During an observation period from 1 January 1943 to 30 June 1980 three cases of lung cancer and two cases of mesothelioma were observed in the cohort. The number of lung cancers to be expected was 0.21. Radiographic changes associated with asbestos exposure were present in 17 of the 18 available chest radiographs.