Fossils at a glance

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text, John Kater, pictures, Nancy Willard

A clergyman's letter to a little boy, answering his questions about the nature of heaven and hell, the devil, and life after death.

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Maryann Jacobi Gray, Elizabeth Rolph, Elan Melamid

As immigration increases, so does its influence on U.S. demographics, including the demographics of higher education. Almost as many legal immigrants entered the United States during the 1980s (7.3 million) as during the preceding two decades (7.8 million). How and why have the nation's colleges and universities responded to a growing immigrant population on campus? This report addresses these questions. The picture that emerges is largely one of inattention coupled with widespread assumptions about immigrant students, assumptions that are unconfirmed by empirical data and analysis. The authors argue that, unchecked, these assumptions could result in unfair practices and reduced educational quality for immigrant students. Because of higher education's critical role in promoting economic assimilation, its leaders should be paying more attention to issues involving these students. To do so, they need descriptive statistics about immigrants' enrollment and retention in college, attitudinal and needs assessment studies, and evaluations of student outcomes and the effectiveness of remedial and English-as-a-second-language programs. Such information can help institutions determine whether administration and faculty perceptions and assumptions about immigrants provide an accurate foundation for future policy and program development.

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H. Svi Shapiro

Education and Hope in Troubled Times brings together a group of the best and most creative educational thinkers to reflect on the purpose and future of public education. These original essays by leading social and educational commentators in North America attempt to articulate a new vision for education, especially public education, and begin to set an alternative direction. This is a time of crisis, but also of renewed possibility--one that offers the opportunity to radically reconsider what is the meaning of education for a generation that will bear the brunt of grappling with the extraordinary dangers and challenges we confront today. At its core this volume questions what will it mean to be an educated human being in the 21st century compelled to confront and address so much that threatens the very basis of a decent and hopeful human existence. Carrying forward a project of redefining and reshaping public discourse on education in the U.S., it is a critical catalyst and focus for re-thinking public policy on education. --Publisher description.

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Lindsey Davis

"The emperor Domitian: talented tyrant, deluded despot. A reluctant hero, Gaius Vinius Clodianus is hand-picked for high rank in Praetorian Guard, a brave man striving for decency in a world of corruption and deceit. Flavia Lucilla, tending the privileged women at court, hears the intimate secrets of a ruler who plays with the lives of his subjects as if he were indeed a careless god. Unwilling witnesses to Domitian's descent into insanity, these ordinary people must choose between their sworn duty to protect the Emperor and an act of courage that will change the future of Rome."--Back cover.