Saving America And Other Plays

Flickering Fireflies - Meet the Firefly family on the night of the teens' first mating party.

On January 29, 2001, President George W. Bush signed an executive order creating the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. This action marked a key step toward institutionalizing an idea that emerged in the mid-1990s under the Clinton administration--the transfer of some social programs from government control to religious organizations. However, despite an increasingly vocal, ideologically charged national debate--a debate centered on such questions as: What are these organizations doing? How well are they doing it? Should they be supported with tax dollars?--solid answers have been few. In Saving America? Robert Wuthnow provides a wealth of up-to-date information whose absence, until now, has hindered the pursuit of answers. Assembling and analyzing new evidence from research he and others have conducted, he reveals what social support faith-based agencies are capable of providing. Among the many questions he addresses: Are congregations effective vehicles for providing broad-based social programs, or are they best at supporting their own members? How many local congregations have formal programs to assist needy families? How much money do such programs represent? How many specialized faith-based service agencies are there, and which are most effective? Are religious organizations promoting trust, love, and compassion? The answers that emerge demonstrate that American religion is helping needy families and that it is, more broadly, fostering civil society. Yet religion alone cannot save America from the broad problems it faces in providing social services to those who need them most. Elegantly written, Saving America? represents an authoritative and evenhanded benchmark of information for the current--and the coming--debate.

“This immigration story is universal.” —School Library Journal, Starred Dan Yaccarino’s great-grandfather arrived at Ellis Island with a small shovel and his parents’ good advice: “Work hard, but remember to enjoy life, and never forget your family.” With simple text and warm, colorful illustrations, Yaccarino recounts how the little shovel was passed down through four generations of this Italian-American family—along with the good advice. It’s a story that will have kids asking their parents and grandparents: Where did we come from? How did our family make the journey all the way to America? “A shovel is just a shovel, but in Dan Yaccarino’s hands it becomes a way to dig deep into the past and honor all those who helped make us who we are.” —Eric Rohmann, winner of the Caldecott Medal for My Friend Rabbit “All the Way to America is a charmer. Yaccarino’s heartwarming story rings clearly with truth, good cheer, and love.” —Tomie dePaola, winner of a Caldecott Honor Award for Strega Nona

Americas is headed for bankruptcy and ultimate disaster. Americas leaders are failing Americans. Only one Group can save the United States! A Three Step Plan.

Fundamentalist capitalism offers nothing to many Americans, who have little or no control over their futures and are underrepresented or not represented at all in the political sector. Only Democratic Capitalism offers them much hope. The book is extremely critical of those on the right who have brought on our monumental debt with their outdated and flawed notions. The United States of America has many problems; some real and serious, others phony and distracting. But some Americans blame government for being out of touch with them while they themselves remain out of touch with government. Americans have created the nationOCOs problems themselves through their collective will and/or actions and it is up to them to make the necessary decisions to get out of that mess. Americans had a chance to cut short the massive federal debtOCoonly to ignore the warnings. George H. W. Bush told the American public in 1980 that the economic proposals of Ronald Reagan amounted to OC Voodoo economicsOCO. Walter Mondale said in the 1984 campaign that the growing debt was a danger that should be addressed with taxes. President Reagan, who campaigned OC to stay the course, OCO offered what at best could be termed a fairy tale. Politicians will always give what it appears the people want, and the people spoke loud and clear for more fiscal recklessness which future generations may have to pay for. There is a way to a new-and-improved America that may not be as painful or require as much sacrifice as some mainstream pundits believe, but it will require much more than many politicians claim or most Americans want. Politicians on the right continue to tell Americans all will be okay and an economic paradise will bloom if taxesOCousually their taxesOCoare lowered and government simply spends less, except for the military, and to pay interest to those persons and institutions which spent years loading up on Treasury bills, notes and bonds. That is the most-irresponsible position any person can take. The solution, this book intends to show, is to reject the desire to return to the robber-baron pastOCofundamentalist capitalismOCoand to recommit the nation to a path toward Democratic Capitalism begun under Franklin D. Roosevelt to combat the Great Depression, but which has been under attack since the days of the Vietnam Conflict."

Noted educator Tom Little and Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Katherine Ellison reveal the home-grown solution to turning American students into life-long learners. The longtime head of Park Day School, Tom Little embarked on a tour of 43 progressive schools across the country. In this book, his life’s work, he interweaves his teaching experience, the knowledge he gleaned from his trip, and the history of Progressive Education. As Little and Katherine Ellison reveal, these educators and schools invigorate learning and promote inquisitiveness by allowing the curriculum to grow organically out of children's questions—whether they lead to studying the senses, working on a farm, or re-creating a desert ecosystem in the classroom. We see curious students draw on information across disciplines to think in imaginative yet practical ways, like in a "Mini-Maker Faire" or designing and building a chair from scratch. Becoming good citizens was another of Little's goals. He believed in the need for students to learn how to become advocates for themselves, from setting rules on the playground to engaging in issues of social justice in the wider community. Using the philosophy of Progressive Education, schools can prepare students to shape a vibrant future in the arts and sciences for themselves and the nation.

Americans today have a love/hate relationship with France, but in How the French Saved America Tom Shachtman shows that without France, there might not be a United States of America. To the rebelling colonies, French assistance made the difference between looming defeat and eventual triumph. Even before the Declaration of Independence was issued, King Louis XVI and French foreign minister Vergennes were aiding the rebels. After the Declaration, that assistance broadened to include wages for our troops; guns, cannon, and ammunition; engineering expertise that enabled victories and prevented defeats; diplomatic recognition; safe havens for privateers; battlefield leadership by veteran officers; and the army and fleet that made possible the Franco-American victory at Yorktown. Nearly ten percent of those who fought and died for the American cause were French. Those who fought and survived, in addition to the well-known Lafayette and Rochambeau, include François de Fleury, who won a Congressional Medal for valor, Louis Duportail, who founded the Army Corps of Engineers, and Admiral de Grasse, whose sea victory sealed the fate of Yorktown. This illuminating narrative history vividly captures the outsize characters of our European brothers, their battlefield and diplomatic bonds and clashes with Americans, and the monumental role they played in America’s fight for independence and democracy.

Out of the hills of Kentucky and Southern Indiana comes a teacher’s voice crying for a completely new approach to public education. A 30-year veteran of public education in 4 states, the author marshals some convincing arguments that the worst enemy of public education is itself and that the school administrations in most school systems are very definitely guilty of self-perpetuating and extending that failure. While hiding behind the façade of competent, caring administrators, all too many superintendents and principals are guilty of placing the almighty dollar first, their own reputations second and students a poor third. The writer places the blame for all of this failure on the heads of school administrations while not excusing the culpability of teachers and parents for believing those who try to convince them that education is available for everyone if the correct “magic” curricula, programs, methods, etc. are followed carefully and proper testing is done correctly. Public education is still only educating those students who come to school properly motivated or who are fortunate enough to find those few teachers who are willing to buck the system and teach the children, not the tests, the curricula or the currently popular (and ever-changing) programs. In answer to the inevitable questions of whether or not the system is worth preserving and what might be done to make a serious attempt at educating every child, the author proposes some interesting and thought provoking strategies. Radically different than those proposed by the Bush administration, these strategies are possible on any level from a single classroom to an entire nation. Saving America’s Schools is a must-read for every serious educator, every parent and every concerned citizen in this country.