Education

Author Jervey Tervalon. He has written a first novel, titled "Understand This" (William Morrow and Company, Inc.). Tervalon set "Understand This" in today's South Central Los Angeles where he grew up and returned after college to teach in a public high school. He believes life is much more difficult in South Central L.A.--and everywhere in America--now. Tervalon's characters are faced with often overwhelming, life and death decisions.

Gary Orfield. He is a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Director of its Project on School Desegregation. His report, "The Growth of Segregation in American Schools: Changing Patterns of Separation and Poverty since 1968" was recently issued to the National School Board Association. In 1954 the United States Supreme Court found that the races in America's schools were segregated and the education was unequal. For awhile, integration was on the increase. But Orfield has found that today our schools have slipped backward.

Documentary film makers Alan and Susan Raymond. They made documentary history with "An American Family," living for seven months with the Loud family, to film the life of a "typical" American family. The 12-part series was broadcast over PBS in 1973, and it turned out to be a portrait of a not-so-typical family, and of a family disintegrating before our eyes.

Elementary school principal Madeline Cartwright took over the run-down Blaine Elementary School in a run-down, drug-infested neighborhood in North Philadelphia and turned it into a school that works. One of her first acts when she took over the school was to get down on her hands and knees and scrub the foul-smelling children's bathroom.

Educator Deborah Meier. She's a nationally known authority on education, and the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" award. She developed and directed three alternative elementary schools in East Harlem and later a Secondary School. The schools accept students on a first-come, first-serve basis. Classes are small and personalized, and the emphasis is on academic learning and inquiry. MEIER wanted to create an atmosphere where students learn democratic values, where teachers can hold kids accountable, and parents can become involved.

Maureen Corrigan reviews "King of Card," which she says fares only slightly better than the recent, lackluster offerings in bookstores.

Moses was a leader in the Civil Rights struggle, helping to register black voters in Mississippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964. He's still a civil rights activist, though his weapon now is math. He's the director and creator of the innovative Algebra Project which opens up educational opportunities for young African-Americans. Moses established the project in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1982. Since then it's been implimented across the country, and has reached 9,000 inner city youths.

Chancellor of the New York City school system, Joseph Fernandez. He's been a controversial figure: he's made condoms available in the public schools, and approved a multicultural curriculum, called "Children of the Rainbow," that teaches respect for gays and lesbians. Fernandez is Puerto Rican and grew up in Spanish Harlem. He was a gang member and a heroin addict. Late,r he joined the Air Force, where he kicked the habit, and attended college on the G.I. bill.

TV critic David Bianculli reviews two new FOX programs, a youth drama, "Class of 96," and a comedy drama, "Key West."

President of the all-women's, HBCU Spelman College, Johnnetta Cole was recently head of the Clinton transition team's education group, and was at one time considered as a possible secretary of education. She has a new book, "Conversations: Straight Talk with America's Sister President."

Book critic John Leonard reviews "The Secret History," by Donna Tart. She's associated with the young crop of writers from Bennington, including Bret Easton Ellis, to whom her novel is dedicated.

Professor of English Joan DelFattore at the University of Delaware wrote the book "What Johnny Shouldn't Read," in which she examines several of the more publicized Federal court cases of the 1980s involving attempts to censor schoolbooks, looking at the resulting impact on publishers and on state education officials. She looks at efforts of both the right and the left to influence curricula.

Television critic David Bianculli previews the new comedy-drama series, "Going to Extremes," by the same team that created "Northern Exposure," and "St. Elsewhere."

Commentator Maureen Corrigan talks about going back to school.

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews a new guide to cheating, titled "Cheating 101: The Benefits and Fundamentals of Earning the Easy 'A'."

Commentator, and professor, Maureen Corrigan examines some of the strange courting rituals of academics.

Educator Theodore Sizer. His 1984 book, "Horace's Compromise," was the fictionalized tale of a typical American high school. It was based on Sizer's own experiences as a teacher, and two years of field research. Sizer resurrects Horace in his new book, "Horace's School." It's a look at some possible roads toward educational reform. (It's published by Houghton Mifflin).

Author and Educator and activist Jonathan Kozol.

Professor and educator E.D. Hirsch, Jr. He's the author of the best selling book, "Cultural Literacy," (paperback published by Vintage Books) in which he argues that children in the United States lack "cultural literacy," or the basic grasp of background information that allows them to be literate and to function effectively in society. He has put his theories to work in an elementary school curriculum, The Core Knowledge Series.

Commentator, and teacher, Maureen Corrigan is gearing up for another semester. She talks about one of the ways she does that, by becoming a student again.