BACK TO SCHOOL: NEW CLASSES, NEW STUDENTS...AND A LESSON ON 9/11 -- In addition to worrying about seating charts and locker assignments and learning new names as the school year begins, teachers also will have to address the first anniversary of 9/11. "The quintessential themes in social studies were magnified by this event," says Temple social studies education professor Christine Woyshner. The four interlocking aspects of social studies education--knowledge (dates, events), skills (map-reading, geography), social activism and social participation--were, and continue to be, illuminated by last year's events, Woyshner notes. And while it could take a good decade--or longer--for Sept. 11 to be mentioned in children's history textbooks, teachers have many good sources, including web resources and supplements from book publishers, to help them explore the complexities of the tragedies and the anniversary's significance with their classes, says Woyshner. "By remembering the anniversary and knowing that they experienced 9/11, kids hopefully will see that history isn't just what happened to people years ago. And they'll see that it takes time to really figure out the impact and importance of historic events."
AVOID WEST NILE VIRUS BY KEEPING THE MOSQUITO BUFFET CLOSED--With the spread of the West Nile Virus, a mosquito bite can become more than just an irritating itch. Temple biology professor Stuart Neff, an expert in aquatic insect populations, offers some practical tips to avoid becoming a mosquito's next meal. "Most mosquitoes are active in the early morning, from about dawn until 10 a.m., and in the late afternoon and early evening," says Neff. "So if you're sitting on your patio as the sun's going down, and it's getting a little cooler, the mosquito is ready to feed on you." Neff says the house mosquito, a common indoor mosquito that feeds off of birds, is a good vector for the West Nile, so screens should be used when windows are open. Mosquitoes are particularly attracted to the carbon dioxide from our breathing and the nitrogen waste that our bodies shed through perspiration, says Neff, and the back of the neck and ankles are favorite feeding spots. "One good way to keep mosquitoes off you, other than wearing long sleeve shirts and pants, is to use any kind of insect spray or lotion that contains deet, which is a very good insect repellent," he suggests. And if you are perspiring, Neff recommends reapplying the repellent frequently. Finally, says Dr. Neff, Citronella, which is frequently used in outdoor candles, is a good deterrent against mosquitoes, but doesn't provide long-term protection against the pesky insects.
DECADE OF DEREGULATION AT ROOT OF CORPORATE CRISES - "Government deregulation of the financial and telecommunications industries, in the name of 'free market ideology,' played a major causal role in the recent spate of corporate bankruptcies and white-collar crime," contends Joseph M. Schwartz, chair of Temple's political science department, in his recently published article, "The Enron Debacle: Casino Capitalism and Lemon Socialism." "The corporate media throughout the 1990s trumpeted deregulation and social welfare cutbacks as creating a 'mean and lean new economy.' But as Keyes argued during the Great Depression, the democratic state must regulate financial markets--due to the inherently uncertain nature of the economic future--in order to prevent wild speculative booms and busts." Schwartz's article appears in the summer 2002 issue of Dissent magazine.
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