Microwave culture. The Field Museum’s description of its weekend afternoon story times in a recent press release: “Listen to a story, sing some songs, and make an art project, all in just 20 minutes!”
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Biting commentary. The Chicago Dental Society reports in a recent press release that the new Congress will have four members who are also dentists (all Republicans). Only twice in U.S. history, both times during the Depression, did Americans elect more dentists (six) to Congress.
“States that have implemented HOV [high-occupancy-vehicle] lanes by converting general purpose lanes have largely been unsuccessful,” reports the Metropolitan Planning Council in its “Issue Brief” (October), “with traffic congestion increasing in the remaining general purpose lanes following the conversion.” MPC nevertheless contends that HOV lanes have not been “adequately considered” for Chicago.
There are 111 Chicago public elementary schools “whose reading scores displayed a trend of substantial, consistent improvement from 1990 to 1997,” writes Donald Moore of Designs for Change in “Catalyst” (November). What do they have in common? “Significantly more effective local school councils (as rated by teachers), principals who both involved others in decision making and set high standards for staff performance and more teacher involvement in school decision making.” In addition, these schools showed “collaboration, commitment and initiative by all adults at the school,” and “teachers focused their collaboration on improving student learning.”
