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The Politics of Poverty
Kennedy's concern for the plight of the poor never turned into a broad legislative program. But his successor seized on the issue, claiming it was the martyred president's last wish that he do so.
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Lost in Post-Reality
The national entertainment state threatens to transmogrify American life into a soap opera
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"Ready, Read!"
A new solution to the problem of failing public schools is emerging: takeover by outside authorities, who prescribe a standardized field-tested curriculum. This runs counter to our long-standing tradition of autonomy for local schools and teachers, but it works
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America Right and Left
Political intellectuals of both parties call for something more bracing than Bill Clinton's flabby syncretism—and think we want it too.
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The Reading Wars
An old disagreement over how to teach children to read -- whole-language versus phonics -- has re-emerged in California, in a new form. Previously confined largely to education, the dispute is now a full-fledged political issue there, and is likely to become one in other states.
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Citizen 501(c)(3)
An increasingly powerful agent in American life is also one of the least noticed.
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A Cartoon Elite
The voguish idea that America is run by a small group of brainy people is a wild exaggeration, but it has its political uses.
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Banana Man
A pseudonymous Los Angeles columnist stirs up the Korean-American community.
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Kicking in Groups
Just as intriguing as Robert Putnam's theory that we are "bowling alone"--that the bonds of civic association are dissolving--is how readily the theory hasbeen accepted
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The Great Sorting
The first mass administrations of a scholastic -aptitude test led with surprising speed to the idea that the nation's leaders would be the people who did well on tests
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The Structure of Success in America
In America perhaps only race is a more sensitive subject than the way we sort ourselves out in the struggle for success. At the center of that struggle are higher education and ETS, the Educational Testing Service. Herewith an inside look at the history and workings of one of the most familiar yet least public of American institutions
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Anchors Away
CBS's Ed Joyce airs his disputes with Dan Rather and his gripes with the network at large in a 1988 memoir
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AP Hard Times in the Big Easy
A portrait of a city that is fast losing its feeling of immunity from the discontents of urban life
