This paper discusses the overuse of medications to deal with attention deficit disorder (ADD) in the classroom, offering suggestions related to teaching strategies, classroom environment, school environment, and home environment to help keep students' attention without resorting to medication. A chart shows the difference between ADD and other…

Teachers are responsible for making sure that classroom space is used in the most effective manner. Ways in which a group of teachers cooperated to change a dreary, cramped old school into an exciting learning environment are described. (JN)

An elementary school teacher discusses what it was like to have a child with attention deficit disorder in her class. She describes the process of getting him diagnosed and notes strategies that helped her cope with the disorder at school. (SM)

The author describes the learning environment, organizational structure, and philosophy of the Academia de la Gente, an alternative school in Denver, Colorado, which restricts its enrollment to students in trouble with the law and considered uneducable by the public school system. (MB)

This interview touched on problems in education of children and parents in different class structures, the disillusionment of people with critics of education, the teacher's morale, and the role of the school in a child's education. (BB)

A tour of four elementary schools illustrates how antiques, plants, child-sized furniture, and other design elements can transform school lobbies and hallways into warm, welcoming places for students. School environments like these encourage children's interest and sense of responsibility, besides adding to their comfort. (PP)

A sick school building has indoor air problems that pose health risks for everyone inside. The paper discusses what makes a school sick and what interested parties can do about it by targeting the problem together, making classroom changes, and making schoolwide changes. Resources for further information are included. (SM)

The more schools seem to change, the more they deepen old ruts--a discussion of social scientists' ideas for innovations that tend not to be put into practice. (MM)

Criticism is leveled at various government task force suggestions to reorganize the educational system. Commissions make abstract recommendations without having to face the realities of the classroom. Fundamental changes from within the school are necessary. (DF)

Schools should stimulate, challenge, and, above all, educate children, but not primarily in the three R's. The common school, which emphasizes learning how to learn, is essential to the preservation and cultivation of a democratic way of life. (CJ)

The schools are discussed as character-building institutions, where academic and behavior standards should encourage self-discipline and learning. Less emphasis on ego-building psychology, removing nonessential subjects from the curriculum, and increasing quality at the elementary and secondary school levels are viewed as corrective measures. (PP)