Academy Used to denote a school, the word academy has come to be applied to certain kinds of institutions of learning. The Ritterakademien, or schools for knights, appeared increasingly in Germany after the end of the Thirty Years’ War in 1648. The term academy … Continue reading
Category Archives: Education
Education in Afghanistan
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Two separate systems of education exist in Afghanistan. The older system is a religious one, taught by the mullahs, who conduct classes in the madrassas (mosque schools). They teach the religious precepts of the Qur’an, reading, writing, and arithmetic. The other system was introduced in Afghanistan’s 1964 constitution, which provided for free and compulsory education at all levels, although this was rarely achieved. This system was based on Western models. Special emphasis was placed on primary education. Secondary schools existed in Kabul and the larger towns. Five years of primary school and five years of secondary school were expected, although many Afghans could not attend because they lived in areas where there were no schools.
Decades of war effectively eliminated most education, and an entire generation grew up without any formal schooling. The civil war resulted in the closing or dismantling of most lower, middle, and higher educational facilities in the country. Many teachers quit their posts and left Afghanistan. The subsequent Taliban regime suppressed all schooling except in the madrassas, and forbade it for girls and women. Only rote memorization of the Qur’an in Arabic was officially allowed. Opposition groups in a few places in the country tried to maintain some education, but under very difficult circumstances.
With the removal of the Taliban from power in late 2001, people in Afghanistan began to rebuild a national education system. Schools such as Kabul University reopened, and student enrollments soared. However, the country was sorely lacking the educational facilities and resources it needed to meet the burgeoning demand. A mobile school system was set up to bring education to rural areas, and foreign universities and nongovernmental organizations donated books and teaching materials. By the 2003-04 academic year 4.2 million boys and girls attended about 7,000 schools around the country. The male-female ratio had returned to pre-Taliban levels, although boys still outnumbered girls. A major project to improve literacy rates throughout Afghanistan was launched in January 2003 with the help of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The average literacy rate was estimated to be 36 percent for all Afghans aged 15 and older in 2000, with 51 percent literacy among males and 21 percent among females.
According to the 2004 constitution, Afghans are free to choose the language in which they receive their education. Primary and secondary educations are available in both Dari and Pashto, as well as in Afghanistan’s other languages, such as Uzbek. University courses are mostly taught in Dari. Kabul University, founded in 1932, is the country’s largest and most prestigious academic institution. Nine other colleges were established within it from 1938 through 1967. The University of Nangarhār in Jalālābād was established in 1962 to teach medicine and other disciplines. Important but small universities are also located in Kandahar, Herāt, Balkh, and Bāmiān. Before 1961 only men could receive a higher education; that year the government opened all public institutions of higher learning to women.
Education in Africa
Education in Africa
Africans value education and all governments see improving educational access and quality as essential to national economic and political development. Despite scarce financial resources, many countries have made noteworthy achievements in raising literacy rates in recent decades. Adult literacy rates of 70 percent or more are characteristic of East, Central, and southern Africa, except, notably, in Somalia, Angola, Ethiopia, and Mozambique. Gains have been less impressive in West Africa: Many countries still have literacy rates below 60 percent, and the rates in Niger, Burkina Faso, and Sierra Leone are among the world’s lowest. Cameroon, Ghana, and Nigeria are notable exceptions, with particularly high literacy rates. Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria in North Africa have rates of 90 percent or higher. Females have significantly lower literacy rates than males across most of Africa.
Compulsory school attendance, starting at either 6 or 7 years of age and lasting until the ages of 11 to 16, is now universal in Africa. In many instances, education is free. A major obstacle to universal education is the problem of providing enough teachers, schools, and classroom materials to meet children’s needs, especially in remote rural areas. Huge national debts, the economic austerity measures designed to eliminate them, and military expenditures have all limited the funds that most countries have available to devote to education. Another obstacle to ensuring that all children receive education is the fact that they are still an important part of the workforce across Africa. They provide childcare, work farms and herds, and perform a range of other menial jobs, such as drawing water and collecting firewood. Parents may also lack the financial means to send their children to school, or may be forced to choose which ones can go and which ones cannot. Boys are usually given preference over girls in access to education and they typically stay in school much longer. The rationale for this is based on future income-earning potential: As matters currently stand, males have access to more and better paying jobs than females. Deteriorating economic conditions have actually led the income-earning and literacy gaps between males and females to widen even more.
Universities have space for only a tiny fraction of secondary school graduates and competition to secure admittance is intense. Those who are admitted are not guaranteed a good education, however. University libraries are often poorly stocked and, most critically, lack up-to-date scientific journals. Computers are few and Internet access rare. Most campuses were built in the 1950s and 1960s and have deteriorated, the more so because of limited funds for maintenance. The quality of higher education is also affected by frequent student protests over issues ranging from poor living conditions to politics. On many occasions governments have responded with force and closed campuses for considerable periods of time. While faculties are usually of high quality, with many members having been trained in Europe and North America, the conditions severely constrain what they can do. As a result, many look outside Africa for employment, which contributes significantly to Africa’s brain drain.
Crime and Crime Prevention in 1993: Clinton Administration
Crime and Crime Prevention in 1993: Clinton Administration
President Bill Clinton appointed Lee Brown, former New York City police commissioner, as his chief drug policy aide in April, and he elevated the office to cabinet status. In October, Brown put forth the president’s drug plan; the plan, which called for a greater focus on treatment programs and underlying social problems and for less emphasis on drug interception, was criticized by many as short on specifics and lacking in commitments to new funding.
The Senate and the House passed anticrime measures in November. The House bill included funds to put 50,000 more police officers on the streets; the Senate bill included funds for 100,000. The so-called Brady bill, which tightened controls on gun sales by requiring a five-day wait for handgun purchases, became law in late November.
Clinton’s attorney general, Janet Reno, was a conspicuous figure in the news, in part because of her role as chief U.S. law enforcement official during the latter stages of the confrontation between federal agents and cult members near Waco early in the year. Reno also spoke out strongly against what she considered to be excessive violence on television, citing its negative effect on children.
William Sessions was dismissed as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in July, in part because of alleged unethical behavior and abuse of privileges. Clinton immediately nominated Louis J. Freeh to head the agency. Freeh, who was later confirmed by the Senate, had served in the FBI and as a federal prosecutor.
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Crime and Crime Prevention in 1993: Former Radical Surrenders
Crime and Crime Prevention in 1993: Former Radical Surrenders
In September 1993, 23 years after she participated in a Boston bank robbery that resulted in the death of a police officer, onetime student activist Katherine Ann Power gave herself up to Boston police. As a senior at Brandeis University, Power had become active in opposing the Vietnam War. In September 1970 she and four armed associates robbed Boston’s State Street Bank and Trust Company of $26,000; the first officer on the scene, Walter A. Schroeder, Sr., was fatally shot in the back. As a fugitive Power changed her name and became a successful restaurateur and cooking teacher. But after undergoing therapy for clinical depression and seeing a lawyer, she surrendered to authorities on September 15 and pleaded guilty to charges of manslaughter and armed robbery. She was sentenced to eight to 12 years in prison.
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American Conservatory of Music
American Conservatory of Music is a private, coeducational institution in Chicago, Illinois. The school was founded in 1886. The conservatory confers associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and professional degrees. Courses of study include jazz, music, voice, piano and organ, and wind, string, and percussion instruments.
The Facts About Alexander Graham Bell
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The Facts About Alexander Graham Bell |
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Scottish-born American inventor, and speech teacher for deaf students |
| Birth | March 3, 1847 |
| Death | August 2, 1922 |
| Place of Birth | Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Known for | Contributing to the invention and spread of the telephone |
| Founding the Bell Telephone Company | |
| Teaching deaf students how to speak | |
| Milestones | 1870 Moved to Canada after his two brothers died of tuberculosis, and to the United States the following year |
| 1872 Opened a school in Boston to train people to teach deaf students to speak | |
| 1873 Became professor of vocal physiology at Boston University | |
| March 10, 1876 Transmitted the first complete sentence over the telephone: ‘Watson, come here; I want you.’ | |
| 1876 Patented the telephone | |
| 1877 Formed the Bell Telephone Company | |
| 1880 Established the Volta Laboratory in Washington, D.C., using prize money he received from the French government | |
| 1882 Became a naturalized U.S. citizen | |
| 1890 Established the American Association to Promote Teaching of Speech to the Deaf | |
| 1896-1904 Served as president of the National Geographic Society | |
| Did You Know | Bell carried out the first wireless transmission of speech using an invention he called the photophone, which used beams of light to transmit speech. |
| American inventor Elisha Gray filed a caveat (intent to invent) for a telephone on the same day Bell filed for a patent on the finished product. Bell’s patent proved to be one of the most lucrative ever granted. | |
| In his later years Bell worked on a diverse range of projects, including the breeding of a sheep that could bear more than one lamb at a time, and the desalination of seawater. | |
| Bell had a strong interest in aviation, and invented a four-sided kite capable of lifting a person. |
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) was an American inventor and teacher of the deaf, most famous for his work on the telephone.
Bell was born on March 3, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland, and educated at the universities of Edinburgh and London. He immigrated to Canada in 1870 and to the United States in 1871. In the United States he began teaching deaf-mutes, publicizing the system called visible speech. The system, which was developed by his father, the Scottish educator Alexander Melville Bell, shows how the lips, tongue, and throat are used in the articulation of sound. In 1872 Bell founded a school to train teachers of the deaf in Boston, Massachusetts. The school subsequently became part of Boston University, where Bell was appointed professor of vocal physiology. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1882.
Since the age of 18, Bell had been working on the idea of transmitting speech. In 1874, while working on a multiple telegraph, he developed the basic ideas of the telephone. His experiments with his assistant Thomas Watson finally proved successful on March 10, 1876, when he transmitted: “Watson, come here; I want you.” Subsequent demonstrations, particularly one at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, introduced the telephone to the world and led to the organization of the Bell Telephone Company in 1877.
In 1880 France bestowed on Bell the Volta Prize, worth 50,000 francs, for his invention. With this money he founded the Volta Laboratory in Washington, D.C., where, in that same year, he and his associates invented the photophone, which transmits speech by light rays. Other inventions include the audiometer, used to measure acuity in hearing; the induction balance, used to locate metal objects in human bodies; and the first wax recording cylinder, introduced in 1886. The cylinder, together with the flat wax disc, formed the basis of the modern phonograph.
Bell was one of the cofounders of the National Geographic Society, and he served as its president from 1896 to 1904. He also helped to establish the journal Science by financing it from 1883-1894.
After 1895 Bell’s interest turned mostly to aeronautics. Many of his inventions in this area were first tested near his summer home at Baddeck on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. His study of flight began with the construction of large kites, and in 1907 he devised a kite capable of carrying a person. With a group of associates, including the American inventor and aviator Glenn Hammond Curtiss, Bell developed the aileron, a movable section of an airplane wing that controls roll. They also developed the tricycle landing gear, which first permitted takeoff and landing on a flying field. Applying the principles of aeronautics to marine propulsion, his group started work on hydrofoil boats, which travel above the water at high speeds. His final full-sized “hydrodrome,” developed in 1917, reached speeds in excess of 113 km/h (70 mph) and for many years was the fastest boat in the world.
Bell’s continuing studies on the causes and heredity of deafness led to experiments in eugenics, including sheep breeding, and to his book Duration of Life and Conditions Associated with Longevity (1918). He died on August 2, 1922, at Baddeck, where a museum containing many of his original inventions is maintained by the Canadian government.
Age of Enlightenment: Political Consequences
A number of European monarchs also adopted certain of the ideas or at least the vocabulary of the Enlightenment. Voltaire and other philosophes, who relished the concept of a philosopher-king enlightening the people from above, eagerly welcomed the emergence of the so-called enlightened despots, of whom Frederick II of Prussia, Catherine II of Russia, and Joseph II of Austria were the most celebrated examples. The philosophes, in turn, were welcomed at their courts. Many ideas of the Enlightenment were useful to rulers, including educational and judicial reform, a trained bureaucracy, tolerance of (often talented and industrious) religious dissidents, and the abolition or improvement of serfdom, enabling peasants to pay more taxes. In retrospect, however, it appears that most of these monarchs used the movement in large part for propaganda purposes and were more despotic than enlightened.
The philosophes were united in support of tolerance, the rule of law, social welfare, and secular education, and in their hostility to privilege. They were not, however, opposed to the state as such: They viewed it as a crucial instrument for the realization of their ideals, as long as the ruler respected reason and natural law. Especially in central Europe and Italy, Enlightenment thinkers were more interested in strengthening the state so that it could do its job properly than in limiting its power. The main targets of their hatred were the church and the nobility.
The philosophes welcomed the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence, seeing them as putting enlightened ideas into action. The Marquis de Condorcet, a moderate revolutionary who died in prison in 1794, argued in his Sketch of the Intellectual Progress of Mankind (1795) that the purpose of knowledge of human society can only be to guarantee the basic rights of men and, in his view, women. These rights are personal security, free enjoyment of property, equality before the law, and the participation of every citizen in government. The American states, he believed, were the first to convert these ideas into action.
Age of Enlightenment: End of the Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment is usually said to have ended with the French Revolution, which it helped to bring about. Indeed, some see the social and political ferment of this period as being responsible for the Revolution. While embodying many of the ideals of the philosophes, the Revolution in its more violent stages, from 1792 to 1794, served to discredit these ideals temporarily in the eyes of many European contemporaries. To conservative minds the Enlightenment was too radical, while romantic writers and artists of the following period found the Enlightenment without passion or soul and heedless of the individual.
Yet the Enlightenment left a lasting heritage for the 19th and 20th centuries. It marked a key stage in the decline of the church and the growth of modern secularism. It served as the model for political and economic liberalism and for humanitarian reform throughout the 19th-century Western world. It was the watershed for the pervasive belief in the possibility and the necessity of progress that survived, if only in attenuated form, into the 20th century.
