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• In the wake of reports that one in ten high schools are "dropout factories," graduating less than 40 percent of their students, NPR's Diane Rehm talks with 5 expert panelists on the issues involved, www.wamu.org/programs/dr/07/11/07.php#18269 (55 mins., Nov. 7, 2007).
  
  
• For more than five years now the BBC's World Book Club has been conducting monthly interviews with writers before a live audience. While the authors write primarily for the adult audience, high school teachers will find some of their core authors here in 26-minute Q&A interviews, including: Isabel Allende, Maya Angelou, Margaret Atwood, Ken Follett, Frederick Forsyth, Carlos Fuentes, Kazuo Ishiguro, PD James, Thomas Keneally, Doris Lessing, Frank McCourt, Alexander McCall Smith, Joyce Carol Oates, Amy Tan, Scott Turow, and Kurt Vonnegut.
       (www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/133_wbc_archive_new/index.shtml)
  
  
• Blake Taylor (and his mother) discuss what life has been like for a child diagnosed as ADHD at age five and medicated ever since. Far from a depressing journey, Taylor's tale is enlightening and inspiring. Today at age 19, he's a premed student at UC-Berkeley. (April 23, 2008, "The Story" with Dick Gordon, 20 mins. http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_500_ADHD_and_Me.mp3/view)
  
  
• Everyone sooner or later meets a disappointment that wounds so deep as to seem mortal. A story like that of Floyd Scholz can help easing such wounds. At age 13 Floyd had been told by his football coach that he lacked any redeeming athletic qualities and thus was wasting his time practicing with the football squad. Devastating. Within a few years, the coach was proved mightily wrong—Scholz became a national decathlon champion and seemed headed for an Olympic team berth in the 1980 Moscow Olympics. And then came disappointment again: President Carter cancelled the U.S. team's participation. Everything he had worked toward for five years had suddenly evaporated. Today Floyd Scholz is another kind of world-class champion—this time carving expensive birds out of blocks of wood. (April 21, 2008, "The Story" with Dick Gordon, 20 mins. http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_498_Boycotts_and_Birds.mp3/view)
  
  
• On The Diane Rehm Show, we get a glimpse of what it's like to teach in the American classroom under No Child Left Behind: veteran educator Jonathon Kozol discusses his book, Letters to a Young Teacher, and Dan Brown talks about his book, The Great Expectations School: A Rookie Year in the New Blackboard Jungle.
  
  
• The Horn Book, the prestigious children's literature journal, is now offering a series of podcasts with famous authors and illustrators, conducted by editor Roger Sutton. The recording quality is not yet good enough for classroom or library usage (too much room echo in the recordings) but good enough for individual listening. To date the authors include Lois Lowry, John Scieszka, Lee Kingman, M. T. Anderson, and Philip Pullman.
  
  Still on the subject of The Horn Book: It has always been slow to adapt to fads or fancies (as are most of the world's religions, for that matter), and therefore it's newsworthy when the announcement came that it has fully adopted the Web! As of March 2008, it has its own Monthly Newsletter, along with podcasts and a blog. The Horn Book's professionalism and long history are much needed credentials for a medium (the Web) that can be short on memory and expertise. The first issue included an overview of the Newbery-Caldecott awards for 2008, an interview with Jon Sciezcka, four picture book reviews, and a good Q&A. Although the print journal itself is largely aimed at professionals (librarians, professors, and teachers), as a young parent and aspiring profressional I found much in every issue to be relevant and interesting and the same was true of the first monthly Web newsletter, as well.
  
  
• Dr. Ben Carson, the preeminent children's neurosurgeon from Johns Hopkins, was raised by a welfare mother with a third-grade education who was married at the age of 13. Watch and listen as he describes his rise from both poverty and the bottom of his school classes to the heights of personal and medical success. (Dr. Carson's personal story has been an integral part of The Read-Aloud Handbook for decades.) This interview comes by way of the Academy of Achievement, a Web site that symbolizes the unparalleled opportunity of the Web and, at the same time, the vast array of knowledge lost to those who cannot or refuse to use it. With each of the hundreds of world-famous individuals interviewed, their words come to us via text, audio, and video. The roster includes people from the arts, business, public service, science and exploration, and sports—all commercial-free. The subjects range from Dr. Carson and Maya Angelou to George Lucas and Desmond Tutu, Amazon's Jeff Bezos to the NFL's Peyton Manning, with each highlighting pivotal decisions in their childhoods and careers. In addition, classroom materials for teachers also are available from the foundation. For another interview with Dr. Carson dating back to 1999, check out his radio interview with Diane Rehm.
  
  
• For the umpteenth time, the question has arisen: Is Reading on life-support or already dead? As technology takes away more hours, young people gravitate to online games and chat-lines, and newspaper readership at a 20-year low, what does this portend for the future? WNYC (NPR-New York) devoted one show to the subject. First in was historian David McCullough, who is sincerely worried. Listen to the 15-minute McCullough interview here:
  
  
  Next up was Caleb Cain whose December 24, 2007 New Yorker article, "Twilight of the Books," took stock of a recent National Endowment for the Arts study and declared: doomsday for reading is near. Were they over the top or right on target? Listen to their arguments. In addition, Cain's New Yorker piece can be found at: www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2007/12/24/071224crat_atlarge_crain. Listen to the 20-minute Cain interview here:
  
  
  For a look at one of the earliest predictions of Reading's imminent demise, read about the Scribner's essay from 1894 "The End of Books." What caused the furor way back then? Thomas Edison's invention that began the technology revolution.
  
  
• Amazon is now marketing a device that may revolutionize the publishing industry: the Kindle. With a screen that is unparalleled in its clarity (Amazon prefers to call it electronic-paper), it operates independent of a computer and is lighter than a paperback book (10.3 ounces). Buy a book and it's delivered wirelessly in less than one minute and stores 200 volumes. How much of a choice? More than 100,000 books available, including more than 90 of 112 current New York Times bestsellers at $10 each, along with newspapers like The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. Kindle's cost: $400. Too much? What if the price drops, as it did for the iPhone and the iPods and HD TV? Listen as Tom Ashbrook of NPR's "On Point" surveys experts and callers on how this gadget will or will not affect the reading culture of America at E-READING. (Nov. 20, 2007, 45-mins) at:
                  www.onpointradio.org/shows/2007/11/20071120_b_main.asp.
  
  
• What makes for a bestselling children's book? Leonard Lopate (of WNYC-NY) polls three experts in the field — Jean Feiwel (former head of Scholastic), Diane Roback (senior editor of the children's section of Publisher’s Weekly), and Micha Hershman (a manager of Borders Group children's department) — to gather opinions. An excellent overview of the field today, with good and bad news. A full transcript also can be copied from the web site (Mar. 3, 2008, 25 mins.) at: http://mediasearch.wnyc.org/m/19252945/what_makes_a_best_selling_children.htm
  
  
• Child development experts have been soundng alarms for more than a decade about the diaappearance of play from the landscape of childhood. A recent alert comes from Elena Bodrova of the National Institute for Early Education Research, who tells NPR's "Morning Edition" that the lack of play time is showing up in children's self regulation and executive function. What does that mean? Listen as she explains in this enlightening 7-minute piece "Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills." (Feb. 21, 2008, 7 min.) at: www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19212514
  
  
• On Feb. 1, 1960, four black college students in Greensboro, NC, handsomely dressed in jackets and ties, sat down for lunch at a Woolworth store (the equivalent of Wal-Mart today). At a time when segregation ruled the south, such an action was more than daring — in some places it bordered on suicidal. Denied service, they returned the next day with 15 friends who, in succeeding days, were joined by 300, and then 1000. A revolution had been started by four young people. Listen as one of those men, Franklin McCain, eloquently looks back to those events and the role it played in his own life and American history. (NPR's "All Things Considered," Feb. 1, 2008, 7 mins.) at:
        www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18615556.
     Related children's picture book: Freedom on the Menu: The Greensboro Sit-ins by Carole Boston (Dial, 2003) looks at the lunchcounter revolution through the eyes of an eight-year-old girl.
  
  
• One of the little-known chapters in the Civil Rights movement is the tale of a 24-year-old Presbyterian seminary student (Gurdon Brewster) who apprenticed during the summer of 1961 at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and lived with "Daddy" King, Martin's father. The young man became an integral part of the King family that summer and in sharing his tale with Dick Gordon on American Public Radio's "The Story," he paints a vivid portrait of both the King family, the role of religion in the movement, and the dangerous times they lived in; (Jan. 21, 2008, 52 mins.) at
         http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_432_Summer_With_The_King_Family.mp3/view
  
  
• In light of new research showing a distinct IQ advantage for first-borns (6/22/07, New York Times, page 1 www.nytimes.com/2007/06/22/science/22sibling.html), a clinical psychologist and professor of psychology explore the ramifications on "Forum" at KQED in San Francisco (June 29, 2007, 52 mins.) at www.kqed.org/epArchive/R706291000
  
  
• There's an alarming and growing academic achievement divide between our male and female students, with the boys showing up on the short end of the comparison in almost everything academic. Is it a boy problem or a man problem — or both? Two public radio shows have addressed the issues: In June 2006, Leonard Lopate of WNYC (June 16, 2006, 33 mins.) talked with college professor (and parent) Tom Chiarella (author of "The Problem With Boys," Esquire July 2006), along with Dr. Leonard Sax, author of Why Gender Matters; You can listen to the entire interview either by clicking on the menu immediately below or using your browser to reach www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2006/06/16. Chiarella's entire article can be found online at
            http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0706SOTAMBOYS_94
  
  
  
  Out in San Francisco at KQED, Michel Krasny confers with a panel of experts for opinions about what's causing the student gender divide. (July 11, 2006, 52 mins.) at www.kqed.org/epArchive/R607110900
  
  
• In "Put to the Test," American RadioWorks looks back on the first four years of No Child Left Behind, tracking its effects on one high school in Greensboro, NC; listen as various points of view are shared by principal, faculty, students and parents. The tale is sobering and the reporting is first-rate. Both audio and the show's transcript are available for free directly at the site. (Sept. 24, 2007, 52 mins.) http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/testing/
  
  
• Kadir Nelson, one of the most creative and talented illustrators of the last 25 years, talks to NPR's "All Things Considered" about how he created his picture book We Are the Ship, which he both wrote and illustrated. (Jan. 29, 2008, 8 mins.) www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18518791.
  
  
• Bill Moyers interviews author John Grisham, whose books have sold nearly a quarter billion copies in 29 languages, about the growing role of social justice in his books and how his Baptist religion influences his writing ("You can give my books to a 15-year-old or an 80-year-old and not be embarrassed." The 2008 interview (approx. 15 min.) can be viewed as a video, read as a transcript, or listened to as a podcast at this site:
        http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01252008/watch4.html.
  More Grisham interviews:
  • withAcademy of Achievement— www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/gri0int-1
  • with BBC (21 min.) — www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/openbook/ram/openbook_20030309_grisham.ram;
  • with Diane Rehm (Feb. 1, 2000, 51 mins.) www.wamu.org/ram/2000/r1000201.ram
  
  
• In the late 1950s, an 11-year-old English lad arrived in Harlech, Wales, and after receiving a "going-over" from some local youths, began an inspiring pupil-teacher relationship withEnid Jones that persists today, well into his career as one of the world's more renowned storytellers—novelist Philip Pullman. In early 2007, BBC-Wales recorded pupil and teacher together as they reminisced about what made their relationship last and how that Welsh classroom launched a writer's life. RealAudio links provide excerpts from the interview, along with text at:
  www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northwest/sites/harlech/pages/pullman_radio.shtml.
  Other Pullman sites:
        www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northwest/halloffame/arts/philippullman.shtml;
        www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northwest/sites/harlech/pages/pullman.shtml
  
  
• Fourteen days before the battle of Wounded Knee, an editorial appeared in the local press urging an assault on the Lakota tribe: "Their glory has fled, their spirit broken, their manhood effaced; better that they die than live the miserable wretches that they are." How many of the resulting 150 dead Indians could be attributed to that editorial is pure conjecture but a century later the writer's great-great grandson devoted his master's thesis to the subject of that writer's racist views—L. Frank Baum, the author of America's first original fairy tale, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Listen to NPR's "'Oz' Family Apologizes" Also: the Indian-Oz Connection.
  
  
• Alfie Kohn, one of America's freshest, most respected education writers and the author of The Homework Myth, argues that little of what we call "homework" does any good and, in fact, may do considerable harm. Listen as he explains to NPR's Diane Rehm, and then takes calls from across the U.S., some of which contain fiercely cogent responses. (Diane Rehm Show, Sept. 5, 2006, 55 mins.) www.wamu.org/programs/dr/06/09/05.php#11447
  
  
• Far and away, the best public speech I've ever heard was the one given by New York Times foreign affairs columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winner Thomas Friedman in May 2005. Explaining to a St. Paul, Minnesota, audience how he came to write his million-copy bestseller, The World Is Flat, Friedman does everything we ask of a public speaker: he's dynamic, informative, entertaining, suspenseful, involves the audience, and poses a provocative scenario that lingers long after his spoken words have ended. One need look no further for a masterful example for a public speaking class. (American Public Radio, 45 mins. at: http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/thinkglobal/local-thinkglobal-470738.mp3
  
  
• In the midst of prime television viewing hours one night in 1974, a young black woman leaned into a microphone at the Watergate hearings and declared in a husky voice that had been honed on debating teams at an all-black high school and an all-black college, uttered words that resonated across Washington and into the White House, while riveting the nation: “My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.” Those words by Rep. Barbara Jordan of Texas were, among other things, the single loudest clarion in what became a full-throated chorus for the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon. No black woman in American history had ever been heard by so many Americans in one day, and with such historical effect. Her life story is heard in a special one-hour audio from KUT radio in Houston. The entire script for the show is available at http://kut.org/items/show/5525. The audio button for the broadcast can be found at the bottom of the page at: http://kut.org/items/show/5524. More Jordan material, including Bill Moyers' stirring eulogy at her memorial service, can be found through the University of Texas site at: http://txtell.lib.utexas.edu/stories/media/j0001-video.html.
  
  
• A warm look back with Beverly Cleary (as she turned 90) at 50 years of writing for children, with a special look at Ramona Quimby. (10 mins., April 9, 2006; www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=541221.
  
  
• For almost 40 years, one quiet but persistent rumor has haunted one of the century's great novels: "Harper Lee didn't really write To Kill a Mockingbird. Her childhood friend Truman Capote wrote it for her." Ms. Lee has refused to dignify the rumor by responding to it. Now a letter from Truman Capote has surfaced that may put the rumor to rest. ("All Things Considered," Mar. 3, 2006, 5 mins.) www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5244492
  
  
• Fairy tale and folklore expert Jack Zipes talks about his latest project, the Norton Anthology of Children's Literature, including a stimulating discussion of the role children's literature plays in today's world, the role fairy tales, science fiction, primers, and even Captain Underpants (which did not make the anthology's cut). (MPR-Midmorning Show, Dec. 12, 2005, 53 min.) http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/programs/midmorning/listings/ mm20051212.shtml
  
  
• The most listened to radio drama in American history, "On a Note of Triumph," was broadcast simultaneously by all three networks, May 8, 1945, to mark the end of World War II in Europe (VE Day). Sixty million Americans tuned in to listen. The script was written by the man many believe to be the only true genius the radio networks ever produced, Norman Corwin. Carl Sandburg called the show "one of the all-time great American poems" and people could quote whole passages many years later. On its 60 anniversary, NPR rebroadcast both the show and a one-hour profile of Corwin (still alive and still brilliant at 95), narrated by Charles Kurault. Links to both shows can be found at: www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4668028. Listening to the broadcast again while the war in Iraq was still being waged was a sobering experience. In 2006, a short documentary on this show won an Academy Award.
  
  
• BBC School Radio offers interviews with prominent British authors, with children asking the questions. Although tapes are available only in Great Britain, the questions are available online and the authors' responses are available via RealAudio online. The interviews average between 15 to 25 minutes:
  
  • Novelist Eva Ibbotson (author of The Star of Kazan and others) is interviewed by British school children (25 minutes)
  • Novelist Michael Morpurgo (author of Kensuke's Kingdom and others) is interviewed by British school children (15 mins.
  
  
• Dissecting the mind of Dr. Seuss on the 100th anniversary of his birth, Prof. Philip Nel, author of Dr. Seuss: American Icon, offers insights to why his writing "worked" well enough to sell 500 million books. (Midmorning, MPR, Mar. 11, 2004, 53 mins.)
  
  
• If you're teaching a unit on the Civil War, don't miss this short segment from "Morning Edition" on the 140th anniversary of Lincoln's assassination. It features a recording from 1947 in which a 101-year-old Confederate veteran recalls being a teenage prisoner of war and one morning seeing the camp's flag at half-mast. "Who died," he asked. (3.5 mins., April 15, 2005)
  
  
• Many children's books have dealt with children evacuated from London during the London, with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis and Good Night, Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian being two of the more famous. Three short and remarkable RealAudio interviews are available online with adults who were children in those days, each with unique perspectives on the experience. One was never evacuated and was left for dead after one bombing (but found uninjured two days later); another was evacuated and eventually fostered 200 children as an adult; and the third turned to petty theft in order to survive his evacuee years and became one of England's more notorious safe-crackers, but finally turned to a life of great charity and benevolence:
       •Left for dead   •Fostering 200    •Past crimes
  
  
• One of today's leading education voices, Alfie Kohn, examines this time what it's like to raise one's own children in today's culture of punishment and rewards, on Diane Rehm Show. If the child doesn't meet the parents' standards, do the grownups withdraw their love along with their approval? (51 min.)
  
  



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