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In commemoration of U.S. Independence Day, read what Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Joseph Ellis has to say in Britannica about the Founders’ impressive achievements and patent failures.
Written by admin on July 4th, 2008 with no comments.
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I had the privilege of witnessing a special moment in the life of a small town this spring when I attended the graduation ceremony of Granger High School. Granger is a small, impoverished town in the Yakima Valley, Washington, where most adults and many children work in the fields cutting asparagus, picking cherries and sorting apples. More than 90 percent of the Class of 2008 graduated from high school on time, and a whopping 90 percent of the 62 graduates are going on to some kind of post-secondary education, 37 percent directly to four-year colleges. These statistics are normally associated with much wealthier schools. Schools like Granger, where 90 percent of the students are low-income, 80 percent Latino and 10 percent American Indian, often graduate fewer than half of their students.
One of the moments that sticks most in my memory is seeing a mother holding a newborn baby—her eighth child—watching her oldest daughter, the daughter she dropped out of high school in order to have, prepare to graduate. “This is a special day for her, but it is a special day for me too,” the mom said. And then, just before the graduation ceremony, her mother came up to me and said, “I have three grandchildren graduating today.”
The grandmother grew up in Granger but, she said, “I was never able to get an education.” She wanted very much to finish school but, she said, “When my father died, all my dreams were gone.” Her father died when she was eleven, which is when she began her life in the fields picking potatoes, apples, cherries, and hops. Only two of her children graduated from high school, but she is hoping and praying that all sixteen of her grandchildren not only graduate but go to college. This spring the oldest three graduated.
Her grandchildren were lucky enough to go to a high school where the faculty believe that their students are capable of great things, the least of which is that they should graduate from high school. The faculty have worked hard to improve instruction, establish a nice atmosphere, and make sure that any student who needs help gets it. But, as Richard Esparza (pictured here), the principal who led the improvements, says, “it begins with the belief system”—that is, everyone in schools like Granger needs to believe that their students are capable of achieving.
There’s a big story to be told about Granger, but to get a little sense of it, here’s an op-ed piece I wrote that was published in the June 29 Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
You can also read a story about it in my book, It’s Being Done: Academic Success in Unexpected Schools (Harvard Education Press, 2007).
Written by Karin Chenoweth on July 4th, 2008 with no comments.
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Information, Please! was one of the most popular, and literate, shows on American radio, airing from 1938-1948 and running briefly as a TV show in 1952. Its format was novel: instead of quizzing contestants from the general public, listeners submitted questions to quiz the experts, and if they stumped the panel of resident eggheads, they won money and (for many years) a set of Encyclopaedia Britannica. The program became a cultural icon, spurring Information, Please! quiz books, card games, almanacs, film shorts, and countless editorial cartoons and satires. Anybody who was anybody wanted to appear on the show.
Its master of ceremonies was the warm and witty Clifton Fadiman (right), literary editor of the New Yorker magazine and a longtime member of Britannica’s Board of Editors. His amusing three-member panel of savants routinely included Franklin P. Adams, the popular newspaper columnist, Shakespeare expert, and member of the fashionable Algonquin Round Table of New York writers; John Kieran, the amazing Bronx-accented sportswriter, linguist and Latinist, botanist and bird-lover, and master reciter of Western poetry; and Oscar Levant, pianist, composer, actor, raconteur, and all-around wit. Fadiman and his brain trust would often be joined by a special guest panelist, usually a famous writer, political leader, or Hollywood star. Throughout World War II, the popular show broadcast from cities across the United States, selling millions of dollars of War Bonds in the process.
The program was also hailed for its integrity, as explained in the PBS documentary “The American Experience: The Rise of TV Quiz Shows“:
One of the most popular and intelligent shows was “Information, Please,” which called on the audience to send in questions to stump a panel of experts. The show aired for 14 years, until its finale in 1952, and was noteworthy not only for its success, but for its integrity. At the time, radio programs made their way on air in two ways. They were underwritten by big name sponsors, who were expected to be involved with the show, or they were funded by individual producers, making them self-sufficient. Dan Golenpaul, the producer for “Information, Please,” earned kudos when he fired the Reynolds Tobacco Company, which had run a series of untruthful commercials and also demanded that panelists on the show smoke its cigarettes.
The opportunity to win a set of Encyclopaedia Britannica for stumping the experts was an offer instituted shortly after the program went on the air, and it was an immediate hit with the public. Within weeks of advertising the offer, mail to the radio show skyrocketed from 6,000 letters a week to more than 20,000. Britannica salesmen, however, did encounter one problem: some prospective customers were now delaying their purchase of the encyclopedia because they hoped to win a set by appearing on the show. To combat this, Britannica promised full cash refunds if, within three months, any purchaser of a print set won an Information, Please! prize, and this promise was maintained throughout Britannica’s long affiliation with the program. Exactly 1,366 sets of the encyclopedia were given away to listeners of the show.
The Britannica Blog is proud to highlight one of these broadcasts each Friday. So, “Wake Up!”—as the show’s announcer would say at the start of each broadcast. “It’s Time to Stump the Experts!”
Click here and enjoy the show!
Today’s special guest: Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. (right).
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For thousands of other classic radio broadcasts, visit Ken Varga’s ”Old Time Radio Network Library,” where he offers links to more than 12,000 free shows.
Written by admin on July 4th, 2008 with no comments.
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