Learn about the United States

Learn about the United States
Author: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Publisher: Government Printing Office
Total Pages: 36
Release: 2009
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780160831188

"Learn About the United States" is intended to help permanent residents gain a deeper understanding of U.S. history and government as they prepare to become citizens. The product presents 96 short lessons, based on the sample questions from which the civics portion of the naturalization test is drawn. An audio CD that allows students to listen to the questions, answers, and civics lessons read aloud is also included. For immigrants preparing to naturalize, the chance to learn more about the history and government of the United States will make their journey toward citizenship a more meaningful one.

Latin Lessons

Latin Lessons
Author: Hal Weitzman
Publisher: Wiley
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2012-02-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780470481912

The mistakes the United States has made in Latin America—and the high price it will pay for them Could it be that for the first time in history, the United States needs Latin America more than the other way round? Since the early 1800s, the United States regarded the region as its “backyard,” but in the past decade South America’s leaders have increasingly snubbed US efforts to persuade them to adopt free-market economics and sign trade agreements. While Washington has been distracted by military campaigns elsewhere, rivals such as China, Russia, and Iran have expanded their clout in Latin America, and US influence in the region has fallen to a historic low—at the very time that the United States has become more dependent than ever on exporting to Latin America and importing its oil. Combining sharp wit and great storytelling with trenchant analysis, Hal Weitzman examines how America “lost the South” and argues that if the United States is to find a new role in a world of emerging superpowers, it must reengage with Latin America. Charts the rise of resource nationalism—in which governments take increasing control of natural resources and squeeze multinational corporations—in South America and across the world Illustrates analytical points with vivid stories—such as the disappearance of the Panama hat or the sweater Evo Morales wore throughout a world tour—and interviews with presidents, policymakers, and protesters Written by a Financial Times journalist who formerly served as its Andes correspondent based in Lima, Peru

The Lessons of Tragedy

The Lessons of Tragedy
Author: Hal Brands
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 183
Release: 2019-02-26
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0300244924

A “brilliant” examination of American complacency and how it puts the nation’s—and the world’s—security at risk (The Wall Street Journal). The ancient Greeks hard-wired a tragic sensibility into their culture. By looking disaster squarely in the face, by understanding just how badly things could spiral out of control, they sought to create a communal sense of responsibility and courage—to spur citizens and their leaders to take the difficult actions necessary to avert such a fate. Today, after more than seventy years of great-power peace and a quarter-century of unrivaled global leadership, Americans have lost their sense of tragedy. They have forgotten that the descent into violence and war has been all too common throughout human history. This amnesia has become most pronounced just as Americans and the global order they created are coming under graver threat than at any time in decades. In a forceful argument that brims with historical sensibility and policy insights, two distinguished historians argue that a tragic sensibility is necessary if America and its allies are to address the dangers that menace the international order today. Tragedy may be commonplace, Brands and Edel argue, but it is not inevitable—so long as we regain an appreciation of the world’s tragic nature before it is too late. “Literate and lucid—sure to interest to readers of Fukuyama, Huntington, and similar authors as well as students of modern realpolitik.” —Kirkus Reviews

Everything Now

Everything Now
Author: Rosecrans Baldwin
Publisher: MCD
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2021-06-15
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 0374721076

A LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER. NAMED A BEST CALIFORNIA BOOKS OF 2021 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES A provocative, exhilaratingly new understanding of the United States’ most confounding metropolis—not just a great city, but a full-blown modern city-state America is obsessed with Los Angeles. And America has been thinking about Los Angeles all wrong, for decades, on repeat. Los Angeles is not just the place where the American dream hits the Pacific. (It has its own dreams.) Not just the vanishing point of America’s western drive. (It has its own compass.) Functionally, aesthetically, mythologically, even technologically, an independent territory, defined less by distinct borders than by an aura of autonomy and a sense of unfurling destiny—this is the city-state of Los Angeles. Deeply reported and researched, provocatively argued, and eloquently written, Rosecrans Baldwin's Everything Now approaches the metropolis from unexpected angles, nimbly interleaving his own voice with a chorus of others, from canonical L.A. literature to everyday citizens. Here, Octavia E. Butler and Joan Didion are in conversation with activists and astronauts, vampires and veterans. Baldwin records the stories of countless Angelenos, discovering people both upended and reborn: by disasters natural and economic, following gospels of wealth or self-help or personal destiny. The result is a story of a kaleidoscopic, vibrant nation unto itself—vastly more than its many, many parts. Baldwin’s concept of the city-state allows us, finally, to grasp a place—Los Angeles—whose idiosyncrasies both magnify those of America, and are so fully its own. Here, space and time don’t quite work the same as they do elsewhere, and contradictions are as stark as southern California’s natural environment. Perhaps no better place exists to watch the United States’s past, and its possible futures, play themselves out. Welcome to Los Angeles, the Great American City-State.

The Miseducation of English Learners

The Miseducation of English Learners
Author: Grace P. McField
Publisher: IAP
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2014-01-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1623964563

Sometimes you need to hear the story from the beginning. The Miseducation of English Learners examines the initial policy impact of Structured English Immersion (SEI), an English-only program mandated for English Learners (ELs) in California, Arizona, and Massachusetts in the United States. The book features analyses of: the legal context and parameters of SEI; research history on SEI; SEI language policy and policy implementation according to situated context; and the educational priorities and legal rights of ELs. The book examines the history of SEI in the educational research literature and as it has been interpreted in the context of the legal requirement for schools to take “appropriate action” to meet the needs of ELs following the historic Lau v. Nichols (1974) court decision. The Miseducation of English Learners also presents and considers the implementation of SEI in comparative contexts from various perspectives including teacher education, the classroom, and legal. In several of the chapters, SEI implementation is examined in concert with other factors that have effected the teaching and progress of ELs such as Senate Bill 2042 (2001) that overhauled the teacher education process in California, and the federal No Child Left Behind legislation (signed into law on January 8, 2002). Moreover, the book provides implications and recommendations for teaching, research, advocacy, and policy change. The Miseducation of English Learners addresses and invites the readers to consider the following key questions: • How “appropriate” is the mandated SEI program for ELs, both in substance and in the one-year duration as specified in the three voter-initiated propositions (Proposition 227, Proposition 203, and Question 2)? • What issues, themes, and patterns can be noted in the implementation of SEI in California, Arizona, and Massachusetts? • Why might the student outcomes not show the desired results in measures such as achievement test scores or dropout rates? • What necessary changes are called for in order to enhance (or in some cases supplant) the SEI programs and services in place for ELs? • Are ELs, parents, and other stakeholders able to thoughtfully select desired and optimal instructional programs, and participate meaningfully in the educational process of language minority students under the SEI mandates?

Socialism, Socialist States and Environment

Socialism, Socialist States and Environment
Author: Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro
Publisher: Pluto Press (UK)
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2021-07-20
Genre:
ISBN: 9780745340401

Reclaims the contentious legacy of state socialism in order to build an ecosocialist future

Lessons Learned From School Shootings

Lessons Learned From School Shootings
Author: Scott Poland
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 101
Release: 2021-07-30
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 3030754804

This brief investigates school shootings and their impact on individual, community, and societal levels. It includes professional and personal perspectives from individuals directly involved in and impacted by school shootings. These novel perspectives will help inform best practices necessary to strengthen school safety measures, as well as prevention and response efforts. This brief will serve as helpful guide to mental health professionals, school administrators, psychology students and educators, law enforcement, and threat management and crisis response teams, aiding in better understanding of the many factors surrounding school shootings.

Teaching from Rest

Teaching from Rest
Author: Sarah Mackenzie
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015-09-15
Genre: Christian education
ISBN: 9781600512872

In the book of Philippians we are told to be anxious over nothing, and yet we are anxious over everything. We worry that our students will be "behind," that they won't score well on the SAT, get into a good college, or read enough of the Great Books. Our souls are restless, anxiously wondering if something else out there might be just a little bit better -- if maybe there is another way or another curriculum that might prove to be superior to what we are doing now. God doesn't call us to this work and then turn away to tend to other, more important matters. He promises to stay with us. He assures us that if we rely on Him alone, then He will provide all that we need. What that means on a practical level is that we have to stop fretting over every little detail. We need to stop comparing. We've got to drop the self-inflated view that we are the be-all-end-all of whether the education we are offering our students is going to be as successful as we hope it is. After all, our job is not to be successful -- success itself is entirely beside the point. It's faithfulness that He wants.

Tuesdays with Morrie

Tuesdays with Morrie
Author: Mitch Albom
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2007-06-29
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0307414094

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A special 25th anniversary edition of the beloved book that has changed millions of lives with the story of an unforgettable friendship, the timeless wisdom of older generations, and healing lessons on loss and grief—featuring a new afterword by the author “A wonderful book, a story of the heart told by a writer with soul.”—Los Angeles Times “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.” Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was his college professor Morrie Schwartz. Maybe, like Mitch, you lost track of this mentor as you made your way, and the insights faded, and the world seemed colder. Wouldn’t you like to see that person again, ask the bigger questions that still haunt you, receive wisdom for your busy life today the way you once did when you were younger? Mitch Albom had that second chance. He rediscovered Morrie in the last months of the older man’s life. Knowing he was dying, Morrie visited with Mitch in his study every Tuesday, just as they used to back in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final “class”: lessons in how to live. “The truth is, Mitch,” he said, “once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.” Tuesdays with Morrie is a magical chronicle of their time together, through which Mitch shares Morrie’s lasting gift with the world.