Author Interview: William Jeynes on Character Education and Prayer in Schools

Q: What prompted you to write A Call for Character Education and Prayer in the Schools? What "message" do you want to communicate?


A: I was raised as an atheist, in an environment in which I was taught that people of faith were responsible for many of the problems of the world. I am old enough to remember when Bible readings, voluntary prayer, and character education were still a part of the public school curriculum. I am also young enough to remember when these practices were taken out of the public schools. Even though I was an avid, and admittedly bigoted, anti-Christian atheist at the time, I could clearly see the striking difference in the school atmosphere after these practices were removed. Before 1963, if there was a major student conflict, teachers would instruct students regarding the wrongs of bullying, bring them through the steps of love and forgiveness, and attempt to bring about a peaceful resolution. There was also the use of terms like “delayed gratification,” “the work ethic,” “loving one another” and “sacrificing for others” that quickly declined in their use after 1963. All these trends caused even me, a staunch atheist, to question my beliefs and my insistence that I had no desire to interact with a person of faith.


In the years of schooling that followed I saw the atmosphere of the schools radically change, as the students gradually jettisoned most convictions of right and wrong. A culture of drugs, gangs, and violence pervaded the schools I attended. I grieved over a student movement that said it favored peace, but was bombing school buildings and attacking faculty and firefighters supposedly in the name of peace. Something was terribly wrong with the worldview of many in my generation. There was a moral vacuum in which we were simply encouraged to “do our own thing,” rather than “sacrifice for others.”


The fear proclaimed by many adults of the time was that these morally confused youth would one day be our leaders. And indeed, gradually they became our leaders. I realized I had to confront my belief system that had largely been based on stereotypes of people I had never met. I consumed hundreds and thousands of books and realized that character instruction previously had a central place in the schools for a good reason. I also realized that our society had paid a large price for its removal from the schools. Even our current recession is largely due to government and corporate corruption, by the same leaders who had little or no character instruction in their schools. I realized that a large degree of character was necessary for a society to thrive. Society cannot thrive unless people trust each other and when character is reduced substantially, so is trust.

Q: What was the highlight of your research? In the course of your research, what discovery surprised you the most? What surprises readers/others the most about your research?


A: I was most surprised by the extent to which the character of a people is so closely connected to crime rates, academic achievement, economic health, and so forth. Of course, whether character instruction occurs in the school is not the only, nor even the most important, source of personal integrity. However, if one concurrently examines the decline of the family and societal morality, it is amazing the extent to which other indices reflect health or problems. For example, is it merely coincidence that after falling between 1948 and 1962, divorce rates surged 17 consecutive years between 1963 and 1980 and the nation’s average SAT dropped 17 consecutive years during precisely the same period? Is it coincidence that in nations that remove character instruction from the schools, juvenile crime starts to skyrocket in the following year and drops when this instruction is reintroduced?


When I shared these data with other academics, government leaders, and people all across the globe, probably 98% of them acknowledge that there is a strong relationship between the character issue and crime, corruption, achievement, and other variables. Even though these individuals had generally given little thought to the matter previously, they realize there is a relationship. It has surprised me how quickly experts have agreed that the data speak so “loudly” that to use their words, the relationship is “undeniable.” I think it is largely because of this fact that I have been humbled with the opportunity to speak on these findings for the White House and for several government departments. These ideas have been embraced by both the Obama and G.W. Bush administrations, as well as by the government leaders of Great Britain, China, and South Korea.


Q: How did your research change your outlook on character education and faith?


A: As I shared, my research really began years ago, when I was in high school. Confronted with the realities of what the dearth of character education and any notion of freedom of religion in the schools had produced, I gained a great appreciation for both character education and America’s Judeo-Christian heritage. I do believe that character education can be taught in the public schools in a way that is not religious, but rather teaches children values that are embraced by people all around the world. All people, unless they are criminals or sociopaths, want their children to be taught to love, to be honest and sincere, responsible, and so forth. These are the values that should be taught in the schools. Nevertheless, I also think that public educators should show greater tolerance toward people of faith and as President Bill Clinton and others have shared, this is clearly missing. School teachers should teach about people of faith respectfully.


It is no doubt ironic that the man who wrote the foreword for this book is Madalyn Murray O’Hair’s son, Bill Murray. Madalyn Murray O’Hair worked harder than any other individual to remove all vestiges of faith and character instruction from the public schools. Bill and I were both raised as atheists and knew nothing better than to agree with our moms growing up. But then we each got older, researched the matter, and concluded that the faith heritage of the United States had primarily been a force for good. Love of God, love of neighbor, humility, peace, and joy that are practiced by Christians, Jewish people, and others are values to be respected and not dishonored. Even if a teacher is not a person of faith, religious people should not be demeaned. I believe a moment of silence is an appropriate way for people of all religious and non-religious persuasions to reflect and that this should be allowed in the schools.


Q: How have people reacted to your book and/or the ideas you set forth? Is it what you hoped for, or is there more work to be done?


A: I have been amazed and humbled at the extent to which government leaders, in particular, around the world have embraced these ideas. These ideas played a large role in my development of a 4-point plan to stimulate the South Korean economy in 1998, in the midst of Asia’s 1997-1998 economic crisis, the greatest such Asian crisis of the post-World War II period. This plan passed the South Korean parliament and helped the economy recover faster than in any other nation in Asia, growing by over 10% each of the next 2 years. I have had opportunities to speak on these ideas for the Obama and G.W. Bush administrations. I have also spoken on these themes at some of the top 20 American and world universities. I surely do not deserve these opportunities, but I am convinced it is by virtue of the truth of these principles rather than based on any talent in me that people in the government, the social sciences, and elsewhere have responded so enthusiastically.


Nevertheless, one only has to look at the morning news to realize that there is much work that needs to be done. Most classrooms do not value character education and dozens of nations have greater religious freedom in the public square than Americans do. The United States has a long way to go, as does the rest of the world, but hopefully this book can be a beginning.


Q: What's next for you?


A: I am anticipating writing a book on School Choice. I first wrote on this topic in 2000 for the Cambridge Journal of Education, in an article entitled, “School Choice: A Balanced Perspective.” I received a very positive response from this article, because of its emphasis on balance. The people of the United States in recent years have become more polarized in their views and I think there is a real need to examine the data and look at certain controversial issues in a balanced way. I also continue to work with both academic and political leaders in the United States to develop ways of teaching character education that nearly everyone can support.

Author Interview: Joy Porter on 'Land and Spirit in Native America'

Q: What prompted you to write Land and Spirit in Native America? What "message" do you want to communicate?


A: Like most books, this one started from a mixture of concern that these issues were so infrequently discussed and from a desire on the author’s part to educate herself through the process of writing. One of the nice things about creating this book was the number of colleagues from outside of my discipline who were keen to help and give backbone to its arguments- from Alaskan anthropologists to scientists working on how radioactive and other risks are evaluated by the public.


The point of the book is to make clear how different various indigenous American approaches to land and spirit have been from Euro-American ones and to argue that those ideas have a special pertinence today as we fight to overcome inertia and address the causes and consequences of climate change. The book makes a point of dispensing with “Indians-as-eco-warrior” rhetoric but it does take very seriously the Indian experience of colonialism and the long record of Indian interrelationship with land and its vital and ongoing spiritual dimensions.


Q: What was the highlight of your research? In the course of your research, what discovery surprised you the most? What surprises readers/others the most about your research?


A: A lot in this book is likely to upset certain preconceptions. For example, Indian peoples are associated with ideas about balance within wilderness environments. That connection is not without validity but the larger picture shows Indian peoples to have been at the forefront of modernity and to have been forced to cope first with the environmental despoliation that modernity has brought about. Thus Land and Spirit has a chapter that deals with American Indian forced migration so as to make way for the nation’s “wilderness” parks and a large chapter on environmental justice and the complexities of Indian life in the nuclear southwest. Rather than conflating everything Indian with some woolly sense of the ecological, the book asks that we confront revealing truths about how some of America’s most disadvantaged communities have faced environmental stress within capitalism.


In fact, it was finding out more about the history and meaning of nuclear power and nuclear weapons and their Indian connections that surprised me most when writing this book. On one level, we should all recognize that everything American owes a great deal to what was or is Indian, but I had no idea how central Indian land, Indian mining effort and Indian suffering was to the growth and perpetuation of nuclearism in terms of national power and national defense. Like quite a few Indian people, I’m not simplistically anti-nuclear, but the more one reads the more one gains a dread-filled respect for this particular tiger we have caught by the tail. For what is good about nuclear power and particularly in terms of the containment of nuclear waste, the world owes Indian peoples a great debt.


Land and Spirit is an unconventional book. It does not confine itself to the tramlines of conventional regional or thematic history, instead it leaps across time and across disciplinary boundaries linking Native American Indian art, history, literature and philosophy to mainstream histories and up-to-the-minute debates. Part of the reasoning behind writing it was to bust Native American criticism and history out of its intellectual corral. It’s hard now to write about American literature without taking on board Native American Indian writers, but too often when issues like the environment, nuclear power and the history of the life of the spirit on American soil are discussed Indian people and Indian thinking gets ignored.

Forthcoming, 2012

Q: How did your research change your outlook on this subject?


A: I learned a lot about how urgent the need for change is when it comes to the environment and a lot about why it might be that we aren’t making those changes more quickly. In a world of 7 billion plus that is increasingly being torn apart by the legacy of recent global financial mismanagement, the need for new thinking is urgent. Land and Spirit argues that we need to look at our spiritual understanding of the earth and at the sometimes ugly truths of our history in order to find a popular and sure-footed path forward. The book does not set forth prescriptive answers, but it puts aspects of Indian experience center stage and it demands that we think about what’s “wild” on this earth in a new way.


Q: How have people reacted to your book and/or the ideas you set forth? Is it what you hoped for, or is there more work to be done?


A: This interview is happening when the book is only just in production but those few who have read it have used words like fantastic and amazing. They do owe me money though, now I come to think of it…only joking! One thing is clear though, much more nuanced work needs to be done on nuclear power in Indian country across disciplines. Also, we need to wrest debate about climate change away from mostly literary environmental writers and away from scientists who communicate primarily in the language of maths. These folk are obviously pivotal but so are other voices and other understandings. I hope this book encourages other writers on Indian themes to take Native American Indian Studies in an inclusive manner into productive communion with other fields and other disciplines. Indian history and Indian thought is too valuable not to be widely thought about and debated at the interstice of today’s most pressing arguments.


Q: What's next for you?


A: I am finishing another book for The University of Toronto Press about a poet who claimed to be Iroquois and who fought in the first world war. It’s called The American Indian Poet of the First World War: Modernism and the Indian Identity of Frank “Toronto” Prewett, 1883-1962. Prewett was a fascinating character who was the lover of Seigfreid Sassoon and got published by Virginia Woolf. The project is being supported by the UK Arts & Humanities Research Board. Aside from his illustrious Bloomsbury literary connections, Prewett is interesting because of his response to war. He suffered severe shell-shock. His experience and his writing says something meaningful, I think, about modernity and about primitivism and what it meant to have voice at the beginning of the twentieth century.


After that I am working on another project, this one supported by the British Academy. It too will be a new book, The American Presidency and Tribal Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century. It addresses the most important question in twentieth-century Native American politics--how decisive were personal tribal relationships with individual American presidents? Answering that could alter fundamentally not only our existing understandings of the presidency but also how we conceptualize relationships between “small nations” and dominant powers more generally.


JOY PORTER is Senior Lecturer & Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Humanities at The University of Swansea, Wales, UK, author of To Be Indian: The Life of Seneca-Iroquois Arthur Caswell Parker, 1881-1955 (University of Oklahoma Press, 2002), co-editor with Professor Kenneth Roemer (University of Texas, Arlington), of The Cambridge Companion to Native American Literature (University of Cambridge Press, 2005), editor of Place and Indian History, Literature & Culture for Peter Lang (2007) and coauthor of Competing Voices in Native America (2009).

Holiday Recipe #8 - Chocolate-Covered Coconut Macaroons

King David's Chocolate-Covered Coconut Macaroons
(This is a recipe that we used in the book Cooking with the Bible: Recipes for Biblical Meals. It's a hit every time.)

Ingredients
3 ½ cups unsweetened shredded coconut
¼ cup matzoh cake meal
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs, separated, plus 1 egg white
6 oz. imported bittersweet chocolate
¼ cup water
1 tsp. almond extract


Directions

1. Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 325°F.
2. In bowl, mix together coconut, matzoh cake meal, and 1 cup of the sugar. Add eggs and extra egg white and mix with fingers until well blended. Gently shape about 2 tablespoons dough into a pyramid and set on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough, leaving about 2″ between cookies. Bake for about 25 minutes or until golden on top. Cool completely.
3. In saucepan, melt chocolate with the water, almond extract, and remaining ¼ cup sugar. Bring to boil; then simmer slowly for a few minutes until mixture starts to thicken. Cool slightly. Holding each macaroon with 2 fingers, dip half the cookie into the chocolate so that it is half black and half white. Allow to dry for a few seconds while tilted over a dish, then place on wax paper. Repeat with remaining cookies. Cool completely.

Yield: 16 macaroons


[Source: King David's Chocolate-Covered Coconut Macaroons recipe reprinted by permission of Recipe Gold Mine]

Holiday Recipe #7 - Carrot Cake

Carrot Cake
(From the film Gosford Park; our guest Judy Baker lovingly prepared this luscious cake for our repast.)

Ingredients

4 eggs

1 c. vegetable oil

1 c. buttermilk

1 c. white granulated sugar

1 c. brown sugar, firmly packed

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 c. all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. ground allspice

½ tsp. ground nutmeg
3 c. carrots, peeled and grated
1 c. canned crushed pineapple (without the juice)
1 c. slivered almonds
1 c. flaked coconut
½ c. raisins

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, buttermilk, sugars, and vanilla. Combine the dry ingredients and sift into the batter. Stir in the carrots, pineapple, almonds, coconut, and raisins until well blended. Pour into three 9" round pans that have been lined with parchment paper.
3. Bake for 50–60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to settle for 10 minutes, then remove from pans and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. When completely cooled, remove parchment paper.
4. Ice the top of each cake with a vanilla buttercream frosting (see next), then ice the sides until the entire cake is covered.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients 

½ c. butter, room temperature
1 lb. confectioner’s sugar
½ c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

Cream the butter, then add the sugar a little at a time until the mixture begins to resemble crumbs. Slowly add the milk, beating all the while, then pour in the extract. Continue to beat until wispy. If the icing appears to be too runny, add more sugar.

Yield: 12–16 servings

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Recipes provided by Cooking with the Movies: Meals on Reels authors Anthony F. Chiffolo and Rayner W. Hesse, Jr.

The Evolution of U.S. Special Forces

Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, U.S. Special Forces played a major role in the U.S.-led attack of Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan. Thanks in part to their efforts, by early December 2001 Kandahar, Afghanistan, the Taliban's last stronghold, fell to coalition forces. During the Iraq War, U.S. Special Forces were once again front and center, securing several large areas of the country. In this excerpt from the Introduction to John C. Fredriksen's Fighting Elites: A History of U.S. Special Forces, the author discusses the recent evolution of U.S. Special Forces into one of the key components of current U.S. military strategy.

Modern American special forces are a far cry from their historical antecedents, but threads of continuity persist in their tactical mastery of unconventional warfare. Moreover, the extreme dangers posed by the Soviet Union and Red China to the United States finally triggered a lasting resurgence in terms of special operations doctrine and, for once, the American military not only raised new special forces units, but also grudgingly maintained them as part of the standing military establishment. These include not only storied formations such as the Army’s Green Berets and Rangers, and the Navy’s SEALs, but also lesser known entities like the Air Force’s Air Resupply and Communications Command, the Marine Corp’s Force Recon companies. All performed dutifully during the Korean and Vietnamese conflicts, assuring that, while special forces may not enjoy wide popularity within military institutions, they were no longer considered expendable and subject to immediate disbandment at the end of hostilities.


The United States received an abject lesson in the utility of possessing appropriate special operations units for each service and every contingency following the disastrous Iranian hostage rescue attempt of 1980, which exuded dramatic remedial effects to that end. The interval between the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the War against Terror found special forces employed in minor fare like hunting war criminals in the Balkans and Somalia, tasks for which they are trained to do, but they acquired little distinction. However, the attack against the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, again spelled in stark relief the growing and sometimes dire necessity of recruiting, training, equipping, and preserving a viable special operations capabilities. That the cruel Taliban regime in Afghanistan and their al-Qaeda terrorist consorts were run out of that rugged country in only three months proffers incontrovertible proof that U.S. Special Forces are a potent factor to reckon with. They currently operate everywhere around the globe, wherever American interests and security are threatened, and scores of dead terrorists offer mute testimony to their deadly effectiveness. Given the implications of terrorism to national security, there is little wonder that, over the past two and a half centuries, America’s special forces have evolved steadily from episodic tactical novelties into battlefield force multipliers and standing strategic necessities. The 21st century may very well prove itself to be a golden age of unconventional warfare, and high-tech, special warriors to wage it.


John C. Fredriksen, PhD, is an independent historian. He is the author of 30 books and reference encyclopedias on military history, most recently Fighting Elites: A History of U.S. Special Forces. His other publications include ABC-CLIO's American Military Leaders: From Colonial Times to the Present and America's Military Adversaries: From Colonial Times to the Present. Fredriksen has also authored a series of chronologies detailing the histories of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps.

Holiday Recipe #6 - Pike's Apple Torte

Pike’s Apple Torte
(This recipe recreates a dessert from the film Big Eden. Although there was not enough room for this movie in Cooking with the Movies, it's a wonderful film with delicious food.)


Ingredients 
7 Tbsp. butter
2 c. Red Delicious apples, skinned, cored, and sliced
4 eggs, well beaten
1 ½ c. sugar
¾ c. all-purpose flour, sifted
2 8-oz. packages cream cheese
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. lemon zest
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. nutmeg
½ c. chopped walnuts


Topping
1 c. Granny Smith apples, cored, pared, and thinly sliced
½ c. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon


Directions

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• In a small frying pan, melt half the butter and fry the apples in it until soft, about 3-4 minutes on each side. (Do not allow to burn.) Pour out into a large bowl, and mix together with the remaining butter and all other ingredients.
• Generously butter a 9” round funnel cake pan. Pour the mixture into it.
• In a large bowl, combine the topping ingredients. Individually place each apple slice on top of the cake mixture, in a fan shape, or some other clever way.
• Bake for 60 minutes, or until the center is set. Allow to cool on a wire rack before serving.

Yield: 8-12 servings


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Recipes provided by Cooking with the Movies: Meals on Reels authors Anthony F. Chiffolo and Rayner W. Hesse, Jr.

Author Interview: Nathan R. Kollar, Defending Religious Diversity in Public Schools

Q: What prompted you to write Defending Religious Diversity in Public Schools?


A: I initiated and facilitated an eighteen-month investigation into how four undergraduate colleges and three seminaries identified and taught those who believed differently than the majority in their institutions. This research, sponsored by the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion, enabled me to see how the radically different in our midst enhanced the learning of both teacher and student in our classrooms. It was an easy step to see how diversity in the entire educational process was necessary for a more complete education. This step was encouraged and facilitated by Anthony Chiffolo, an editor at ABC-CLIO. The result was Defending Religious Diversity which was an amalgam of teaching and research from the grant and twenty-three years of teaching as adjunct professor in the leadership program at the Warner School of Education at the University of Rochester.


Q: What "message" do you want to communicate?


A: That diversity in general and religious diversity in particular are necessary for our national survival.


Q: What was the highlight of your research?


A: Being able to understand and clearly communicate the vast amount of legal interpretations and development surrounding religion in our public schools.


Q: In the course of your research, what discovery surprised you the most?


A: That religious bullying occurs in many of our public schools.

Q: What surprises readers/others the most about your research?


A: That it is possible to bring those who differ radically from each other together for enhancing the common good.


Q: How did your research change your outlook on religious diversity?


A: It made me realize that many times intrareligious diversity is more divisive than interreligious diversity.


Q: How have people reacted to your book and/or the ideas you set forth?


A: Many wish that what is portrayed there can be achieved but hesitate to bring these ideas and skills into everyday practice. Reading about religious diversity is easy; living religious diversity is a challenge.


Q: Is it what you hoped for, or is there more work to be done?


A: I had hoped that , once principals and school boards recognized that schools that have a comprehensive religious diversity program have less bullying and a more comprehensive view of the world, they would implement or deepen programs for diversity in their schools. This has not happened not only because of the difficulty of implementation but also because the present state of education in the United States is in crisis as to goals, methods, evaluation, and financial backing.


Q: What's next for you?


A: If diversity is essential to living in a pluralistic society then it is necessary for my spiritual life. Recent experiences with traditional college age students and middle aged attendees at adult education forms led me to further research and seeking to bring to fruition a primer for understanding the spiritualities of the classical religions and their alternatives. The UCLA longitudinal study demonstrates the need for such a work and an international conference on diversity of religions. Interfaith Understanding Conference suggests how to meet that need. My challenge is to get beyond the popular myths about spirituality and provide tested means from the social sciences to enhance people’s lives in this primer for understanding diverse spiritualities.

Holiday Recipe #5 - Wilted Lettuce with Peas and Pearl Onions

Wilted Lettuce with Peas and Pearl Onions
(From the film Gosford Park)


Ingredients
1 head iceberg lettuce, shredded
1 bag frozen peas, or 2 small cans
1 bag frozen pearl onions
2 c. water
1 lb. bacon, well done and cut into bits
1 Tbsp. bacon grease


Directions
In a medium pot, combine the lettuce, peas, and pearl onions with the water and cook until the lettuce is quite wilted and the peas and onions are cooked through. Drain. Add the bacon bits and grease, toss, and serve.


Yield: 6 servings


Although a dish featuring “wilted” lettuce might lack a certain “title” appeal, this recipe is quickly prepared, colorful, and quite tasty.


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Recipes provided by Cooking with the Movies: Meals on Reels authors Anthony F. Chiffolo and Rayner W. Hesse, Jr.

Holiday Recipe #4 - Brussels Sprouts with Hazelnuts

Brussels Sprouts with Hazelnuts
(This recipe is from the movie Gosford Park, directed by Robert Altman.)


Ingredients
1 lb. fresh Brussels sprouts (try to buy them fresh the day they are to be used)
salted water
4 Tbsp. butter, melted
½ c. light brown sugar
1 tsp. Balsamic vinegar
¼ tsp. black pepper
½ c. hazelnuts, chopped


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.
2. Wash the sprouts and pull off any yellowed leaves. Parboil them in just enough salted water to cover for no more than 5 minutes, then drain.
3. In a small bowl, mix the butter and brown sugar with the Balsamic vinegar and pepper, then stir in the hazelnuts. Transfer the mixture to cover the bottom of a small baking dish. Place the sprouts on top of the nut mix, close enough together so that they don’t tip over. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Serve piping hot as an accompaniment.

Yield: 6–8 servings


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Recipes provided by Cooking with the Movies: Meals on Reels authors Anthony F. Chiffolo and Rayner W. Hesse, Jr.

Holiday Recipe #3 - Candied Sweet Potatoes

Candied Sweet Potatoes with Walnuts, Cranberries, and Marshmallowettes
(From the film What's Cooking?)



Ingredients
8 med. sweet potatoes
4 Tbsp. butter
1 c. dark brown sugar
¾ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. nutmeg
½ c. white grape juice
½ c. walnuts
½ c. whole cranberries
½ c. mini marshmallows   


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Peel the potatoes and cut them into 2" disks. Place them in a large pot with enough water to cover and cook until boiling; reduce the heat, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes or so, until the potatoes are fork tender. Drain, and place in a large oven-proof casserole dish.
3. Melt the butter and brown sugar in a small saucepan, and stir in the salt, pepper, nutmeg, and grape juice. Pour the mixture over the potatoes. Arrange a walnut, a cranberry or two, and a marshmallow in and around each potato for decorative effect. Bake for 50–60 minutes. Remove from oven and serve immediately.

Yield: 10 –12 servings


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In case you missed Recipes #1 & #2, click here to learn how to make a delicious Organic Turkey and Oyster and Shiitake Mushroom Stuffing from the authors of Cooking with the Movies: Meals on Reels.

Delicious Holiday Recipes!

Thanksgiving has come and gone, but that shouldn't mean that an entire year has to go by before we can enjoy turkey, stuffing, and all the other delicious holiday fare once again. Over the next two weeks, we'll be sharing some of the amazing recipes from authors Anthony Chiffolo and Rayner (Rusty) Hesse, Jr., and their book Cooking with the Movies: Meals on Reels, so you can enjoy the tastes of Thanksgiving all holiday season.

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For this year's Thanksgiving feast, we (well, mostly Rusty) prepared a luscious organic turkey with oyster and shiitake mushroom stuffing. This is one of the turkeys shown in the film What's Cooking? and is featured in a chapter on the movie in our book Cooking with the Movies: Meals on Reels.


For those who would like to enjoy the meal vicariously—and, next year, perhaps in actuality—here are the recipes:


Organic Turkey


Ingredients
1 20–24 lb. fresh organic turkey
½ c. melted butter
½ c. dried sage
½ c. dried tarragon
¼ c. paprika
2 Tbsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. lime pepper
1 tsp. salt
mushroom stuffing (see next)
½ c. water
1 pkg. fresh spinach leaves

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.
2. Wash the turkey inside and out, making sure to remove the neck and giblets that are usually stuffed inside the cavity of the bird. Pat dry. Place in a large roasting pan on sheets of aluminum foil set perpendicular to one another so that the pan is completely covered and there is enough foil left to lift the bird from the pan when holding all sides. Stuff the turkey just before placing it in the oven as per the instructions that follow. Pour the melted butter over the top of the turkey. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a small bowl, then spoon them over the bird, making sure to cover the legs as well as the breast. Pour the water around the sides of the turkey, and bake uncovered for 4–5 hours, basting about every 20–30 minutes with its own juices. (If desired, test with a meat thermometer to ensure that it is thoroughly cooked [165°F for inner breast, 180°F for the legs] and safe to serve.)
3. Remove turkey from the oven and let it stand for 20–30 minutes before slicing. Place the turkey on a large serving tray that has been completely laid out with spinach leaves as decoration (presentation is everything!).

Yield: 15–18 servings

Mrs. Williams’s Special Oyster and Shiitake Mushroom Stuffing

Ingredients
2 c. hot water
1 oz. dried porcini mushrooms
1¾ lb. bread, crust trimmed, cubed
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter
3 leeks, chopped
1 c. shallots, chopped
1¼ lb. oyster mushrooms
½ lb. Shiitake mushrooms
2 c. celery, chopped
1 c. dry hazelnuts, chopped
2 Tbsp. fresh sage
salt and pepper to taste
2 eggs, beaten
¾ c. chicken stock

Directions

1. Combine hot water and porcini mushrooms in a bowl. Let stand until mushrooms are soft, about 30 minutes. Drain, reserving liquid. Chop porcini mushrooms. Set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 325°F. Bake cubed bread on baking sheets until brown, about 15 minutes. Cool, then transfer to a large bowl.
3. Melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add leeks, shallots, and oyster and Shiitake mushrooms. Sauté until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Mix in the celery and porcini mushrooms and sauté another 5 minutes. Transfer mixture to the bowl with the bread cubes. Mix in the hazelnuts and sage. Season with salt and pepper and stir in the eggs and chicken stock. Stuff into turkey.
4. Any stuffing that remains, spoon into a buttered baking dish, covered with buttered foil. Bake stuffing in dish alongside turkey until heated through, about 30 minutes. Uncover and bake until top is crisp, about 15 minutes.

Yield: 12 servings


The lusciousness of an organic turkey is a real treat for the taste buds. Cooking is the same as for any other turkey, but an organic bird will be a bit more costly. Still, it’s worth the extra expense.


The meal continued with some wonderful vegetable dishes: sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts, and "wilted" lettuce. Check back soon for these recipes!

Kids, Sports, and Concussion: A Guide for Coaches and Parents

Sidney Crosby, one of the most valuable players in the NHL and only 24 years of age, returned to the ice on Monday night after over spending 10 long months recovering from post-concussion symptoms after being hit in a game early in the year. The NFL started off the 2011-12 season with new regulations to protect against head injuries, limiting the amount of full-contact practice that a player can participate in. And in a close call in the 2011 Little League World Series, a teenage pitcher from Huntington Beach, California, was saved from what could have been a deadly line drive to the forehead by only the bill of his hat.


Concussions in sports have not only the potential to be career-ending, but also can have life-altering side effects. Youth sports are meant to be fun, and with the number of kids who play sports in the United States in the millions, knowing what to do in the event of a concussion and how to help prevent them is extremely vital to the safety of young athletes.


Below is an excerpt from the introduction to Kids, Sports, and Concussion: A Guide for Coaches and Parents by William Paul Meehan III, MD. Meehan is director of the Sports Concussion Clinic in the Division of Sports Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston, MA, and instructor of pediatrics and orthopedics at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.


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Introduction
We were in the heart of the rugby scrum. A 20-year-old lock playing for Boston College was struck in the head by the mighty kick of an opponent. As the ball was released, he staggered away toward the wrong end of the field before collapsing to the ground. He rose unsteadily, only to collapse again. Finally, he rose to his feet and began sprinting, in an attempt to rejoin the play. But he was running in the wrong direction, away from ball. He fell one last time, only to be helped off of the field by his teammates.


“What’s the matter with him,” hollered the coach.
“He’s all right,” came the reply. “He just got his bell rung.”
And that was how it was.
We got “shaken up” or “had our bells rung.” We simply “shook it off,” “toughed it out,” or “walked it off.” The word concussion was rarely used. When it was used, it was mostly for athletes who were knocked unconscious for longer than a few seconds. Many times, we returned to the game in which we were injured. Often, we returned while still experiencing headaches, ringing in the ears, and other symptoms.


So why all the concern nowadays? What was it that changed the way sport-related concussion is diagnosed and managed? Why is the media constantly reporting stories about concussion in young athletes?


Five main medical findings change the way we think about sport-related concussion:
1. Concussion results in measurable brain dysfunction, which lasts for several days, weeks, or even months in some athletes.
2. This brain dysfunction often persists, even after the athlete reports being symptom-free.
3. Athletes who sustain one concussion are at increased risk of sustaining more concussions in the future.
4. The effects of multiple concussions are cumulative.
5. There may be long-term effects, only revealed later in life, that result from sustaining multiple concussions earlier in an athlete’s career.


These recent medical findings have led to a relatively rapid change in the way doctors and other clinicians think about sport-related concussions and concussive brain injury in general. This rapid change in thinking has generated a lot of attention, not only in the medical literature but also in the popular media.


When many of us were growing up, a concussion was not thought to be a serious injury. Athletes often laughed and joked about it. Certainly few people believed that there were any long-term effects or brain dysfunction that could result from a concussion or even multiple concussions.

Kids, Sports, and Concussion: A Guide for Coaches and Parents

William Paul Meehan III, MD

Praeger, April 2011

These days, we know that a concussion results in a true, measurable, loss of brain function, that can persist, even after athletes feel that they are completely recovered. Furthermore, we know that sustaining multiple concussions over the course of one's career can lead to more permanent brain dysfunction, depression, and other problems. This sudden change in thinking has left many athletes, parents, coaches, and others confused. Kids, Sports, and Concussion will help clarify the medical and scientific data that has resulted in this change of thinking. In doing so, this book will answer the following questions:


• What is a concussion?
• How common is concussion?
• Can an athlete prevent a concussion?
• What is the best way to assess a concussion?
• What can be done to treat a concussion?
• When is it safe to return to playing after a concussion?
• What are the risks of suffering multiple concussions?


In addition, readers of this book will learn how they can respond to a concussed athlete, as well as what they should expect from medical personnel tending to a concussed athlete. For those readers interested in starting a comprehensive concussion management program in their area, this book contains some recommendations on how to proceed. Lastly, the book concludes with several athletes describing, in their own words, their experiences with concussions.


At the end of each chapter is a list of suggested readings for those readers who may wish to learn more about the topics covered within the chapter. Many of these readings are medical or scientific articles, often those referred to in the chapter. While these articles may use some medical and scientific jargon, I believe the overall principles can be appreciated, even without scientific or medical training.

History and the Headlines: Native American Heritage Month

Focus on Treaties for Native American Heritage Month

 During the month of November, the United States commemorates National Native American Heritage Month, which recognizes the rich culture and historical importance of the indigenous peoples who first settled this land. Many events taking place during National Native American Heritage Month, such as Minnesota's "Why Treaties Matter" traveling exhibit, honor the different tribes who have shaped this country while acknowledging the challenges that Native Americans have faced and their complex relationship with the United States.

 

Help your students test their knowledge of treaties and develop critical thinking skills with reliable reference content and primary sources that you have come to expect from ABC-CLIO. Content includes:

• An insightful introductory Need to Know essay that provides an overview of the history and significance of the treaty making process.
• A thought-provoking Examine section that tests students' knowledge of treaties and promotes critical thinking through primary source analysis.
• Over 150 reference entries, primary source documents, and images that offer students a unique opportunity to enhance their understanding of Native American treaties.  

Simply click here to get started!

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Celebrating Geography Awareness Week, November 13-19

By Reuel R. Hanks


As a professor of geography, I am sometimes asked how I became interested in the subject. For quite some time, this struck me as an odd question, since the answer seemed obvious: if one is sentient and observant of the world, one is by default interested in geography. Unlike Antoine de Saint Euxpery’s geographer in The Little Prince, real geographers are not only concerned with “eternal things,” but also with the daily patterns of all that surrounds us, and how these change across space and time. There is indeed a geographic “adventure in your community” to be had, if you simply consider the where, how and why behind the features encountered every day. To be a geographer, one needs only an awareness of “place,” a notion that represents the totality of the features that identify, characterize, and shape a location.


Such an awareness is vital, because even at a local scale it leads to a greater comprehension of a globalizing world. Those who have a weak knowledge and understanding of the world around them are destined to be at a disadvantage, both professionally and personally. Geography provides the fundament for such understanding. For the past several decades, studies have shown that American students, and the general public, lack a solid grounding in geography. When tested about their knowledge of other peoples and countries, for example, Americans typically rank near the bottom when compared to most Europeans. Some have explained this as simply the result of North America’s relative isolation, the fact that the country borders on only two other states, one of which is primarily English-speaking and shares a similar culture, and other factors, most of which, ironically enough, are geographic.

Learn more about Hanks' new book here.

Yet these excuses are no longer acceptable, or even relevant. Physical distances, in the age of modern transportation systems, have become a secondary consideration, and contact with the remainder of the world is no longer dependent on actual travel, although visiting other locations is certainly an excellent way to learn about them. In the era of the Internet and globalization, we can no longer think in terms of the world being “out there somewhere.” It is here and now, often right outside our doors, perhaps even in our homes. The things we eat and drink, the vehicles we use for transportation, even the clothing we wear all come to us from “out there.” A failure to appreciate this diminishes us both intellectually and culturally.


2011 marks the twenty-fifth year we have celebrated Geography Awareness Week in the United States. Since 1987, when the first such observance took place, almost 30 new independent states have appeared on the world map (including one just this year), a single currency has been adopted by nearly as many European countries, and Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) have made it possible for anyone to pinpoint any location on the planet. Yet in 2006, five years after U.S. forces began fighting in Afghanistan and almost twenty years after the first Geography Awareness Week, a survey of young Americans found that ninety percent could not locate that country on a map. There’s still a long way to go for educators in raising geographic awareness—let it begin with an adventure in your community.


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Reuel R. Hanks, PhD, is professor of geography at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK. He has taught courses on human and regional geography for more than 25 years. 

Interview with Darryl V. Caterine, author of "Haunted Ground"

ABC-CLIO's interview with Darryl V. Caterine, author of Haunted Ground: Journeys through a Paranormal America


Q: What prompted you to write Haunted Ground?


A: There were at least four reasons why I wanted to write a book on the paranormal in America. The first reason simply has to do with the fact that there are relatively few scholarly books on the subject. There are many good studies of specific movements, such as Spiritualism, but not so many on the "paranormal" as a whole.


I have also been studying and writing about similar phenomena in the Latin American and Latino context for years. People tend to forget that Catholicism south of the U.S. border and in the Caribbean is full of miraculous, supernatural, or paranormal activity. Interest in such phenomena has to do with the fact that Christianity in these cultures has been changed by its encounter with African and Native American beliefs and practices. There is still today a strong belief in many Latino communities in the intercession of the saints to perform miracles in everyday life. Veneration of, and even communication with, the ancestors is also prevalent in some communities, while healing practices derived from Native American and medieval Spanish societies thrive in others. So it was really just a small step to go from the study of Latino Catholicism, particularly as it is practiced outside of the institutional church, and interest in the paranormal in the U.S.


One of the reasons I became attracted to the study of religion in the first place had to do with the radically different worldviews that religious cultures preserve and celebrate. Unfortunately, in the United States context there has been a trend in the mainstream churches for the last few centuries to make religion look more "respectable" in modern eyes, which often entails ridding it of "superstitious" beliefs and practices—like a belief in the active participation of the supernatural or other-than-human in this world. So in order to get to these beliefs in a North American society like the U.S., I had to study something a little outside of the orbit of this mainstream religious universe. Interest in the paranormal seemed like an obvious choice.


Finally, I wanted to write a book that moved the whole discussion of the paranormal from the margins to the center of American religion. As I discuss in my book, the kinds of questions that the paranormal raises get right into the thick of what it means to be a modern person. The significant issue is not simply that 75 percent of Americans "believe in" the paranormal. The significant issue is that this widespread interest means that people are thinking critically about the maps of reality that mainstream religion, science, mass media and academe are giving them -- and finding that none of these "maps" are completely accurate or meaningful.


Q: You chose 3 "groups" to study: Ufologists, spiritualists, and dowsers—what points of commonality did you discover? How are they "religious"?


A: The big commonality between Ufologists, Spiritualists, and dowsers was a fascination they shared with the nature of Nature. At first this might sound a little abstract, so let's make another, quick comparison with the Latino Catholic example. In Latino cultures, when something out of the ordinary happens—let's say, a highly improbable recovery from a terminal illness—people find a place for it in a supernatural or other-worldly understanding of the world. It was the intercession of the Virgin of Guadalupe, or the grace of an African orisha, or the activity of a saint. But in the communities that I studied, the supernatural is usually not the place where people put extraordinary experience. Instead, they assume it has something to do with the nature of "Nature"—shorthand for the physical cosmos that scientists study, and also shorthand for the imagined universe in which modern people dwell. Extraordinary experiences happen to turn our commonsense notions of Nature upside down. Most scientists won't go near them, so we're left with explanations of the physical world that either deny or downplay these events. Mainstream religions do not make them a focal point of theological speculation so there's very little help there. And in our cultural mythology, we tend to forget that our love affair with Nature covers over the fact that the nation wouldn't be here if our ancestors hadn't destroyed or displaced millions of Native American peoples. The nature of Nature in the American paranormal universe is both topsy-turvy relative to scientific and religious models, and also deeply haunted by the perennial Native American ghosts.


Now these movements can be thought of as being religious in at least two important ways. First, one way of thinking about religion is as a way of relating to, and partially explaining, those people, places, and events that instill awe in us. Rudolf Otto spoke of religion as a response to the seductive and terrifying mystery. Certainly the phenomena of the paranormal fall into this category. Ghosts, UFOs, and psychic phenomena (which is one way of thinking about how dowsing works) either frighten or fascinate us, or maybe do a little of both. The many ways that Americans have thought about these phenomena are responses to mystery, and are therefore "religious" in this first sense of the term.


The other way that these movements are religious lies in the kinds of questions they ask about reality. Some scholars define "religion" as an exploration of what is ultimately meaningful or real— whether or not it includes the supernatural. Our culture's interest in the paranormal are certainly religious in this second sense of the term. Spiritualists want to know if there is some way of empirically knowing if consciousness survives the experience of death. Ufologists want to know if we are alone in the universe—or if this is the only universe that exists. Dowsers want to know if we are connected with each other and with the earth in ways that neither modern religion nor science have yet articulated. These are questions about ultimate matters; their answers shed light on our purpose here on earth, and what priorities our society should be setting for itself. These are just a few of the religious types of questions that interest in the paranormal raises.

Q: What was the highlight of your research?


A: I would have to say that the highlight of my research was the permission I felt in the various gatherings to ask questions outside of the conventional academic boxes. There was a way in which the research unleashed my creativity, not only to ask questions about religion and spirituality, but to think of my place in the world as a modern American. And as I write about in my book, these places are designed to inspire just this kind of experience. They are truly carnivals in the classic sense of the term: not merely places of entertainment or distraction, but places that encourage visitors to turn their commonplace notions of reality upside-down and inside-out. In this sense, paranormal gatherings are to the modern American nation what medieval European carnivals were to the Roman Catholic Church. Scholars in my field talk quite a bit about "liminality" or "anti-structural" places. If you really want to have a liminal experience, spend some time immersed in Lily Dale, or the Roswell UFO Festival, or the dowsing convention.


Q: In the course of your research, what discovery surprised you the most?


A: My major breakthrough, which did come as a surprised and freed me up to write the book, was that people who spend their lives immersed in the paranormal are very closely related to professional academics. In other words, my surprise was that they and I were basically doing the same thing: trying to figure out where we are, and what we are, as modern people—and then spinning out different kinds of narratives to make sense out of potential chaos.


Q: How did your research change your outlook on religion or spirituality?


A: Taking seriously some of the paranormal data, as well as the kinds of questions they raise, gave me an appreciation of how antiquated our religious maps of the world are. I don't intend this remark to be hostile; in fact, I am nostalgic for the days when religion perhaps could address all of our most burning questions of meaning. But we seem to be living in an era—and here I mean a long span of time that began hundreds of years ago—where we have to be content to live with a relatively high degree of cosmological incoherence. At one point in my book I refer to "spiritual homelessness." It would be nice to say that everything in heaven and on earth has a place in our philosophy or religion, but that does not seem to be the case, especially when you start looking into how much we do not know.


Q: What's next for you?


A: My next academic book will continue some of the issues raised in Haunted Ground, but in a more theoretical key. I'd like to trace the eclipse of the "supernatural" in modern western religion and the rise of the "paranormal" that came, for many people, to replace it. This story begins, I believe, with the cultural debate over the exorcisms of the German Catholic priest Johann Joseph Gassner, and the healing practices of Franz Anton Mesmer. They were both doing very similar types of work, but Mesmer "naturalized the supernatural," carving out an in-between space between science and religion. This odd quasi-scientific and quasi-religious way of looking at the world is the paranormal. As I hope I've shown in this last book, the ghost of Mesmer is still alive and well and haunting us today.


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Check out this MSNBC piece on our fascination with the paranormal, featuring Darryl Caterine.