A Milltown Memoir

By Katherine Guckenberger 0 Comments Dec 1, 1999

Five Thousand Days Like This One: An American Family History By Jane Brox Beacon Press, Boston, 1999, 174 pages. One hundred years ago, Lawrence, Massachusetts, was known as the worsted and woolen capital of the world. Home to tens of thousands of immigrants who came to seek their fortunes in the textile mills that lined(...)

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Make Way for Motherhood

By Katherine Whittemore 0 Comments Dec 1, 1999

I write this nearing my 36th week of pregnancy, when words like “sleep” or “concentration” or “breathing” can only be uttered with derisive little quotation marks around them. Forgive me, therefore, if the following thoughts seem a little scattered. Blame CommonWealth‘s editors. They’ve asked me to, um, weigh in about what it’s like being an(...)

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West Springfield and Southampton

By Dave Denison 0 Comments Dec 1, 1999

WEST SPRINGFIELD — Every town has one — the captious critic who angrily insists that local government is being run by a band of incompetents. Most often the gadfly is ignored and the public shows scant desire to march on town hall and throw the scoundrels out. The wheels of government grind on as they(...)

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Sissela Bok on Violence Entertainment and the Nations Youth

By Dave Denison 1 Comment Dec 1, 1999

Is the American entertainment industry allergic to ethical reflection about its use of violent images? If so, what might the effects be on the nation’s youth? Such questions have become more pressing in recent decades, as television, movies, and video games have become more prevalent–and more violent. A number of school shootings captured the nation’s(...)

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Counterpoints

By Michael Widmer 0 Comments Dec 1, 1999

Ed Moscovitch’s proposal for a statewide property tax to fund the costs of a basic education in each community in the Commonwealth has two important policy objectives: to sustain the state’s striking success in bringing underfunded schools up to a more adequate level of spending, and to bring about greater tax equity in the financing(...)

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Argument

By Ed Moscovitch 0 Comments Dec 1, 1999

There’s a debate brewing over whether to change the state’s school funding formula. Common wisdom (as reported in The Boston Globe) is that the aid formulas in the 1993 Education Reform Act expire in the current fiscal year and that the Legislature will have to decide what to do next. The common wisdom is wrong.(...)

Education

Special Education

By Robert Keough 0 Comments Dec 1, 1999

Massachusetts is no longer in a class by itself when it comes to special education. According to figures from the federal government, Massachusetts for the first time does not lead the 50 states in special-ed enrollment. Rhode Island has taken over that distinction, with the Bay State runner-up and three other states close behind. This(...)

Politics

Governors Proclamations

By Robert Keough 0 Comments Dec 1, 1999

Nurses Hall in the State House is all decked out, chairs lined up before a podium, people milling around eyeing the spread of fruit, baked goods, and soft drinks for the reception to come. The cameras are rolling as Gov. A. Paul Cellucci descends the stairs, scribbles his signature, then hands out pens as souvenirs.(...)

Politics

Governors Digs

By Carol Gerwin 0 Comments Dec 1, 1999

The question usually comes up when some out-of-towner discovers that Gov. Paul Cellucci drives home to his three-bedroom house in Hudson every night. In one recent instance, a Hollywood film producer was chatting with the governor about the movie biz and Cellucci mentioned that he sees at least one film a week, sometimes two on(...)

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A Prescription for Literacy

By Carol Gerwin 0 Comments Dec 1, 1999

Each year standardized tests reveal that thousands of Massachusetts schoolchildren can’t read at basic levels and each year educators are pressed for solutions. But a Boston-based, national literacy program suggests the best place to look for solutions may not be in the classroom but in the doctor’s office. Reach Out and Read, created 10 years(...)

Fall 1999