In a reporting tour de force that made national headlines and The New York Times bestseller list, award-winning journalist Steven Brill takes an uncompromising look at the adults who are fighting over America’s failure to educate its children—and points the way to reversing that failure. In a reporting tour de force, award-winning journalist Steven Brill takes an uncompromising look at the adults who are fighting over America’s failure to educate its children—and points the way to reversing that failure. Brill not only takes us inside their roller-coaster battles, he also concludes with a surprising prescription for what it will take from both sides to put the American dream back in America’s schools.

Provocative essays from one of America's most important cultural critics Think Again gathers one hundred of the best of Stanley Fish's provocative New York Times essays, pieces that have generated passionate discussion and debate. Addressing controversies about such hot-button topics as atheism, affirmative action, free speech, identity politics, guns, and postmodernism, Fish dissects the arguments put forth by different sides in order to explain how their arguments work or don't work. Brief and accessible yet challenging, these essays teach you not what to think but how to think more clearly, and provide all the powerful intellectual, cultural, and political analysis one expects from Fish, one of America's most influential thinkers.

High school elections may be popularity contests, but this guide to becoming a successful high school politician reveals that with the right strategy anyone can win. Collected from more than 1,000 students recently involved in winning campaigns, advice is presented for a wide range of campaign tactics from techniques for running against even the most popular and qualified opponents to the most effective means of publicizing a candidacy. Selections from successful high school speeches, posters, and handouts are provided, along with a large list of sample campaign slogans, and are accompanied by anecdotes from a nationwide group of students about the smarts, drive, and guile necessary to win a student government position. Battle-tested techniques for both overcoming and utilizing a major campaign obstacle adolescent political apathy are also included.

"Conversations about higher education teem with accusations that American colleges and universities are betraying free speech, indoctrinating students with left-wing dogma, and censoring civil discussions. But these complaints are badly misguided. In Terms of Respect, constitutional scholar and Princeton University president Christopher L. Eisgruber argues that colleges and universities are largely getting free speech right. Today's students engage in vigorous discussions on sensitive topics and embrace both the opportunity to learn and the right to protest. Like past generations, they value free speech, but, like all of us, they sometimes misunderstand what it requires. Ultimately, the polarization and turmoil visible on many campuses reflect an American civic crisis that affects universities along with the rest of society. But colleges, Eisgruber argues, can help to promote civil discussion in this raucous, angry world-and they can show us how to embrace free speech without sacrificing ideals of equality, diversity, and respect. Urgent and original, Terms of Respect is an ardent defense of our universities, and a hopeful vision for navigating the challenges that free speech provokes for us all"-- Provided by publisher.

This book presents, for the first time in one place, the results of the latest research regarding water balance covers for solid waste sites, along with case studies drawn from current field testing. Water Balance Covers for Waste Containment: Principles and Practice introduces water balance covers and compares them with conventional approaches to waste containment. The authors give detailed analysis of the fundamentals of soil physics and design issues, introduce applicable ecological concepts and revegetation practices, and then move on to construction, modeling, and maintenance. A viable alternative to conventional landfill cover systems, water balance covers (also known as store-and-release and evapotranspiration covers) cycle water from the soil to the atmosphere during growing season, minimizing the percolation of rainwater through the soil, and thus the production of leachate from land fill contents. This book will be valuable to practicing engineers, as well as regulatory analysts. --Book Jacket.