I think kids’ views on education have changed. Children don’t respect what they’re learning. They don’t want to learn and don’t spend time on their work. I think one of those reasons is drugs. Most kids like to be in the “in-group.” They like to consider themselves “cool.” They spend more time with taking drugs than with their homework. Pretty soon, they drop school altogether.
I think the most important way in which America has changed since I was born is the violence and drug use in America. When I was born teenagers were using drugs and maybe people in their twenties or thirties, but nowadays it’s not just teenagers and adults. It’s kids too!
The end of the Cold War not only put the United States and U.S.S.R. at peace but also contributed to the dismantling of nuclear arms, the breakup of the U.S.S.R., and the end of communism in Russia. The end of the Cold War was, in my opinion, definitely one of the most important changes in U.S. history since 1982.
I have seen recordings of MTV from ten years ago (when it first started out) and none of them have lyrics that imply that drugs, sex, and killing are cool, as many popular songs do today. Our music has really contributed in changing young America into what it has become.
I was very interested in the article on the changes that have occurred in America since 1954 and showed it to my American-history class. Most of my students are twelve years of age, and I asked them to give their perspective concerning the changes they have witnessed during their lives. Here are some of their responses.
by Greg Breitling, Falcon Press, 126 pages .
Bald eagles numbered more than a half-million when European settlers first arrived in America; subsequently our shameful persecution of the birds rendered them nearly extinct. This handsome book celebrates their recent comeback, the result of persistent work by professional conservationists and devoted volunteers alike. The book’s main photographer, Frank Oberle, is one of the latter: He not only has photographed the birds for nearly twenty years but recently donated a twenty-acre bald eagle roosting and feeding site on the banks of the Mississippi. Today there are tens of thousands of bald eagles in the United States and Canada, and they are no longer classified as endangered. In case you want to take a firsthand look, the book contains a valuable directory of the best viewing spots in every state but Hawaii, with directions, local contacts, and brief descriptions. The volume’s striking color photographs suggest why the birds have had such a hold on the national imagination.
Boston Garden, the last of the pre-Depression sports boxes and the oldest working arena in the country, is slated to come down soon after its replacement, the Shawmut Center, opens next fall. The plain but resilient building was built in 1928 by the promoter Tex Rickard after he took over the Garden in New York; its full name, Boston Madison Square Garden, understandably never went over with local fans. Boston Garden went on to host Prohibition meetings, FDR’s 1937 birthday fete, John Kennedy’s presidential-election-eve rally, and Bruins and Celtics games beyond number.
The building, which seats about fourteen thousand, is uncomfortable by early summer, but its lack of air conditioning has become a homecourt advantage, wearing down visiting clubs from air-cooled coliseums. And hockey has not been spared from the heat: One recent spring a Stanley Cup game was called when the ice began to melt.
by Richard Striner, Abbeville Press, 96 pages . by James Massey and Shirley Maxwell, Abbeville Press, 96 pages . Abbeville Press has come up with a pair of diminutive books (6¼ by 4¾ inches) that successfully encapsulate the architecture, music, film, and literature of the Art Deco and Gothic Revival movements both here and abroad. For any traveler wanting a concise and entertaining reference, these books chart each era’s milestones with easy-to-follow time lines. Sprightly texts allied with beautifully selected and reproduced photographs create a montage that will equip the reader to recognize the best of these genres.