You Can't Scare Me (With Your Horror Stories)

You Can't Scare Me (With Your Horror Stories)

Halloween is my favorite holiday. A lot of people take vacation around Christmas time, but with me, it's the last week in October. It’s not just the candy I love—you can eat zillions of mini Mr. Goodbars and not feel guilty—but the whole package: horror movies, costume parties, I love it all.

For the last six years I dressed up for Halloween parties. Among other things, I was “Teen Angel,” a Mardi Gras reveler, and a zombie Red Sox fan.

Years ago, I had such an unfortunate experience that I swore I’d never dress up again. My friends and I were at a party, surrounded by gorgeous guys. Hardly anybody was in costume. So my one friend took off her pirate hat and my other friend, her Carmen Miranda headdress. I wasn’t as lucky. There I was, dressed as . . . Carrie!

Yes, Carrie. Horror writer Stephen King’s doomed heroine! In a makeshift pink chiffon prom gown, a dotted Swiss stole made from my late mom’s curtains, and a plastic tiara, I was covered with what looked like pig’s blood! “You sure got guts,” one guy told me, “To be here, wearing that.”

Like the real Carrie, I left in a rage. I remember staring down cars, like the telekinetic teen. None flipped over and exploded, but then I don’t have supernatural powers. My only powers are as a writer.

Stephen King is a phenomenal writer. His The Shining scared me the most of any novel. But I prefer short stories (or novellas). And this Halloween I’m going to share with you three classic horror stories that scared even me.

“The Cone” (1895), by H. G. Wells, has no supernatural elements, but is a chilling revenge story. Mad with jealousy, ironmaster Horrocks is proud to show off the workings of his factory to his friend (and rival), Raut. Horrocks’s wife fears the worst, but can do nothing to help. Wells writes, “His [Horrocks’s] eyes went from the woman he trusted to the friend he had trusted, and then back to the woman.”

On his tour of the ironworks, Raut grows increasingly suspicious of Horrocks. How “lovingly” Horrocks speaks of his “pet”—a seventy-foot furnace—unnerves Raut, who is literally being dragged down the path to the site. Raut is nearly killed by a train, but Horrocks pulls him out of the way, just in time. “Suppose,” Wells writes, “this slouching, scowling monster did know anything?” Raut nearly convinces himself this is a fluke.

When they reach the giant blast furnace, Horrocks’s words, “Blood-vapour as red and hot as sin” should warn Raut that he’s doomed . “But . . . where it drives across the clinker-heaps, it is as white as death” should clinch it. But Raut is relaxed, as Horrocks takes him to the rolling-mills, and the cone . . .

There, the story becomes the Hostel/Saw of the 1890s. “‘In the middle,’ ” bawled Horrocks, “ ‘temperature near a thousand degrees. If YOU were dropped into it . . .’ ”

Don’t let me spoil it for you.

If you ask me, dolls are the scariest things ever. Whether they’re soft baby dolls crying, “Ma-ma!” or those creepy antique jobs with teeth, they make me jump.

The spookiest doll in literature appears in Algernon Blackwood’s The Doll (1946). In this novella, Colonel Masters is a retired army officer. While in India, he had a dissident executed, and Pandit, the dissident’s brother, swore revenge. It comes in the form of a doll—a ragged, creepy one with raccoon-like eyes. Monica, Masters’s neglected ward, believes the doll is for her, but the Colonel knows better . . .

Monica is instantly attached to the doll, which she claims talks to her. Masters tries to sneak the hated thing away from Monica by giving her a new, beautiful doll. But the creepy doll tears it to pieces!

When Masters tries to “kill” the creepy doll, it bites him . . . and he knows time is running out. It’s time to exact his revenge . . .

I won’t tell you how. The Doll is too much fun to have me ruin it for you. Either read it, yourself, or watch the 1971 Night Gallery episode based on the novella that still haunts me today.

H.P. Lovecraft was considered one of the best supernatural horror writers. Many of his stories deal with people who get a little too intrigued by the Black Arts and get sucked into destruction.

In Lovecraft’s “The Thing on the Doorstep” (1937), timid Edward meets domineering Asenath, daughter of evil wizard Ephraim Waite. Waite gets his daughter involved in telepathic mesmerism, specifically, from body-to-body. Edward marries Asenath, not realizing who she really is, till it’s too late. . . .

Then Asenath becomes Edward, and vice versa, till one day, Edward is committed to an asylum. Asenath leaves town.

Or does she?

Late one night, Edward’s best friend Dan has a visitor. . . .

When I opened the door into the elm-arched blackness a gust of insufferably foetid wind almost flung me prostrate. I choked in nausea, and for a second scarcely saw the dwarfed, humped figure on the steps. The summons had been Edward’s, but who was this foul, stunted parody?

I wonder.

Like people wonder about me, every Halloween . . .

Whether I’m dressed up, or not.

Hispanic Influence on Pop Culture

Hispanic Influence on Pop Culture

Here is a fun and interesting video that can be used to engage students in discussions about the Hispanic influence in the United States. I hope you like it!

Hot Off the Press: Vocabulary Explorations!

Hot Off the Press: Vocabulary Explorations!

WHO Calling all middle-school and ELL teachers!

WHAT An exciting new Amsco series to help your students build their vocabularies.

WHEN Out now!

WHERE Follow this link for more info about each book. Go to our home page and click “depositories” for ordering information.

WHY As the research shows, rote vocabulary memorization doesn’t work. Memorizing words doesn’t teach students how to use the words correctly. Students need to explore word meanings and encounter words in contexts that are meaningful to them. That’s why Vocabulary Explorations presents words in contexts relevant to students’ lives and teaches students to think critically about word meanings and usage.

HOW This engaging, research-based series contains chapter objectives and mini-lessons that focus instruction. Mini-lessons cover standards-based topics such as Greek and Latin word parts, words from mythology and foreign languages, new words added to English, learning words from context, literal and figurative uses of words, connotation and denotation, and more! Mini-lessons are followed by vocabulary lists (33 lists per book) and high-interest activities involving speaking, writing, and listening. Review exercises and extension activities provide reinforcement. The series also features Word Master Mike, our lovable cartoon guy who uses the vocabulary words to tell students about his life (in school, with his crush, and more).

Check it out!

Lauren

What Is a Chemist’s Favorite Holiday?

What Is a Chemist’s Favorite Holiday?

I bet you didn’t know that chemists even had a holiday. Well, a chemist’s favorite holiday is Mole Day! When, you may ask, is Mole Day? Today is Mole Day. It is celebrated annually during National Chemistry Week from 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m. on October 23. Your next question might be: Why are chemists interested in the fuzzy animals called moles? Well, except for those chemists who have a problem with moles in their lawns, most of us don’t give a hoot about moles. However, we do care about the chemical quantity the mole.

A mole is a unit similar to a dozen, which means 12 of anything. A mole is Avogadro’s number of anything. Mole Day commemorates Avogadro's number (6.02 × 10²³), which is a basic measuring unit in chemistry. Mole Day was created as a way to foster interest in chemistry. Teachers can find Mole Day cards and mole-related jokes and definitions that can be used to liven up their lessons.

My sons and I celebrate Mole Day every year. Ed has gotten me Mole Day cakes and cupcakes. When he asks the person in the bakery to write Happy Mole Day on the cake or cupcakes, he usually gets a quizzical look. However, last year the young woman at the Butter Cooky Bakery knew just what he was talking about. She remembered it from when she took chemistry.

Click on the link to listen to the Mole Day song and have a Happy Mole Day!

Amelia, the Movie

Amelia, the Movie

Most American history books at least mention Amelia Earhart and maybe include a photograph of this pioneering American aviator. Students and teachers might be inspired to learn more about her by viewing the new film Amelia, scheduled to open tomorrow, October 23. I had the opportunity to see the movie last night and hear the producer Lydia Dean Pitcher talk about it.


What Did Amelia Earhart Accomplish? Before going on about the movie, let’s summarize why students might study Amelia Earhart’s life. She:

• Was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic (as a passenger), in 1928.


• Was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, in 1932.


• Was the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California, in 1935.


• Attempted to be the first person to fly around the world at the equator (the longest route), in 1937. In the end, she disappeared near Howland Island, in the Pacific.


• Encouraged other women to be aviators while an editor at Cosmopolitan magazine, as one of the founders of a group of women aviators, the Ninety-Nines, and as a teacher at Purdue University.


• Helped in the development of aviation. One way she did that was to encourage women to be passengers on the first shuttle between New York and Washington. The reasoning was that if women were shown to be unafraid to fly, then men (their husbands, fathers, sons) would be more likely to take an airplane flight.


• Was perhaps the best-known woman in the United States in the 1930s.


• Was the first celebrity spokesperson in the country. She relentlessly pitched this and that product for advertisements in magazines and newspapers and even had her own line of clothing.

A Third Academy Award? Hilary Swank does a convincing job of portraying Amelia Earhart. First, she had her hair died blond and cut like Amelia’s. Second, her costumes were made to look just like what Amelia wore. And every day of filming, Hilary had to undergo an hour of makeup so that she would have the appropriate freckles. Only her voice is not authentic: Amelia’s was more like that of Katherine Hepburn.

We already know that Hilary Swank is a good actress, and she does a good job in this film. She has twice won an Academy Award for best actress. Will she make history by becoming the first actress to make it three times? We won’t know until next spring, but I am sure she will be nominated for that award.

In the meantime, you might want to read more about Ms. Earhart. The film was based on two biographies: East to the Dawn, by Susan Butler, and Amelia Earhart: The Sounds of Wings, by Mary S. Lovell. I am not familiar with either of these works, so you are on your own with them. But the marketplace has many books about Earhart. There will even be a book coming out based on the movie.

Footnote. One of the characters in the movie is the author Gore Vidal as a young boy. He and Amelia got along well, which was good because Amelia was involved in a business and personal relationship with his father.

Tweeting from the NCTM Regional Conference in Boston

Tweeting from the NCTM Regional Conference in Boston

Amsco mathematics editor Uri Avalos is attending the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Regional Conference in Boston today and tomorrow. To experience the highlights of the conference, follow his tweets at http://twitter.com/amscomath.

To experience Amsco's mathematics textbooks and review books, visit us at booth 232!

Antiquity Corner: Night of the Walking Dead

Antiquity Corner: Night of the Walking Dead

PJ’s restaurant, on Greenwich Street in lower Manhattan, has been decorated for Halloween. Ordinarily a warm, cozy little place that offers excellent food and service, PJ’s has enhanced its vibrant colors and subdued lighting with artfully placed skeletons, cobwebs, thick cotton “mist,” and all the usual trappings of the familiar celebration of October 31. But why celebrate this day in the first place? And why try to make it spooky and scary? What about all those little kids ringing your doorbell and yelling “Trick or treat”? How did that get started?

In medieval Europe, November 1 was celebrated as All Saints’ Day. It was the next day on which was celebrated the annual return of the dead. On the Eve of All Souls (Hallows’ Een), candles were lit and placed on the graves of family members, and in the windows of homes. For the dead returned to visit their homes that night and they needed lights to show them the way. It was also customary to prepare a frugal meal for the dead. In The Golden Bough by James George Frazer, the 19th-century anthropologist tells us that some rural Europeans believed that on Hallows’ Een the dead arose from their graves and walked in a procession through every street of every village. First come the souls of the good, then the souls of the murdered, and finally the souls of the damned. There were those who believed you could see the ghostly procession if you stood at a crossroads with your chin resting on a forked stick. You should not linger too long, however. Some who did were known to have died of fright!

Sound scary enough? Actually, the origins of Halloween go back much further than does European Christianity. It was a centuries-old pagan celebration that the Roman Catholic Church was unable to suppress. And so the Church did what it did with many pagan festivals, it co-opted Halloween. But why that particular night? Among the Celts who populated so much of western ancient Europe, November 1was the day on which winter began. (The Celts believed that summer began on May 1, the day they called Beltane.) The Celtic calendar provided for many festivals, but only two changes of season. As these changes determined the most vital life activities, the Celts believed them to be times of great magical and ritual significance. Samhain (pronounced Sowen) was not only the time when the strength of the sun began to weaken, the days grow shorter and the nights longer, and the warmth replaced by cold and wet. It was a time when the forces of magic were at a peak. On the night of Samhain, all manner of supernatural creatures flew though the air and stalked the forests and bogs. In recognition of this, great fires were lit, especially on hilltops. Has not fire always been used to hold back the dark and all that lurked within it? And on this night, the shivering ghosts of the dead walked, seeking the warmth of their former hearths and a gift of food and drink before they fled the dawn and returned to their graves. It was for the dead that small fires remained burning in the hearth of each home. In Ireland, it was believed that on the night of Samhain, the barriers between the natural world and the supernatural world were lowered. Anyone keen sighted enough, and brave enough, could look into the hollow hills where the faery folk fiddled and danced, and gain knowledge of many things, secret things hidden from mortal humans on all other nights. Such people came away wiser and were recognized by others as having the “sight.”

Frazer tells us that the festival of All Souls spread from the Celts to other European peoples, who had similar beliefs and practices, but celebrated them on different days. In 998 A.D., Odilo, abbot of the great Benedictine monastery of Cluny, in France, ordered that all the monasteries over which he ruled should hold solemn masses on November 2 for all the dead who sleep in Christ. By the end of the tenth century, the Celtic remembrance of the dead was incorporated into Catholic ritual. However, the Catholic feast of All Saints is celebrated on November 1, the day of the Celtic Samhain. Some scholars believe that All Saints originated as an attempt of the medieval Church to make people forget the rituals of Samhain by turning them from celebration of the dead to celebration of the saints. Failing in this effort, the mass for the dead, All Souls, was scheduled for the next day.


What may be inferred is that the rituals associated with the Celtic Samhain have never been completely forgotten. They are rooted in the subconscious of modern people, especially in the Western Hemisphere. Today, however, Halloween is less a time of dread and more a time of fun, especially for children. Remember that when a tyke dressed in a scary costume comes to your door and demands “Trick or treat!”

All About Ardi: Old Fossils, New Theories

All About Ardi: Old Fossils, New Theories

In Chapter 4 of the Revised Edition of Amsco’s The Living Environment: Biology (by Rick Hallman, © 2005), the author wrote that

the oldest hominid fossils found so far, Ardipithecus ramidus, have been dated at 5.8 million years old. The fossils of these individuals, who lived in Ethiopia, show that the skull was balanced at the top of the skeleton for walking erect. Meanwhile, other animal fossils found nearby indicate that A. ramidus definitely lived in the forest. If careful studies of the A. ramidus bones show that it really did walk upright, the savanna hypothesis will be disproved.

Well, it seems that we were on the right track. After more than 15 years of extensive scientific analysis of ancient hominid and other animal bones, fossil pollen, geological features, and radioactive dating, the scientists involved in the Ardipithecus research have presented evidence that may indeed overturn the “savannah hypothesis.” Just this month, the journal Science devoted its entire issue to articles about Ardipithecus, and not just any old collection of hominid bones. One very special Ardipithecus individual, nicknamed Ardi, is at the center of all the attention, and for several good reasons.


The Ardi specimen that is causing such a stir is important because she is 4.4 million years old―more than a million years older than the famous hominid fossil Lucy―and, like Lucy (also found in Ethiopia), she is a nearly complete skeleton. Hundreds of fossil bone fragments have been found from other Ardipithecus individuals, some much older than Ardi. But Ardi is the oldest most complete fossil hominid that has been found; she is represented by skull and teeth bones as well as hand and arm, foot and leg, and pelvic bones, thus giving a more complete picture of how she looked and moved. At about four feet tall, Ardi had a brain capacity not much different from that of a modern-day chimp; but she was already a bipedal animal. The analyses of fossilized pollen, as well as of other animal fossils, show that Ardi did in fact live in a wooded environment. This means that bipedalism arose while early hominids were still living in the forests; that is, our ancestors did not evolve bipedalism as an adaptive response to a more open savannah environment (like the one shown above).

Part of what makes Ardi so special is that the structure of her feet is not what the scientists would have predicted for such an early hominid, especially one that was already bipedal. Although the pelvis shows that she was already capable of walking upright as her main form of locomotion, her feet show that she could still grasp and climb in trees when needed, because there was a large gap between her big toe and the other toes. In addition, although this hominid is closer in time to the point at which the ancient hominids and chimps separated lineages, there is no evidence for the type of knuckle-walking that is seen today among the great apes. Other features of Ardi are less like those of modern chimps than was expected, too, such as her smaller upper canine teeth and a less protruded lower face. According to the prominent Harvard paleoanthropologist David Pilbeam, Ardi is “one of the most important discoveries for the study of human evolution.” And we will be sure to update the information about her in our next edition of The Living Environment: Biology.

Another Columbus Day, and More and More Confusion

Another Columbus Day, and More and More Confusion

Another Columbus Day passed by this week, leaving me (and many others) still wondering what to make of the day. The holiday, of course, marks the date that Christopher Columbus discovered North America. However, the validity of a celebration of that anniversary is problematic for some. It was first questioned in the late 19th century as Nativists saw it as a way for Catholics to take over the country (Knights of Columbus anyone?). Columbus Day came under still greater speculation during the politically correct heyday of the late 1990s.

Columbus Day did not become a national holiday until 1907 in the United States, but we Americans have been celebrating it for centuries. It’s also a national holiday in Spain, but in Venezuela the holiday is now considered a day of resistance by native people against the European invaders. Coincidentally, Venezuelans actually toppled a statue of Columbus almost on the same day as Iraqis toppled a statue of Saddam Hussein, on October 12, 2004.

Even more confusing than the controversy over Columbus Day is that we still celebrate the day on the second Monday of October, as the original day of Columbus’s arrival was on October 12, 1492. However, that was on the Julian calendar. In modern times we follow the Gregorian calendar, which sets the date at October 21, 1492.

If this all has you a little confused, don’t even think about the fact that Canada celebrates Thanksgiving on this day. Let’s all just agree to disagree on the importance of Columbus Day, and move on to Christmas . . . I mean the holiday season!

National Gallery of Writing a Valuable Historical Record

National Gallery of Writing a Valuable Historical Record

Next week, on October 20, teachers and students will celebrate the National Day on Writing. The observation of this date was adopted on October 8, when the U.S. Senate passed a resolution that declared October 20 the National Day on Writing.

Of particular interest is the National Council of Teachers of English’s participation in the celebrations. Next Tuesday will be the opening of the National Gallery of Writing, a Web site devoted to samples of writing from across the nation. Submissions can be given in any format and they can address any topic. NCTE has issued this broad call for works: “The National Gallery of Writing is a virtual space—a website—where people who perhaps have never thought of themselves as writers—mothers, bus drivers, fathers, veterans, nurses, firefighters, sanitation workers, stockbrokers—select and post one thing they have written that is important to them. The Gallery accommodates any composition format—from word processing to photography, audio recording to text messages—and all types of writing—from letters to lists, memoirs to memos.”

A quick look at the National Gallery of Writing site reveals that the writing will be divided into smaller galleries with labels that range from locale to common interest to age to theme. The entire gallery is searchable, and smaller galleries can also be browsed individually.

This effort by NCTE makes me think of a similar project, Story Corps, which is a project headed up by National Public Radio and the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Like the National Gallery of Writing, Story Corps seeks to record and preserve the sentiments of Americans from all walks of life. Through various points of access (recording booths, nationwide tours, the Internet), people record their stories, told in their own voices, and then those stories become available to others through radio, Web sites, podcasts, and the like.

Aside from the obvious benefits both these projects hold for teachers and students is the value of simply collecting and documenting everyday American life. Whether through the letters of Benjamin Franklin or the extensive anthropological notes of Zora Neale Hurston, the lives and habits of Americans, and indeed of the peoples of every other country, have a rich history that deserves remembrance. I encourage every reader of this blog to publicize the National Gallery of Writing (and Story Corps) to other educators and everyday Americans. Explore the gallery not just as an instructional tool, but as a means to open up your perspective on what constitutes writing in twenty-first century America and as a means to add your own voice to the record that will survive you.

An Inexpensive ACT Calculator & a Potpourri of Links

An Inexpensive ACT Calculator & a Potpourri of Links

For the revision to our ACT book, Preparing for the ACT: Mathematics and Science Reasoning, we purchased a cheap scientific calculator from Casio, the fx-115 ES, and I was amazed at the power of this pocket calculator. The calculator sells for about $20 (or less depending on where you purchase it), and can:

• work with percents, fractions, and mixed numbers


• simplify radical expressions


• express answers in terms of pi


• do operations with complex numbers


• find permutations and combinations


• perform one-variable statistics (including frequency tables)


• solve one variable equations


• do operations with matrices


• calculate integrals


• do all the usual things that a scientific calculator can do (like radicals, powers, trig functions, etc.)

To top it off, the darn thing runs on solar power! The geek in me can’t help but say, “Wow!” It’s proof that technology can be cheap and powerful (I’m talking to you, Apple.) I called the ACT twice just to confirm that this calculator is allowed on the test.

ACT Tip: If you are planning on taking the ACT test and can’t afford (or don’t want to bother with) a graphing calculator, you can’t go wrong with the fx-115 ES. You are not going to find a TI model with similar capabilities for the same price.

Note/Warning: The ACT is a timed test – you have an average of 1 minute per question. This means two things: (1) Buying a calculator that you are not accustomed to using right before the test is a big mistake. (2) While using an advanced calculator can be helpful in the classroom, you probably won’t have time to use the advanced features on the ACT test. The Casio fx-115 ES’s features that will be useful on the ACT are fractions, mixed numbers, simplifying radical expressions, expressing answers in terms of pi, and operations with complex numbers.

To conclude today’s post, here is the promised potpourri of links:

• Engineers beat math PH.D’s in math contest. The contest: The Netflix Prize. Make Netflix’s movie recommendation system more accurate by 10%. The math: statistics.


• We’re all probably going to speak Chinese one day. A group of computer science students from China created one of the most awesome pieces of software I’ve seen in a long time: PhotoSketch (see the video below). It takes a hand-drawn sketch tagged with the name of the object and turns it into a real-world photo. It works in one of those “Why didn’t I think of that?” ways – the software does a web search based on the tags and chooses pictures that match the sketch. The best matches are then combined together and the user chooses the best looking image. The results are pretty amazing – check out the video below.


• The Making of a Mathlete. PBS is going to air a documentary about the International Math Olympiad. Need I say more? No, really, it actually looks pretty exciting.
  
  

PhotoSketch: Internet Image Montage from tao chen on Vimeo.

Name That World Leader Contest

Name That World Leader Contest

The brand new eighth edition of The World Today is now available! The first blog reader to identify correctly the six world leaders who appear on the cover will receive a complimentary copy of the book. To compete, send your answer to amscoextra@gmail.com. The winner will be notified via e-mail.


We Have a Winner!

The prize goes to Sharon of Watervliet, New York, a homeschooling parent with a love of history, who teaches junior high and high school students at her local homeschool Consortium. She says,"Thank you so much! My kids and I had a great time identifying all the world leaders!"

The world leaders are (from left to right, top to bottom)

• U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
• North Korean leader Kim Jong Il
• Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
• U.S. President Barack Obama
• French President Nicolas Sarkozy
• Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe

Usage vs. Grammar—the Never-Ending Struggle

Usage vs. Grammar—the Never-Ending Struggle

Today’s guest blogger is veteran Amsco author Henry I. Christ, who enlightens us about the three most common grammatical errors.

In the dramatic battle between grammar and usage,* three errors seem to be everywhere. They pop up daily in conversations, talk shows, and news reports. They are widespread, almost respectable; still they disregard the laws of grammar. They are:

1. Emma took Jane and I to the stadium.


2. Everyone in that squad did their best to make the team.


3. Fortunately, only one of the car’s occupants were injured.

I have a split personality. For most of my life I taught and wrote books about English. When a TV judge states, “Each of you have a claim against the other,” my teacher personality suffers. It also hurts when a sportscaster says, “The problem was between ‘he and Lester.’ ”

If these expressions don't bother you, don’t worry. You’ll find many linguists on your side. But my English teacher personality can’t take it.

My other personality stems from my studies in language and linguistics. This side is more relaxed, even fascinated by changes in a living language.

Language isn’t a treasure to be locked away in a vault, pure and unchanging. The French Academy tries to keep that flawless Gallic tongue free of guttural new words that “poison” the language. Not possible. The Academy has substituted “Le Balladeur MP3” for “Walkman MP3.” But the commercially-invented word “Spam” just becomes “le spam.” English is different. Like the Statue of Liberty, the English language welcomes newcomers from everywhere.

Back to the three errors. If looked at fairly, these expressions aren’t unreasonable, though they grate on some ears.

1. We’re all aware that “Me and Jane went to the stadium” is not acceptable. “Jane and I” sounds so much better and is also grammatically correct. “Jane and I,” “He and I,” and “She and I” work well as subjects, but not as objects. “Mom will pick up Jane and I after the game” is contrary to the rules.


2. “Everyone” is singular; “all” is plural. Really, now, doesn't “everyone” actually mean “all”? But not grammatically. “Everyone was present.” “All were present.” This usage may become acceptable in time because the correct form sounds pretentious: “Everyone in that class did his or her best.”
   
3. This example shows the power of proximity. In the sample sentence, the subject “one” is far away from its verb. Instead, “occupants” is right there. “Occupants” overpowers the subject and captures the verb. This usage follows the path of least resistance. The professor who lectured, “Only one of the words were Indio-European,” would no doubt have put “was” if he were writing. Print is more conservative. Spoken English is freer and less concerned with rules.

Linguists point out that modern English grammar was shaped by 18th-century grammarians using Latin as a model. The linguists insist that many grammatical rules are impractical, often at odds with spoken English. These linguists are descriptivists, studying language as it is. Proscriptivists emphasize language as it should be. Both sides are at war in me!

So what should speakers do about their own grammatical usage? Be conservative. If you’re on a job interview, avoid the common errors. And, for personal, social, and psychological reasons, correcting others is not recommended.

Take it from my editor and I. Oops.

*For instruction, review, and practice in the basics of grammar and composition, check out Amsco’s Grammar and Usage for Better Writing.

What Is Civics?

What Is Civics?

The Social Studies Department has been busy getting out new editions and revisions of a number of our books. The latest title to hit the market is the Second Revision of Civics for Today: Participation and Citizenship. The textbook has been a popular choice of civics classes across the country for almost 10 years. It is also used in high school government classes for students who have some difficulty reading a more detailed textbook. Yes, you might say at this point, this is all very interesting, but can you get to the point of the title of this blog?

Yes, . . . What Is Civics? Wiktionary says that civics is the “study of good citizenship and proper membership in a community.” The Latin root of the word has to do with cities. Obviously, though, most of us use the term in a broader sense. We apply the term to include membership also in a state and a nation.

Wikipedia says that civics “is the study of rights and duties of citizenship. In other words, it is the study of government with attention to the role of citizens—as opposed to external factors—in the operation and oversight of government.” We do not exclude these “external factors” from our textbook. Indeed, we cover the politicians, the bureaucrats, the special interest groups, the pollsters, the lobbyists, and the foreign governments in Civics for Today. But our coverage of these players is not as extensive as the coverage given in most high school government textbooks, including our Basic Principles of American Government and the forthcoming Government for Everybody.

What Is New in Civics for Today? Perhaps now is the time to explain how the Second Revision differs from the previous version of the book.

• New Cover! More pleasing to look at.

• A New Interior Design, including attractive unit openers and chapter openers.

• New “Reality Check” Features in every chapter. These documentary-style essays provide examples from the real world to explain concepts introduced in the text exposition.

• Two new “Power of One” Features to complement the 14 other ones, each of which dramatizes the contributions of an individual to our American society.

• Discussion of the 2008 presidential elections.

• New photos that depict certain members of the Obama administration and other current leaders.

• Updated statistics throughout the text in tables, graphs, and text exposition.

• A new vocabulary program in which all the words found in the glossary are boldface the first time they appear in the text.

• A revised and updated Teacher’s Manual and Answer Key, now available on CD. Lists of Internet resources in the TM have been improved and updated.

As you can see, we have put a lot of effort into making Civics for Today into a better educational product. If you want ideas on how to be a responsible citizen, Civics for Today should be the first book that you read.