The Luddite Revolt continues

The bicentenary in 2011 of the Luddite Revolt prompts us to ask ‘what would Ned Ludd think of today’s automated styles of distance education?’ He would no doubt echo the common criticism that educational technologies create an impersonal style of teaching and learning, and devalue the teacher. He would probably agree that online methods have major potential for millions of distance‐based students who cannot attend classroom‐based education and training; but he would emphasise the need for quality assurance and cost‐effectiveness studies in distance education implementation. He might also ask why anyone would encourage the development of e‐learning in countries where the Internet is largely inaccessible. This article uses the Luddites’ views of workplace automation to explore how global distance education practices might be improved. It suggests that the intentions of the original Luddites were laudable and worthy of application in distance education today.     

The great debate: Then and now

In discussing Jeanne Chall’s chapter, “Are Reading Methods Changing Again?” (this volume), I compare today’s situation with that of 30 years ago as recounted by Chall in Learning to Read: The Great Debate (1967).     

The father of debate: Protagoras of Abdera

TARGET: THE WORLD. COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA ACTIVITIES IN 1955. Edited by Evron M. Kirkpatrick. New York: Macmillan, 1956; pp. xxiv+362. $5.00.

BRAINWASHING: THE STORY OF MEN WHO DEFIED IT. By Edward Hunter. New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1956; pp. 310. $3.75.

THE RAPE OF THE MIND: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THOUGHT CONTROL, MENTI‐CIDE, AND BRAINWASHING. By Joost A. M. Meerloo, M.D. Cleveland and New York: World Publishing, 1956; pp. 320. $5.00.

THE HOSTILE MIND: THE SOURCES AND CONSEQUENCES OF RAGE AND HATE. By Leon J. Saul, M.D. New York: Random House, 1956; pp. 211, $3.50.     

The history of lamaze continues: an interview with elisabeth bing

Elisabeth Bing-physiotherapist, childbirth educator, and cofounder of the American Society for Psychoprophylaxis in Obstetrics (now Lamaze International)-is well known to most childbirth educators in the United States. She has been a true pioneer in the education of parents for pregnancy and birth. Her book, Six Practical Lessons for an Easier Childbirth, served to guide many parents and childbirth educators in the use of the Lamaze Method for labor and birth. She has prepared a countless number of parents for their birth experience in both her hospital classes in the 1950s and 1960s and in her private classes in the "studio" of her New York City apartment building, where she began teaching in the 1960s and continues to teach today. Elisabeth is beloved by all those who have had the opportunity to meet her or work with her. She has created a legacy that will continue for decades to come.     

The struggle continues: El Centro de los Trabajadores Agrvcolas Fronterizos

As a participating student in the Border Studies Program in the fall semester of 2000, the author did a field study working as a volunteer at El Centro de los Trabajadores Agrvcolas Fronterizos (The Border Agricultural Workers' Center, or CTAF). In this ethnography, he intertwines the exploration of several different relationships. He examines the relationship between the current struggles of farm workers in the U.S. and the movement led by Cesar Chavez in the 1970s; and the relationship between the ''periphery'' and the ''center.'' He also reflects upon his own position within the progressive movement, given the social privilege that adheres to him by virtue of race, class, and sex.