“Fear God; Fear the Bogaze”: The Nile Mouths and the Navigational Landscape of the Medieval Nile Delta,Egypt

By the fourth/tenth century, Egypt's Nile Delta had just two major Delta branches debouching directly into the Mediterranean – the Dumyā? (Damietta) and Rashīd (Rosetta). Navigational conditions at these branches’ mouths were treacherous because of a combination of currents, winds, wave-fields and shifting sandbanks. These conditions were a danger to shipping, and so had a formative effect on the navigational landscape of the Delta. Despite its remoteness from the Nile, Alexandria remained Egypt's chief Mediterranean port, but only because river connections were maintained that avoided the Rashīd mouth. In contrast, the port of Rashīd was relatively insignificant. Similar conditions at the Dumyā? mouth prompted navigators to adopt routes via Lake Tinnīs, modern Lake Manzala, which linked to the sea through its calmer sea mouths. This article brings together material from multiple disciplines to offer a new understanding of the navigational context of Egypt's medieval Mediterranean ports.     

Language arts in the elementary school: A challenge to teachers

According to Dr. Cooper, the students of some teachers are still spending most of their time filling in blanks, labeling parts of speech, and even diagramming sentences. The result is that most students dislike language and develop a meager facility in oral and written communication.     

USING FOCUS GROUPS AS AN EDUCATIONAL METHODOLOGY: DECONSTRUCTING STEREOTYPES AND SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE MISCONCEPTIONS CONCERNING AGING AND OLDER ADULTS

During the coming years the number of older adults will increase dramatically, which will require a corresponding increase in the number of social workers who have accurate knowledge of this population. This article reports the impact focus groups with older adults and with service providers who work with older adults and their families have on baccalaureate social work (BSW) students. We find that BSW students exposed to focus groups have their negative attitudes about older adults and service providers deconstructed and replaced with more positive and accurate information about older adults. When students' misconceptions about older adults are confronted, they become more interested in choosing geriatric social work as a career option.     

DEVELOPING MEDIA LITERACY SKILLS TO CHALLENGE TELEVISION'S PORTRAYAL OF OLDER WOMEN

To be old in our society is to be devalued. To be old and female is to experience double oppression. This article reports on a study that examined how television both reinforces and resists the prevailing images of older women in Western society. Two randomly selected television rerun episodes of The Golden Girls were selected to use as a trigger event with members of a graduate course in Social Work with older adults at a major southeastern university. The study found that television reflects societal discourse about aging by providing unchallenged images of older women and their lives. Given the power of television, educators and gerontologists must teach students to develop critical thinking and media literacy skills that challenge and deconstruct television's images about older women and to advocate for new programming that reflects more accurate and diverse portrayals of older women.