New Releases by Nancy Lane

These sixteen stories remind readers how family is at the core of human experience and how relationships, especially those between parent and child, rely on the power of love to overcome challenges.?Five stories feature historical content from 1897 through 1971. A hard drinking, womanizing Irish immigrant explores both coasts until finding his life''s purpose in the late 1920s. In the early days of the movie industry, two children navigate a crowd of pranksters during a July Fourth celebration. A Chinese immigrant in the 1930s is forced to make the heartbreaking decision to leave his American-born son to search in China for his deported wife. A family in the 1960s learns the importance of hope on the personal, familial, and national level. And a professor seeks love and marriage in the turbulent social landscape of the 1970s.?Eleven contemporary stories pose challenging situations, including a woman getting punched in the face in Yosemite, a father and daughter on the run with an AMBER alert issued about them, a couple struggling to decide what''s best for a foster dog in their care, a school bus driver accused of inappropriate and possibly criminal behavior, a widow adjusting to a new life, a young woman hindered by her complicated relationship with her mother, and a woman''s adult son missing after crashing his car in the desert. Throughout these stories, the pull of family, the power of love, and unshakable human decency prevail.

This report, based on findings from The Elementary Arts Education Survey, 1994, looks at information regarding the general questions: (1) What art subjects are being taught in public schools? (2) How do schools and districts support arts education? (3) How have schools'' arts programs changed compared to 5 years ago. Survey responses indicate that the primary focus of public school arts education is music and visual arts, with music instruction receiving more commitment than visual arts. Creative writing is typically incorporated into the language arts curriculum. Dance instruction by a dance specialist is rare, and dramatic and theatre activities are most often used by classroom teachers to reinforce instruction in other subjects. Elementary students are receiving about the same amount of instruction time in music and visual arts, although classroom teachers are more likely to teach visual arts than music, which is taught predominantly by music specialists. Very little is being done to promote arts education through external resources. But school districts'' commitment to keeping arts education in the mainstream of basic education is evidenced by allocation of funds to arts education; developing and providing curriculum guidelines in arts subjects; and by employing an arts curriculum coordinator. An examination of changes in terms of arts programs as compared to 5 years ago indicates that increases in instructional time, number of arts staff, allocation of supplies and materials, funds for teachers'' classroom use, and use of museums, galleries, and performances are reported by 20 to 30 percent of the respondents. Forty-one percent of elementary schools and 62 percent of secondary schools reported increases in enrollment. About half of the schools reported an increase in the number of courses offered, while 39 percent reported that the number of courses had remained the same. Fifteen tables present survey data. The appendices present the following: "Survey Methodology and Data Reliability"; "Tables of Standard Errors"; and examples of survey forms. (MM)