Americans, perhaps more than any other culture, are a future-focused people. We celebrate youth, innovation and novelty, while devaluing age and tradition. One way this tendency is expressed is in how we treat the architectural heritage of our communities. In our rush toward the new we too often reject—or simply forget—that which has gone before and that symbolizes the heritage on which our present and future is built.

I recently attended—as an observer—the “Meeting of the Minds,” a presentation and discussion on the Creative Economy Council’s report titled Making the Grass Greener: Recommendations to Retain, Attract, Develop, and Support Knowledge Workers. As a “knowledge worker,” and one interested in helping make Fresno and other Valley communities more vibrant, I was impressed with the report and the discussion, but I walked away with more questions than answers.

A clear challenge was presented at this meeting and left unaddressed.

Educating for life

Capturing student life, and other impossible dreams

The easy way to write a story about student life is to go to the Student Life Office, talk to the dean for overall direction, get a copy of the goals/mission/vision statement, move on to the program directors to find out about implementation, generate a pile of notes and start writing.

Simple. Logical. Comprehensive.

Right up until I tried it.

By Megan E. Richard

Evangelical Anabaptist Seminary Program (EASP), a Seminary-level education program in Winnipeg, Manitoba has changed its name to Winnipeg Centre for Ministry Studies (WCMS) effective February 1, 2006. In celebration of this change a luncheon will be held in Founders Hall on the campus of Canadian Mennonite University, March 23 from 12:00-1:30pm.

North Dakota has one for every 312; Arkansas, one for 437; Oregon, one for 451—but California has one library media teacher for every 4,363 students, making our state last in school library media staffing. Nationally, 20 states mandate a certificated library media teacher in their schools: Georgia for all schools over 251 students, Virginia for every 300 students and Oklahoma for every 500 students.

Watching season five of American Idol auditions over the last few weeks, complete with humiliating scenes in which Simon Cowell tells someone that he looks like the Incredible Hulk’s wife, has renewed my fascination for the kind of pleasure this brings.

Twenty years ago, on January 20, 1986, the first national Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday was observed. It took another 13 years for all 50 states to complete the enactment of the holiday, and even today it goes unrecognized by various institutions and places of work.