Word: pots
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ANOTHER strange--pardon me, random--system of terminology at Harvard is the ever-growing "romantic encounter" slang. In a true melting-pot method, every student has brought a way of referring to the process of seduction from his or her high school. In a true Harvard semiotic (and pathetic) argument, the number of signifiers far outstrips the mystical signified object. (In other words, we have a lot of words for it, but it doesn't happen much...
Likewise, American society has, in the past generation, abandoned its commitment to providing a world-class system of secondary education. Education Secretary Lauro Cavazos himself calls student performance "dreadfully inadequate." From both the inner cities and the affluent suburbs comes a drumbeat of stories about tin-pot principals who cannot be fired, beleaguered teachers with unmanageable workloads and illiterate graduates with abysmal test scores. If they can possibly afford to, parents choose private or parochial schools, leaving the desperate or destitute in the worst public schools. Teachers, meanwhile, are aware that they are often the most powerful influences...
Minorities must and will recognize such trends as self-destructive. By and large, the melting pot still works. In the 21st century America will have a new ethnic profile. The prospect of a Hispanic or Asian -- and surely a black -- President is quite plausible. And it is a cheering prospect, provided only that he or she speaks to the nation in English and governs in the tradition of the founders. That tradition has evolved but remains the binding force and genius of America -- an ability to combine self-interest with compromise...
...American melting pot, gangsters were the indigestible pieces of ethnic gristle; country of origin was as crucial as turf. So we need some Irish gangsters. In Phil Joanou's State of Grace, they are based on the Westies gang, who ran the rackets in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen. Other Irishmen run a big-city crime factory, about 1929, in Joel and Ethan Coen's Miller's Crossing, where, in the grand tradition, they fight the Italians and the Jews...
Critics argue that adoption of voucher plans would sound the death knell of the public school as a democratic institution that melds children from all classes, backgrounds and races in a modern-day melting pot. In truth, that pluralistic dream died years ago in most districts. Today 63% of all black students attend predominantly nonwhite schools. Public education is also increasingly economically segregated. A voucher system may not foster the ethnic diversity of a Benetton ad, but by diluting the distinction between public and private schools, it would add much needed equality to American education...