This Is The End, My Only Friend The End: US Combat Forces Out of Iraq

Answer the following question. The closest parallel to the outcome achieved by seven years of war in Iraq is:

a. Vietnam;

b. Korea;

c. Weimar Germany;

d. Only time will tell.

List of Die-Cuts, by Category

| Back to MJLC Resources |

All die cuts are 5” blocks unless otherwise noted

• Fall Holidays
• Hanukkah
• Tu B'Shevat - Nature
• Purim - Passover
• Shabbat
• Animals
• Fruits and Vegetables
• Israel
• People
• Symbols
• Torah
• Fonts
• Misc.

Fall Holidays
Apple
Apple, jumbo
Apple slice
Apples, tiny
Bird, dove
Bird, dove- jumbo
Birthday cake
Candlestick and candle
Challah
Fig
Grapes
Pear
Pomegranate
Honey pot
Lattice border
Leaf/maple
Leaf/oak
Leaves, tiny
Leaves, willows
Shofar
Shofar, long
Shofar, jumbo
Star of David, 2-inch
Star of David, 5-inch
Star of David, jumbo
Star of David, open
Star of David, tiny
Sukkah decorations, tiny
Torah
Torah roller, jumbo
Wheat
Wine cup
[Back to the Top]

Hanukkah
Candle
Candle, jumbo
Dreidel
Dreidel, jumbo
Dreidels, tiny
Hanukkiah, jumbo
Menorah
Star of David, 2-inch
Star of David, 5-inch
Star of David, jumbo
Star of David, open
Star of David, tiny
[Back to the Top]

Tu B'Shevat - Nature
Fig
Flower
Flower pot, jumbo
Grapes
Leaf/maple
Leaf/oak
Leaves, willows
Leaves, tiny
Palm tree
Pomegranate
Wheat
Tree
Tree, jumbo
Tulip
[Back to the Top]

Purim – Passover
Apple slice
Book, crown cover
Book, open
Bone
Candlestick and candle
Carrot (use as horse radish root)
Crown
Eggs
Frog
Mask
Megillah
Puppet/Girl
Puppet/Boy
Question Mark
Star of David, 2-inch
Star of David, 5-inch
Star of David, jumbo
Star of David, open
Star of David, tiny
Wine cup
[Back to the Top]

Shabbat
Candlestick and candle
Challah
Wine cup
Flower
Torah
Star of David, 2-inch
Star of David, 5-inch
Star of David, jumbo
Star of David, open
Star of David, tiny
[Back to the Top]

Animals
Bird, dove
Bird, dove- jumbo
Camel
Frog
Noah’s Ark, animals
[Back to the Top]

Fruits and Vegetables
Apple
Apple, jumbo
Apples, tiny
Apple slice
Banana
Carrot
Fig
Grapes
Pear
Pomegranate
[Back to the Top]

Israel
Bird, dove
Bird, dove- jumbo
Camel
Fig
Flag
Grapes
Hamsa
Hamsa, jumbo
Indian woman
Israel map
Jerusalem skyline
Pomegranate
Puppet/Girl
Puppet/Boy
Shepherd
Tent
Wheat
[Back to the Top]

People
Footprint, baby
Handprint, baby
Indian woman
Puppet/Girl
Puppet/Boy
Shepherd
[Back to the Top]

Symbols
Book, Open
Mezuzah
Star of David, 2-inch
Star of David, 5-inch
Star of David, jumbo
Star of David, open
Star of David, tiny
Torah
Torah roller, jumbo
[Back to the Top]

Torah
Bird, dove
Bird, dove- jumbo
Book, Open
Camel
Frog
House
Indian woman
Israel map
Jerusalem skyline
Mezuzah
Noah’s Ark
Noah’s Ark, animals
Pomegranate
Rainbow
Shepherd
Star of David, 2-inch
Star of David, 5-inch
Star of David, jumbo
Star of David, open
Star of David, tiny
Tent
Torah roller, jumbo
Torah
Torah roller, jumbo
Wheat
[Back to the Top]

Fonts
Numbers, 0 - 9 (3 inch)
2-inch block lower case
2-inch block, upper case
5-inch block, upper case
3-inch D’Nealian, upper case
3-inch Hebrew, print
[Back to the Top]

Misc.
Award
Bird, dove
Bird, dove- jumbo
Birthday cake
Book, open
Book, crown cover
Book, 2-part woven
Bookmark
Candle
Candle, jumbo
Circle, 2-inch
Flower pot, jumbo
Frog
Game wheel
Hamsa
Hamsa, jumbo
Handicap symbol
Heart, 2-inch
Heart, 5-inch
House
Lattice border
Noah’s Ark
Noah’s Ark, animals
Postage stamp, jumbo
Puzzle
Rainbow
School bus
Thank-you card, Hebrew
[Back to the Top]

List of Die-Cuts, Alphabetical

| Back to MJLC Resources |

All die cuts are 5” blocks unless otherwise noted

Apple
Apple slice
Apple, jumbo
Apples, tiny
Award
Banana
Bird, dove
Birthday cake
Bone
Book, 2-part woven
Book, crown cover
Book, Open
Bookmark
Camel
Candle
Candle, jumbo
Candlestick and candle
Carrot
Chalice
Challah
Circle, 2-inch
Crown
Dreidel
Dreidel, jumbo
Dreidels, tiny
Eggs
Fig
Flag
Flower
Flower pot, jumbo
Fonts
Footprint, baby
Frog
Game wheel
Grapes
Hamsa, jumbo
Handicap symbol
Handprint, baby
Hanukkiah, jumbo
Heart
Heart, small
Honey pot
House
Indian women
Israel map
Jerusalem skyline
Lattice border
Leaf / maple
Leaves
Leaves, tiny
Leaves, willows
Mask
Megillah
Menorah
Mezuzah
Noah’s Ark
Noah’s Ark animals
Numbers, 0 - 9 (3 inch)
Orange
Palm Tree
Pear
Pomegranate
Postage stamp, jumbo
Puppet / boy
Puppet / girl
Puzzle
Rainbow
Sheppard
Shofar
Shofar, jumbo
Shofar, long
Star of David
Star of David, 2-inch
Star of David, 5-inch
Star of David, jumbo
Star of David, open
Star of David, tiny
Sukkah decorations, tiny
Tent
Thank-you card, Hebrew
Torah
Torah roller, jumbo
Tree
Tree, jumbo
Tulip
Wheat


Fonts:
2-inch block lower case
2-inch block, upper case
3-inch D’Nealian
3-inch Hebrew, print
5-inch block, upper case

Jewish Education on the Web

• Links from the Center for Jewish Teacher Education
• General Jewish Education
• Jewish Internet Guides & Indexes
• Miscellaneous Resources

Links from the Center for Jewish Teacher Education

• Gratz College
• Sefer, So Good
• Spertus
• The Jewish Theological Seminary of America
• URJ

General Jewish Education

• Class Web Site at Homestead.com
• Classroom Connect
• End of the Year Resources for Teachers I
• Israel21c.com
• Jewish Jobs
• Jewish Virtual Library
• Memory Book
• The Pedagogic Center

Jewish Internet Guides & Indexes

• Babaganewz.com
• ERIC
• Jewish Guide to the Internet
• Maven

Miscellaneous Resources

• Biographies
• Jewish Family Life
• Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois

Library

We're sorry, this page is currently under construction...
Please visit us here again soon for an online catalog search of the extensive BJE Library!

Until then, feel free to visit our library in person at:
The BJE Campus for Jewish Learning
3320 Dundee Rd.
Northbrook, IL 60062

For more information about the BJE library, or for other general inquiries, please contact us.

[Click here to go back to previous page]

Teacher Resources at the BJE

• Die-Cut Shapes
• Posters
• On–Site Games and Curriculum Aides
• Resource Books

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Die-Cut Shapes

Use of the die cut machines and die cuts is free of charge.
Thin materials that may be used in the machines include:

• Cardstock
• copy and construction paper
• light-weight cotton
• felt
• foam sheets

Bring in your own supplies, or purchase papers from the MJLC for a nominal fee.
Click below to view the list of die cuts available at the MJLC.

• List of die-cuts organized alphabetically
  
• List of die-cuts organized by category

[Back to the Top]

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Posters

Changing the posters in your classroom is a great way to spark excitement and learning. Posters may be checked out for three months at a time.

Themes include:

• Hebrew
• Israel
• History
• Maps
• Jewish Heroes
• Holidays
• Holocaust
• Text
• Ritual
• Synagogue
• Miscellaneous
  

[Back to the Top]

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On–Site Games and Curriculum Aides

Below is a list of the individual make-and-take posters, games and worksheets on file and available when you visit the MJLC. Please note: use of these materials is subject to copyright law.

• Big Books
• Dead Sea Scrolls
• Hanukkah
• Hebrew
• High Holidays
• Ice Breakers
• Israel Early Childhood
• Israel
• Jerusalem
• Lag B'Omer
• Multi-Purpose Boards
• Organizing for Teachers
• Passover
• Prayer
• Purim
• Shabbat
• Shavuot
• Sukkot and Simchat Torah
• Torah
• Tu B'Shevat
• Tzedakah

Big Books

1. My Big Blessings Books – part 1 & 2
2. My Big Book of Jewish Shapes
3. Rosh Hashanah Big Book
4. Hanukah, Hanukah, What Do you See?
5. Purim, Purim, What Do you See?
6. My Seder Table
7. The Colors of Shabbat – part 1 & 2
8. A Jewish Home – part 1 & 2
9. The Synagogue
10. In My Jewish House – Mitzvot
11. In My Jewish House – Hanukah Riddles
12. In My Jewish House - Holidays
13. Israel, My Home away From Home

[Back to On–Site Games and Curriculum Aides Menu] | [Back to the Top]

Dead Sea Scrolls

1. Dead Sea Scrolls Storyboard
2. Piecing Together the Past
3. Links for Teaching the Dead Sea Scrolls
4. Dead Sea Scrolls Timeline Objectives
5. Dead Sea Scrolls Timeline
6. Article, Joseph Telushkin’s Jewish Literacy on “Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and Dead Sea Sect”
7. The Layers of a Tell Lesson Plan (K-2)
8. The Layers of a Tell Lesson Plan (3-5)
9. The Layers of a Tell Poster
10. Software for Teaching the Dead Sea Scrolls

[Back to On–Site Games and Curriculum Aides Menu] | [Back to the Top]

Hanukkah

1. How Do You Ask a Question?
2. Match the Flame
3. Dreidel Puzzle
4. Color Bingo for Hanukkah
5. Dreidel Daze
6. Who Said This?
7. Everyday Lights
8. Who Am I? What Am I?
9. Hanukkah See and Match
10. Dreidel Mobile
11. Making Latkes
12. Dreidel Letter Game
13. Hanukkah Object Color Grid
14. Maccabee
15. Hanukkah, Hanukkah, What Do You See? (Big Book)
16. Games with Cards
17. Set the Table for Hanukkah
18. Hebrew Bingo/Picture Match
19. Hanukkah Timeline
20. I Have a Little Dreidel
21. Hanukkah Spin
22. Hanukkah Storyboard
23. The Struggle for Freedom
24. Hanukkah Board Game
25. Mah Ha’Tzevah?
26. Lotsa Latkes
27. Hanukkah Dreidel Letters
28. The Family Shield
29. Hanukkah Brachot
30. Mi Ani? Mah Ani?
31. Race to Freedom
32. Hanukkah Story Dreidel Game
33. Hanukkah Riddles
34. Mah Ha’Seder?
35. Celebrations of Freedom
36. Hanukkah Blessings
37. Link the Links
38. Riddles in Our House
39. original is missing (Hanukkah Blessing Sheet 1)
40. Hanukkah Brachot Sheet
41. The Complete Story of Hanukkah Rebus
42. Hanukkah Puzzler
43. Hanukkah Activities
44. Six Dreidel Mini-Mazes
45. Let’s Make a Crayon Dreidel
46. Hanukkah Design to Color
47. More or Less
48. The Bird and the Hawk
49. Hanukkah Crossword Puzzle
50. Three Dimensional Dreidel
51. Make Your Own Hanukkah Gelt
52. The Story of Judith
53. A Hanukkah Review Game
54. Pirsum Ha’Nes Advertisement
55. Channukiah
56. Seder Hadlakat Nerot Hanukkah
57. Blessing for Lighting the Hanukkah Candles
58. Hanukkah Hidden Picture
59. Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins
60. Two Clay Hannukiot
61. The G-d/Angels Dreidel Game
62. What Does Hanukkah Mean to Me?
63. Hanukkah Word Square
64. Hanukkah Questions
65. Hanukkah Pictures from the Kohl Center
66. Haneirot Hallalu
67. What’s Wrong with This Picture?
68. Hanukkah Word Search
69. Scrambled Story
70. Jerusalem Maze
71. Hanukkah Lamps
72. Hebrew Word Glossary
73. Songs of Hanukkah
74. Hanukkah Rap
75. Hanukkah Moral Dilemmas
76. Hanukkah and Personal Values: Hannah and Her Seven Sons
77. Hanukkah Tashbetz
78. “Because They Were Included in the Miracle”
79. Telling the Real Story of Hanukkah
80. original is missing (Jeopardy Questions)
81. Using the Web to Teach Hanukkah
82. Gezairot Antiochus
83. Hanukkah Connect the Dots
84. Letter from Judah Maccabee
85. Hanukkah Word Square
86. Lighting the Channukiah
87. Hanukkah Activities
88. Dreidel Coloring
89. original missing (Maccabee Mask)
90. original missing (Dreidel Bingo)
91. Hashlem
92. Hebrew Word Find
93. Cardboard Dreidel
94. Hanukkah Candles
95. The Seven Sons and Their Mother
96. Hanukkah Word List
97. What’s Wrong?
98. Y’may Hanukkah
99. Ha’sevivon
100. Hanukkah Checklist
101. Why the Hanukkah Story Has Three Different Endings
102. Hanukkah Arts and Crafts Projects
103. Nu in the Middle
104. Channukiot (Menorahs)
105. Confronting the December Dilemmas
106. What’s Going On?
107. Mrs. Maccabeus and Her Latkes
108. Gift-Giving Alternatives
109. Hanukkah Rebus
110. Hillel and Shammai Light!

[Back to On–Site Games and Curriculum Aides Menu] | [Back to the Top]

Hebrew

1. New Hebrew Games
2. Alef-Bet Race
3. Hebrew Numbers for a Bulletin Board
4. Hebrew Numbers
5. Alef-Bet Board Game
6. Hebrew Letter Apple Tree
7. Circular Hebrew Letter Sort
8. How High Can You Climb?
9. Hebrew Concentration Game
10. Letter Formation Chart
11. Alef-Bet Puzzle
12. Hebrew Letter Sort
13. Hebrew Cursive and Print Letter Formation
14. Trace-A-Bet
15. Colors/Tzevaim
16. Hebrew Months Song
17. The Story of the Funny Face
18. Hebrew Songs
19. Chelkei Haguf
20. Alef-Bet Song Song by Debbie Friedman
21. Hebrew Verbs Chart
22. Verb Pictures
23. Hebrew Verb Game
24. Games for Reinforcing Hebrew Skills
25. How to Ask a Question
26. Big House, Little House
27. Hebrew Words for the Classroom
28. What Am I Wearing?
29. Me and My Family: Shalom, Shalom, Shalom
30. Vocabulary
31. Tic Tac Toe
32. A Hebrew Village
33. Who Am I?
34. Camels
35. Sort This
36. Hebrew Songs
37. Boy/Girl
38. What’s the Story?
39. Be a Winner!
40. Read the Pictures
41. Geveret Bamba and Yoni
42. Alef-Bet Lace-Up
43. Who Is He? He Is She!
44. Paper Platter
45. See and Match School Words
46. Edible Alef-Bet
47. Fruits and Veggies
48. Experiencing the Alef-Bet
49. Alef-Bet Outlines
50. Classroom Vocabulary Exercise/Mixer
51. Hebrew Word Wall

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High Holidays

1. New Year’s Resolutions
2. Set the Rosh Hashannah Table
3. I’m Sorry!
4. Part to Whole
5. Holidays of Tishrei
6. The High Holidays: A Chance to Begin Again
7. Maimonides’ Levels of Teshuvah
8. Let’s Turn Over a New Leaf
9. Rosh Hashannah/Yom Kippur See and Match
10. Yom Kippur Crossword Puzzle
11. Yom Kippur Storyboard
12. Hebrew Worksheets: Shannah Tovah
13. Rosh Hashannah Activities for Children’s Services
14. Do Not Tarry in Doing Teshuvah
15. Prologue: The Apple Tree’s Discovery
16. I’ll Bless This Etrog While I’m Standing on a Horse
17. Little Stones and Big Stones
18. The Boy Who Could Only Play a Flute
19. High Holiday Games With Cards
20. Songs for Rosh Hashannah and Succot
21. A Walk through Tishrei
22. The Three Who Ate
23. Even Higher
24. The Mahzor Board
25. High Holiday Match and Sort
26. High Holiday Symbol Count
27. High Holiday Pick-Pocket Ideas
28. What Should I Throw Away?
29. A Father Understands His Son
30. “I’m Sorry” Puppet for Rosh Hashannah
31. High Holidays Web Sites
32. Using a Flow Chart
33. Rosh Hashannah Big Book
34. Chai Holiday Game
35. High Holiday Vocabulary
36. Kohl Center Holiday Questions

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Ice Breakers

1. Pyramid of Similarity
2. Television Commercial
3. Teaching Ideas for the Jewish Classroom
4. Perfect Match and Other Activities

[Back to On–Site Games and Curriculum Aides Menu] | [Back to the Top]

Israel Early Childhood

1. Games Children Play in Israel
2. Flags, Stamps, Artifacts and the Wall
3. I-S-R-A-E-L Letters
4. Star of David Chain
5. Israel: My Home Away from Home (Big Book)
6. Magen David Stencils
7. Activities to Make Children More Aware of the Shape of Israel
8. Symbols of Israel and America
9. A Birthday Present for Israel
10. Book about Israel
11. Kids in Israel
12. Israel Map Fun
13. Magnetic Kibbutz
14. Cities in Israel

[Back to On–Site Games and Curriculum Aides Menu] | [Back to the Top]

Israel

1. The Cities in Israel – Symbols
2. Label Me Israel
3. Israel Is Real
4. Bumper Stickers and Political Parties
5. Iton Yisraeli
6. Exploring Eretz Yisrael in Pictures
7. From Plonsk to Sdeh Boker; The Ben Gurion Game
8. Prayer for the State of Israel
9. Israel at 50: A Timeline of Events
10. Megillat Yisrael Student Activity Sheet
11. Hatikvah
12. original is missing (Israel is the Only Country)
13. Garbage Archaeology
14. Yom Ha-Atzmaut
15. Israel History Timeline
16. Monitoring the Media
17. original is missing (Road Map of Israel)
18. Dilemmas Game: Teaching Israeli History
19. Israel Activities
20. If I Were Israeli
21. Israel from A to Z
22. Archaeological Extravaganza
23. Lead a Trip to Israel
24. Israeli Supermarket
25. Thinking about Israel
26. Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel
27. Songs of Israel
28. Test Yourself! Map of Israel
29. Walk for Israel Game
30. Person, Place or Thing
31. Arim (Cities) Word Find
32. Take a Tour Through Israel
33. Cut ‘n’ Paste Timeline
34. Hebrew Crossword Puzzle
35. The Never-Ending Story
36. Stories: Ahmed, Amit in the Judean Desert, Pearl to Star and On Eagles’ Wings
37. America in Israel
38. Say it With a Symbol
39. Let Your Fingers Do the Walking through Israel’s Phone Books
40. Israel Opinionaire
41. Who Am I? Games
42. Teaching Your Kids about Israel
43. Set the Table Israeli Style
44. Symbols of Israel and America
45. Israel Learning Center
46. Israeli Stamp
47. Ben Gurion Worksheet
48. Talk Like an Israeli
49. Builders of Israel Portrait Gallery
50. Government of Israel Data Sheet
51. Israel and Illinois
52. Contemporary Stories about Life in Israel
53. Israeli Songs about Peace
54. Israel City Search – Places in Israel
55. Kohl Center Exploring Israel
56. Israel Map Game

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Jerusalem

1. Teaching Jerusalem
2. The Jerusalem Name Game
3. “Let’s Go to Jerusalem!” Game
4. Jerusalem: Old City/New City
5. Jerusalem Landmarks Lotto
6. The Secret Passage; A Story of the Six Day War
7. Meet Me at the Gate
8. Mickey Marcus
9. “We Walk the Gates of Jerusalem”
10. Jerusalem in the Siddur
11. The Real Jerusalem
12. A Walking Tour of the Neighborhoods of Jerusalem
13. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem
14. Ideas for Activities in the Early Childhood Classroom
15. Creative Writing
16. Suggestions for Teaching Jerusalem
17. Jerusalem in Quotations
18. Videos on Jerusalem
19. Stories of Jerusalem
20. Multimedia Materials on Jerusalem
21. The Two Brothers
22. The Song That Took a City
23. King Solomon and the Shamir
24. How the Kotel Was Discovered
25. Emblem of the State of Israel
26. Jerusalem Puzzle
27. Building Jerusalem
28. King Solomon Builds the Temple

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Lag B'Omer

1. Lag B’Omer Maze
2. Lag B’Omer Info and Activities
3. Lag B’Omer Puzzler
4. The Scholar’s Holiday
5. How Rabbi Akiva Became a Scholar
6. Sun Hat
7. Paper Bag Kite
8. The Lag B’Omer Connection
9. Recipes
10. Recipes and Games
11. Lag B’Omer and Shavuot

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Multi-Purpose Boards

1. Jeopardy
2. Vocabulary Whirl
3. Question of the…
4. Tic Tac Toe
5. Personal Work Display
6. Got a Minute, Grab a Sheet

[Back to On–Site Games and Curriculum Aides Menu] | [Back to the Top]

Organizing for Teachers

1. Months Of The Year
2. Look Who’s Done A Mitzvah – Mitzvah Tree
3. Well Orchestrated Classroom
4. Let’s See How Much Tzedakah We Can Collect
5. The Crown Of A Good Name
6. Happy Birthday Chart/Poster
7. Happy Birthday Worksheet
8. Current Events
9. Pick Pocket
10. Holidays Of The Year (Hebrew)
11. Hebrew Days, Months And Seasons
12. Job Chart
13. Aviva Pocket Puppet
14. Www.Ourclass.Com
15. Teacher-Parent Communication
16. Identifying The Needs Of Children
17. Crystal Ball
18. Beginning Of The Year Checklist For Teachers
19. Teacher Checklist For The Beginning Of The Year
20. Avoid Being Passive When Using Video Programs In The Classroom
21. Teacher’s Prayer
22. More Icebreakers For The First Day
23. Maintaining Control Of The Class
24. Do Your Words Get Them To Think?
25. How Would Your Students Complete These Sentences?
26. What’s My Name? - Hebrew Ice Breaker
27. 125 Activities For The Jewish Classroom
28. Twelve Classroom Tips
29. Guidelines For Storytellers
30. Family Tree
31. Lesson Planning Made Easy
32. Field Trip And Speaker Ideas
33. Give One, Take One
34. What Works: Research About Teaching And Learning
35. Got A Minute? Drama Games
36. The Jewish School Teacher Today And Tomorrow
37. Weekly Lesson Plan Form
38. Student Interests
39. Find 12 Things That Makes This A Jewish Classroom
40. Creative Activities And Learning Experiences
41. Activities For Using The Jewish Time Machine
42. Weather Chart
43. Classroom Bingo
44. The Secret Formula For Making Learning Happen: Getting Results In The Classroom
45. Summary Chart Of Question Types
46. Sample Sheets For Review, Evaluation And Home Involvement
47. Student Questionnaire
48. Helping Teachers Grow: Talking With Parents
49. Effective Communication With Parents: A Process For Parent/Teacher Conferences
50. Using A Flow Chart
51. Ten Clues To Good Classroom Management And Student Increased Motivation
52. Holidays, Months And Days Chart
53. The Efficacy Of The Parent-Teacher Partnership
54. Puppets In The Teacher Center
55. Icebreakers For The First Day Of School: Jewish Symbol Match
56. People Of The Book
57. People Of The Book
58. Student Storage Puppet
59. Student Welcome Sign, Part I
60. Student Welcome Sign, Part II

[Back to On–Site Games and Curriculum Aides Menu] | [Back to the Top]

Passover

1. Pesach Storyboard
2. Ten Plagues Dart Board
3. Pesach Is Coming!
4. Finish the Seder by Midnight
5. Pesach Passages
6. My Seder Table (Big Book)
7. My Pesach Storybook
8. Joseph Storyboard
9. original is missing
10. Seder Plate
11. Activity Cards
12. The Ten Plagues
13. Pesach Fish
14. Passover See and Match
15. Passover Bingo
16. Games with Cards
17. Celebrations of Freedom
18. How Do You Ask a Question about Pesach?
19. Kohl Pesach by Any Other Name
20. Seder Plate Bingo
21. Kohl Roll around the Scroll
22. Dominoes
23. My Haggadah Helper
24. Where Is the Afikoman?
25. Pesach Album
26. Counting for Pesach
27. Set the Pesach Table
28. Seder Order Cards
29. Fool Pharaoh!
30. Baby Moses
31. Jeopardy
32. Counting the Omer
33. Kohl Pictures
34. The Great Big Enormous Horseradish Root
35. Pesach Pyramid
36. Seder Pictures
37. Matzah Puzzle
38. Exodus Role Play
39. Pesach Paper Dolls
40. Enjoying Matzah Cookbook (kept on library shelf)
41. Passover Time Word Game
42. Pictures
43. Identification Game
44. Frog Pictures
45. Jews in Egypt Cartoon
46. Art Project Ideas
47. Project Kesher
48. Walk through Seder
49. Interview with Pharaoh
50. Passover Rebus
51. Values Strategies
52. Folk Tale
53. Draw the Seder Table
54. Roots of Pesach Game
55. Knapsack Sheet: What Would You Bring?
56. Pesach Table
57. Song of Miriam
58. Kohl Center: Thinking Freely
59. What’s Wrong with This Picture?
60. The Gold’s Seder
61. On-Line Passover Search
62. Questions and Answers
63. Haggadah Research Project
64. Seder Symbols and Their Stories
65. Passover Is Matzah Time
66. Word Find
67. Seder Table
68. Candle Lighting
69. Plague of Frogs
70. Hebrew Pesach Story
71. Numbers Worksheet
72. Passover Quiz
73. The Four Questions
74. Makkot Seek-a-Word
75. Fun Games
76. Song: Our Favorite Things
77. Dr. Seuss’ Mah Nishtanah?
78. Passover Word Square
79. Passover Puzzlers
80. Famous People in the Haggadah

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Prayer

1. Siddur Words
2. Target on Prayer
3. My Big Blessings Book
4. Tefillah Grid Game Questions
5. Shema Worksheet
6. Synagogue Lotto
7. Mitzvah with Strings Attached
8. Resources on Prayer
9. Hamotzi
10. Activities for Children’s Services
11. Prayer Pictures
12. Prayer Cards
13. Shema and Ve’Ahavta (English)
14. Modeh Ani
15. Shema
16. Lehadlik Ner Shel Shabbat
17. Shehechianu
18. Barechu
19. Hagafen
20. Hamotzi
21. Ein Keloheinu
22. “Hanging” Prayer Order

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Purim

1. Purim Storyboard
2. Purim Activities
3. Purim Activities Worksheet
4. Purim See and Match
5. Mitzvot of Purim
6. Songs of Purim
7. Learn As You Color
8. Cross Out Haman
9. Purim Mitzvot Cards
10. Purim Activity Grids
11. Purim Counting Grid
12. Masks for Purim
13. Curious Facts about Purim
14. Mishloach Manot
15. Purim Big Book
16. Purim Customs around the World
17. Have a Hametaschen
18. The Immortal Orange
19. Questions for Purim
20. How Do You Ask a Purim Question?
21. Purim Hebrew
22. Who Said It?
23. Program Ideas for Purim
24. The Purim Orange
25. Purim Who’s Who?
26. Chelm Stories
27. Set the Table for Purim
28. Kohl Center: Purim Pictures
29. Purim Word Find
30. Megillat Esther in Summary
31. Purim Pictures
32. Games with Cards
33. The Large Megillah
34. The Purim Megillah – Queen Esther
35. Purim Trivia
36. More Purim Masks
37. Using the Internet to Teach Purim
38. Dress the Purim Dolls
39. Be Happy, It’s Adar
40. Purim Vocabulary
41. Mishloach Manot Gift Cards

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Shabbat

1. Songs for Shabbat
2. What Goes Inside the Kiddush Cup
3. Lights
4. Can You Make Kiddush
5. Havdalah Spice Box or Jar
6. Challah
7. Shabbat Blessings
8. Set the Table for Shabbat
9. Shabbat Peek-a-Boo
10. Havdalah House
11. Tzedakah Box/Candlesticks
12. See & Match
13. Shabbat Vocabulary
14. Shabbat Spin Game
15. Games with Cards
16. Shabbat Lotto
17. Getting Ready for Shabbat
18. Two Challah Covers
19. A Shabbat Sensation
20. Erev Shabbat Preparation
21. Tot Shabbat, Parts 1,2 & 3

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Shavuot

1. Shavuot See and Match
2. Set the Shavuot Table
3. Hebrew & English Ten Commandments
4. Take the 10 Commandments to Heart
5. The Torah: Ten and Now
6. original is missing
7. Shavuot Recipes
8. Synagogue Lotto
9. Shavuot Questions
10. Shavuot Symbols
11. Torah Scrolls Outline
12. Commandment Puzzle
13. Can You Dress the Torah?
14. La’asok B’Divrei Torah
15. Story: A Precious Treasure
16. Shavuot Puzzler
17. Scrambled Words
18. Crossword Puzzle
19. Calendar for Sefirat Ha’Omer
20. Hebrew Vocabulary Match
21. Shavuot Hebrew Packet
22. Songs for Shavuot
23. Honoring Parents
24. Hebrew Shavuot Questions
25. Pick Some Flowers
26. Ten Commandments Worksheets
27. Memory Game
28. The Meaning of Shavuot
29. Word Search
30. Coloring Puzzle

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Sukkot and Simchat Torah

1. Sukkot Blessings
2. Instant Sukkah Decorations
3. Sukkot/Simchat Torah Puzzles
4. Which Fruit Are You?
5. Who’s In the Sukkah?
6. Spin Apart
7. Sukkot/Simchat Torah Bingo
8. Can You Dress the Torah?
9. Sukkah Word Search
10. Build a Sukkah
11. Decorate the Sukkah
12. Simchat Torah Parade
13. Plant a Garden
14. The Fall Harvest
15. Sukkot/Simchat Torah Pictures
16. Rules for Sukkot
17. The Four Kinds
18. Simchat Torah Flags
19. Torah Scrolls and Flags
20. Lulav and Etrog
21. Kesher Women’s Sukkot Service
22. Sukkot – Thanksgiving
23. Ushpizin – Women
24. Four Species
25. Invite a Guest
26. Parts of the Torah
27. Simchat Torah
28. Sukkot Teaching Ideas
29. Ushpizin
30. Prayer for Rain
31. Set the Sukkot Table
32. Take the 10 Commandments to Heart
33. Torah: Then and Now
34. Synagogue Lotto
35. Creation Puzzle
36. Torah Study Chart
37. Torah Talk
38. Women’s Place at Sukkot

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Torah

1. Stars of Heaven Family Tree
2. The Many Hats of a Prophet
3. Strategies for Teaching Bible Stories
4. Torah Talk
5. Torah Glossary
6. “In Your Own Words” Storytelling Chart
7. Teacher’s Guide to the Torah Study Chart
8. Jonah Storyboard
9. original is missing
10. Five Megillot
11. Biblical Quotations
12. Scripture Cake
13. Biblical Quotes
14. Noah’s Ark
15. Grishaver Creation Chart
16. Parts of the Torah
17. Quotations from the Prophets
18. Joseph Storyboard
19. Seven Days of Creation Pictures
20. original is missing
21. Parshat Bereishit
22. Parsha Chart
23. Creation Puzzle
24. “Trickim” of the Trade
25. Take the 10 Commandments to Heart
26. The Torah: Then and Now
27. Is It Kosher?
28. Twelve Tribes
29. All About the Torah Big Book

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Tu B'Shevat

1. Conservation Projects
2. Tu Bishvat Games
3. Tu Bishvat Tree Poster
4. Tu Bishvat Rebus
5. Paper Dolls
6. Set The Table
7. Trees For People/ People For Trees
8. Seven Species
9. Life Of A seed
10. Games With Cards
11. The Planter’s Prayer
12. See And Match
13. Indoor Nature Walk
14. Tu Bishvat Stumpers
15. Climb The Tree
16. Tzedakah
17. Is The World Finished?
18. Ecology Checklist
19. Tu Bishvat Activities
20. How Does Your Family Rate?
21. Tu Bishvat Songs
22. Seven Varieties
23. Seven Species – Large Pictures
24. Alike/Different
25. Tu Bishvat Hebrew Story
26. Trees Are Everywhere
27. Unscramble The Species
28. Program Ideas
29. Tu Bishvat Seder
30. Hebrew Crossword Puzzle
31. Identify The Species
32. Old Man And The Fig Tree
33. Ideas For The Classroom
34. Around The World
35. Melton Tu Bishvat Poster/Guide
36. Using The Internet To Teach Tu Bishvat
37. Tu Bishvat Chain
38. Placemat With Blessing 11x17
39. Once Upon A Time There Was A Tree 11x17

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Tzedakah

1. Tzedakah and Gemilut Chasadim
2. Put Your Whole Self Into Mitzvot
3. Ladder of Tzedakah
4. Maimonides’ 8 Steps Class Activity
5. Brotherly Love
6. Tzedakah Story
7. Don’t Separate Yourself From The Community
8. He Who Learns From Every Person
9. Mitzvot: Tools For Living
10. Mitzvot In The Home: Progress Chart

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She Said Its Two Feet High And Risin': Five Years After Hurricane Katrina, What Would Jesus Do?

Five years ago today I had just moved back into our current house after nine months of renovations that were way overdue. We had given our temporary apartment back to the landlord, and for part of August I had shuttled back and forth between our New York home and various forms of temporary housing in Shoreline. Our nephew had gone on vacation and I camped in his home down the street; I spent five days at a motel in Worcester, MA at a national sports event; and I spent one surreal night in a chain hotel outside Shoreline, which turned out to be almost entire rented out to the city as an overflow for homeless families waiting for Section 8 housing. As it turned out, these migrations were a preview of things to come: a year or so later, when it was discovered that thousands of displaced Gulf Coast residents were being made ill by the formaldehyde in their trailers, my accommodations seemed pretty luxurious.

But this was not immediately apparent, nor was it apparent that the reason my renovation was so far behind was that my contractor was being swallowed by red ink, a silent recession that preceded the economic crash we suffered two years later. His business, I suspect, was resembling a Ponzi scheme: he had spent my money on someone else's house, and was frantically drumming up new business to finish mine.

On the night of August 30 2005, as Hurricane Katrina barreled down grimly on the City of New Orleans, I was almost completely oblivious of everything I know now -- or of the disaster that was about to occur in the Gulf. A combination of starting school, having run out of alternative housing, and knowing that the only way to get the contractor to finish was to move back into the house so I could yell at him every day, saw me swabbing plaster dust out of the front room early that evening while I still had daylight to work in. I blew up an air mattress, and settled in for a short, grimy camping trip in a half-finished house with no utilities. The contractor had promised a bathroom would be working by that day: it wasn't. He promised electricity: there wasn't any. So as the levees broke, I was in the backyard living as many of the lucky people in the Gulf would soon be living: brushing my teeth with bottled water, peeing in the grass and feeling very sorry for myself. I called my partner on the cell phone to complain of my dire state, without fully comprehending that one of America's great cultural treasures was being torn apart, its people fleeing, drowning, dying in the streets and being preyed upon.

As I reflect on that disaster, following so quickly on the 9/11 terrorist attacks, followed by an economic meltdown that occurred as SEC watchdogs were downloading porn to their computers, and followed in turn by an unprecedented oil spill that has once again devastated the economy and ecology of the Gulf, one thing that seems clear to me is that it is utterly impossible -- if you ever did -- to view the United States as a blessed place whose problems are caused by the infiltration of outsiders. That is, it is impossible if you are a person who actually believes that the natural world that gives human beings eyes to see, evidence to think about and minds with which to sort that evidence. Glenn Beck's weird production over the weekend points to one way people cope with their inability to think about our national problems without blaming someone (someone else, over there): they believe that what is wrong is that, as a country, we have deviated from the One True Way (the Bible, the Constitution, or both.) Government is too big, the Tea Party folk yell; and the role of religion in our lives too small. And yet these people, too, have signed on -- whether by voting or refusing to vote -- to politicians who have presided over a period of unprecedented corruption, greed and venality.

If they were seventeenth century Puritans, they would come to Massachusetts and massacre the Indians; if they were nineteenth century Mormons, they would head to Utah and -- well, massacre the Indians -- all the while believing that they were doing God's work and that a society could succeed without being impeded by government. The Puritans believed this even as they were lining up, every three or four years, to be carted away in British naval vessels so that they would not be massacred, in turn, by the relatives of Indians they had massacred.

Looking back over the last five years, we need less God and more politics: by that I mean not less faith, and all the forms of ethical community that faith can provide, but we need to end the lie that you can substitute faith for politics. What Barack Obama calls the "man made disaster" of Katrina (and others regarded as the act of an angry God) was a profoundly political disaster, something that has not yet been fully acknowledged. It was the end point of a moment in time in which warnings about the levees had not been heeded because there was no political will to appropriate the money to build them; in which professional government had been derided, starved and privatized to the point that FEMA was more or less a shell agency, less able to cope with a natural disaster than the mish-mash of NGO's that rush into places like Pakistan. The United States didn't even have the National Guard available, because they were mired down in two wars that were supposed to be over.

Meanwhile, we have millions of people who believe that "more [Christian] religion" -- as opposed to a return to an ethic of mutual care that is coordinated and inspired by a government that discriminates against no community of faith -- is going to be the ticket to get us out of this mess. What is a mystery to me is that many of the people who believe this have been terribly harmed, not by God's wrath, and not by an intrusive government, but by an America suffused by individualism: we are drowning in corporate greed entirely unfettered by morality, the rule of law or the responsibility of the modern state to deliver the basic services that humanize all of us. Instead of committing to creating a government that will house its people, we sit with our eyes glued to reality TV, where people "solve their own problems" with the help of TV producers, renovation gurus, and weight-loss stars.

We have gone from being a strong state where Rosie the Riveter promised that "We Can Do It!" to a heavily bureaucratic weak state, where we are constantly assured that "We Can Do It - All Alone Except For Jesus!" As our political leaders in both parties have nattered on happily about God, Americans have become poorer and more insecure. People who weren't swept out of their homes by water, fire or wind have lost them to predatory lenders and an economy gutted by corporations who care nothing for their workers -- or their customers, for that matter. Henry Ford may have been a nasty anti-Semite, but he also understood that if workers were healthy, well-fed and secure they did a better job; and that if those same workers weren't paid enough to buy his cars, he wasn't going to sell so many.

Meanwhile, those who have the most bizarre ideas about faith get the most airtime, and they have turned their audiences into idiots. Interviewed by the New York Times at the Glenn Beck event, Floridian Becky Benson came to the rally because Jesus "would not have agreed with the economic stimulus package, bank bailouts and welfare. 'You cannot sit and expect someone to hand out to you,' she said. 'You don’t spend your way out of debt.”'" Well people don't, but countries do, Becky. And Jesus actually didn't believe that we all lived and died alone, nor did he think you just sat there and watched while people who needed your help went right down the tubes. Jesus didn't mean take responsibility for yourself and $crew everyone else; Jesus intended us to take responsibility for each other.

One of the ways you do that is through creating honest and efficient government, something that the Tea Party folk believe is simply a detail, when in fact it is the whole project. Kentuckian Ron Sears assured the Times reporter that “The federal government is only to offer us protection from our enemies and help us when we need it." Yes, and really the least of our problems are enemies who are armed, Ron: an efficient and honest federal government should be there to protect us from ignorance, greed, lies, and vanity -- in addition to weather, disease, and the toxins Mr. Beck's corporate buddies pour into our earth, skies and waterways. And you won't mind if the federal highways buckle and crumble, will you Ron? Or the planes crash into each other in mid-flight? Or if you have to live in a tent for five years eating possum because God swept your city away and there isn't anyone who will force your insurance company to rebuild your house?

So as we memorialize Katrina, let's also keep in mind that it was a real disaster, but it was also a metaphor for what we have become as a nation. Most of all, Katrina was a political disaster, one that was presided over by the Bush administration but one that can hardly be laid entirely at its doorstep, since both political parties started down this road in the 1970s. Katrina was a historical moment that ripped the cover off of the false promises of thirty years of neoliberal policies that have put money first and people second; that have tricked people into believing that that everything you need to know can be learned growing up in a nuclear family, quoting selectively from the Constitution or reading the Bible; and worst of all, thirty years of false messiahs who enrich themselves while leading their followers into penury.

What would Jesus do? Throw Glenn Beck and every money changer like him out of the temple, that's what, and get back to what government is supposed to do: help people take care of themselves, make politics a vehicle for loving one's neighbor (not blaming him, or seeing if she needs to be deported) and protecting Americans from those who prey on the simple, the weak and the vulnerable. Until we do, the waters will keep on rising.

And now, let's hear from a true man of God.

Happy First Day of Kindergarten

Department of Responses and Cool Ideas: More From The World Of Academic Publishing

Here's some follow-up to Wednesday's post on reforming scholarly publishing practices:

*As a cosmic reminder that some journals do not live to torture us, yesterday I received notice that an article had been un-ambivalently and swiftly rejected by a top journal. Right on! They turned it around in less than a month. Follow-up question: When an article is rejected, what do you do, dear? Answer: Thank the editors sincerely for their professionalism in letting you know so fast, and so politely, and send it off immediately to a specialty journal.

Another question: do the editors of this journal read Tenured Radical? Were they making a point? I posed this question at home and it was strongly inferred that my ego was wandering way off the reservation. Again.

*A friend who is a senior scholar and an experienced journal editor wrote in response to the post to say that s/he was in complete disagreement about eliminating "revise and resubmit" as a category. To elaborate: "some of our best...pieces [are] the result of great reviewer direction and energetic author redrafting. To do away with that would effectively close out grad students from journal article publishing, and they do some of the best work." That sounds right to me, so let me refine my critique: readers should not use the category of "revise and resubmit" when they really mean "reject." How's that for a fair compromise?

*One of the quickest turnarounds I have ever experienced was editing a round table on feminist blogging for the Journal of Women's History. From the time the proposal was accepted to it's forthcoming appearance in winter 2011 (subscribe now and reserve your copy!), it will have taken 18 months, only six of which will have been devoted to the publishing process (as opposed to writing, editing and review.) Does the increase in "special issues," clusters and round tables suggest that many hands make light work? Is it possible for journals to squeeze the time frame on publication without sacrificing quality by committing to relevant topics that demand timely publication? What might this teach us about the possibilities for shortening the publication timetable for articles that come in over the transom?

*There is an argument to be made for publishing a variety of pieces that have no central theme or connection, particularly in prominent journals, published by professional associations, that by necessity speak to very diverse audiences. The biggest complaint I received, across fields, was that by the time work actually appears in journals it is often longer cutting edge, or the book project that it is part of has appeared. So how about if journals just held their referees to a faster timetable, and also used the Internet to publish shorter pieces, or articles that actually need to come out quickly or have their relevance eroded? Forums, like the ones you have seen here on this blog, could also pick up on exciting books that people need to know about now -- not two years from now; and book reviewing could be entirely web based. Over half of the pages in two top journals in my field are filled with book reviews -- books that came out years ago.

*When in doubt, start a cool new journal. Joan Wallach Scott tops the masthead of History of the Present: A Journal of Critical History; you will see a few other members of the Differences crowd on the editorial board. For those of you not on the H-Net Announcements listserve:

History of the Present is a journal devoted to history as a critical endeavor. Its aim is twofold: to create a space in which scholars can reflect on the role history plays in establishing categories of contemporary debate by making them appear inevitable, natural or culturally necessary; and to publish work that calls into question certainties about the relationship between past and present that are taken for granted by the majority of practicing historians. Its editors want to encourage the critical examination of both history’s influence on politics and the politics of the discipline of history itself.

'Tis a journal after the Radical's own heart. Good luck and God Bless, that's what I say. It's biannual, and issues will be carried by JSTOR as they are published, so no more paper coming will be into your home -- unless you have a journal fetish and you want it to do so.

Our new website is live!

Welcome to our new website:
www.bjechicago.org!

Feel free to take a look around - your feedback is welcome.
Contact us here.

Come to our free LAUNCH PARTY!
Wednesday, September 15th
2:00pm to 4:00pm
at the BJE Campus for Jewish Learning
3320 Dundee Rd.
Northbrook, IL 60062

Snacks provided!
Alan's tour of the new site starting at 2:30pm!

Journal-isms: What Would It Take To Reform Scholarly Publishing?

Well bust my britches, if the paper of record didn't put we scholars on the front page this morning! Reporting on the decision of the Shakespeare Quarterly decision to experiment with posting articles on line for open review, the New York Times reports that:

a core group of experts — what [Katherine] Rowe called “our crowd sourcing” — were invited to post their signed comments on the Web site MediaCommons, a scholarly digital network. Others could add their thoughts as well, after registering with their own names. In the end 41 people made more than 350 comments, many of which elicited responses from the authors. The revised essays were then reviewed by the quarterly’s editors, who made the final decision to include them in the printed journal, due out Sept. 17.

This process of online review, the Times argues,

goes to the very nature of the scholarly enterprise. Traditional peer review has shaped the way new research has been screened for quality and then how it is communicated; it has defined the border between the public and an exclusive group of specialized experts.

Well, not quite, but let's pick this ball up and run with it, shall we? While I think this is an interesting and productive shift, and that opening up the review process is a bold thing to do because it puts a dent in the Bell of Silence that scholars erroneously believe honesty requires, the practice --as envisioned by the editors and utilized by those truly brave people who participated -- adhered to tradition in important ways. First, the journal obtained promises from a "core group" of scholars that they would participate; and second, if you read down to the bottom of the article, one of the participants still felt it was necessary to secure a promise from a dean that the article would still count for tenure. (Let's give a round of applause to this young person, shall we, for participating in something new and untested? I hope you do get tenure: we need more people like you in this profession.)

My point is that traditional gatekeepers are still in place -- even though the process has become more open and, importantly, more public. Jennifer Howard's in-depth piece about Shakespeare Quarterly last month in the Chronicle of Higher Education makes this, and other, good points.

The Times also notes that peer review, although the Rosetta Stone of the tenure and promotion process, is deeply flawed. I concur. There are numerous examples one could cite of plagiarism, or poor practice, that seem to slip right through the peer review process. Add to this the fact that many, if not most, journals are famous for vetting processes that are as slow as Cream of Wheat going down the kitchen drain. Graduate assistants and faculty editors who lose track of manuscripts; readers who are given six months to complete the review and have to be pushed to complete it anyway; and the capacious use of "revise and resubmit" rather than bluntly saying the article is poor and needs to be completely rewritten -- all of these things and more are acknowledged problems with the academic publishing process that make many people reluctant to send work to journals.

Another outcome of cumbersome journal review mechanisms that many, if not most, scholars in the humanities and social sciences think are flawed, is that readers often receive manuscripts that are in horrible shape. Graduate students and young scholars are often counseled to send work out for review to -- well, to put it bluntly, get free advice from top people in the field, and to get their work "in the pipeline" in hopes that a journal will commit to it at an early stage. This is particularly true of dissertations and dissertation chapters. Dissertations are not, or are very rarely, books; and dissertation chapters are not articles. And yet, they are often sent out to readers as if they were, and the privacy of the process -- while it doesn't seem to stop readers from hemming and hawing and recommending that it be "revised and resubmitted" -- discourages the authors from being embarrassed about sending out work that isn't ready for review yet.

So I see what the Shakespeare Quarterly is doing as an important step in reforming the process. Even if other humanities and social science journals do not care for the experiment as it was conducted, they need to find some way to move towards the following reforms:

The period of time from submission to acceptance or rejection, should be dramatically shortened. Eight weeks is really sufficient; and actually, for many of us, looking at our calendar might mean spotting a free day for doing the review that is even sooner. Reviewers should be held to this date, and the date should be conveyed to the author.

Eliminate revise and resubmit. There should be two categories: accept and reject. One can give cogent reasons for rejecting a piece that do not prevent it from being revised and submitted elsewhere. One could recommend accepting an article pending revision of even serious flaws because it makes a real contribution that is as yet unrealized.

Journals should not accept articles they are not ready to put into production in the next year. Having a piece fully accepted and then delaying publication for a year to eighteen months is idiotic, and a drag on the system. It means that the value of article for the bean counters (those who are "counting" publications for merit raises, tenure, promotion) is often greater than the value of he article to scholars, or at least those scholars in the field who ought to be reading it. If it is worth reading, it is worth reading now.

All journals should begin enhancing their web presence immediately. Paper journals, at least in the humanities and social sciences, will eventually be dead -- you know it, I know it, and it is just a matter of time. Cuts in library budgets are damaging journals, but the problem is larger than that. Newspapers who spend around 80% of their gross revenue actually getting the newspaper-as-object to the reader, and I suspect this is true for journals as well. And what happens to those objects? I belong to three professional associations (two history, one interdisciplinary) who, between them, send me twelve journals a year. I just weighed the pile of journals pictured at the top of this post, and now know that 13.8 pounds of extremely good quality paper comes into my house on an annual basis in the form of journals, paper that is even more expensive because it has to be printed, transformed into a book-thing and mailed. Within the next twelve months, these high-quality and very aesthetic objects, sadly, will end up in the recycling bin, because who wants to accumulate over a foot a year of journals when they are searchable and readable on line? And when much of the material in them is not in one's field?

As an example, I would pay the same American Historical Association dues to not get a paper copy of the American Historical Review. This is not because the AHR isn't good, although there are entire issues that pass filled with beautifully researched and written articles that are so tangential to my work that I can't prioritize them in an already over-taxed reading life. But even if I did read them cover to cover, it is ecologically unsound and an utter waste of the organization's money. I have adapted to doing a significant portion of my professional reading on line and really, I wish they would use my dues some other way, like lobbying state legislatures to restore cuts in higher education and hire faculty full-time. The AHR might even consider paying the people who they engage to do peer review so they would do it in a timely manner.

Finally, moving to an all-web presence over time would permit articles and book reviews to be published in a more timely manner. They could go up when they -- or a cluster of like articles -- was ready. A regularly updated book review section could review books (gasp!) when they come out as opposed to, say two to four years later. Journals could respond to political and cultural developments in a more timely manner -- and perhaps even become relevant to a broader, educated audience.

***********************************************

Since you are too busy getting ready for the new students to check out my constantly updated toolbar, before you stop reading today, check out this brilliant post on cultivating "beginner's mind" at Roxie's World. It's especially aimed at veteran teachers who might be taking too much for granted at the beginning of the semester -- and missing the joy.

The Annals of Anxiety: Constructing Velcro Parents As A "Problem" For Higher Education

This morning I have been thinking about what kinds of criticisms are attached to warnings about cultural decline, and why. For example, our friend Historiann asks today why older people are always so critical of the young. Yeah, why is that? Particularly given the fact that generation after generation, young people seem to grow up into functional workers, consumers, artists, writers and financiers, no matter how much Facebook they do; how many video games they play; and how much/little they read.

Historiann's emphasis on why cultural critique dominates, at the expense of a more relational view of cultural change and material outcomes, is an interesting corollary to William Julius Wilson's 2009 reassessment of a sociological school of thought, of which he is a prominent architect, that highlights cultural explanations for Black poverty at the expense of structural analysis. In More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor In The Inner City, Wilson argues that structural forms of discrimination that are partly racial have acted in combination with other, non-racial, forces (such as the failure to invest in urban infrastructure and education, and workforce changes associated with globalization) to increase the burdens on Black people living in areas of core poverty. These things, he argues, cannot be separated from what is viewed by critics as cultural dysfunction in the same communities, such as the apparent unwillingness to work at low-paid jobs with no benefits. In other words, choices people make about their lives (many of which are heavily circumscribed by structural obstacles) and the world-view of the poor (which actually might be reframed as knowledge) are inextricable.

As if by a miracle, the New York Times printed a back-to-school article today which prompts a meditation on blaming and on anxiety about cultural decline. It's about those apparently pathetic dweebs -- late-boomer parents -- who cling to their children relentlessly when dropping them off at liberal arts and Ivy League colleges. Mocked relentlessly as "Velcro" or "helicopter" parents, they are the stuff of campus legend, to which hours of summer strategy sessions are devoted. They decorate their children's dorm rooms. They attend orientation. They book themselves into hotels for days, supposedly to help their children settle in, but in reality to help themselves separate. Extra deans are hired for the first week of school to hand out cheerful tee shirts and coffee mugs that say: "Get a life!"

OK, I'm kidding about the deans and the farewell tschochkes. But for a over a decade, residential colleges have operated under the assumption that late boomer parents are unnaturally traumatized about the loss of their babies, that they are likely to cling in annoying and unhealthy ways, and that their departure must be strategized like the draw-down from Iraq. Hence, the increasing importance of "'hit the road' departure ceremonies." My favorite is the one in which students and parents are placed on opposite sides of the room, and college speakers greet the students while literally turning their backs on the parents.

Here's your hat, what's your hurry? Don't forget to leave a check. Meanwhile, as you can imagine, we faculty are observing the scene of tearful departures and having a conversation that sounds like this:

"My parents just helped me carry my $hit upstairs, and then they left, and me and my roommates fired up the old bong-a-roony."

"My parents just unloaded my $hit on the $idewalk and drove away."

"My parents just put me on the red-eye with a duffle bag and a six-pack of beer."

"My parents just threw me out of the plane when it was circling over Harvard Square."

Silence.

"That's cold, man."

"Yeah, really cold."

"That's the way it was, man. Gotta learn to survive. Gotta grow up. Look at these pussies."

OK, that's also not true. But it is true that few of us in higher ed who decry the programming done around move-in day would admit what forces of repression had to be mustered to get through the experience of leaving for school. Which of us can recall accurately how the time between the arrival at college and our family's departure as a new and different unit that would go on forever (sob!) without us passed with time-warp speed? Or what it felt like to be left in a place, no matter how much we had desired it, where -- except for the kids who had gone to boarding school -- we hardly knew how to feed ourselves, much less find classroom buildings with strange names?

In fact, stories that critique parents for loving their children too much make me ask cultural and structural questions. One is: are today's parents yesterday's neglected children who are simply trying to do a better job than their own parents did? Is it perhaps better that parents and children are closer and more expressive with each other? In other words, to what extent does the devotion to children among late boomers demand reflection on changes in parenting styles during the 1960s and 1970s, a period in which bourgeois adults were putting their toes, and then their whole feet, in the waters of self-absorption at some cost to their children? A period in which vicious critiques of "momism," as arch-conservative Philip Wylie put it in 1942, gave way to parental detachment and teenage autonomy? Remember the live and let live middle class ethic of Bill and Pat Loud, of An American Family (PBS, 1973) whose children used their southern California ranch house as a crash pad while their parents floated in and out of the house on a diet of alcohol, cigarettes and extra-marital affairs?

To what extent are parents who we criticize for over-parenting simply reflecting, whether realistically or not, on how neglected they felt as they were booted out of the nest?

So that's the cultural argument that requires some investigation, but it is one that is almost exclusively focused on the middle and upper classes, as is the critique of helicopter/Velcro parenting. A more embracing, and structural, direction for research would look at a broader class analysis of college attendance. It would take more seriously the fact that leaving one's teenager at a residential college is an atypical experience nowadays, always has been, and because of the high cost of higher education, becoming more so. The vast majority of high school graduates who matriculate this fall will be attending community colleges and branches of the State U., living at home, and working between 20 and 40 hours a week to pay their expenses. I suspect this has always been a bigger part of the story than the middle class bildungsroman tells. A few years ago, I read a memoir by a working-class gay man from the Left Coast. One of the things he wrote about was applying and being admitted to one of California's then-stellar and inexpensive research universities without speaking to anyone in his family about it at all. The night he packed his ramshackle car, terrified that they would do something to prevent it, he told his parents he was leaving for college. To this man's great relief, and sorrow, no one in his family appeared to care about his departure at all. ("Wow," said a friend with a Ph.D. and a good teaching job, who also attended California schools, when I told her this story; "That's what happened to me too.")

Hence, we might ask, are generalizations about "parents," and how they behave when separating from their children, valid at all if they do not take into account the large number of generationally similar people who have a very different experience? We might ask: has "going away" to college ever been the typical, or even the most desirable, experience? We also might ask, given that tuition and fees alone at a residential college averages, according to the College Board, $7,020 (public in-state) $18,578 (public out-of-state) and a whopping $26,273 (private), whether there isn't an awful lot at stake for parents. I'm not just talking about the money: I'm thinking about the saving, the sacrifices, and the second mortgages parents are asked to take out to finance an education; the corollary investment in making the right choice, one that is not going to result in a year that has to be repeated because of getting off on the wrong foot; and the years of intangible investment in the teenager's readiness to attend college in the first place.

We have too little knowledge about what the high cost of college is really "costing" those who undertake it. Furthermore, why do we assume that the four-year residential college experience is the norm, when it no longer is -- and perhaps never has been? According to Department of Education statistics released in 2008 (see the summary report with reported data here) out of the 16.4 million students enrolled at four year post-secondary institutions that year, 12.6 million were enrolled in public institutions, 2 million of whom were enrolled part-time. Of the remainder, 3.4 million were enrolled in non-profit private schools and 1.6 million were enrolled in private for-profit institutions (an increase of 1.2 million students, reflecting the privatization agenda that was enabled, albeit poorly and at great cost to the taxpayers, under the Bush administration.) The student demographic that is growing fastest is students matriculating at community or junior colleges: in 2007, seven million students attended two-year institutions, and over half of those students were enrolled part-time, so we can safely assume that they too were working.

This is only to emphasize that, while the number of students attending four-year private schools is a healthy 3.4 million, it is at least equalled by those students who are working, attending classes at a local school part-time or on-line, and probably living at home. When you then add the number of students who are working and going to school full time; going to public or private schools and living at home; and attending non-residential for-profits, in fact the parental departure scenes depicted in the Times are suffered by relatively few students.

Hypothesis? The vast majority of students working towards a B.A., while they may be living at home, may be separating from their parents just fine, thank you. Research, please.