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JULY 22,1998
Page A4
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r i
Like the timeless presence o f old
soldiers, the curtain will never ring
down upon (the ’book’ will never
close on) Noah W ebster, com piler o f
the first ’A merican’ dictionary o f the
English language.
1 don’t know what I was thinking; I
believed that writing “conclusion” on
last w eek’s article would neatly wrap
up an arcane excursion’. Once ig
nited among the readers, there was no
way to arbitrarily end the intellectual
excitement sparked by a w ell-docu
mented account o f this pioneer in the
study o f th e ' m eaning’ o f words (and
concomitantly, their origin). An "ety
mologist.”
B io g ra p h e rs L e v itt, W a rfe l,
Rollins, et all say that “W ebster taught
him self twenty languages, including
Anglo-Saxon, Old Irish, Sanskrit and
Persian in order to discover how m od
em w ords and their m eaning had
evolved over centuries o f use.” Samuel
Johnson, author o f the preceding En
glish language standard excluded
m any o f W ebster’s words as “bar
baric innovations”... “American are a
race o f convicts who should be grate
ful for w hat’s allowed.
W hat I was not surprised to find
s p
e
was the large num ber o f Portlanders
interested in “cryptogram s, ciphers,
codes and secret w ritings'. My little
discourse on the use o f the Navajuo
Indian language to confuse Japanese
cryptographers during W orld W ar II
found many o f our readers quite fa
miliar with that strategy.
In the days when I had the tim e and
inclination, I spent a lot o f pleasurable
time solving or creating many codes
and cyphers. Yes, 1 read a num ber o f
books on Alan Turing and his code-
breaking machine w hich solved the
“Enigma C ode’ used by G erm an U-
boats and Nazi spies in W orld W ar II.
Fantastic!
The following two small books will
provide an easy introduction to the
field for any age group:
“Codes, Ciphers and Secret W rit
ings’, Martin G ardner “Cryptogram s
And Spygrams”, N orm aG leason both
may be obtained from Dover Publ ¡ca
tions, Inc. whose catalogs list many
scores o f books on mathem atical and
word recreations; 180 Varick Street,
New York, N.Y. 10014.
Several grandparents said they had
a sense that during the early and middle
1970’s there was a period when black
youngsters seemed to be doing fairly
well with language and reading skills.
I think they are quite right, because 1
was teaching half-time at PSU and
also contracting with the school dis
trict to develop programs to both
motivate and raise skills at the class
room level. Each week I was at a
northeast school.
I have a file draw er full o f reward-
ing accounts o f minority children, K-
8, who proved so easy to motivate -
when there was sustained interaction
with a dedicated (and competent) in
structor. Not only was I a witness ‘on
site’, but I had a realistic feedback as
chairperson o f the “ Minority Teach
ers Association.
Two striking instances o f this de
sirable interaction occur most imm e
diately. At the “Kellog” School, white
teacher Fern Morey was able to raise
“slow readers” to an inspired interest
in the written word. And she sent
unsolicited, glow ing descriptions o f
what could be accom plished with the
proper motivational material.
And at Tubman Elementary School,
a black teacher used my book, “ Black
Inventors o f America” as the physi
cal’ model for constructing a book:
Front and back covers, title page, table
o f contents and an index. This turns
out to be a rather formidable (and
rewarding) learning task for fourth-
graders, even at ju st 8 pages.
And believe it or not I have before
me a news article from Feb. 30,1991,
“The Humboldt School Chess Team
has made it into the “State Chess
Cham pionships” . D oug Strong who
is in charge o f the Humboldt team,
said (in 1991) “W e’ve had this team
for about five years now and w e’ve
been winning tournam ents since we
started. Each year we keep getting
better, smart kids, huh?
This, o f course, is the very same
school that a decade later required
“blow ing up” in order to reach an
acceptable level o f educational per
formance. It was suggested that spe
cial teachers and instructional modes
were needed to deal with “disadvan
tage dum m ies.”
W e would like to know who were
the "dum m ies” (within or without the
system) w h o d id n ’t or couldn’t follow
up and build upon the wonderful in
telligent, pupil base that was on hand?
W as this intentional?
Yes I did see the Associated Press
headline o f 7/15/98, “G erm any signs
o ff on erasing laborious’ language
rules.” Will thisbecalled “Teutonics”?
Tragedy in Nigeria Demands International Vigilance
The tragic, untim ely death o f
opposition leader C h ief M oshood
K.O. A biola on the eve o f his re
lease from prison threatens to re
v erse recent p ro g ress to w ard s
dem ocratic reform s in N igeria.
Rev. Jackson has spoken with the
A biola family to offer his condo
lences. He also expressed his d e
sire to help the family and the N ige
rian people in any w ay he can to
m ove forward in A biola’s spirit.
Contem plating A biola ’ s signi fi-
cance to the N igerian people. Rev.
Jackson said, “Like M andela, his
desire for freedom w as connected
to his desire for dem ocracy and
freedom for the w hole country.”
In the hours after learning o f
A biola’s death. Rev. Jackson said,
“This couldbeadestabilizing event.
I hope the people o f N igeria will
gather them selves and use their en
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T hank Y ou F or R eading T he P ortland O bserver
ergy to m ove forw ard tow ard de-
C h ief A biola yesterday to deter
m ine the cause o f death. Rev. Jack-
son supported the A biola fam ily in
their call for the autopsy to address
suspicions o f foul play. “T hesuspi-
cions are unavoidable,” said Rev.
Jackson. “A m onth ago, G eneral
A bacha, w ho w as the num ber one
impediment to democracy, died very
suddenly. N ow , less than a m onth
later, the num ber one force for de
m ocracy (Abiola) has died very sud
denly. So w e look forw ard to find
ing out w hat the doctors’ conclu
sions are.”
(Nigerians) start the downward spi-
ZMZA»OIVPU$H
C O A L IT IO N
m ocracy even thrugh their pain, fear
and suspicion. W e urge the people
not to let this alter their quest for
dem ocracy and the release o f the
rem aining political prisoners.”
Rev. Jackson continued, “I f they
ral into violence, they will destroy
every dem ocratic dream they ever
had. Instead they should turn their
pain into pow er and not into self-
destruction.”
An autopsy was perform ed on
To B e E qua I
A G
ear ,
B y H ugh B. P rice
P resident
N ational U rban L eague
How long does it take for an ethnic
group in America to climb out o f
poverty .’ And how can we know when
significant progress is being made?
W hat will the rate o f progress be for
African Americans?
The answer to that old American
question is being fashioned right be
fore our eyes these days through the
stories o f striving and success Afri
can Americans have posted in the
three decades since the civil rights
triumphs o f the 1960s.
The answer is also being crafted
b y th e n a tio n ’s - a n d B lack
America’s—response to the problems
which continue to beset poor black
neighborhoods, families, and indi
viduals.
I was drawn to consider this very
broad question when the federal Na
tional Center for Health Statistics
released its annual study o f births in
America earlier this month. Its most
surprising finding: The birth rate for
unmarried black women, one o f the
flashpoints in the debate over race in
America, has reached its lowest point
in 40 years.
According to the federal survey,
encompassing 3.9 million births in
1996, the last year for which figures
are available, the birth rate for un
married black women was 74.4 births
per 1,000 women. That is a remark
able drop from the peak birth rate
reached just nine years ago o f 90.7
per 1,000 unmarried black women.
The out-of-wedlock birth rate has
declined for all age groups o f black
women, federal researchers found;
and it comes amid a significant over
all downward trend in birth. Fewer
babies were bom in 1996 than m any
C onsistent M essaqe
year since 1987. But black teen girls,
until recently, the group with the high
est level o f births, showed the most
dramatic birth-rate decline.
Teen births among African Ameri
cans fell by 21 percent between 1991
and 1996, to just over 9 percent o f all
black teenage girls, Hispanic-Ameri
can teens are now most likely to give
birth, although their rates also fell,
from nearly 11 percent in 1995 to just
over 10 percent in 1996, their first
significant drop since 1991.
(For all teens, the overall 1996 birth
rate was 54.7 for every 1,000 young
women ages 15 to 19, down from the
1991 rate o f 62.1)
“There’s been no letup, and it’s not
been slowing down,” Stephanie J.
Ventura, the federal demographer who
wrote the report, told the New York
Times. “And it’s not ju st forteenagers.
For all black women under 30, the
declines have been really big.”
The figures took much o f the health
community by surprise.
But demographers and health ex
perts said that the good news probably
results from a combination o f several
different things: the precaution, includ
ing both increased use o f contracep
tives and abstention from sex, the AIDS
epidemic is causing some men and
women to take; the impact o f sex edu
cation, either within or outside o f
schools; and efforts by some organiza
tion to encourage abstention or the use
o f contraceptives.
Dr. Donna E. Shalala, the Secretary
o f Health and Human Services, said
referring to the decline in the black teen
birth rate, “W hat is significant is that
these declines are in every state. I give
a lot o f credit to the African-American
community, which has put out a clear,
consistent message from the churches,
from the schools, and all sorts o f civic
organizations, a drumbeat to young
women and young men that they
should not become parents until they
are truly ready to support a child; that
having children too early will limit
their options.”
That ’ s one o f the signi ficant points
to consider about this positive sur
prise: the importance o f sending out a
clear, consistent message.
T h e m e ssa g e th a t has been
“beamed” to young people in more
intense fashion over the past decade
has been to alert them to a vitally
important fact o f life: Nearly 80 per
cent o f children bom to unwed teen
age mothers grow up in poverty.
Put positively, the message has
urged them to follow three simple
steps to give them selves-and their
future ch ild ren -a chance to avoid a
life o f poverty:
First, finish high school.
Second, get married before having
their first child.
And third, hold o ff having that
child until they’re over 20 years old
themselves, and equipped to provide
for their family.
The federal statistics indicate that
our children are getting the message
It’s not being Pollyannish to cel
ebrate th at-even as we recognize the
need to continue to work to reduce the
still unacceptably high out-of-wed
lock birth rate. (69.8 percent ofblack
children were bom out-of-wedlock
in 1996, compared to nearly 22 per
cent for non-Hispanic whites, and
nearly 41 percent for Hispanics.)
We can take heart from Donna
Shalala'spoint that teen-age pregnancy
is most often a consequence o f a girl’s
feeling o f hopelessness about the fu
ture. If adolescents-girls and boys-
think they have a future, she pointed
out, they put o ff having babies
Fortunately, there still
P rogram s th a t rein fo rce
remains a safe haven on
your family’s values. We don’t
television. We re O PB , and w e’ve
think any budding young artist
got fu n , n o n v io le n t show s like
should be inspired by violence.
Barney & Friends.The Puzzle Place
D o you? O PB. Part o f a
and now A rthur, all part o f the
happy childhood for over
R eady to Learn Service on O PB.
a quarter o f a century.
T his
is why there ’ s
OPB.
OPB
www.pbs.org
The Ready to Learn Service on PBS n bnnight to
you in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Its Where You Belong
wwte.opb.org
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