My status as a poet and book critic has certainly led to an assortment of (http://www.merrellshoesdiscount.com) classroom experiences: workshops, discussions of my poems, a behind the scenes look at the evolution of one of my book reviews, a project where students submit to publications outside our community, anecdotes about writers I have been lucky enough to know, and applying writers' statements on craft to what we've read.
But those are all little day today issues; what has really mattered has to do with philosophy and attitude.
Most importantly, my writing life has given me the confidence to challenge and extend notions of what student writing is allowed to be and do. My students complete an independent writing project each semester: There is a sequence of parts to the project, but the form and content are up to the student, as is the pacing and schedule (except for the final draft). My challenge to them is: You have no other choice but to be a writer of some kind, but you may be a writer of any kind. What choice do you make (http://www.merrellshoesstore.com)
In all kinds of other assignments, from argument to autobiography to research to literary response, I let—often insist—students use "I"; I allow purposeful one sentence paragraphs and sentence fragments; I push them to include quotations from friends and family. And in terms of preparation for state tests, I do just a bit more than the required minimum because I know if I have students reading and writing regularly, widely, and authentically, then the only real challenge they'll have with the state's demands is the fact that those demands are at best counterproductive, at worst ignorant. The writing itself will be far beneath them. When they're done with those silly hoops, they can get back to their real work. And so can me.
The findings, published in the Food Additives and Contaminants Journal, confirmed what consumers of organic food have taken for granted but did not settle the argument over whether organic food is safer than conventional food treated with chemical pesticides. The debate gained prominence in February 2000 when John Tassel, a correspondent on the ABC News program "20/20", reported that testing had proved that the levels of pesticide residues in conventional produce were similar to those in organic produce, making organic claims a fraud. Though Mr. Tassel withdrew his statement - such testing had never been conducted - his report alarmed supporters of organic agriculture and those like Consumers Union who do not oppose the use of synthetic pesticides but want stricter standards.
The findings are based on pesticide residue data collected on a wide variety of foods by the United States Department of Agriculture from 1994 to 1999, tests conducted on food sold in California by the state's Department of Pesticide Regulation from 1989 through 1998, and tests by Consumers Union in 1997. The combined data covered more than 94,000 food samples from more than 20 crops; 1,291 of those samples were organically grown, about 1.3 percent.
The Agriculture Department data showed that 73 percent of the conventionally grown foods had residue from at least one pesticide and were six times as likely as organic to contain multiple pesticide residues; only 23 percent of the organic samples of the same groups had any residues. The study also looked at why organic foods contained any pesticide residues. When residues of persistent pesticides, like DDT, were excluded, the percentage of organic samples with residues dropped to 13 percent from 23.
The findings were minimized by opponents of organic agriculture, like the American Council on Science and Health, which gets 40 percent of its financing from industry. "So what?" said the council's Dr. Gilbert Ross. "The health risks associated with pesticide residues on food are not at all established.11 think the amount of pesticide residues to which we are exposed on our foods pose no significant health risks to human beings."
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