1 A MILITARY EDUCATION AT WEST POINT

Today we answer a question from a listener in Brazil who wants to know about the United States Military Academy at West Point.

West Point is a college for future Army officers. It has more than four thousand students. The students are called cadets. The school is located about eighty kilometers north of New York City.

West Point is the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States. General George Washington built a fort there during the Revolutionary War. The aim was to protect the Hudson River from the British soldiers. He moved his headquarters to West Point in seventeen seventy-nine in the middle of the war.

In eighteen hundred and two, President Thomas Jefferson signed legislation to establish the military academy at West Point.

The education centered on civil engineering. West Point graduates designed many roads, bridges, harbors and railways for the young nation.

Today, math and science are still a large part of the education. But cadets can choose from almost fifty areas of study.

If cadets major in the humanities, they must also take many classes in engineering.

Not all the young men and women at West Point are American. This year, fifty-eight are from other countries. As many as sixty cadets can be international students.

International students are nominated by their governments.

They must satisfy physical and educational requirements. They must also do well on the Test of English as a Foreign Language.

After graduation, they return home to serve in their nations armed forces. Other services besides the Army also accept foreign students at their academies.

Major Joe Sowers, a West Point public affairs officer, says information about the military academy is available through American embassies. He says the presence of international students at West Point serves a purpose for the Army.

Major Sowers says cultural understanding is important for a modern-day officer. He says the American cadets begin the process of understanding that the world is bigger than their hometown and West Point and the United States of America. He says it is important for the cadets to establish relationships with those who come from different backgrounds.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report. You can learn more about higher education in the United States from our Foreign Student Series at voaspecialenglish.com.

2.A REVIEW OF EDUCATION REPORTS THIS PAST YEAR

In two thousand nine, Special English Web site users began posting comments about our stories on our Web site. The Education Reports have received many of those comments.

We began the year in the middle of our Foreign Student Series. These were reports about how foreign students could attend a college or university in the United States.

The report that received the most comments--seventy-three--told how to qualify for free training at an American community college.

The next highest number of comments was forty-nine. They were about a report on services at American colleges that help foreign students adjust to studying in the United States.

Close behind with forty-eight comments was a report about financial aid. Forty-seven comments followed a story about college student grade expectations. And forty-six people wrote in reaction to our guide to writing college papers.

Other education stories included the deaths of college test preparation pioneer Stanley Kaplan and music educator Bess Lomax Hawes.

We explained the work of school nurses. We had a report about what foreign exchange students thought about American high schools. We discussed the California digital textbook program as well as the use of digital textbooks in general.

We talked to education experts about teaching handwriting, choosing a college, and publishing research in medical journals. And we looked at the job market for American college graduates as well as for foreign students who finish their educations at American colleges.

Now we would like your help. Please write with suggestions or questions you would like us to answer about American education. We might be able to answer them on this program. In December, for example, we answered a question about educational technology.

And we are preparing to answer a few other questions. One is about educator John Dewey. Another is about the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Post your comments and questions on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs, including our Foreign Student Series. We look forward to hearing from you. And thats the VOA Special English Education Report.

3. GETTING SCHOOLS NOT JUST TO GO GREEN BUT TEACH IT, TOO

Charter schools operate with public money but without many of the rules that govern traditional public schools. In the United States the rules for charter schools differ from state to state. But in general these schools have greater freedom to decide what to teach and how to teach it. A charter school might be independent or connected to the local public school system. It might be started by teachers, parents, community groups or, in some cases, a profit-making business.

The "charter" is a performance contract. It establishes the goals of the school and other details like how student performance will be measured. Forty-seven million students attend traditional public schools. But more than a million students attend charter schools.

And now a group of charter schools have formed the Green Charter Schools Network. The idea is to have environmentally friendly school buildings but to also go further than that.

The schools teach students to become involved in community issues that affect them and the environment. For example, young children grow crops in a school garden and learn about healthy eating. Older students help recycle waste from the cafeteria. And local schools share what they grow in community gardens with people in need.

Jim McGrath is president of the Green Charter Schools Network. He says there are about two hundred "green" charter schools across the United States.

He says the plan is to also include traditional public schools as well as private schools. He says every action we make has an effect on the earth. And we all need to be change agents so that we do not destruct our natural resources for future generations.

The Green Charter Schools Network holds its first national conference this October in Minnesota. It will include companies and organizations like Waste Management and the United States Green Building Council. Supporters of green schools say their goal is to expand the movement across the country.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report.

Is your school doing anything special to "go green"? You can tell the world by posting a comment at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also read and listen to all of our reports and watch captioned videos. Plus, we now offer a verb phrase of the day by SMS. The service is free but standard message rates may apply.

4. HIGH-SPEED TRAINS MAY BE COMING TO CALIFORNIA, FLORIDA

People in Europe and Asia have enjoyed high-speed trains for years. This Japanese train set a speed record of 581 kilometers an hour. Yet the fastest American train reaches less than half that speed. It operates only between Washington and Boston. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says changes are coming to American trains.

RAY LAHOOD: The day will come when you can see travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco in under three hours going 220 miles per hour.

Work on a high-speed train could start in California in two years. Conditions might be right for such a train. President Obama has announced plans to spend eight billion dollars to develop high-speed railroads. John Risch is with the countrys largest labor union for railroad workers.

JOHN RISCH: In California alone, it is estimated that 160,000 construction jobs would be created just to build those two high-speed rail corridors.

The federal project will develop 13 high-speed rail links. Steve Kulm works for Amtrak, the passenger railroad company. He says only the links in California and Florida will truly be high-speed.

STEVE KULM: There is a difference between, you know, high-speed in Europe and Asia and high-speed in America. In Europe and Asia, they are dedicated tracks where only high-speed trains operate on. Here in America, our passenger trains share tracks with slower freight trains.

Most of the money will go to improve service on slower trains and existing transportation. Kulm says Amtraks fastest train is already competing with airline companies.

STEVE KULM: Before, between Washington and New York, the passenger train only had about 37 percent of the market. Today, Amtrak has 61 percent of the market compared to air flights. Same thing that happened on the north end of the corridor, between New York and Boston.

Environmental groups have praised the project. Howard Lerner is head of the Environmental Law and Policy Center.

HOWARD LERNER: On a per passenger-mile basis, rail is about three times as efficient as travel by car, in terms of fuel efficiency, and six times as efficient as travel by air. So there are pretty substantial pollution reduction benefits, both in terms of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.

John Risch of the United Transportation Union has other reasons.

JOHN RISCH: Passenger trains are the safest form of transportation available with the exception of the elevator. Trains are fuel efficient, they relieve highway and airport congestion, and they also reduce our dependence on foreign oil, making trains -- passenger trains -- the safer, cleaner, greener transportation option.

Critics say the federal money will start many small projects, but not finish them. Supporters of the plan say it will lead to a new form of public transportation in the United States. I'm Doug Johnson.

5.JOHN DEWEY, 1859-1952: EDUCATOR AND 'AMERICA'S PHILOSOPHER'

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

We had a question from China from a listener who wanted to know about John Dewey.

John Dewey was an influential thinker and educator. The New York Times once called him "America's philosopher."

Larry Hickman is director of the Center for Dewey Studies at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. He was not surprised that the question came from China.

Mister Hickman told us he just returned from two weeks of meetings in Beijing in December. He and Chinese educators discussed the close relationship between Dewey's ideas and those of Confucius.

He also worked with a group of Buddhists who like Dewey's work very much because it goes along with some of the ideas of Mahayana Buddhism.

John Dewey described his ideas in books including "Democracy and Education," "The School and Society" and "How We Think."

Mister Hickman said Dewey was perhaps the best known philosopher, educator and public intellectual of the twentieth century. He was active in many fields, including education, philosophy, psychology and humanistic and humanitarian affairs. He was an important influence in the founding of the American Association of University Professors and the American Civil Liberties Union.

He was also influential in the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, although he himself was white.

John Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont, in eighteen fifty-nine.

He was influenced by the scientific work of Charles Darwin. He was also influenced by the work done with immigrant English learners in Chicago by Jane Addams. She was a social worker and the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. And Dewey was influenced by observing his own children.

At the University of Chicago, he founded the Laboratory School. But Dewey would likely have disagreed with many current practices in American education, like the wide use of standardized testing.

Larry Hickman said Dewey thought that testing had its place, but that testing should be more like medical tests. They should be testing for individual needs, interests and abilities, and not to compare one student to another.

John Dewey died in nineteen fifty-two. But Dewey scholar Larry Hickman says his ideas are still being taught in education schools.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report.

6.LETTING RELIGION INTO THE CLASSROOM, BUT SETTING LIMITS

Public schools in the United States have to be neutral about religion, even though they close for holidays like Christmas. The Constitution separates religion from government. Researcher Charles Haynes explains what it says.

He says: "'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ... '

Those sixteen words provide the framework for how we deal with religion in our public schools."

Those words are part of the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of expression and other rights. Charles Haynes is a senior scholar at the First Amendment Center, a group that studies free expression issues.

In the last generation or so, different groups have encouraged public schools to celebrate diversity and cultural differences. At the same time, courts have ruled against any publicly supported celebrations of one religion over another.

Charles Haynes thinks the schools are generally doing a good job.

He says: "So public schools now I think understand that their role is to expose students to learning about different religions in a fair way, an objective way. Their role is to protect the religious liberty rights of students; if they want to express their faith, they may do so. But school officials under the First Amendment may not take sides in religion."

Hollie Jones teaches six year olds at a public school in Loudon County, Virginia. Each December, she has her students make posters about their own celebrations at home and present them to the class. The posters are discussed and then shown on the walls at the school. Ms. Jones says: Some students will do Hanukkah, some Kwanzaa, some Christmas. Some we've had in the past do the Chinese New Year.

Some children come from families with more than one religion.

Hollie Jones says the children always ask lots of questions about the traditions of other families. She says this gives them an understanding about how different and diverse the students are.

And Charles Haynes says that is one of the purposes of public education in America.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. You can find transcripts and podcasts of our reports, and you can post comments, at voaspecialenglish.com. And you can find us on Twitter and YouTube at VOA Learning English.

7.SOME CROPS CAN HELP FARMERS PREPARE FOR DISASTERS

Farmers may not be able to prevent natural disasters, but they can at least try their best to reduce losses.

For example, they can plant crops that are more likely to survive extreme weather. In north-central Vietnam, people with small farms do not plant rice between September and December. Seasonal rains might destroy the rice. So instead, they plant lotus seeds on raised beds. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says the lotus seeds bring a good price in local markets.

Farmers in the Philippines are showing new interest in crops like winged beans, string beans, arrowroot and cassava. The Asian Disaster Preparedness Center says traditional crops like these can survive the fierce storms that often strike the islands.

The United Nations says some African farmers grow bambara groundnuts during long dry periods.

The seeds of this drought-resistant plant can be boiled for eating or for making flour.

In some parts of the world, farmers grow vetiver grass. Researchers in Thailand wrote about vetiver in two thousand seven in the journal ScienceAsia. They noted that the grass can absorb and control the spread of harmful wastewaters, like those from pig farms.

Agricultural expert William Rivera says vetiver resists difficult conditions. It reduces damage from heavy rains. And vetiver planted on earthen dams may strengthen them against breaks and flooding.

William Rivera also speaks approvingly of alfalfa.

Its deep roots can find and take up groundwater. Those roots also help hold the soil against winds.

And alfalfa can be a valuable food source for animals.

The deep and extensive roots of sunflowers make them another good candidate for resisting extreme conditions. The tall plants have brightly colored heads that provide seeds and oil.

North Dakota grows more hectares of sunflowers than any other American state. But North Dakota is better known as a top wheat producing state.

Hans Kandel works at the North Dakota State University Extension Service in Fargo.

He says farmers in some parts of North Dakota plant wheat that is ready to harvest in only about one hundred days. That way it can grow before the hot, dry months of July through September.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. You can find captioned videos of our reports along with transcripts and MP3s at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also post questions and comments.

8.STUDENTS' WRITING AND THE WEB: MOTIVATOR OR OMG?

Web browsers first appeared on computers in the early nineteen nineties. Since then, the Internet has greatly changed the way people communicate. But some teachers think the changes are not all for the better.

Eleanor Johnson is an English professor at Columbia University in New York City.

Professor Johnson says she thinks text messaging has made students believe that it is acceptable to make bad spelling and grammatical errors.

She says her students have increasingly used less formal English in their writing. She says words and phrases like "guy" and "you know" now appear in research papers.

And now she has to talk about another problem in class -- incorrect word use. For example, a student uses "preclude" instead of "precede" when talking about one event coming before another. Preclude sounds like precede but it means prevent.

Professor Johnson suspects a strong link between the rise of instant and casual communication online and an increase in writing mistakes.

But she admits there may not be much scientific evidence, at least not yet.

David Crystal is a British linguist who has written more than one hundred books, including the book "Language and the Internet." He says the actively changing nature of the Internet makes it difficult to stay current in studying its effects. But he believes its influence on language is small.

He says the main effect of the Internet on language has been to increase the expressive richness of language.

Erin Jansen is founder of Netlingo, an online dictionary of Internet and text messaging terms. She says the new technology has not changed existing language but has greatly added to the vocabulary. "Basically it's a freedom of expression," she says.

And what about teachers who find these new kinds of mistakes in spelling and grammar in their students' work. What is her message to them?

Ms. Jansen says she tells them not to get angry or upset, but to get creative. Teachers and educators want to get children to communicate.

But Erin Jansen and David Crystal agree with Eleanor Johnson on at least one thing. Teachers need to make sure students understand the rules of language.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report. We want to know what you have to say about the effects of the Internet on language and writing. Post your comments at voaspecialenglish.com.