Our Times: Social Entrepreneurs Enrich Education in the 1990s
Chez Panisse's Alice Waters with students in the Edible Schoolyard outside Martin Luther King, Jr., Middle School in Berkeley, CA. Photo courtesy Thomas Heinser.
1990
Alan Emtage, a McGill University student, develops the first program to search the Internet, dubbed "Archie," for archives. This lays the groundwork for others, including Yahoo and Google, to create a global searchable library that is accessible from an individual computer.
1991
In Savage Inequalities, Jonathan Kozol demonstrates how impoverished children are denied a future as a result of the shockingly ill-equipped, poorly funded, understaffed (and informally segregated) schools in inner cities and less affluent suburbs. The book is hailed as a "ringing indictment of the shameful neglect that has fostered a ghetto school system in America."
Star Wars filmmaker George Lucas creates the George Lucas Educational Foundation to encourage innovation in schools by documenting, disseminating, and advocating best practices in K-12 public schools.
1994
Alice Waters, chef and food activist, begins her "Edible Schoolyard" project to teach students to grow and prepare their own school lunches, bringing food into the class curriculum.
1997
In his book Brain Lock, research psychiatrist Jeffery M. Schwartz, describes how he uses brain imaging and cognitive-behavioral therapy in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OC), and proves the neuroplasticity of the adult brain — i.e., its ability to form new transmission routes with new neurons, which reinforces the capacity and hope for becoming lifelong learners.
Bill and Melinda Gates launch the Gates Library Foundation to bring computers and Internet access to public libraries in low-income communities in the U.S. and Canada.
1998
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the first of J. K. Rowling's books about a boy wizard at Hogwarts School in England, is published in the United States, sparking a new reading boom. Midnight celebrations, with young readers lining up at bookstores, will launch subsequent volumes.
1999
To help more students, particularly low-income, Hispanic, and African American students, graduate from high school "ready for success," Bill and Melinda Gates turn their Library Foundation into the Gates Learning Foundation, with a $1.3 billion endowment. By mid-2007, they have contributed $3.5 billion to help improve the nation's schools.
About the Authors
Mark Ciabattari is a novelist and cultural historian, and author of the forthcoming book Social History of the United States: The 1940s. Jane Ciabattari is a widely-published journalist and frequent contributor to NRTA Live & Learn.
This article originally appeared in NRTA Live & Learn, Summer 2007, as a 60th Anniversary Extra.
