In Brief

By DANIEL S. LEVY

CRACK THOSE BOOKS Just how good are those textbooks your kids bring home from school? Project 2061, a math-, science- and technology-education reform initiative of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, has just rated the most widely used middle school science textbooks. Not one got a satisfactory grade. It isn't that the books are chock full of mistakes; rather they don't teach kids critical thinking. Since textbook publishers seldom make changes unless sales are threatened, parents and educators need to push for better materials.

HERO WORSHIP Until now there has been very little research on what kind of images of American men are conveyed by the media to teenage viewers. A new study by the child-advocacy group Children Now reveals that 74% of men portrayed in movies and on television take part in such antisocial behavior as ridiculing, being aggressive or carrying out defiant acts.

LOOK WHAT WE HAVE HERE According to a study released last week by the Safe America Foundation, 53% of teenagers said they had at one time or another come across websites containing pornographic, hate-based or violent material. More disturbing, 91% of them said they had unwittingly found the material while conducting research for school or just surfing the Web. Parents say they monitor this, but kids say not so.

--By Daniel S. Levy