News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
About 1.8 million children disappeared from their homes in 1983. Government officials said thousands were abducted and were never heard from or reunited with their families.
Sidney Kimmel gets kudos and well-deserved ones for his $110 million gift to Thomas Jefferson University that was announced yesterday, June 17.
The school will rename its medical school Sidney Kimmel Medical College.
Kimmel, born in 1928, was the son of a cab driver and grew up in Philadelphia. He went to Temple University where he dropped out.
In 1970, while working for the Maryland chemical firm W. R. Grace and Company, he founded Jones Apparel Group where he made a fortune.
Forbes magazine ranked him 655th richest person alive in 2010.
Kimmel has been involved in making movies through Sidney Kimmel Entertainment (SKE). SKE productions included United 93, which chronicles the events aboard United Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001 and The Kite Runner. Both were highly acclaimed.
Kimmel lives in California with his wife Caroline Davis but Philadelphia remains close to his heart. He was the prime mover behind the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, and has donated millions to The National Constitution Center; the Raymond and Ruth Perelman Jewish Day School and The National Museum of American Jewish History, all in the city.
So again, kudos to Mr. Kimmel.
SS United States in her glory daysThe storied SS United States that has been rusting at Pier 82 in Philadelphia since 1996 has receive a shot of life from businessman Jim Pollin, who has given a $220,000 check to the SS United States Conservancy, the non-profit dedicated to is preservation.
The ship, built in 1952, still holds the speed record for a westbound trip from the Britain to the United States at 34.51 knots which is 40 m.p.h.
It also continues to hold the Blue Riband, which is given to fastest passenger liner crossing the Atlantic in regular service.
The United States, would be an excellent tourist attraction for the area. It would make a great floating hotel or a place to watch fireworks on the Delaware River. It certainly would be a more interesting casino than the existing ones in these environs.
The eastbound Atlantic speed record, by the way, is now held by Hoverspeed Great Britain, an ocean-going catamaran, which set it in 1990 with a speed of 36.6 knots.
Thank you again, Mr. Pollin. Hopefully, someone with a similar interest in our heritage can be found to help save the USS Olympia.
Pupil and student are words used interchangeably which is unfortunate as it would be useful to treat them distinctively in keeping with their roots.
Pupil comes from the Old French pupille which comes from the Latin pupillus which means orphan child ward/minor.
Student comes from the Old French estudiant which means “one who is studying” which comes from the Latin studiare which means “to study”
Someone who is being uneducated unwillingly — which would be just about all those in primary schools and most of those in secondary ones — would be best called pupils.
It is not demeaning and there is no shame in it — we were all there after all — but it is an honest description and the young sense hypocrisy and insincerity better than most, we think.
Involuntary education is necessary but calling first graders and such students, debases that word. An opportunity is missed that they are one day going to find something they wish to study without compulsion. Even worse, by doing so a demoralizing implication is made that this will never happen.
That, of course, is a tragedy.
It is important that there are basics that everybody knows and understands. Once those are out of the way, though, compulsion starts to develop the stench of indoctrination.