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This is a report of a 6-month study of race relations in three public schools in the Saint Paul (Minnesota) metropolitan area. The study is intended to be the first phase of an attempt to improve intergroup relations and the social climate in Saint Paul, Roseville, and South St. Paul schools. Based on 154 interviews, 10 focus groups, and a written questionnaire completed by 1,576 students and 591 teachers, the study provides a composite portrait of intergroup relations and related issues in the 3 school districts. It cites program areas that should be developed as the beginning of a broad strategy to build more effective school communities. Teachers and students indicate that the schools are marked by deteriorating race relations, with high rates of racial harassment (54 percent of students complain), and only a tenuous peace. Students are divided along race and class lines, and feel little sense of community. Recommendations for a new broad strategy call for better leadership, mobilization of school and community leaders, and development of program models that are presently effective on a smaller scale. Five graphs present study findings. Both student and teacher questionnaires are attached. (SLD)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert