8 February Program
Melody Gordon
Education in the Dominican Republic
Melody, a professional sailor and chef at the Food Emporium, has a Bachelor of Science degree from University of New Hampshire. Residing in Oriental Melody’s hobbies include sailing and cooking. She has two sons and one grandson.
Sharing the island of Hispaniola with its tragic and troubled neighbor Haiti, the Dominican Republic is approximately 18,704 sq. miles. (about the size of Vermont and New Hampshire combined.)
Terrain: Mountainous.
Climate: Maritime tropical.
Population (1997): 8 million.
Annual growth rate: 2.6%.
Ethnic groups: European 16%, African origin 11%, mixed 73%.
Religion: Roman Catholic 95%.
Language: Spanish.
Education: Years compulsory–6. Attendance–70%. Literacy–83%.
Health: Infant mortality rate–54/1,000. Life expectancy–65 years for men, 70 years for women.
Work force: Services and government–31% (includes parastatal corporations); agriculture–28%; industry–12%; unemployment–about 16%.
(U.S. Department of State Background Notes 10/2000)
Education reform is a priority of the Dominican Republic in response to the forces of globalisation and the demands of the knowledge society. With the decline of traditional economic sectors such as sugar and mining, the rise of tourism, entry into the World Trade Organisation (1995) and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), there is the recognition that education is crucial to the sustainable development of the country. Over the past 15 years, significant progress has been made in reforms of both compulsory and tertiary education in the Dominican Republic. (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.)
Happy Birthday to a venerable youth organization, celebrating service above self…
The Boy Scouts of America, founded on this day in 1910, is the largest youth organization in our country. Scouting programs are designed to build character, promote fitness, and encourage good citizenship. Scouting and Boy Scouts are well known throughout American culture. Eleven of the twelve men to walk on the Moon were Scouts, with two of them being Eagle Scouts, Neil Armstrong and Charlie Duke. Over two-thirds of all astronauts have had some type of involvement in Scouting. The “pinewood derby,” for half a century “a celebrated rite of spring,” has been named part of “America’s 100 Best” by Reader’s Digest magazine. Scouts, with the help of parents, build their own cars from wood, usually from kits containing a block of pine, plastic wheels and metal axles.
Five years before the Boy Scouts’ founding, RI held its first club meeting on 23 February 1905 in Chicago. Paul Harris, Gustavus Loehr, Hiram Shorey, and Silvester Schiele met to talk about their personal experiences. Harris then unfolded his general plan for their club meetings. This was the simple beginning of the world’s first service club, the Rotary Club of Chicago. Harris’s wish was to capture in a professional club the same friendly spirit he had felt in the small towns of his youth. The Rotary name derived from the early practice of rotating meetings among members’ offices.
Rotarians continue to take pride in their history. In honor of that first club, Rotarians have preserved its original meeting place, Room 711 in Chicago’s Unity Building, by re-creating the office as it existed in 1905. For several years, the Paul Harris 711 Club maintained the room as a shrine for visiting Rotarians. In 1989, when the building was scheduled to be demolished, the club carefully dismantled the office and salvaged the interior, including doors and radiators. In 1993, the RI Board of Directors set aside a permanent home for the restored Room 711 at RI World Headquarters in the Chicago suburb of Evanston.
Partner’s Night on 15 February at the Oriental Women’s Club…6:00 p.m.
The GSE team from Brazil will not arrive on March 21. Planning is suspended until arrival dates are confirmed.
