2:11 ""Zeke's Heap"" by Jay April. Segment about a communal compost heap run by Tim Dundon, aka ""Zeke the Sheik."" The county health department is trying to force the removal of the giant compost pile, claiming it is a public nuisance. The people in the town organize a protest to save the heap. 7:02 Bill Kurtis commentary. Kurtis, a Chicago anchorman, warns of environmental catastrophe. 14:14 Public Service Announcement by Paul Tassie. A PSA featuring a dog that urges us to control automobile emissions. 15:16 Dr. Noel Brown commentary by Wendy Appel & Alan Barker. Brown, Director of the U.N. Environmental Program, claims that environmental destruction is vastly outpacing our ability to correct it and is one of the most critical problems in the world. ""The first problem is atmospheric and climate change, then there's the problem of disappearing species, and then the problem of a freshwater resources, we're polluting water at a much faster rate than we're conserving it. This is a very urgent matter, people must get involved, we've got to cut back CO2 emissions by 60%. The consequences are unpredictable...nature may not be able to keep pace. We're looking at the implications to see what the government should do."" 30:17 More from Dr. Noel Brown. ""The industrial center of gravity is shifting from Europe and the West to Asia and the Pacific. What will happen when 3 billion people begin to make claims on resources at the level that the West has? What will happen when people in China begin to drive cars at the same rate as those in the West? What will happen when Eastern Europe develops market-driven economies? These are new questions, what are the environmental implications?"" 31:51 ""Earth Day: Berkeley, California."" By Karen Einstein & Peter Wolf. We learn that Pacific Gas and Electric has set up a booth at the Berkeley Earth Day festival, having paid $5,000 to gain this more environmentally friendly image. 32:51 More from ""Zeke's Heap."" We go on a tour of Zeke's lush garden and learn what elements come together to produce such superior soil. 36:38 Murray Bookchin commentary by Luana Plunkett. Writer/activist Bookchin addresses environmental issues from a sociological perspective. ""I tried to show the idea of dominating nature stems from the idea of dominating people. My radical background in social theory leads me to believe that our ecological problems stem from social problems."" 41:48 Public Service Announcement by Paul Tassie. A PSA warns that garbage never disappears and urges recycling. 42:49 ""Postcard From the U.S. Environmental Film Festival"" by Bill Stamets & Mark Waters. Denver Post film critic Howie Movshovitz criticizes the intentions of Hollywood filmmakers and actors gathered in Colorado Springs, Colorado to discuss their commitment to save the environment. Ed Begley, Jr. is one of the guests. 47:29 ""Earth Day: Washington, DC"" by Eddie Becker. Popeye joins the ecology movement. ""I'm Popeye the sailor man, I recycle my spinach can...Anyone who pollutes the air, earth, or ocean is nothing more than a criminal!"" 49:03 ""Steve Brill, Wildman"" by Esti Marpet. In Central Park, New York City, the ""wild man"" conducts tours pointing out edible plants and teaching about conservation. In 1981, when he was leading tours in New York's parks, he was arrested and charged with criminal mischief for picking plants. After that, he made a deal with the city and now he's an official Park Department employee. His advice: ""Enjoy this planet, it's yours to partake of, it's yours to protect."" 56:30 More from ""Zeke's Heap."" The order to remove Zeke's heap has been rescinded because of public support. People celebrate under credits.

01:53 ""Plamondon School"" by Kathie Robertson. On Chicago's West Side, Principal Guadalupe Hamersma talks about the troubles facing low income urban schools. ""It's a mistake excusing ignorance because of poverty. I really feel that if you have high expectations and find ways to help kids meet those expectations, kids will achieve."" She also feels that these kids should not be concentrated in poor schools but instead should be integrated into schools in wealthier communities. ""I feel it's important for kids have to get out of their neighborhood because the resources are so limited."" 10:07 ""Sebastian & Molly"" by Dee Dee Halleck. Two kids sing parodies of children's songs that have been altered to feature the demise of teachers. Sebastian sings: ""On top of the chalkboard, all covered with blood, I shot my poor teacher with a .44 slug..."" Molly adds a tune dedicated to her teacher Miss Owens: ""Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream, throw your teacher off the boat and listen to her scream!"" 18:54 Leon Lederman commentary by Ricki Katz. Lederman, a Nobel Prize winning physicist, speaks about the poor state of education in America. ""In the '60s we were making the best cars, the best machines, and then all of a sudden we weren't anymore. School systems around the world were getting better than us. Something happened to this country in the late '60s to do with the Vietnam War. It created a malaise in our students, it created a dropout mentality. I don't think you can blame it on one thing, but that was a sort of milestone, one from which we have never recovered. Our text books were watered down, we neglected our teachers' salaries. Right now we're spending more per capita per year than any other country - $380 billion a year on higher and lower education. We have to turn the education system around, but we have to 'leverage' money very carefully in order to fix it."" 29:24 Bill Ayers commentary by Jim Morrissette. Ayers, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and former member of the radical group The Weather Underground, speaks about education. ""In many ways schools are very effective. They function as large sorting machines, sorting kids out along class, racial and gender lines. We complain but we never fix them. I want them to not train people to fit into hierarchies, I want them to train students to participate fully in a democratic society."" 31:18 ""Harbor College"" by Nancy Cain. In Los Angeles, Cain visits a ""college"" for grade school kids that teaches stock market history, finance and business. 34:50 Murray Bookchin commentary by Luana Plunkett. Writer / activist Bookchin speaks about the misconceptions people have about education. ""Education today is confusing the accumulation of information and data with the pursuit of wisdom. We are not becoming wiser, we are learning a lot of data that has no meaning, no relevance. Education should provoke, should stimulate the student to thinking. What we call education to day is, in my opinion, nonsense!"" 40:32 Bill Ayers commentary continued. ""Most teachers teach for the right reasons - they're altruistic, optimistic and they love kids, or they love the world, they love art, mathematics, or music enough that they want to share this with kids. Their motivation is transformation. But they go to colleges of education where they effectively ignore that or beat it out of them. So they become involved in structures which reward obedience, conformity and being a clerk. School systems are becoming enormous bureaucracies toppling under their own weight."" 44:13 ""William Wilson"" by WTTW. Wilson, a music teacher at Hubbard High School in Chicago, won a Golden Apple Award for excellence in teaching. His philosophy: ""I never accept the word can't. I say 'erase that 'T''."" His students report on Wilson's unique teaching style. ""He treats everyone like his own child. So we have three parents: mother, father, and Mr. Wilson."" 47:18 ""Public Education: It's a Bull Market"" by Hobart Swan. This tape traces the history of business involvement in education. In April 1990, the California State Assembly made a historic recommendation allowing Channel One, a commercial news station, to broadcast in public school classrooms. If this recommendation becomes law, commercials for candy bars and potato chips will become part of daily curriculum. However, this may not necessarily be a new thing. Public school children have always watched industrial films produced by private companies. In years past, children learned about electricity from electrical companies, ecology from lumber companies, and nutrition from sugar companies. 55:54 More from Leon Lederman. ""TV is a tremendous force. It could do a lot of things. The typical scientist is portrayed as a weirdo stroking a cat and talking with an accent. TV owes an obligation both to entertain and to teach. We need he roes in science, we need good role models so kids can say this is not a nerd operation."