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''You in the West see yourselves as 'the Free World,' but it was [Chester Bowles] who knew that we in emerging Asia and Africa see you as 'the Rich Nations.' '' ''Bowles had a world view; he compared Gandhi in southern Africa, then Natal and Transvaal, to Washington at Valley Forge and Bolivar at Boyaca. No American, before or since, has had that kind of intellect or sensitivity.'' They recalled pictures of the man, the lean, smiling face, the close-cropped hair, and they wondered aloud what would have happened had American policy after Indian independence from England been predicated on Mr. Bowles's understanding rather than that of former Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and others who little appreciated Gandhi and Nehru - better if Mr. Bowles had been the architect for Indian-American relations (they reminded me that he was one of the craftsmen of the 1960 Democratic platform). They dissected the United States alliance with Pakistan's military dictatorship and the pact that India, the world's largest democracy, has with the Soviet Union. And the students mentioned with pride that Mr. Bowles told President Truman that he preferred an ambassadorship to India, rather than to Europe, citing his belief that ''the history of our time will be written largely in Asia.''

Is reform of American elementary and suc ondary education mak ing any progress? Tough to tell, because the federal role m education is really vers -mall 'although fairly noisy. and at the suite level, the assessments seem rigged Either all students pass the new proficiency tests.

''I never feel safe at an intersection,'' a neighbor said soon after arriving from Iowa. ''Even after the light has turned green for a couple seconds, I still expect someone to speed through the red light.'' Maybe driving habits aren't any worse than anywhere else; perhaps it is my imagination. What about Massachusetts and passing on the right? Or New York City's infamous crazed driving. No, I'm convinced that there is no driving like Connecticut driving. How timorous of us to think that good models can't spread throughout the populous. (Just look at the cleanliness of Canadian cities: When you visit Montreal, Toronto, or Vancouver you don't litter because nobody does; the streets are clean, and you are so taken up by the positive environment that you support it and enhance it.) So why won't we improve in Connecticut? Maybe we can't because the problem is irrational, not susceptible to logical analysis. Perhaps the problem and our actions are mysteriously beyond our control.

Let us listen to the wise counsel of Nicholas Lemann, author of The Big Test: TheSecret History of the American Meritocracy. \"The obsessionwith testing measures chiefly one virtue -- the ability to take standardized tests, not wisdom or originality or humor or toughness or empathy or common sense or independence or determination -- let alone moral worth.\" Vito Perrone, director of teacher education programs at Harvard, is also critical, advising us that the assessment movement \"is more about standardization than standards, and the great danger, given all the state mandates, is that the richness of classroom dynamics will be narrowed and stunted.\" There are other telltale signs that it is time to come to grips with our fixationon being \"world-class\" in everything. Did youknow that one of the strategies for winning the World Cup in soccer by 2010 is to convince as many outstanding high school athletes as possible not to go to college, but to train? Did you realize that at Wake Forest the athletic department and alumni boosters are trying to figure out how soon theycan sign a ninth grade quarterback in a Charlotte school toa letter of intent. In our classrooms, in the legislaturesand on our athletic fields, it's time for a millennial attitude adjustment. As parents, let's resolve to keep our anxieties to ourselves and work on teaching our children the joys of living, learning, and playing. Let's refocus the education debate about standards by connecting testing to the curriculum and emphasizing the school's accountability to parents for quality performance.

From the cover of Eightball & MJG's 1995 single, \"Space Age Pimpin,\" which depicts the duo as rotund astronauts aboard a rocket ship, to the art for Snoop Dogg's 1998 comeback, \"Tha Game Is to Be Sold Not to Be Told,\" in which the artist lounges atop a gold throne flanked by Dobermans with gem-encrusted collars, Pen & Pixel has supplied some of the funniest and bestselling graphic identities in record industry history.

Can you tell a CD by its cover?

Can you tell a CD by its cover?

Disc-Overy, his debut LP, went straight to Number One in the U.K. last year (\"Chris Martin told me it was his favorite album to work out to\"), and a U.S. version is due this spring.