The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

PHIL PONCE: Good evening. I'm Phil Ponce. Jim Lehrer is off this Thanksgiving. On the NewsHour tonight two views of the holiday meal from Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky and the new edition of the Joy of Cooking, plus a report on the drive to teach schoolchildren how to deal with their emotions and the Nixon tapes, as transcribed by the man who sued for their release. It all follows our summary of the news this Thanksgiving Day. NEWS SUMMARY

PHIL PONCE: Iraq today reaffirmed that United Nations weapons inspectors would not be allowed to enter the palaces of President Saddam Hussein. The announcement was made by Iraq's foreign minister, Mohammad Saeed Al-Sahhaf. He said the 78 palaces could be searched for weapons of mass destruction by international experts and diplomats but not by any UN inspectors in the region. Iraq extended that invitation yesterday. Today, Al-Sahaf said he wanted to clear up confusion that he said had developed over the terms of the offer.

MOHAMMED SAEED AL-SAHHAF, Foreign Minister, Iraq: The Iraqi initiative is completely out--out of the framework of this special commission and its inspection teams. It has nothing to do with that.

PHIL PONCE: White House officials issued a statement rejecting the Iraqi proposal. The statement said UN's weapons inspectors must be given conditional and unfettered access to do their jobs. Iraq also said today it may not renew its oil for food deal with the United Nations. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is considering a plan that would allow Iraq to increase the amount of oil it can export over six months to buy food and humanitarian items for its people. But a spokesman for Iraq's UN relief coordinator said Iraq was concerned about the slow approval of contracts under the deal and with terms of the contracts. The program is supposed to be renewed every six months. High winds today caused problems at the two major Thanksgiving parades on the East Coast in New York. Forty mile per hour winds were blamed for an accident at Macy's 71st annual Thanksgiving parade. A Cat in the Hat balloon, named after the children's book character, knocked down the light pole, injuring four spectators, one of them seriously. In Philadelphia, the winds forced organizers to limit their parade to smaller balloons, but dancers, singers, and musicians were able to continue marching in the city's traditional parade, which was first held in 1920. And across the country volunteers served Thanksgiving meals to the homeless. In Houston, organizers prepared enough food to feed 40,000 people, including 20,000 at the 13th Annual Thanksgiving Super Feast. In Indianapolis, volunteers prepared 20,000 for the Annual Mozel Sanders Dinner at an area high school. It was named after the minister who founded it 23 years ago. And in Washington volunteers served Thanksgiving dinners to some 3,000 homeless people on the capitol grounds. In Bosnia, American troops dined on a traditional Thanksgiving feast of turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. NATO Supreme Allied Commander U.S. General Wesley Clark joined the troops. About 8,000 U.S. soldiers are serving in the NATO-led stabilization force in Bosnia. And in space astronauts on board the space shuttle Columbia said they were also participating in Thanksgiving festivities. They spoke to reporters during a CNN interview.

KEVIN KREGEL, Mission Commander: We're going to celebrate here and right after this interview with a meal of turkey and cranberry sauce and some pumpkin cookies and pecan pie, so about as traditional as you can get and be at 150 miles up.

PHIL PONCE: The astronauts said they were able to talk to their family members. They are expected to return back to Earth on December 5th, in time for the next holiday meal. In Tokyo today Nike's Japan division said its offices were raided by government inspectors. A Japanese news agency said the Japan Fair Trade Commission was investigating claims that Nike has been trying to force retailers to keep prices up even as the popularity of Nike shoes has gone down. Last year, secondhand Nikes were selling for as much as $500 a pair. But recently prices have dropped. In a statement, Nike said it was surprised by the investigation but would cooperate fully. The nation's commercial airline companies began preparing today for inspections of nearly 200 Boeing 747 aircraft. The inspections and other safety changes were ordered yesterday by the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA wants to check the wiring and the fuel pumps of older 747's. Theagency also ordered new equipment installed in another 167 of the Boeing planes over the next 12 months. The government orders follow months of investigation into the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800 in which 230 people were killed. The cause of that accident is still undetermined. That's it for the News Summary tonight. Now it's on to a Thanksgiving poem, the new Joy of Cooking, emotional intelligence, and the Nixon tapes. FOCUS - GIVING THANKS

PHIL PONCE: On this Thanksgiving Day two remembrances of past celebrations. First, some poetry. We asked the nation's Poet Laureate, Robert Pinsky, to select something appropriate for the occasion, and he obliged.

ROBERT PINSKY, Poet Laureate: I'm going to read a Thanksgiving poem by an almost forgotten 19thcentury poet named Lucy Larcom--L-a-r-c-o-m. It's not a great poem, but it's a touching poem and very well written. Lucy Larcom reminds us that in the 19th century poetry did what a well-made topical made-for-TV movie might do. In her poem, a Union soldier in the Civil War, a young man who was a schoolboy just a few years before, is stationed in Georgia, and he remembers the Thanksgivings at home. Here are parts of Lucy Larcom's poem: "The Volunteer's Thanksgiving." "He remembers the Northern Thanksgiving. They're sitting at the table this clear Thanksgiving noon. I smell the crispy turkey, the pies will come in soon, and golden squares of pumpkins, the flaky mounds of mints behind the barberry syrups, the cranberry, and the quince. Be sure my mouth does water but then I'm content to stay and do the errand on which I have been sent. A soldier mustn't grumble at salt beef and hard tack. We'll have a grand Thanksgiving, if ever we get back. I'm very sure they miss me at dinnertime today, for I was good at stowing the provender away. When Mother clears the table and wipes the clatters bright, she'll say, 'I hope my baby don't lose his appetite.'" A bit further on: "Oh, dear, the Southern air grows sultry. I'd wish myself at home were it a whit less noble, the cause for which I've come. Four years ago a schoolboy, as foolish now as then, but they don't differ greatly I fancy, boys and men. I'm just 19 tomorrow, and I will surely stay for freedom's final battle, be it until I'm gray, unless a Southern bullet should take me off my feet. There's nothing left to live for if rebeldom should beat, for home and love and honor and freedom are at stake, and life may well be given for our dear union's sake. So reads the proclamation and so the sermon ran. Do ministers and people feel it as soldiers can? When will it all be ended? 'Tis not in youth to hold in quietness and patience, like people grave and old, a year, three, four, or seven. Oh, then, when I return, put on a big log, Mother, and let it blaze and burn, and roast your fattest turkey, bake all the pies you can, and if she isn't married, invite in Maryanne. Hang flags from every window. We'll all be glad and gay. For peace will light the country on that Thanksgiving Day."

PHIL PONCE: Poet Laureate of the United States, Robert Pinsky. FOCUS - A NEW JOY

PHIL PONCE: Now, on to other remembrances of past Thanksgivings and the way we eat, as reflected in the new edition of one of America's most famous cookbooks. We prepared this segment earlier this week.

PHIL PONCE: It's a whole new joy. After 66 years and previous updates, America's classic cookbook, Joy of Cooking, has been reinvented. The original Joy of Cooking was self-published in 1931 by Irma Rombauer. Widowed during the Depression, Rombauer hoped sales of the book wouldhelp her make ends meet. With her daughter, Marion, as the illustrator, Irma gathered recipes from friends and neighbors, added a dash of personality, mixed with helpful hints such as: "It is advisable to keep a can of tomato and a can of asparagus soup on the emergency shelf. These soups are delicious diluted with equal parts of milk." The result was the creation of an American classic that went on to become the country's most reliable resource of basic culinary information. Rombauer found a commercial publisher for the next edition in 1936, and the mother-daughter team revised the book every decade, guiding the home cook through the Great Depression, World War II, and the post-war boom years. When Irma died in 1962, Marion continued to revise joy until her death in 1976. Now, more than 40 years later, Ethan Becker takes his place alongside his grandmother and mother as co-author of the reinvented Joy. Becker is no stranger to cooking. After an extensive apprenticeship at home, he studied at the Cordon Blue in Paris. Since the last revision in 1975, there have been major changes in the way Americans view food. Nutrition experts now stress a diet rich in vegetables, grains, and fruit. Supermarkets regularly stock specialty produce like Portobelo mushrooms, new grains and beans, and ethnic cooking ingredients. And cuts of leaner meats call for different cooking techniques. The new Joy is the result of more than three years of cooking collaboration. Senior Editor Maria Guarnaschelli ignored the warning about too many cooks. Under her panel approach to produce a new version over 100 chefs and food authorities contributed to the final product. The cookbook has come a long way since Irma first published 395 pages in 1931. The All New, All Purpose Joy of Cooking contains close to 1200 pages and several new chapters, including, "Little Dishes:" appetizer-sized dishes from around the world including Dim Sum and Tapas; "Pastas, Dumplings & Noodles," which includes a full Asian section, as well as Italian fare; and "Sandwiches, Burritos, and Pizzas," containing everything from the classic peanut butter and jelly to rice paper roll-ups. For vegetarians: "Grains," and "Beans and Tofu." Unlike the old Joy's game chapter, which featured wild game recipes, such as squirrel, porcupine, and racoon, the new Joy features only farm-raised game, such as venison, rabbit, and buffalo. And gone is Irma's famous turtle soup recipe. Today turtles are endangered, and animals rights activists protested; the recipe was omitted. Only 50 of the 2600 recipes that appeared in the last revision of Joy remain unchanged, but creators of the new Joy promise readers the cookbook is still the one to turn to for perfect Beef Wellington and old-fashioned macaroni and cheese. Perhaps the most noted new recipe in the new Joy is "Wedding Cake," with instructions on stacking the tiers to frosting with the addition of butter cream roses. Keeping in step with modernizing Joy, the cookbook now has its own web site, full of Joy history, recipes, and a cooking quiz even an expert chef might find challenging. Pfeffernusse is not a rabbit stew at all, but a German cookie spied with black pepper; a mandolin, not for music, but to cut vegetables. Low scorers are assured that "soft boiled eggs are your forte." So far, 850,000 copies of The All New All Purpose Joy of Cookingare in print, but whether the cookbook will sell, the proof is in the pudding.

PHIL PONCE: For more now we're joined by Maria Guarnaschelli, editor of the new revised edition of Joy of Cooking; Barbara Haber is a culinary historian and curator of books at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College; George Tillman, Jr. is writer and director of the film "Soul Food," which was released in September; and Jerald Chesser is dean of the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute at Nichols State University. And welcome all. Maria Guaranaschelli, in a word, why was the update needed? What was wrong with the old Joy of Cooking?

MARIA GUARNASCHELLI, Editor, Joy of Cooking: Well, Erma and Marion updated the book every 10 years. They worked religiously to maintain what they knew was a valuable product, to use that word. And it's-- it's really not good for something as valuable to American culture and American life to go out of date. I think what's happened is that this book is becoming somewhat quaint in people's imagination, but Erma and Marion were always at the forefront of change. So we're really out of date. Also in the past 20 years--since the last revision--more has happened in food than has ever happened--

PHIL PONCE: Ms. Guaranaschelli--

MARIA GUARNASCHELLI: --since we started cooking.

PHIL PONCE: Were you concerned that some people might think you were tampering with an American standard, an American classic?

MARIA GUARNASCHELLI: Oh, I knew that would happen. It always is that way. Nobody likes change, especially because Joy is connected to I think happy times in people's lives, or important times, crucial times, when people get married, when they get their own apartment, even when they get a divorce. This is like a friend, a sign of stability. And Ethan always told me that his mother, you know, had got such horrible criticisms for taking recipes out, for making changes, and there were people in New York when we did all the press on this book who still remembered recipes from two editions ago that had been taken out, and they were still furious at Marion for doing that. It's a good sign. It means it's--it's a book; and it's a resource; and it's a kind of connection to our culture that few--that anything has really of such lasting value, so I had to change it so it could go into the next century.

PHIL PONCE: Ms. Haber, when people express their concern about a change in a book like this, what are they tapping into?

BARBARA HABER, Radcliffe College: I think food evokes nostalgia in people. It's like the letter home, that people can all remember stories of having editions from the Joy of Cooking prepared by grandma or mother. And so evokes home and hearth, and sentiment, even the mentality, I think.

PHIL PONCE: You have collected more than 12,000 cookbooks. When was the first American cookbook in use?

BARBARA HABER: Well, the first American cookbook was about 200 years ago. Amelia Simmons was the writer of the cookbook, and then another landmark book was Fannie Farmer, which came out a hundred years after that, in 1896. And I think in that march of major books that have made an impact on American cuisine the Joy of Cooking has been right up there. And do I have a comment to make about the choices that I think the editor was faced with in sort of giving into this sort of sentimental holdover from the middle of the century to looking ahead and because it seems to me that in addition to being an occasion for nostalgia the Joy of Cookinghas represented a kind of bible of American cuisine. I can remember a time when there was a friend of Julia Childs, as a matter of fact, who called me in desperation. She needed a recipe that was Barleduque. It was a French preserve. And I said no problem, I'll, you know, I'll check out all the French cookbooks, and I'll send it over. And I looked in all of the French cookbooks, and considerable stacks, and could not find that recipe. It's probably something that the French could go to the store and buy, but guess what, I found it in the Joy of Cooking. So it represents a compendium of information, and so that the choice to create a new bible of food appropriate for this time and place is what we have, and that makes sense.

PHIL PONCE: Mr. Chesser, you obviously keep abreast of changes in the world of food. What have been the major changes that you've noted in the past couple of decades?

JERALD CHESSER, Chef John Folse Culinary Institute: Well, I think you've seen a change to a society that's more willing to try new things. They are more interested in experimentation, a little more adventuresome nature with regards to the food that they eat. They also are still reaching back, though, for that comfort food. They're reaching back for what has kept a book like Joy of Cooking on the top shelf and has kept it in the hands of the people so long, because the food that they consume still holds with that nostalgia that was mentioned by Ms. Haber. It holds as a piece of their memory, a piece of their experiences, but the changes that you're seeing is simply that they're broadening their perspective and their willingness to try foods. They're also looking for it in a little more convenient form, when it comes to the food service side. And they're looking for it in a form that they can take and claim a little more as their own.

PHIL PONCE: Mr. Chesser, why do you think it is that Americans are becoming a little more adventurous?

JERALD CHESSER: Well, I think it's because of exposure. In the 50's and 60's the foods that were served in the restaurant operations or in the cafes was the food that was absolutely of that local region because that's what those individuals--unless they were in a particular part of society--were exposed to--but now through the means of TV, through publications, through the--available in the stores, through the development of the chain restaurants that bring a wide variety of foods--make 'em available to the individual at their local level, whether it be a blackened chicken, whether it may be an oriental dish, a Thai dish, whatever it may happen to be, all of a sudden that's in their own backyard, and so they are a little more sophisticated in their taste. They're not shy about trying it, as they were at one time.

PHIL PONCE: Mr. Tillman, how did you use food in your movie?

GEORGE TILLMAN, Jr., Writer/Director, "Soul Food:" Pretty much in "Soul Food" I used food as pretty much a character. It was interesting how Mr. Chesser said comfort food. That's what my grandmother called soul food in bringing families back together. And I wanted to make a film about how families come together around the dinner table. Pretty much that's a character. It involves families getting together and communicating. That's the way of bringing families together. And that's what I remembered when I was growing up in the late 70's/early 80's, food--dinners, Thanksgiving dinners were a way to have families get together and communicate. It kind of kept the family as the nucleus. That's what we wanted to do in "Soul Food." And that's pretty much what I want to represent in the film.

PHIL PONCE: In a way, though, your use of food goes beyond its use as a character. I mean, in the movie, as I understand it, food almost becomes a symbol of love.

GEORGE TILLMAN: Yes, it's definitely a symbol of love. It's the way everybody has positions in the film, just like in my family. My grandmother had the fried chicken; my mom had the potato salad. I mean, what it does, it allows us to grow as a family. It allowed us to sit down in pretty much established relationships. And once you break those bonds, I realized that my family, once we started having these dinners and stuff, and we stopped cooking together, we began to fall apart; we began to lose that--and that's what I wanted to say. That's why I wanted to use food pretty much as a catalyst of bringing the family together and keeping the families together.

PHIL PONCE: Ms. Guarnaschelli, as somebody who also looks at these things, how do you respond to the concern that people raised about the decline of the family meal and the impact that it could have on family cooking?

MARIA GUARNASCHELLI: Well, I don't think the family is as we knew it. It's just gone, and nobody has Sunday dinner anymore. When Marion wrote the Joy of Cooking in 1975, the last revision, Marion Becker, people were still having family dinner. People don't have, I mean, Sunday dinner, and even holidays you could count on turkey at Thanksgiving and say a ham or a rib roast or even a turkey again at Christmas. This has all changed. People have Chinese food on Thanksgiving. People go out to restaurants. But I think that's why comfort food is so important; the concept of comfort. I also think that mothers, our mothers did not cook. I mean, since this last revision it actually--a lot of women were really quite serious about getting out there into the marketplace and establishing careers, and I think cooking was not part of that role that--that new role that she envisioned.

PHIL PONCE: Ms. Haber, how about this? Has there been a real change in the attitude regarding who does what, as Ms. Guarnaschelli was talking about?

BARBARA HABER: I think if you--one of my hobbies is to look at cookbooks that were written by men, starting in the 1930's and 40's and 50's, and there was such a great amount of self-confidence about men cooking in those days. In order to make it okay, they had to develop a persona that makes fun of women of being too precise, and they are much more adventurous and daring and one of the fellows who writes on this subject talks about putting--he's such an intuitive cook he could put himself in the place of a--time to turn over- -you know--but all of it was postured at this point, and today whoever has the time and the inclination does the cooking, and there are no aversions on people's gender for doing it. But I'd like to raise another point about cookbooks, and that is that they are cultural artifacts; that sometimes people read cookbooks without ever going into a kitchen with a book; that it's almost become a genre. In other words, people can study a book. I think people can look at, for instance, all of the editions of Fannie Farmer, all of the editions of the Joy of Cooking, and be able to say something about the people for whom that book was--at that particular time in terms of what foods were available, what foods were popular, and what kinds of parties, what kinds of social occasions went on around food.

PHIL PONCE: Mr. Chesser, what changes have you seen in how Thanksgiving is observed? For example, can you give us a little bit of information about frying turkeys?

JERALD CHESSER: Well, the fried turkeys, of course, is a regional specialty of South Louisiana, and one that provides a turkey that's both moist on the inside and crisp on the outside. But I think that Thanksgiving, itself, I think bespeaks to this whole--to the whole idea of the family no longer dining together, of the cooking being minimized in the home. I think that the food itself, the cooking itself has become much more of a special activity. It's become something that is very, very important to the gathering, as Mr. Tillman was talking about. It's a time when they come together, when they bond, when they remember things. So Thanksgiving itself, if it has changed from the standpoint of what is served at the table, there again that would go back to this idea that they have a broader vista. They have been exposed to things. They have seen more things. They had more foods readily available to them to try. But I guarantee that what you will find on almost every Thanksgiving table in the coming week is food familiar to them, things that are associated with that Thanksgiving of the past. I think--for them--whether it be grandmother's raw apple cake, or maybe a dressing that was made by grandmother, mom, or dad, or whoever it may happen to be, but it may be that there's another item on the table that's different that would not have been there when they had that dinner originally.

PHIL PONCE: Mr. Tillman, do you think that in light of the fact that for many families they don't necessarily eat dinner together everyday, they don't necessarily have Sunday dinner, does that make events like Thanksgiving, do you think, even more important to them, because they are more and more a rare occasion, so to speak?

GEORGE TILLMAN, JR.: Yes. I think it makes it very important. I mean, I'm hoping--my reason for making "Soul Food" was to make it--to bring back what we remembered the most. You know, remember those dinners, remember--I think it was very important to keep families together. I think over the past 10 years--I think the younger generation is not experiencing what we have experienced, growing up, sitting around a dinner table. And I thinks it's very important for us to get back to that, get back to cooking, so Thanksgiving is not something special. And I think Mr. Chesser is right. You do get in specific dishes. Like, in my family, you know, specific dishes only are set aside for Christmas dinners or Thanksgiving dinners, and those times are very special. But I think we need to give back to, you know, sitting around a dinner table and talking to each other. I don't think we should hold Thanksgiving as a day where it's something special because we don't have dinners together anymore, and I think it was time for us to get back to that.

PHIL PONCE: Well, thank you all for sitting and talking to me. And Happy Thanksgiving to all. FOCUS - DEALING WITH FEELINGS

PHIL PONCE: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight, teaching children how to deal with their feelings and the Nixon tapes. Betty Ann Bowser has the emotional intelligence story.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Some of the kids in Miss Denuzzo's second grade class recently had a meltdown on the playground during recess. Eight-year-old Moddie was jumped by a bunch of girls who tried to take his play money. It's the typical kind of problem schoolteachers face every day, but Denuzzo didn't solve it in a typical way.

DAWN DENUZZO: Okay. Take a deep breath. All right.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Each child was allowed to explain their version of what happened.

MODDIE: They were just pushing me around, but they were choking me.

DAWN DENUZZO: Can you two talk this out for a quick second and come tell me one story.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: And then instead of sending all of the guilty parties to the principal's office, Denuzzo sent Moddie and the ringleader of the fight off by themselves to sort things out. In the end there was an apology and life moved on.

GIRL: I'm sorry. I didn't mean to.

DAWN DENUZZO: Is that okay with yo. Can you sake hands? Can you smile?

BETTY ANN BOWSER: What Denuzzo did was make the children use the social development skills they are being taught, just like reading and math, every day in her classroom at East Rock School in New Haven, Connecticut.

DAWN DENUZZO: Let's take a second to think about some things that make us excited while Billy puts the face up on the chart.

LITTLE BOY: When your ma says we won the lottery and come on we'll get in the limo. (laughter)

DAWN DENUZZO: Has that ever happened to you?

LITTLE BOY: No, but we'll keep on trying.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Social development or emotional literacy classes like these are being taught in 700 public school systems around the country. But New Haven is the first to teach it systemwide to all children, regardless of economic background, from kindergarten through high school. New. New Haven decided to teach social development seven years ago, after a study of the school population showed those who dropped out got pregnant, did drugs, and broke the law were also kids who lacked impulse control, problem-solving skills, and displayed anti-social behavior. Karol Defalco is one of the directors of the program.

KAROL DEFALCO, Program Director: Attendance rates have improved. The suspension rates and the expulsion rates have improved. The number of students who feel that fighting is an acceptable solution to a problem has decreased. They now find that there are other solutions to problems. The number of students involved in gangs, gang fights, carrying weapons, has all decreased.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: In the early grades social development focuses around a daily circle. The children are encouraged to talk about their feelings. The idea is to get the children to understand that feeling sad, feeling angry, feeling happy, or feeling lonely are all normal feelings.

DAWN DENUZZO: I want you to close your eyes and think about something that makes you feel lonely or a time that you were lonely.

BOY: When you don't have nobody to live with.

BOY: When your mother get dressed and you be alone; you be all by yourself with nobody there, just you.

DAWN DENUZZO: Children nowadays I think are dealing with things that are much more grown up than ever before. When I was in school, I don't think we dealt with the things that some of them are dealing with today, and social issues need to be addressed. The kids need to be able to come here and know that if they have to get something out, that they can. So the long-term goal is to teach kids that these feelings are okay and that everybody feels them, but how we deal with them is important, and then we make choices about how we deal with them.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Denuzzo teaches the kids appropriate ways to deal with loneliness and anger, and even though they are only second graders, when asked, they have a sense of how to use what they are learning.

TEACHER: Do any of you learn a better way to solve the problem with another kid?

LITTLE BOY: When your brother hits you, don't hit him back.

LITTLE BOY: If somebody call you a name, don't call them back a name because they're gonna keep on fussing with you.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: As students get older, the program deals with more sophisticated ways to make decisions, and the subject matter becomes more sophisticated too. In this middle school class students are asked what to do if a stranger offers them a cigarette.

TEACHER: But what could somebody do in that situation? I'll make a list.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: One by one the students go through ways they can address the problem and what the consequences would be from each solution.

STUDENT: I might tell 'em that they shouldn't smoke, and that's bad.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Teaching social development is part of a movement that believes in the importance of emotional literacy, or emotional IQ. The concept was popularized in a book that has become a bestseller all over the world. The author is Daniel Goleman.

DANIEL GOLEMAN, Author, Emotional Intelligence: Emotional intelligence is a phrase for a different way of being smart. It's not the usual way of thinking about it--academic smarts--IQ--it's how you do in life, how you manage yourself, your feelings, how you get along with other people, whether you're empathic, how well motivated you are. We've been over-sold on academics as a predictor of how well you're going to do in life. You know, at best, IQ predicts maybe 20 percent of life success, and a harder look suggests maybe it's closer to 10. If you look at studies of top performers, you find that it's their emotional intelligence abilities that set them apart from people who are at the average.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: But some school reformers like Jeanne Allen of the Center for Education Reform say social development classes take too much time away from academic training.

JEANNE ALLEN, Center for Education Reform: There's no empirical research to suggest that these programs actually do anything for the children in terms of education; that they actually get those children reading at grade level; that they get them knowing what they need to know with history and geography and all that other stuff; none.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: But Goleman says emotional intelligence programs do improve academic performance.

DANIEL GOLEMAN: I think it facilitates learning. Everything that we know about what it takes to learn shows that a child who's agitated, a child who's upset, a child who is impulsive and distracted is a child who does not learn.

Jeanne Allen: They're intended to make children feel good that are touchy-feely, that oh, I'm okay, you're okay; if you feel good about yourself, then you'll always do well. Meanwhile, they don't know any math.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Although no formal testing on academic performance has been done in New Haven, teachers like Susan Fineman see students making progress because she sees they are now thinking about what they do. Fineman has been a teacher for over 25 years.

SUSAN FINEMAN, Teacher: I see a calming feeling coming over the children, a better attitude about school. And even if the make the wrong decision, they know it's the wrong decision now, which is a really good step in the right direction.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: But critics say it's not just the content of emotional literacy that worries them; it's also how it is taught. Chester Finn, a former assistant secretary of education in the Reagan administration, says teachers are not trained to handle such a risky topic.

CHESTER FINN, Hudson Institute: I think it's dangerous--two ways: One is a poorly trained or inadequately trained person may do it very badly, and you could end up with a problem worse than you started with. That's a possibility. The other risk is that a lot of parents really don't think schools should be mucking around with their kids' psyches and with their kids' behavior.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Even supporters like Teacher Fineman believe they are asked to do Herculean tasks in school these days.

SUSAN FINEMAN: We'redoing so much that it could be overkill; that the teacher's job has expanded to such a degree that she is now a teacher and a social worker, a mother, a father, a breakfast person, a chef, whatever, but--

BETTY ANN BOWSER: And a psychiatrist?

SUSAN FINEMAN: And a psychiatrist, and whatever else has to be done. But I say if a teacher has to do that to get the child to learn, fine, because my main goal is not actually the social development program and my main goal is not to serve breakfast; my main goal is to teach the children information and to have them learn it. That's my main goal.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: But when it's not done right, the effect can be devastating, according to Eileen Rockefeller Growald, a pioneer in emotional literacy programs. Her sons attended a private school, where she says the program was mishandled.

EILEEN ROCKEFELLER GROWALD: With perhaps the best of intentions, people who are misguided can abuse programs in ways that emotionally abuse children, and they could be calling it some form of emotional literacy program, but if they're publicly humiliating a child in the midst of it, they're not doing a true service to the child.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Growald founded CASEL, the Collaborative for the Advancement of Social and Emotional Learning, an organization that is working with teachers all over the country to establish standards for programs. This fall CASEL will mail 100,000 curriculum development guidebooks to teachers all over the country. Even though she has had many hours in social development curriculum training, Dawn Denuzzo would welcome standards and new ideas. Every day her students bring more and more problems from home into her classroom.

DAWN DENUZZO: And I still am afraid that they're going to come to me with something that maybe is not within my boundaries to discuss or that I am not going to know how to deal with.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: Soon it may become clearer whether supporters or critics of emotional literacy in New Haven have academic statistics on their side. Some time in the next year the city hopes to begin a study to see if emotional skills really do improve test scores. FINALLY - ABUSE OF POWER

PHIL PONCE: Finally tonight the Nixon tapes. Margaret Warner prepared this look at a new book on the subject.

MARGARET WARNER: From February 1971 until July of 1973, President Richard Nixon secretly tape- recorded thousands of private conversations with aides and public figures. Forty hours worth of those tapes were released in April 1974. The resulting public outcry contributed to the President's resignation four months later. Throughout his later years Nixon fought to prevent disclosure of the remaining tapes. Now, nearly a quarter century later, more than 200 hours of those protected tapes have been transcribed for the first time and issued in book form. The book is entitled Abuse of Power. The transcriber and editor is University of Wisconsin Professor Stanley Kutler, the man who sued and won release of the tapes last year. He joins us now. Welcome. First of all, tell us, how extensive was President Nixon's taping system?

STANLEY KUTLER, Author, Abuse of Power: Well, it operated in the Oval Office, in his annex office of the Executive Office Building. It was in the telephones. It was at Camp David. It was pretty well covered throughout his offices.

MARGARET WARNER: And did he control--did he turn it off and on?

STANLEY KUTLER: No. That's what makes Nixon's tapes unique. They were voice-activated. The other Presidents that we know who had tapes, they pushed the button, they recorded when they saw fit, and when they wanted to. They turned it off when they wanted. But Nixon's were voice activated. No doubt, he was aware of the taping system sometimes. Sometimes I think he and Haldeman had what I would consider to be contrived conversations clearly for the record. But other times, as you know, when you're being taped, sometimes you become oblivious to it, and you just go on. And he did.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Now, briefly, how did you get access to these tapes?

STANLEY KUTLER: Well, the tapes were ready. They had been processed by 1987, and the National Archives promised an imminent release, which didn't come yet after five years. I had made numerous requests and finally thought there was no other place to go but to the courts, and along with Public Citizen, I filed suit--

MARGARET WARNER: That's an organization.

STANLEY KUTLER: Public interest law firm--filed suit in 1992, and the settlement came down four years later--two years after Richard Nixon's death. I have no doubt that Nixon's death enabled us to finally settle the case because in his lifetime I am certain he simply would not consent to the release of these tapes.

MARGARET WARNER: Now, explain why in the book almost all the conversations really only relate to Watergate.

STANLEY KUTLER: Well, to abuse of power is the technical term. That's mandated by law. Congress decided that in the 1970's, when they took over these materials. They said that the first release of material should be those materials relating to presidential abuse of power that occurred under the generic name of Watergate.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Well, now the first one we're going to listen to is on September 8, 1971, and that's really eight months even before the Watergate break-in, and we hear President Nixon and a top aide, John Ehrlichman. Give us the context for this conversation.

STANLEY KUTLER: Well, this is three months after the publication of the Pentagon Papers. Nixon is furious at the New York Times, other outlets, for leaking materials. Leaks infuriated him, drove him to the wall on any number of occasions. He sees the publication of the Pentagon Papers as some gigantic plot against him.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Well, now let's listen to this. And I should point out to our viewers that because under the terms of your lawsuit, these can't actually be broadcast, our correspondent Kwame Holman, it's going to be his voice we hear.

STANLEY KUTLER: Not for four years. KWAME HOLMAN: September 8, 1971, 3:36 PM in the Oval Office: John Ehrlichman: "We had one little operation. It's been aborted out in Los Angeles, which I think is better than you don't know about. But we've got some dirty tricks underway. It may pay off." A few minutes later the President asked about using the IRS to investigate Democratic contributors. Nixon: "John, we have the power but are we using it to investigate contributors to Hubert Humphrey, contributor to Muskie, the Jews, you know, that are stealing every--what the hell are we doing?" Ehrlichman: "I don't know." Nixon: "Are we going after their tax returns? Are we looking in Muskie's return?". Ehrlichman: "No, we haven't." Nixon: "Hubert, Hubert's been in a lot of funny deals." Ehrlichman: "Yes, he has." Nixon: "Teddy, who knows about the Kennedys? Shouldn't they be investigated?" Ehrlichman: "IRS-wise I don't know the answer. Teddy we are covering.".

MARGARET WARNER: All right now, what does this conversation tell us?

STANLEY KUTLER: Well, we talks about the little operation that's been aborted out in Los Angeles. The little operation was the break-in by the plumbers of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office. Ellsberg is the man, of course, who made the Pentagon Papers available. Nixon, two years later, justified this as a national security operation.

MARGARET WARNER: And all this is way before the Watergate break-in?

STANLEY KUTLER: This is Watergate before Watergate, by all means, yes.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Now the next one we're going to listen to is June 21, 1972, and this is just a few days after the Watergate break-in, and now the President is with another top aide, Bob Haldeman, and again, set the scene for us. What was the purpose for this meeting?

STANLEY KUTLER: Well, this is to start discussing the implementation of the cover-up.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Let's listen to it.

KWAME HOLMAN: June 21, 1972, 9:30 AM in the Oval Office: President Nixon: "What is the dope on the Watergate incident? Anything break on that?" H.R. Haldeman: "There's nothing new." Haldeman continued. "The question that John and I raised, both of us, have been trying to see whether there's something that we can do, other than just sitting here and watching it drop on us bit by bit as it goes along. Nixon: "Think of anything?". Haldeman: "John laid out a scenario, which would involve this guy Liddy at the committee confessing and taking, moving the thing up to that level, saying, yeah, I did it, I did it. I hired these guys, sent them over there because I thought it would be a good move and build me up in the operation. I'm the little guy." Nixon: "You mean, you'd have Liddy confess and say he did it unauthorized?" Haldeman: "Unauthorized. You establish the admission of guilt at a local level and get rid of it, rather than letting it imply guilt up to the highest levels, which is, of course, what they're trying very hard to do. By they, the press and the Democrats." Nixon: "Well, sure it is. I understand that." Later, Nixon interjected: "My view is that in terms of the reaction of people, the reaction is going to be primarily Washington and not the country because I think the country doesn't give much of a-- expletive --about it." Most people around the country think that this is routine, that everybody is trying to bug everybody else; it's politics.

MARGARET WARNER: Now, is this new information, the fact that the President was involved in the cover- up this early?

STANLEY KUTLER: Well, this is two days before the famous smoking gun tape, where Nixon and Haldeman discuss using the CIA to thwart the FBI investigation. But he also strikes another interesting theme here. He's convinced right away that the rest of the country will not be interested in it; this is just a Washington thing. It's a response that varies with different times. Sometimes he says, well, breaking and entering isn't a crime as long as you don't get anything that's very useful, and one time he says, well, breaking and entering Democratic headquarters is not really a crime. So--

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Let's go on to another one. This is just six weeks later, and again, it's President Nixon and Haldeman in the Oval Office, and let's just listen to it.

KWAME HOLMAN: August 1, 1972: 11:03 AM in the Oval Office: President Nixon: "Let's be fatalistic about-- expletive --thing." H.R. Haldeman: "If it blows, it blows." Nixon: "If it blows, it blows and so on. I'm not that worried about it to be really candid with you." Haldeman: "It's worth a lot of work to try and keep it from blowing." Nixon: "Oh, my, yes." Haldeman: "But if it blows, we will survive it." Nixon:"After all, Mitchell's gone, and nobody at a higher level was involved, the White House not being involved and all that stuff. And the Cuban crap in there. Are the Cubans going to plead 'not guilty?'" Haldeman: "I don't know, but everybody is satisfied. They're all out of jail. They've all been taken care of. We've done a lot of discreet checking to be sure there's no discontent in the ranks, and there isn't any." Nixon: "They're all out on bail." Haldeman: "Hunt's happy." Nixon: "At considerable cost, I guess." Haldeman: "Yes." Nixon: "It's worth it." Haldeman: "It's very expensive. It's costly." Nixon: "That's what the money is for."

MARGARET WARNER: Now, you actually heard the voices here. Were they as confident as the words appear?

STANLEY KUTLER: The mood in this conversation--I remember distinctly--and I even noted that in the book--the mood shifts a lot here. One moment Nixon's full of bravado, full of--

MARGARET WARNER: That the hush money can take care of everything.

STANLEY KUTLER: Very confident about the hush money can take care of everything, but there seems to be a little bit of whistling in the graveyard here. Maybe I'm looking backward, reading history a little bit backward there, but the mood and the tone of the conversation does alter and change throughout, but here is clear, clear evidence of Nixon's knowledge of the payment of hush money.

MARGARET WARNER: Let me ask you this. At any time in these conversations, did the President ever say, "You know, this is really wrong?".

STANLEY KUTLER: There are a number of occasions he says things that are wrong. I--if I may borrow one of his phrases--I understand that. Richard Nixon did have a moral center. Richard Nixon did have moral values instilled in him by his mother, whom he always praised. I think he did know the difference between right and wrong. And there are times when he is saying, but it would be wrong, he knows it's wrong, and yet he goes ahead and does the other thing. But there's a clear recognition of that in his talk.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Now we're going to go to a fourth day of conversations. We're actually going to have two. This is from April 28th of '73--so it's eight months after this hush money conversation. The President's at Camp David, and first we're going to hear--he's got a conversation with Ron Ziegler, his press secretary, and then two minutes later he calls Haldeman on the phone also.

KWAME HOLMAN: April 28, 1973, 8:21 AM: The President at Camp David: Ziegler: "Are Bob and John coming up today?" Nixon: "That's what they tell me. You know, I don't know. I don't know. As you know this is going to be a painful session. God, I don't--do you see--Jesus, what's your feeling on that?" Ziegler: "My feeling is the same, Mr. President." Nixon: "That they better move now, or the time will be gone?" Ziegler: "Yes, sir. I think so, absolutely. It seems it must be done." The President then telephoned Haldeman. Nixon: "I was wondering what time you and John could be up here?" Haldeman: "Well, I haven't talked with John yet this morning. We're both trying to finish up our written things." Nixon: "Bob, the most important thing that I have got to do is to make that speech, and I've got to get this, well, I'm not going to damn anybody. You know what I mean. Can I just--just in terms of my writing, which is terribly important," I've just got to go forward. Can I assume that the decision is made?" Haldeman: "Yes." Nixon: "I mean, you and John have made the decision, right?" Haldeman: "Yes." Nixon: "Now, if there's any reversal on the decision, I need to know."

MARGARET WARNER: All right. What are they talking about?

STANLEY KUTLER: There's so much going on here. This is April 28th. We're two days before Nixon comes on television to announce the resignation, so called, to Haldeman and Ehrlichman. And he's really dismissed. He has no choice at that point. He says it's like cutting off his two arms at that point. These days--he goes up to Camp David for several days beforehand. He's distraught. You can hear it in his speech. You--

MARGARET WARNER: And the speech he's talking about is the one he's going to make this announcement.

STANLEY KUTLER: Right. Right. And he's just terribly distraught the days before, but this is a terribly emotional moment for him.

MARGARET WARNER: And you can see it even in all of his broken sentences.

STANLEY KUTLER: Yes. They're just not very coherent. But you hear it in his voice. It's very apparent. Now, the last one we're going to listen to is a very brief excerpts from just three weeks later. It's May 16th of '73, and the President's in the Oval Office with his new chief of staff, Alexander Haig. Let's listen to that one.

KWAME HOLMAN: May 16, 1973, 8:45 PM in the Office: President Nixon: "We have to realize they're not after bob or John or Henry or Haig or Ziegler. They're after the President-- expletive -- Shit! --That's what it's all about. You know that--they want to destroy us." Alexander Haig: "Yeah. What they're hung up on, they're really in a dilemma up there. They want to get you and yet they don't. And that's tough for them too." Nixon: "You know, it's ridiculous that the President of the United States has to spend his time for the last almost two months worried about this horse's ass crap. Unbelievable!"

STANLEY KUTLER: There are two things here: One, it shows the remarkable resiliency of the man. This is just after being distraught and depressed when he's firing Haldeman and Ehrlichman, and on May 1st, he's back fighting, the favorite metaphor of his life, to fight. He's clearly doing it. Yet, there is a distraught note in here. He says that no one will believe the President of the United States has had to spend all of his time the last two months dealing with this crap, as he calls it. Indeed, you begin to see how April and May--this is just consuming his presidency and his time.

MARGARET WARNER: If you had to sum up, as an historian, what's the most important thing about these tapes, what is it? What's the most significant thing you get out of them?

STANLEY KUTLER: I think that we get, for example, very clear knowledge of Nixon's role in and knowledge of the cover-up. We get knowledge of a cover-up of the cover-up. The most important thing is I think that we have a number of occasions here where the President clearly confesses that the reason why he has to cover up is that he cannot bear--it's excruciatingly painful for him to publicly admit that he was condoning illegal break-ins in the Houston plan, the Ellsberg thing that clashed so violently with this image that Richard Nixon had so carefully nurtured for 25 years of "Mr. Law and Order." And he was at odds with that image. And you just hear the pain in his voice describing those things.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Well, Stan Kutler, thanks very much.

STANLEY KUTLER: You're welcome. RECAP

PHIL PONCE: Again, the major stories of this Thursday, Iraq reaffirmed its stance that United Nations weapons inspectors would not be allowed to enter the palaces of President Saddam Hussein and today was Thanksgiving. Americans across the country celebrated with parades and traditional Thanksgiving meals. We'll see you on-line and again tomorrow evening. I'm Phil Ponce. Happy Thanksgiving, and good night.