Lessons

Visitors to Baltimore not shepherded through on official tours or staying in the Inner Harbor see what members of the Society for International Development would describe as the Third World. The organization, whose members are luminaries of foreign aid, held its triennial meeting at the posh Omni Shoreham Hotel inWashington last weekend as debt ceiling battles were raging a couple miles away in the Capitol. It would have been better for the group to hold its meeting in Baltimore, as some of the suggestions aimed at bettering far-away places in Africa and Asia could have been picked up immediately here.

THE JUXTAPOSITION could not have been more striking: Hiroshima and Hanoi -- two wars with two very different endings, and two very different lessons.The bang that concluded World War II, in addition to ushering in the atomic age and all that implies, taught us anew that victory requires might. In the half-century that's followed we've spent much of our treasure making sure no one is mightier. Candidates soft on defense" have seen their political lives comes to untimely ends. And now in Congress, Republican senators, convinced they can't trust the Defense Department of a Democratic administration, are busy adding more money to the Pentagon budget than the generals have asked for, including funding for Ronald Reagan's missile defense system, Star Wars.

It is only 2 in the afternoon, but I sit in front of the word processor drained and listless after one of the most numbing experiences in my life: shopping for a piano.The piano, it should be pointed out, is not for me. I myself can barely tap out "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" on the $8.99 Fisher-Price xylophone in the playroom.No, the piano is for my 9-year-old daughter, who announced the other day that she'd like to take lessons.This, she hinted, would inevitably lead to her complete mastery of the instrument, a full music scholarship to an Ivy League school and a financially secure life as a recording artist.

There are some useful lessons in the announcement this week that drug usage has taken an alarming upturn among young people during the past year, as measured by a respected, long-term study conducted by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research.The upward direction in drug use during the past two years indicates a reversal of an encouraging downward trend that began more than a decade ago. In 1979, for instance, 54 percent of 12th graders told the researchers they had used an illicit drug in the previous year.

Of all the lessons Hollie Rice will learn while studying at Towson State University, probably none will prove more memorable or valuable to her than the lesson of the past several weeks.Last month in the University Union, the 18-year-old sophomore was chatting with a friend about a course taught by David Bergman, a highly regarded TSU literature professor who happens to be gay. A young man -- a stranger to both Ms. Rice and her friend -- butted into the conversation to make anti-gay and anti-Semitic remarks about the professor.

As we move toward the second half of 1994, and in response to many requests, we print "Investment Lessons I Have Learned Over 50 Years," expanded from a five-part series I produced on WBAL Radio's News Journal several weeks ago.These lessons apply in any stock market -- too high, too low or fairly valued -- including yesterday's upbeat session when the Dow Jones industrial average rebounded 48.56 points to close at 3,685.50, partly offsetting last week's 140-point loss.REGARDING STOCKS: (1)

Christine Flanagan was considering giving up teaching fire prevention when a house fire changed her mind. "I wasn't sure the kids were getting anything out of it," she said recently. "Then one day after a house fire, the crew came back and said, `Chris, a little girl you taught saved her family's life.'" The child told the firefighters how Flanagan had taught her what to do in the event of a fire - get everybody out of the house and call 911. The fire could have been deadly if the child hadn't remembered Flanagan's lessons.

DEAR daughter,It's hard to believe that in only a few days you will be among the hundreds of young men and women in Howard County who will receive their diplomas as high school graduates.As you walk across the stage at Merriweather Post Pavilion, I know my thoughts will travel back to that first walk you made, across the living room floor to your pop. At 9 months old, your gait was steady. You exhibited the confidence that I have now come to expect from you.Pulled up stakesI know that hasn't always been easy.

Seamus Martin, former Moscow correspondent and international editor of The Irish Times, has reported on conflicts throughout the world, including those in Chechnya and Northern Ireland. He considers what lessons they offer for the war in Iraq, where by yesterday uniformed forces of the regime had disappeared and U.S.-led forces were entering an unpredictable civilian environment. There is no harm in euphoria provided it does not last too long. The victory should be celebrated but this should be done with an eye to the future.

Ronald W. Price, the Anne Arundel County social studies teacher who admitted to having sex with as many as eight students (and is charged with three counts of child sex abuse) has thrown a few more logs on the bonfire of national concern over sexual harassment in schools.The publicity surrounding the Price case and several others, combined with a report from the American Association of University Women purporting to have found a national "epidemic" of sexual harassment by both students and teachers, has put the education establishment on the defensive.