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  • Why Schools Should Teach Rational Discourse

    Why Schools Should Teach Rational Discourse0

    The day before the 2016 election, the Minneapolis Star Tribune ran a revealing story on the state of rational discourse in today’s schools. The story centered on two young men – Elijah Rockhold and Sam Buisman – from the public high school in Chanhassen, a suburb of the Twin Cities. Although Rockhold and Buisman are

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  • Why Schools Should Reconsider Abandoning This One Simple Subject

    Why Schools Should Reconsider Abandoning This One Simple Subject0

    Over the weekend, I spent a good deal of time reading a fascinating book entitled “Lords of the Earth.” The book tells the true story of Stanley Albert Dale, an Australian who eventually went to the primitive mountain regions of Papau, Indonesia, to work with a number of stone age cannibal tribes known as the

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  • Why Schools Need to Go Back to the Basics of Writing

    Why Schools Need to Go Back to the Basics of Writing0

    Once upon a time in America’s schools, teachers were instructed to teach their students the basics of good composition. According to Bernard Sheridan, a school superintendent in Massachusetts in 1917, these basics included: An absolute mastery of ‘the sentence idea.’ Freedom from glaring grammatical mistakes. Correct spelling of all ordinary words. Unfailing use of the

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  • Why Schools Need a ‘Curriculum of Family’

    Why Schools Need a ‘Curriculum of Family’0

    Who should be a greater influence in a child’s life: parents or teachers? Many would say the latter. After all, teachers are the professional experts who know about childhood development and the elements of a good education. They are the ones who can get children through school, into a good college, and eventually into a

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  • Why Schools Must Stop Relying on ‘Best Practices’ When Teaching Writing

    Why Schools Must Stop Relying on ‘Best Practices’ When Teaching Writing0

    When it comes to writing, American kids just don’t cut it. Only 27 percent of eighth grade students achieve proficiency in the subject, according to The Nation’s Report Card. That shouldn’t surprise us given the type of writing instruction which takes place in schools. Today’s writing instruction, a recent op-ed from The Hechinger Report explains,

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  • Why School Choice Won’t Fix Education

    Why School Choice Won’t Fix Education0

    President-Elect Donald Trump has announced Betsy DeVos as his choice to head the U.S. Department of Education. The pick is a clear signal that the Trump administration is intent on pursuing school choice, a fact that the wailing and gnashing of teeth among the self-interested educational establishment would seem to confirm. But it is important

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