The Modern Era was born with a revolution. So begins Jacques Barzun’s seminal history, From Dawn to Decadence. Martin Luther might not have intended to ignite a revolution when he pounded his 95 theses into the door of Wittenberg’s All Saints’ Church on Oct. 31, 1517. (This practice was not uncommon in Luther’s day; it was a
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It’s almost a century since T. S. Eliot shocked the world with the avant garde innovation of “The Waste Land,” the fragmentary form of which reflected the fragmented brokenness of the modern world that it satirized. Like a modern-day inquisitor, Eliot questioned the value of modernity: “What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
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Lawful gun owners accounted for just 18 percent of gun violence, according to a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh. Researchers analyzed 762 cases in which a gun was recovered by the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police Firearm Tracking Unit (FTU). “Most perpetrators (79%) were carrying a gun that did not belong to
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Language disguises the thought; so that from the external form of the clothes one cannot infer the form of the thought they clothe, because the external form of the clothes is constructed with quite another object than to let the form of the body be recognized. The above is an excerpt from philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s
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Over the weekend, columnist Jay Mathews presented a revealing anecdote in The Washington Post about the nature of public education. According to Mathews, Maryland student Caitlyn Singam recently graduated at age 15 with an SAT score of 2200. Such a feat is impressive, particularly since her kindergarten teacher wanted to make Caitlyn a special needs
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At the end of last year, Learnalytics (powered by Renaissance Learning) released their report titled What Kids Are Reading, 2016. The report was based on data from 9.8 million students in 31,327 schools during the 2014-15 school year. Among its interesting interactive features is one that allows you to see the most popular books read by
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