Grammarians and lovers of the English language will either be intrigued or horrified by a recent piece for The Atlantic. In it, writer Vann R. Newkirk II makes the case that “y’all” NEEDS to be adopted into common usage beyond the American south. Newkirk points out that there are “no distinct second-person plural pronouns in
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People tour the nation’s capital to be delighted by symbols of America’s greatness and history. They seek out monuments and museums that pay tribute to the nation state and its works. They want to think about the epic struggles of the past, and how mighty leaders confronted and vanquished enemies at home and abroad. But
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Several years ago, a little boy I know set out to make and enter a project in the state fair. He gathered his supplies, came up with a design, and forged a hand-crafted knife – blade and all. While his creation was quite impressive, the state fair was not amused and refused to let him
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The world has now seen several decades of something quite new: explicitly anti-child policies. By this one might think I am referring to the “one-child” policy in China. And to a certain extent I am. Fines and the withholding of education and other services, not to mention forced abortions, rather comfortably fit within any definition
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Some close friends of mine regularly invite children from an inner-city program to their hobby farm. The kids always have a blast doing all the things that farm kids do: chasing chickens, running by the garden, through the orchard, and so on. After one of these outings, my friends were driving the children back to
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In a recent blog for the New York Times, pediatrician Perri Klass reminds us that in the full range of normal, healthy child development, some kids are just plain more difficult than others. It seems like she is stating the obvious, but is this a reminder that our society desperately needs? While we live in
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