Thomas Jefferson was one of the most famous critics of the news media. He went so far as to write, “The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them.” Was Jefferson’s scorn unfair, or did he have a point? Should people read less news if they wish to
READ MORE
The other night I testified (via telephone) before the Alaska state legislature, on the standards their public schools are adopting for classes in English. I’d read the standards but didn’t have them in front of me, so I was taken aback when one of the representatives plucked a directive out of all the verbiage and asked
READ MORE
In Forbes today, columnist Erik Sherman addresses a common mistake that politicians and the public make about education. All too often, writes Sherman, “we move from ‘education is good’ to ‘education will fix income inequality’ or otherwise charge the economy.” Because the public has believed such taglines, the push to send every student to college
READ MORE
In 1638, a man named John Harvard died and bequeathed half of his estate and his library of over 400 books to a fledgling college in Massachusetts. Today, we know that college as Harvard University. To the modern ear, many of the titles John Harvard left to the college are unfamiliar and likely known to
READ MORE
Will and Ariel Durant are famous for their magisterial 11-volume survey of human history titled The Story of Civilization. After spending fifty years of studying and reflecting on the history of mankind, they are at the very least an interesting authority to consult on the matter. In The Lessons of History—written after they completed their
READ MORE
Cop blogs can give you a fascinating insight into what’s going on behind the badge. If you want to get a glimpse of the realities and politics of police work in Chicago, check out Second City Cop, which gets about half a million pageviews each month. Some of it is rather humorous, like this request
READ MORE
Most Read from past 24 hours
Most Read from past 7 days
Most Read from past 30 days
Most Read of All Time
Most Read of All Time
