When you think of inner-city teenagers, what springs to mind? For many, it’s hoodies, video games — and probably hating Shakespeare. But my research proves that this stereotype is far from the truth. Shakespeare holds a contested place in the English national curriculum as the only compulsory writer to be studied between the ages of
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Red flag gun laws are suddenly popular in America. Colorado recently became the fifteenth state to pass such a law. The law, the tenth such passed since the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, will allow authorities to seize the private property—firearms—of someone deemed a risk to himself or others after successfully petitioning
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In the late 1940s, my father, Kenneth Billingsley, a veteran of World War II, was working in a mine in the northern reaches of Manitoba. So through no fault of my own, I was born a long way north of the border. Despite childhood stints in Alliance, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan, when I sought to
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(This story was originally published by Intellectual Takeout on April 13, 2017.) On April 21, Christians will be celebrating Easter, the day on which the resurrection of Jesus is said to have taken place. The date of celebration changes from year to year. The reason for this variation is that Easter always falls on the
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Recent headlines have been screaming out a familiar story: teen suicide rates are increasing. Suicide was the second leading cause of death for teens in 2016, and the teen suicide rate jumped 70 percent over the previous ten years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are many reasons one could find
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(This story was originally published by Intellectual Takeout on March 29, 2018.) That the most important weekend in Christendom is fraught with busyness is hard to deny. New clothes, chocolate bunnies, egg hunts, and time with family make it easy to slip past the Easter holiday without reflecting on its meaning. If such is your
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