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The Real Problem with American Education?0
- October 25, 2016
Since its beginnings, America has directed most of its educational energies toward creating average students. Already in 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville observed in his classic Democracy in America, “I do not believe that there is a country in the world where, in proportion to the population, there are so few uninstructed and at the same time
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Lost in translation: five common English phrases you may be using incorrectly 0
- Culture
- October 25, 2016
English is a language rich with imagery, meaning and metaphor – and when we want to express ourselves we can draw upon a canon replete with beautifully turned phrases, drawing from the language’s Latin, French and Germanic roots, through Chaucer and Shakespeare right up to myriad modern wordsmiths – not to mention those apt aphorisms
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Booker T. Washington’s 3 Tips for Today’s Schools 0
- Education
- October 25, 2016
Although it hasn’t been discussed very much this election cycle, it’s a well-known fact that education in the United States is in a sorry state. Something must be done… but what? That same question was likely in Booker T. Washington’s (1856-1915) mind as he struggled to educate and advance the position of freed black slaves
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The Greatest Generation? What Malarkey!0
- Culture
- October 25, 2016
With due allegiance to persons and places, it is only right that we should love and respect our parents and grandparents. But we can do this without canonising the World War Two generation as the greatest, a piece of excessive sentimentality and sloppy thinking if ever there was one. The phrase was coined by the
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Can We Restore Dignity to Our Degraded Times?0
- Culture
- October 24, 2016
The message is loud and clear. Your actions have no more significance than those of a cockroach. Furthermore, like a cockroach, you are in no position to make moral choices of your own free will. When you commit some hideous brutality, it is not that you decided to do so. No, on the contrary, external
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David McCullough on What’s Wrong with History Education Today 3
- Education
- October 24, 2016
Some of you have read historian David McCullough’s books, which include 1776, John Adams, and Truman. At the very least, you’ve seen his books on the shelves at Barnes & Noble. In an interview conducted by the Wall Street Journal in 2011, McCullough had some very interesting critiques of modern history education, which I share below.
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