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Universities Should Bring Back Military History 0
- History
- August 15, 2016
War defines the United States. Domestically, it is the country’s greatest budgetary priority: $598 billion, 54 per cent of discretionary spending, in fiscal year 2015. Globally, we have more than 800 bases in some 80 countries, and spend more than the next nine nations combined. Yet academic historians, especially those at the nation’s most richly
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5 Reasons Schools Should Teach Debate to Students 0
- Education
- August 15, 2016
The other day a friend of mine was describing a video clip of a student debate he had seen online. According to my friend, the video showed a student who was clearly trying to make a logical argument, but was grasping at straws and clueless on how to debate in a rational manner. Such a
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U.S. Mayor Gives Panhandlers Jobs 0
- Culture
- August 15, 2016
The Washington Post last week published a story about a unique initiative in Albuquerque that puts panhandlers to work. There’s a Better Way, a program initiated by the Mayor Richard Berry, offers $9 an hour (plus free lunch) to panhandlers who are dispatched around the city on beautification projects. The results, so far, look pretty good. Via
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Has Common Core Made Writing Worse?0
- Education
- August 15, 2016
In 2011, only 27 percent of the nation’s high school seniors were deemed to be proficient in writing. According to information recently revealed by The Washington Post’s Jay Mathews, those numbers will likely not be improving any time soon. In dissecting an Education Trust report on the state of America’s classrooms, Mathews highlighted some “depressing
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Study: Men Are Getting Weaker 0
- Culture
- August 15, 2016
Young people, it seems, increasingly regard the word “masculine” with derision. Based on the findings of a recent study, one wonders if such attitudes could stem from some latent insecurities. Via the Washington Post: Researchers measured the grip strength (how strongly you can squeeze something) and pinch strength (how strongly you can pinch something between two fingers) of 237
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What happened when a Muslim student went to Cambridge in 1816 0
- Education
- August 12, 2016
Two hundred years ago, there arrived in London the first group of Muslims ever to study in Europe. Dispatched by the Crown Prince of Iran, their mission was to survey the new sciences emerging from the industrial revolution. As the six young Muslims settled into their London lodgings in the last months of 1815, they
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