Chalk up another brilliant school suspension to the zero-tolerance police. The perpetrator this time? A 5-year-old with a *gasp* plastic bubble gun. A local news station reports: “The girl’s mother, who goes by Emma, said she was shocked when she got a call from the school telling her she needed to pick up her daughter and
READ MOREIn Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, the philosophical emperor Marcus Aurelius makes a wonderful appearance. In this poetic portrayal of the truths of history, Marcus Aurelius (played by Richard Harris) chooses the fictional Maximus as his true spiritual heir, because his errant son Commodus is not a man of virtue as his father is. The interesting question is
READ MOREDo women who have more children live longer? That’s the conclusion of a recent, peer-reviewed study cited in this January article by The Atlantic’s health editor, Julie Beck. It is supported by other, less recent studies. What’s interesting is that it runs counter both to intuition and to other evidence. After all, the stress of
READ MOREOver the weekend, I had the fun of revisiting one of my long-time favorite films, The Pride of the Yankees. For those unfamiliar with The Pride of the Yankees, the movie portrays the life story of baseball legend Lou Gehrig, who died at the age of 37 from ALS, the disease which now bears his
READ MOREThere is an area of the Atlantic Ocean, called the Bermuda Triangle, within which ships and aircraft vanish without a trace. When it comes to transgenderism all reason and logic disappears within what we might call the Gender Triangle. The Gender Triangle is that area enclosed by the relationships between three distinct models of gender—the
READ MOREFor decades now the Washington Redskins have received criticism over the team’s name, the idea being that it was insensitive, exploitive, and perhaps racist. The criticism reached a bit of a fever in 2013 during the team’s efforts to retain its trademark status. But instead of caving, the team’s owner, Daniel Snyder, notoriously declared that
READ MOREIt’s no secret that Detroit public schools are in turmoil. While public schools around the country are struggling, no system has suffered quite like those in the Motor City. This week the Atlantic offered a glimpse into city’s crumbling system, which came under state control seven years ago. (State administration has not improved the system.)
READ MORECritical thinking has become a buzzword in today’s education system – and for good cause. Effective reasoning skills are essential in the fast-paced information world in which we live. But are students actually learning how to be critical thinkers? Or do teachers really even know how to train students in effective reasoning? If college students
READ MOREThere is a powerful perception in the United States that race relations are deteriorating. A recent Gallup poll revealed that this view is shared by blacks and whites. Thirty-five percent now say they worry about race relations “a great deal,” up more than 100 percent from just four years ago. This angst is no doubt
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