Blog 3 Columns

Is It Time to Stop Bashing the Liberal Arts?0
- Education
- May 13, 2016
With college tuition and student-loan debt at all-time highs, it’s fashionable to bash “the liberal arts.” The standard complaint, and the point of many jokes, is that majoring in such subjects as literature, philosophy, and history doesn’t develop skills marketable enough to generate a decent “return on investment.” Even President Obama has beaten that drum.
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How to Actually ‘Make America Great’0
- Culture
- May 13, 2016
As an angry young man, back in my native England, I thought that the world could be fixed through the power of politics. As a not very angry and not very young man, now living in the United States, I have long since abandoned the belief that politics can fix the world. With this disillusioned
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Famous Journalist in 1920: One Day ‘The White House Will Be Adorned by a Downright Moron’0
- History
- May 13, 2016
In 1920, H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) was becoming one of the more well-known journalists and authors in America. And apparently, like many Americans today, he was disappointed with the choices being offered to the American public in that year’s presidential election. In article published on July 26, 1920, titled “Bayard vs. Lionheart,” Mencken lamented about the
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Expert: ‘Focus on Diversity’ Is Causing British Universities to Decline 0
- Culture
- May 13, 2016
Should university admissions be purely meritocratic, based on students’ demonstrated academic ability? Or, should students with better academic profiles be passed over for admission in order to fill diversity quotas? These are some of the tough questions that British citizens may be asking themselves after a controversial article in The Telegraph last week. The piece reports that
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Atticus Finch’s Critique of the Public Education System 0
- Education
- May 13, 2016
In American schools, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is usually read in 8th or 9th grade. As such, because students at that grade level have only had so much life experience, some of its more penetrating social critiques are often missed. The other day I came across one of these critiques. The significance of
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What C.S. Lewis Thought of Testing 0
- Culture
- May 12, 2016
As recent years have seen a rising number of high-stakes tests for children in elementary, middle, and high school, more and more Americans are beginning to question the wisdom of testing. Claims of burnt-out, stressed children permeate the news and have caused many parents to join the growing opt-out movement. Like today’s parents and teachers,
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Study: Teaching Kids Philosophy Makes Them Smarter 0
- Education
- May 12, 2016
Does teaching younger children philosophy make them smarter? A “large, well-designed study” conducted by the Education Endowment Foundation suggests that the answer is yes. As Quartz reports: “Nine- and 10-year-old children in England who participated in a philosophy class once a week over the course of a year significantly boosted their math and literacy skills,
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Study: Half of Your ‘Friends’ are not Your Friends 0
- Culture
- May 12, 2016
Friends are important. The people we choose to let into our circle often shape our ideas and character. In a well-known passage from the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle outlined the three primary types of friendships humans often make. Most would agree that Aristotle’s categories of friendship are not equal; some clearly are deeper than others. If
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Science Fiction: Why So Many Intellectuals Despise It 0
- Culture
- May 12, 2016
Do you want to rule a world? Blow apart a sun? Test a theory of community? Explore the very depths of depravity? End slavery and misery? Destroy all empires? It is possible. . . At least in the imagination. “The proper study of man is everything. The proper study of man as artist is everything
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Is It Time to Stop Bashing the Liberal Arts?0