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Why French Parents Are Still the Boss of Their Kids2
- Culture
- April 22, 2016
Several years ago, a friend of mine told me about a fascinating book called French Kids Eat Everything. I finally had a chance to pick it up recently, and so far, it’s an interesting read. In essence, the book describes how one North American family moved to France and soon discovered that picky eating and
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The Original Pinocchio Story was Cray Cray0
- Entertainment
- April 22, 2016
Recently while hunting for children’s books with my 4-year-old daughter, I picked up a copy of Pinocchio for a dollar. That night for fun I began to thumb through the book. Now, I recall hearing at some point that Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio was not quite the charming, good-natured lad we all remember in Walt Disney’s happy
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Prof: Why the charter school debate has moved beyond ‘better’ or ‘worse’0
- Education
- April 22, 2016
The charter school debate is getting even more heated. Recently, charter opponents launched a campaign from the steps of the Massachusetts State House to warn that charter schools were “sapping resources from the traditional schools that serve most minority students, and creating a two-track system.” Similar opposition has been voiced by critics across the country as well. So when
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Our Grievances Fuel Political Demagogues0
- Politics
- April 22, 2016
“I was grocery shopping and someone banged my foot with their shopping cart,” said a participant in a workshop I was conducting with a large organization. “They made me mad!” Defensive and indignant, the participant went on to tell how he didn’t receive a proper apology. “Everyone in this room knows what I’m talking about,”
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John Wayne is Dead, John Lennon is Dying0
- History
- April 22, 2016
Many years ago, growing up in England, I witnessed the dying embers of loyalty to a dead British Empire. For my father’s generation the unthinkable had happened. Night had fallen on the Empire on which they were raised to believe the sun would never set. As a child, my father told me that there were
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Is Science Figuring Out How to REVERSE Death?0
- Science
- April 22, 2016
The Uniform Determination of Death Act (yes, there is such a thing) says there are two ways people in the U.S. can be declared dead. 1) The brain dies; or 2) one experiences an “irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions.” Thinkers as early as Galen (129 A.D. – 216 A.D.) understood the brain to be the
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How the ‘New Math’ is Ruining Education0
- Education
- April 22, 2016
By now, you’ve probably seen some of the complaints on the internet about the “new math” being promoted by the Common Core Standards. Many grade-school children—including, for instance, comedian Louis CK’s children—have come home with math homework that is virtually indecipherable to their parents. The goal behind the new math, it seems, is to encourage
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How Grade Inflation Erodes the Meaning of College0
- Culture
- April 22, 2016
Every so often, the issue of grade inflation makes the headlines, and we are reminded that grades are being debased continuously. That happened in late March when the two academics who have most assiduously studied grade inflation—Stuart Rojstaczer and Christopher Healy—provided fresh evidence on their site GradeInflation.com that grade inflation continues. The authors state, “After 30 years of making
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Are Today’s Schools Killing Students’ Desire for Learning?0
- Culture
- April 22, 2016
We’ve heard all the stories. Homeschoolers consistently get higher ACT scores than public school students. Homeschoolers score above average on standardized tests. Homeschoolers have “higher quality friendships and better relationships with their parents and other adults.” With numbers like these, it’s no wonder that homeschooling saw an increase of over 60% in the last decade.
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