Feeding Mind, Pursuing Truth
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- Blog 3 Columns
You Can’t Separate ‘Critical Thinking’ and Good Writing1
- Education
- February 17, 2016
One of the main things that today’s education system seeks to instill is “critical thinking.” But as progress in critical thinking is difficult to measure, how can we know if students are learning this valuable skill? The answer, I discovered, is simple: look at their writing skills. Such an idea was suggested in the early
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Teachers Fed Up with Undisciplined Students0
- Culture
- February 17, 2016
According to George Skelton in the Los Angeles Times, an increasing number of teachers may be pondering an exit from the profession, and are reluctant to encourage others to follow in their footsteps. Their reasons for such feelings were varied, but the looming elephant in the room was the lack of respect and poor discipline
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Study: Clutter Linked To Overeating0
- Science
- February 17, 2016
Happy? Eat to celebrate. Sad? Eat to comfort. Bored? Eat for the heck of it. It’s a well-established fact that people eat for all sorts of non-hunger related reasons, particularly emotional highs and lows. But, a new study suggests that environment may be playing a bigger role in how much we eat than we had
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Revered Philosopher: Children Actually Want Parents to Lay Down the Law0
- Culture
- February 17, 2016
Over the years I’ve heard various parents explain their approach to parenting in the following way: “We really don’t want to force our children to ______ (fill in the blank with ’do chores,’ ’go to church,’ ‘practice an instrument,’ or any number of other responsibilities). We want them to make their own decisions and decide
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Psychiatrist: Not Everything is a Mental Disease0
- Science
- February 17, 2016
Some readers might recognize the name “Theodore Dalrymple.” It’s the pen name of the iconoclastic British psychiatrist Anthony Daniels, who in semi-retirement keeps on writing books. His twenty-third is Admirable Evasions: How Psychology Undermines Morality (2015). An interview he gave soon after the book’s publication sums up his thesis, which is rather unconventional even if,
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NPR Questions Bernie Sanders’ Free College Plan0
- Education
- February 17, 2016
The presidential election is over eight months away and already the nomination process has seen surprising twists. The most recent is the rising popularity of Bernie Sanders. Young people are one of Sanders’ most supportive demographic groups, and his offer of free public college might partially explain why. But as NPR’s Anya Kamenetz reports, Sanders’
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Incident Highlights a Problem with Transgender Bathroom Laws0
- Politics
- February 17, 2016
This past December, Washington State enacted a new policy that allows people to choose bathrooms based on whatever gender they identify with. The law affects public and private buildings such as schools, restaurants, stores, and places of employment. Predictably, a recent incident has already highlighted that such laws are fraught with many problems, one in
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How Air Combat Changed Roald Dahl0
- Culture
- February 17, 2016
As an adult rereading Roald Dahl’s works, such as James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, you may be surprised by just how dark they can be at times even though they’re written for children. Dahl certainly had a knack for writing about the macabre or darker sides of life,
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Doctor: Physicians Don’t Care About Their Patients Anymore0
- Culture
- February 17, 2016
Not long ago, a family member of mine had a short stay in the hospital. His doctor, although not assigned to visit him on his rounds, saw that he had been admitted and insisted on adding him to his schedule. The reason? He had developed a friendship over time with my family member, and as
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