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Blog 3 Columns

  • Is Selfishness a Virtue?

    Is Selfishness a Virtue?0

    In her introduction to The Virtue of Selfishness, Ayn Rand gives us a fairly clear understanding of her definition of selfishness. “Since selfishness is ‘concern with one’s own interests,’ the Objectivist ethics uses that concept in its exact and purest sense. It is not a concept that one can surrender to man’s enemies, nor to

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  • This is What Happens to Students When They Read the ‘Great Books’

    This is What Happens to Students When They Read the ‘Great Books’0

    Many of our readers have heard of, and a few have probably been educated by, “Great Books” programs. They consist of reading and discussing “classic” works of literature, philosophy, and even science that were a standard part of many high school and college curricula as late as a century ago. For decades they have been

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  • What is a friend?

    What is a friend?0

    A recently released study by Oxford University claims to be “the first real attempt to test whether online social media do allow us to increase the size of our social networks.” The conclusions of the study? Your Facebook friends aren’t your friends – except for, maybe, four of them. “…there is a cognitive constraint on

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  • This Is How a Dark Age Begins…

    This Is How a Dark Age Begins…2

    In order to really be said to “know” something, it must become a part of you. Information, ideas, and data: these are external to us. It is only through undertaking the hard, focused work of thinking through these things and understanding them that we internalize them; that they become “knowledge.” One finds this sentiment echoed

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  • Should the Education System Embrace ‘Subsidiarity’?

    Should the Education System Embrace ‘Subsidiarity’?0

    Reports of failure in public schools tend to be systemic. Stories of success tend to be localized. Is this a reason to promote subsidiarity in the public school system? Subsidiarity is a principle that calls for decision-making power and responsibility to be held at the lowest level as much as possible. Applied to schools, this

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  • Martin Shkreli: If morality is relative, why are we outraged?

    Martin Shkreli: If morality is relative, why are we outraged?0

    The world loathes Martin Shkreli, indeed he may have made himself “the most hated man in America.” He earned that reputation when, as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, he hiked the cost of Daraprim, “the drug … used to fight infections in patients suffering from AIDS and other conditions”, from $13.50 to $750 – a 5,000%

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  • If We’re All So Connected, Why are Our Kids so Lonely?

    If We’re All So Connected, Why are Our Kids so Lonely?2

    Heading out on an overnight school trip, my daughter spent 90 minutes each way on the bus with her classmates. Before the trip, the school laid out the electronic use policy—students would be allowed to use iPhones and iPads on the drive to and from their retreat but not during their stay. A few parents

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  • Don’t Be a Lazy Atheist

    Don’t Be a Lazy Atheist0

    • February 5, 2016

    While lecturing on the atheist Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872) in graduate school, my university professor lamented about the state of atheism today. Men such as Feuerbach, he explained, were passionate in their atheism, and undertook a thorough study of a religion such as Christianity in order to criticize it. (Feuerbach’s critique of Christianity is encapsulated in

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  • Are Standardized Tests A Necessary or Unnecessary Evil?

    Are Standardized Tests A Necessary or Unnecessary Evil?0

    Spring is on its way – or so says the Groundhog – and with it, the annual battery of school tests and assessments. If recent years are any indication, this testing barrage will likely be met with reports of stressed students, frustrated teachers, and angry parents who decide to have their child “opt out” of

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