In her famous 1947 essay “The Lost Tools of Learning,” Dorothy Sayers wrote: “Has it ever struck you as odd, or unfortunate, that today, when the proportion of literacy throughout Western Europe is higher than it has ever been, people should have become susceptible to the influence of advertisement and mass propaganda to
READ MOREQuite often we approach a debate as gladiatorial matches in which the goal is to utterly eviscerate our opponents. But is that always best? Do we lose a little bit of our own humanity when we see individuals or even friends and family members as people to destroy in a discussion? It’s true that they
READ MOREActress Kate Winslet is the latest to weigh in on the gender pay gap… only she isn’t complaining about being paid less than her male counterparts. Instead, Winslet is bringing a touch of etiquette into the debate. As the BBC reports: “‘I’m having such a problem with these conversations,’ Kate tells Newsbeat. ‘I understand why
READ MOREMaking the rounds recently was a story out of Colorado Springs about the discriminatory nature of the police fitness test. From CBS Denver: “Last Friday the Colorado Springs Police Department agreed to the demands of 12 female officers who filed a civil suit claiming the fitness tests are discriminatory. All the officers were over the
READ MOREHave you ever wondered what the government knows about your child? According to an article in today’s Washington Post they may know a lot more than you realize… and that knowledge may negatively affect your child’s future. “Most student data is gathered at school via multiple routes; either through children’s online usage or information provided
READ MOREOn the whole, it would appear to be for the best that the great majority of human beings should go on living in the place in which they were born. —T.S. Eliot, Notes towards the Definition of Culture Americans have never learned to cherish permanence. Alexis de Tocqueville once said that an American will build
READ MOREI’ve ignored most of the controversy over Starbucks dropping holiday-themed designs on its cups because, well, it’s stupid, and probably media-fabricated. It’s not that I don’t lament the decline of communally celebrated feasts; it’s just that I wasn’t really depending on a Seattle-based coffee company to revive the sanctity of Christmas… with cups decorated with
READ MOREAccording to various news sources, the police at the University of Missouri are asking students to report “hateful and hurtful speech”. Here’s the document reported by The Daily Caller: As the police admit, hateful and hurtful speech “are not crimes”. Yet, they also indicate that the University of Missouri can take disciplinary action. And here
READ MOREThe opening episode of South Park’s season 19 was “Stunning and Brave”. It’s just about perfect for the current chaos in many of America’s institutions of learning. Here’s the description: “There is a new principal at the helm of South Park Elementary. He forces the boys to confront the damage they’ve done through their history
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