Blog 3 Columns

Should the Boston Marathon Bomber Get to Vote?0
- History
- April 24, 2019
During a CNN town hall on Monday, a student asked Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris whether they would allow felons in prison to vote: You have said that you believe that people with felony records should be allowed to vote while in prison. Does this mean that you would support enfranchising people like
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Old Kindergarten Requirements Suggest Today’s Classrooms Are Too Much, Too Soon 2
- Culture
- April 24, 2019
I received a rather frantic email from a friend when school started last fall. Panicking over the number of parents posting first day of preschool pictures, my friend wondered if she had made a mistake by not sending her four-year-old to school. “When did preschool become so popular?” she asked in dismay. She wasn’t imagining
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I’m a College Student. Here’s Why I Oppose Socialism.0
- Culture
- April 24, 2019
In the 2016 presidential primaries, 2.1 million people under age 30 voted for democratic socialist Bernie Sanders. But do young Americans really know what it means to live under socialism? Cambodia, like other countries in the past and present, offers clear evidence of the outcomes of socialist policies such as the Green New Deal championed today by
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The Value of a Self-Directed Summer for Kids 0
- Culture
- April 23, 2019
It’s all over the news these days. Kids are stressed-out, not playing, and, most worrisome, experiencing sharp increases in depression and suicide. Last month, a new paper published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology revealed that adolescent mental health has deteriorated over the last decade, with soaring depression rates for young people ages 14 to
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Teachers Report Increasing Abuse at the Hands of Students 0
- Culture
- April 23, 2019
Teachers have always had a hard job. It takes a dedicated person to prepare lessons, manage a classroom full of children, and deal with unhappy parents. But the role of teacher has become even more difficult — even dangerous — in recent years. One quarter of teachers report being the objects of student violence and
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How Totalitarians Force Confessions From Innocent People 0
- Literature
- April 23, 2019
I recently re-read George Orwell’s anti-Soviet fable Animal Farm for the first time since high school, and I found myself at a loss to explain one of the book’s darkest scenes to the student I was tutoring. In this scene, Napoleon (Orwell’s stand-in for Stalin) consolidates his power over Animal Farm (i.e. the Soviet Union)
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How Artificial Intelligence Systems Could Threaten Democracy 0
- Culture
- April 23, 2019
U.S. technology giant Microsoft has teamed up with a Chinese military university to develop artificial intelligence systems that could potentially enhance government surveillance and censorship capabilities. Two U.S. senators publicly condemned the partnership, but what the National Defense Technology University of China wants from Microsoft isn’t the only concern. As my research shows, the advent
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Arizona Case Shows the Difference Between Campus Free Speech and Harassment 0
- Education
- April 23, 2019
Three Arizona students may soon learn a valuable lesson: There’s a difference between exercising your free speech on campus and blocking someone else’s attempt to do the same. In March, three University of Arizona students shouted down a group of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, and then chased them to their cars, hurling insults
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The Rights Glut 0
- Culture
- April 22, 2019
When someone talks about having “rights,” what do they mean? I was asked recently whether I thought same-sex parents had the “right” to adopt. I said that I didn’t think anyone had a “right” to adopt. We decide who should adopt on the basis of what is good for the child being adopted, not
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Should the Boston Marathon Bomber Get to Vote?0