Blog 3 Columns

Nomophobia: Breaking Your Cellphone Addiction 0
- Culture
- May 11, 2018
Digital addiction, or nomophobia, may not be in the DSM-5, but there’s little doubt that it exists. And there are plenty of helpful hints around about how to self-detox. Time To Log Off proposes a periodic 5:2 digital diet: five days using technology and two days off-screen. It’s not clear whether they include television or
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In ‘Mother,’ Author Kathleen Norris Showed What Career Women Miss by Foregoing Motherhood 0
- Culture
- May 11, 2018
I was first introduced to the works of famed author Kathleen Norris in my late teens. Writing in the early to mid-twentieth century, Norris was an example of what many would consider a feminist’s dream life. She worked hard to support her family. She delved into higher education to perfect her career. She became a
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Does It Pay to Graduate from an ‘Elite’ University? Not as Much as You’d Think 0
- Education
- May 11, 2018
As the deadline for applications for mid-year admission to university approaches, prospective students face two important choices: what to study, and at which university. If past experience is any guide, places at the Group of Eight (Go8) universities will be in high demand. In 2017, the Go8 universities attracted the largest share of undergraduate applications
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Why Mike Rowe’s Newest Show Is an Antidote to Our Toxic Culture 0
- Culture
- May 10, 2018
Edmund Burke famously said in his Reflections on the Revolution in France: “To be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle (the germ as it were) of public affections.” Burke’s assertion was a challenge to the French radicals’ promotion of the idea that citizens
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The Secret to Teaching Children Self-Control Is Letting Them See It in Others 0
- Culture
- May 10, 2018
Is self-control something you can acquire, like a new language or a taste for opera? Or is it one of those things you either have or don’t, like fashion sense or a knack for telling a good joke? Psychologist Walter Mischel’s famous results from the “marshmallow test” seem to suggest self-control is relatively stable and
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How a 1934 New York Graduation Exam Shows How Far Academic Standards Have Fallen 0
- Education
- May 10, 2018
Today’s education system has a myriad of advantages that earlier generations never would have dreamed about. Smartboards. Tablets. Advanced science labs. Massive libraries. These perks are wonderful and suggest that our schools are giving children a much better education than they would have had at an earlier time. But what if all these advancements are
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Chesterton: Dogma is Inescapable in Education 0
- Education
- May 10, 2018
As you might imagine, the section of G. K. Chesterton’s What’s Wrong with the World that is devoted to the “mistake about the child” has something to do with the education of the child. Actually, he thought that more than one mistake was being made, but all mistakes were traceable to any aspect of education
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Character, Not Control, Is the Antidote to Evil 0
- Culture
- May 10, 2018
Humans are dangerous creatures capable of great evil. This inescapable truth bombards us every time we turn on the news. The weight of this knowledge bears down on every human soul, and with every tragedy, we are starkly reminded of it. We cry out for someone to save us from our inherent capacity for evil.
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The GOP’s Food Stamp Proposal Would Blow the Cost Savings on Bureaucracy 0
- Economics
- May 9, 2018
The Republicans have so forgotten how to control spending, even when they try something conservative it is not really conservative. Consider the House GOP’s proposed reforms to the food stamp program in the upcoming farm bill. The GOP wants to put work requirements on a small share of food stamp (“SNAP”) recipients. The Congressional Budget
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Nomophobia: Breaking Your Cellphone Addiction 0