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Blog 3 Columns

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Blog 3 Columns

Presidents Day: How We Got Such a Lame Holiday 0
- Education
- February 20, 2017
“This is Washington’s Birthday,” sings Fred Astaire in the movie classic Holiday Inn, “And I can’t tell a lie.” Americans of a certain age no doubt can remember when the day we now know as Presidents Day was called Washington’s Birthday, invariably celebrated on February 22. George Washington was officially born on February 11, 1731
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Motherhood: The Ideal vs Reality 0
- Family
- February 20, 2017
When I was pregnant, my husband gifted me with a book called “No more perfect moms”. While I am by no means a perfectionist, he knew that I would have high expectations of myself as a mother – basically that I was subconsciously assuming that I would be able to slot in the whole ‘having
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Miss Manners: Trump is Making Americans Ruder 0
- Culture
- February 20, 2017
In a recent article in The Atlantic, Judith Martin or ‘Miss Manners’ insists that the reason why most people have deplorable manners is not poor upbringing, but Donald Trump. Not only does fact imitate fiction and life imitates art. According to Miss Manners, the public imitates politicians. Martin rehearses the age-old argument that political leaders
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Is Patriotism Irrational?0
- Education
- February 20, 2017
Last September, President Donald Trump vowed to promote “patriotism” in America’s schools. This vow, along with ones like it, was greeted with cringes from those who see patriotism as irrational, opposed to critical thinking, and a form of propaganda. But in his recent book Conserving America? Essays on Present Discontents, Notre Dame professor Patrick Deneen
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Did Dickens Foretell the Modern Women’s Movement?0
- Culture
- February 20, 2017
Over the last few years, I have been on a personal quest to read various classics I failed to pick up during my school years. The most recent of these was Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, which I finished over the weekend. In reflecting on the book, I could explain how classic titles
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5 Things Donald Trump could learn from Lincoln 0
- History
- February 20, 2017
How will Donald Trump observe Presidents Day? Will he have the inclination or take the time to read about or reflect on the qualities of our greatest leaders? Given how busy Trump is issuing executive orders, fighting with the judiciary, managing the scandal surrounding the dismissal of his national security advisor, becoming acquainted with world
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Why is ‘Person of Color’ Good and ‘Colored Person’ Bad?0
- Culture
- February 17, 2017
A person close to me recently used the phrase “people of color” at a work meeting. “Are we supposed to say that?” asked a gentleman in his 50s. A conversation ensued. After several minutes of discussion, the person who originally used the phrase said the group had gone off topic, but she insisted her choice
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King Lear: A Tragedy on Relativism 0
- Culture
- February 17, 2017
Know thou this: that men Are as the time is. -Edmund (King Lear, Act V, Scene 3) One of the most rudimentary errors that one can make in reading a literary text is to see the words of a character as being synonymous with those of the author. Take, for example, these lines from
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College Illiteracy is Growing 1
- Culture
- February 17, 2017
For a number of years, it was assumed that public education was swimming along, efficiently educating children of all ages. More recently, the products coming out of public schools have caused a troubling concern to leap into the minds of adults: are schools dumbing down the content they teach to students? That concern seems to
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