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Are Schools Underestimating What Students Are Capable Of?0
- Education
- September 12, 2016
Over the weekend, The Washington Post carried an interesting article on the national surge in students taking advanced placement (AP) courses. Profiling a student named Maria Flores, The Post reported: “Maria Flores was not a strong writer, and she knew that rhetorical essay assignments and analyzing complex texts would be a huge challenge. That’s why
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Will de Blasio’s Universal Pre-K Hurt Kids Instead of Help?0
- Culture
- September 9, 2016
Given the recent interest in starting universal preschool programs in states and cities around the country, it’s perhaps no surprise that The Atlantic highlighted the one begun by New York City mayor Bill de Blasio. As The Atlantic describes it, de Blasio’s preschool program is the great equalizer which gives the same goods and services
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Why Modern Education is Doomed to Die0
- Culture
- September 9, 2016
One of the great transitions in education in the past fifty years has been the increased emphasis on the so-called STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – and a corresponding diminishing of the place of the traditional liberal arts or humanities, especially literature, history and philosophy. This has been due in part to
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The Economist: Why Cursive is Making a Comeback0
- Culture
- September 9, 2016
Last week, I bought an item at the store, swiped my card, and then signed my name on the electronic notepad at the register. But while such an occasion is a regular occurrence, I came away with a unique experience: my electronic signature actually looked normal. The thought passed through my mind that technology must
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Should We Stop Segregating Students by Age?1
- Education
- September 9, 2016
It’s commonly believed by Americans that allowing students to skip grades is unhealthy for their social and emotional development. However, an article in this month’s Scientific American suggests the opposite. The article describes the work of the “Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth” (SMPY), which over the past 45 years has identified 5,000 gifted individuals and
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Dr: Tech destroys kid’s ability to ‘distinguish reality’0
- Culture
- September 9, 2016
I recently ran across a cartoon which depicted two boys glancing out the window while playing on their digital devices. The word balloon read, “It’s sad to see others playing outside. They must not be fortunate enough to have a phone.” Yet even while many exclaim what a shame it is that children are increasingly
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BREAKING: Matt Lauer Asked Hillary Clinton Tough Questions0
- Politics
- September 9, 2016
You can tell it’s the silly season when journalists and media organizations are freaking out because a journalist asked a presidential candidate pointed questions. Earlier this week during a Commander-In-Chief forum on NBC, Matt Lauer asked Hillary Clinton about her use of email from a clandestine server during her tenure at the State Department. Clinton
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Study: Students Learn Better from Hot Teachers0
- Education
- September 8, 2016
When it comes to America’s educational woes, maybe the problem isn’t a ?“dumbed-down” curriculum or a lack of student effort… Maybe the problem is that there are too many ugly teachers? Okay, that’s just a bit of an exaggeration. However, a new study conducted by University of Nevada researchers and published in the Journal of General
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Stop Dumbing Down Books for Teens0
- Education
- September 8, 2016
During my senior year AP English class in high school, we read Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. It was brutal. I thought I was a pretty good reader because I had worked my way through most of Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, and Leo Tolstoy, but I struggled to get through Heart of Darkness. To this day,
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