Blog 3 Columns

Schools Might Want to Reconsider the Push for Devices in the Classroom 0
- Culture
- May 13, 2016
It’s been a rough week for electronic devices. First there was the news that smartphones – with their continual news alerts and notifications – lead to increased inattentiveness and hyperactivity. Then there was the report that British teachers suspected parental phone usage as the reason behind the decline in the conversation ability of preschoolers.
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One Simple Way to Keep Your Child from Being a Reading Statistic 0
- Culture
- May 13, 2016
Between 2011 and 2015 the number of American adults who didn’t read a book in the course of a single year went from 1 in 5 to fewer than 1 in 4. And if fewer American adults are reading, chances are that fewer American children are being read to as well. Such a scenario is
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Ladies, You Need to Stop Husband-Shaming 0
- Culture
- May 13, 2016
Over the years, in posts on Facebook groups for mothers, I’ve seen my share of women talking smack about their husbands. Writing to hundreds (sometimes thousands) of other women, many of whom they don’t know, wives will unburden themselves about the latest insensitive things their husbands have done. The complaints run the gamut from real
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Is It Time to Stop Bashing the Liberal Arts?0
- Education
- May 13, 2016
With college tuition and student-loan debt at all-time highs, it’s fashionable to bash “the liberal arts.” The standard complaint, and the point of many jokes, is that majoring in such subjects as literature, philosophy, and history doesn’t develop skills marketable enough to generate a decent “return on investment.” Even President Obama has beaten that drum.
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How to Actually ‘Make America Great’0
- Culture
- May 13, 2016
As an angry young man, back in my native England, I thought that the world could be fixed through the power of politics. As a not very angry and not very young man, now living in the United States, I have long since abandoned the belief that politics can fix the world. With this disillusioned
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Famous Journalist in 1920: One Day ‘The White House Will Be Adorned by a Downright Moron’0
- History
- May 13, 2016
In 1920, H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) was becoming one of the more well-known journalists and authors in America. And apparently, like many Americans today, he was disappointed with the choices being offered to the American public in that year’s presidential election. In article published on July 26, 1920, titled “Bayard vs. Lionheart,” Mencken lamented about the
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Expert: ‘Focus on Diversity’ Is Causing British Universities to Decline 0
- Culture
- May 13, 2016
Should university admissions be purely meritocratic, based on students’ demonstrated academic ability? Or, should students with better academic profiles be passed over for admission in order to fill diversity quotas? These are some of the tough questions that British citizens may be asking themselves after a controversial article in The Telegraph last week. The piece reports that
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Atticus Finch’s Critique of the Public Education System 0
- Education
- May 13, 2016
In American schools, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is usually read in 8th or 9th grade. As such, because students at that grade level have only had so much life experience, some of its more penetrating social critiques are often missed. The other day I came across one of these critiques. The significance of
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What C.S. Lewis Thought of Testing 0
- Culture
- May 12, 2016
As recent years have seen a rising number of high-stakes tests for children in elementary, middle, and high school, more and more Americans are beginning to question the wisdom of testing. Claims of burnt-out, stressed children permeate the news and have caused many parents to join the growing opt-out movement. Like today’s parents and teachers,
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Schools Might Want to Reconsider the Push for Devices in the Classroom 0