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CS Lewis’ Important Critique of ‘Democratic Education’0
- Culture
- June 7, 2016
America’s education system is increasingly “democratic.” It expends tremendous amounts of money and energy on ushering all students toward college and on closing “gaps” between high- and low-performing students. But according to C.S. Lewis, these concerns indicate a wrong understanding of democracy as it applies to education—one that indeed threatens a nation’s survival. In 1944 he wrote the
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The Real Reason Students Should Study Philosophy 0
- Education
- June 6, 2016
Isn’t philosophy supposed to help people live well, not just exercise the mind? That was the ancient view. The evidence is clear that exposure to philosophical questions, ideas, and dialogue at an early age improves academic outcomes generally, and in particular cultivates the skills needed for reasoned dialogue. (Intellectual Takeout has posted several pieces to
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Today’s College Students Aren’t Studying 0
- Education
- June 6, 2016
Most of those in the Intellectual Takeout audience already believe that college education has become a shadow of its former self… that its curriculum has been significantly dumbed down… and that its students spend more time partying than hitting the books. Here is just one more statistic that confirms that belief. According to a study
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Are We All Bigots Now?0
- Culture
- June 6, 2016
First, some terms need to be defined here if this is going to make any sense. big·ot /’big?t/: a person intolerant of those holding different opinions. o·pin·ion /?’piny?n/: a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge. For the sake of clarity, let us say that opinions are the sort
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5 Brief Accounts from D-Day Survivors 0
- History
- June 6, 2016
June 6th marks what would have been my grandparent’s sixty-third wedding anniversary. Although I never took the opportunity to ask them, I always wondered if they chose the day in honor and recognition of the D-Day invasion on the beaches of Normandy. In all likelihood, the trials their generation endured during the war would have
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Why the Muslim Mind ‘Closed’0
- Culture
- June 6, 2016
In 1987 professor Allan Bloom published The Closing of the American Mind, a stinging indictment of American higher education. But according to former policy advisor Robert Reilly, a much more dramatic “closing of the mind” happened in the Muslim world 800 years ago, and is at the heart of the modern conflict between Islam and
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