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Have Americans Forgotten How to Make Friends?0
- Culture
- December 3, 2015
Have you ever heard of paying someone to be your friend? If not, prepare yourself, for renting a friend or hiring a person to “snuggle with” is a rising new business. According to The Atlantic, “Samantha Hess and Becky Rodrigues are paid to hug people. Cuddlers for hire, they will hold clients close, in a
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High School Curriculum 200 Years Ago vs. Today 2
- Education
- December 3, 2015
Has the curriculum in America’s high schools been “dumbed down”? The question is often asked, but many lack anything beyond anecdotal evidence to compare past curricula with the present. So, to make an initial, humble offering for the sake of comparison, I thought I would post the curriculum of the first public high school
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Being Emotional Isn’t a Form of Debate 0
- Culture
- December 2, 2015
Discourse, especially in schools, is miserable these days. As Randall Smith, the Scanlan Professor of Theology at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, argues, there are only three options when it comes to uncomfortable topics, “Non-judgmentalism, furious indignation, or ironic detachment.” How he describes his experiences teaching at the college level goes a long
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Teaching Students to Write in the Wrong Way 0
- Education
- December 2, 2015
American students are terrible writers. Employers, professors, and statistics agree. In 2011, only 27% of American 8th and 12th graders were deemed proficient in writing. Naturally, teachers are working hard to overcome this problem. But a recent article in The Wall Street Journal makes me wonder if some are approaching it the wrong way: “English
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Single Moms Now Rooming Together 0
- Culture
- December 2, 2015
Yesterday The Washington Post reported on a growing phenomenon: more single, separated, or divorced mothers are joining forces and moving in with each other. “When Kimberly Taylor separated from her husband three years ago, she and her daughter, Amelia, stayed in the marital home — a four-bedroom house in Woodbridge, Va., with a finished basement
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Virtual reality is coming. Is that a good thing?0
- Culture
- December 2, 2015
The Financial Times has an interesting piece celebrating the developments afoot in the virtual reality (VR) sector. According to Roy Taylor, a vice-president of the chipmaker AMD: “’VR is happening here on a scale and with an energy you can’t believe,’ he said. ‘The universities are pouring millions of dollars into it. I don’t think
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