Education

Move Over, ACT, and Make Way for the Test of Choice and Innovation 2
- Education
- October 17, 2023
Do you remember taking the ACT test? I do. It was a brisk fall morning, and rows upon rows of us high school students were stuck inside, slaving over test questions, with no sounds but typing calculators, scratching pencils, and the tread of proctor feet moving slowly up and down the aisles. Students today still
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Schools: Soul-Crushing on Purpose?5
- Education
- October 13, 2023
It’s no secret that academic outputs in schools across the nation are pretty abysmal. In fact, things have grown so bad that now it seems we’re praising schools that manage to achieve roughly 50% proficiency. Such allegedly stellar achievement was recently recognized by an article in the Washington Examiner. The article highlighted the schools on America’s military bases–attended
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No, John Oliver, Homeschooling Doesn’t Need More Regulation 1
- Education
- October 12, 2023
Those of us who have homeschooled for years are accustomed to periodic calls for greater regulation of homeschooling. Whether it’s a Harvard professor or NPR, the hackneyed hollers to regulate homeschoolers remain unconvincing. Joining the tired chorus is comedian John Oliver, who earlier this week hosted an episode of his “Last Week Tonight” HBO show
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The Training Today’s Teachers Really Need 1
- Education
- October 11, 2023
“If schools are going to be good, we need good teachers,” education researcher Michael McShane recently noted in a new study. That’s a no-brainer, right? Unfortunately, as McShane discovered, some of today’s teachers don’t believe they receive adequate preparation to teach in the classroom, particularly in the ever-expanding realm of alternative schools and education. As the
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Going Local With the Little Red Microschool 1
- Education
- October 9, 2023
Have you ever heard someone use the phrase “Go Local”? The concept, which encourages supporting local industries and businesses, has grown in popularity over the years with people of all political persuasions. But oddly enough, there’s one area where “go local” has been roundly shunned over the years, and that is education. Oh, sure, people
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The Intellectual Purpose of Education: Why ‘Impractical’ Subjects Are Still Worth Learning 1
- Education
- October 4, 2023
It’s a complaint I’ve heard often, and (I’ll confess) occasionally spoken myself: “What use is learning math? It’s not like it’s going to help me in life!” In eighth grade geometry, the complaints seemed legitimate. Why was I calculating the angles of triangle XYZ? I didn’t know what career I was going to pursue, but—at
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