Education

“Context Matters”

For Harvard President Gay, context apparently matters only for genocidal threats against Jews.

Child Sacrifice, Palestinian Style

Child Sacrifice, Palestinian Style

Israel is criticized for alleged insensitivity to the risks of casualties among civilians, especially children, during counter-terrorist missions. But the tragedy of unintended casualties from justified military actions cannot be compared to a society's deliberate...

Cognitive Child Abuse in Our Math Classrooms

Cognitive Child Abuse in Our Math Classrooms

The test results are in: America's children are flunking math. In 1996 American high school seniors finished close to the bottom on an international mathematics test. At the end of last year, American eighth-graders ranked below those of Malaysia, Bulgaria, and...

Teachers Who Hate Tests: Part 3

Teachers Who Hate Tests: Part 3

While we ought to learn from our own experiences, it is even better to learn from other people's experiences, saving ourselves the painful costs of the lessons. In the case of the dominant educational fads of our times, many have been tried out before in other...

Teachers Who Hate Tests: Part 2

Teachers Who Hate Tests: Part 2

One of the objections by the educational establishment to state-mandated tests for students is that this forces the teachers to teach directly the material that is going to be tested, instead of letting the students "discover" what they need to know through their own...

Teachers Who Hate Tests

Teachers Who Hate Tests

Florida's school year has already started early, so that its students will have more preparation before the state-mandated tests that will be administered to them later in the school year. Meanwhile, there is much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth because so...

High Schools Flunk Science

High Schools Flunk Science

Physics is the fundamental natural science. Its birth in the 17th century heralded man's coming of age as a rational being. The discovery of the basic laws of nature led to the industrial revolution and modern technology, demonstrating the enormous practical power of...

“Affirmative Action” and College Graduation Rates

“Affirmative Action” and College Graduation Rates

Some thought that racial preferences and quotas -- "affirmative action" -- in university admissions decisions were on their way out after they were banned by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in Texas and by Proposition 209 in California. However, the 6th Circuit Court...

What Adults Cannot Learn from Children

What Adults Cannot Learn from Children

Accused pipe bomber Lucas John Helder had barely been taken into custody before people began saying that he was crazy. Apparently no one is responsible for doing wrong things any more. Some of young Mr. Helder's comments may sound illogical to many of us. But they are...

Suffer the Palestinian Children

Suffer the Palestinian Children

I spent my 21st birthday, in 1973, in Jerusalem, months before the Yom Kippur War. As part of the college junior semester abroad, I lived and traveled in Israel for nearly five weeks. In preparing a thesis called "U.N. Resolution 242 and the Viability of an...

“Good” Teachers

“Good” Teachers

The next time someone receives an award as an outstanding teacher, take a close look at the reasons given for selecting that particular person. Seldom is it because his or her students did higher quality work in math or spoke better English or in fact had any tangible...

For-Profit Schools: Profit’s not a Four-Letter Word

For-Profit Schools: Profit’s not a Four-Letter Word

"It's not ethically sound to make a profit off educating students in a school that serves the public, which a charter school is, using funds from public coffers." That's not a sentence from Mao's Little Red Book. It's from Philip Parr, Chief of Staff of the Pittsburgh...

University Professors vs. America

Many simply shake their heads in confusion and disbelief at reports of peace rallies on college campuses from coast to coast. At such an unprecedented time of pro-American sentiments, and in light of the magnitude of horror of September 11, it seems almost impossible...

Interview: The Well Trained Mind and Homeschooling

Interview: The Well Trained Mind and Homeschooling

When her daughter Susan started kindergarten in Virginia in 1972, Jessie Wise quickly heard complaints from Susan's teacher that the child would become a social misfit because she wanted to read during free time instead of playing. This was not good news for Wise,...

The Child Welfare Act Versus Children

The Child Welfare Act Versus Children

In a world where the media are ready to magnify innocuous remarks or a minor problem into a trauma or a disaster, there is remarkably little attention being paid to cruelties routinely inflicted on children by our laws and our courts. That cruelty is ripping children...

On Sept 11: Open Letter to University Students

The events of September 11 have been the primary subject of discussion on college campuses across America. A patriotic fervor has been revived, with flags popping up in virtually every yard and on every car. However, after reading the editorials that appeared in last...

Teachers, Guns, and Zero-Tolerance Tyranny

Teachers, Guns, and Zero-Tolerance Tyranny

When the new school year begins, Deena Esteban will not be among the legions of educators welcoming students back to class. That's because Mrs. Esteban, a 43-year-old art teacher in Prince William County, Va., lost the job she loved after being convicted of a felony...

Death Among Children: Tragedy at Tommy Lee’s

Death Among Children: Tragedy at Tommy Lee’s

A 4-year-old boy died last weekend at the Malibu home of rock star Tommy Lee. How any right-thinking parents could entrust their child to a drug-addled celebrity who pled no contest to kicking his ex-wife (actress Pamela Anderson) while she held their newborn baby is...

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