As a historian and history teacher, I have looked at many old photographs and films. I often included these in my classes and marveled at how my students saw things in the photos that I overlooked. I especially remember showing some grainy film of a baseball game from about 1910. I wanted to illustrate how … Read more
Many American parents hope to avoid the problems of public schools by enrolling their children in exclusive private schools. However, not all issues can be avoided. Even private day schools can find themselves embroiled in discussions over “Critical Race Theory.” Sometimes it is not rebellious students but faculty that bends the curriculum leftward. The Dalton … Read more
For decades, schools have been dealing with a problem called “grade inflation.” With the educational chaos caused by COVID, a problematic situation is becoming catastrophic. Built into the Existing System Grade inflation is an easy concept to understand. It is the process over time by which students have gotten higher and higher grades for doing … Read more
The world of education is replete with buzzwords – those terms or pithy phrases that sound optimistic but often mask a dark reality. One of them is “whole child,” and another is a more technical-sounding “Social-Emotional Learning,” which means the same thing. “Whole child” programs promote children’s mental health. The programs share two common factors. … Read more
For a time, The 1619 Project was on track to become a standard racial education curriculum throughout the United States. It has the backing of The New York Times, which initially published it. Its author/editor, Nicole Hannah-Jones, is feted by other leftist journalists and talk show hosts. She has received a Pulitzer Prize. Online resources … Read more
Critical race theory holds that society is “structurally racist” and that only its wholesale “restructuring” can fix the problem. Many schools and workplaces have embraced the idea by implementing training programs. Employees are browbeaten into accepting the concept and then forced to take their own “responsibility” in perpetuating a racist society. Those courageous enough to … Read more
When young liberals realize liberalism is false, many describe this process as being “mugged by reality.” Usually, the process is a product of solitary reflection. However, in an age when privacy is virtually obsolete, this revelation can also happen online. One such case is Jodi Shaw and her rocky relationship with the liberals at Smith … Read more
In education circles, the current catchphrase is “anti-racism.” It replaces the idea that the best way to eliminate racism was to be deliberately “colorblind.” For decades, public schools saw themselves as fighting racism by being colorblind. Non-Racist or Anti-Racist? The handbook of the new movement is How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. … Read more
Seattle has been on the front lines of the civil unrest in 2020. For the month of June, the nation stood aghast as radicals established the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) while the governor, mayor, and the courts undermined state and local police efforts to restore order to the area. On June 23, Seattle’s Director … Read more
New York City has the largest public school system in the nation. Therefore, education issues affecting all of America acquire a greater intensity in “The Big Apple.” It is also a bell-weather for educational “reform” in the rest of the nation. The influence of this summer’s unrest, “critical race theory” and the redefinition of racism … Read more
