The world of American education is replete with catchphrases. Even those outside the education establishment have probably heard, “If you can read this, thank a teacher” or “Build schools now or build prisons later.” One catchphrase that got some traction at the end of the Cold War was: “It will be a great day in … Read more
Over the Christmas holidays, I — and thousands of others — visited the Biltmore Estate near Asheville, North Carolina. Built by George Washington Vanderbilt in the waning days of the nineteenth century, it is America’s largest privately-owned dwelling. Mr. Vanderbilt’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren have dedicated themselves to preserving it and opening it to the public. … Read more
A recent article by Dana Goldstein in the New York Times about the Common Core displays a common tendency among liberals. They never acknowledge that their pet programs can fail. When a “progressive” proposal fails, the left never goes back to construct an entirely new scheme. They return to their overriding goals, tweak the old … Read more
For a least a half-century, American education has been run by an informal alliance of five groups. The coalition consists of the faculty of schools of education, associations of school administrators, the two major teachers’ unions, the U.S. Department of Education and its state counterparts and the civil rights establishment. What unites this diverse group … Read more
Christmas concerts have been a staple of American schools nearly as long as there have been schools in America. At these happy events, children sang and played traditional Christmas Carols like Silent Night and Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem alongside more secular selections like Jingle Bells and Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer. In more recent times, … Read more
“Purgatory (to say nothing of Hell), penance, expiation, God’s holy justice: these just do not fit in with today’s cheerfully cheap religiosity.” – Hungry Souls. No one can say how many modern Catholics believe in Purgatory, but the percentage is unlikely to be high. A recent study showed that less than a third of Catholics … Read more
A new book is planting the ideas of revolutionary egalitarianism in our children’s hearts and minds. It comes with bright pictures, happy animals, and catchy rhymes. The purveyor is Scholastic, a company with a long reach into America’s schools and libraries. The chances are excellent that your neighborhood or parish school hosts a Scholastic Book … Read more
All too often, people conform their lives to the machines they use. This adaption increased as the Industrial Revolution helped integrate machines into daily life. This development took a further step forward when the idea of robots first appeared in the early twentieth century. There were two visions of these new assistants. One was the … Read more
About 1990, an acquaintance of mine got the job of his dreams. One sign of his new status was his employer-issued BlackBerry interactive pager. At the time, this device was state of the art. Older pagers displayed only a telephone number to call back. This one allowed for a short immediate response. A few weeks … Read more
Once again, the educationists are racing to create ever more absurd ways to “teach” children. The recent controversy over the proposed California Social Studies Curriculum is one example. This proposal was so ridiculous that the word history was spelled hxrstory (pronounced her-story) to be more inclusive. Fortunately, this proposal was rejected. However, similar minds in … Read more
