Homeschooling is much in the news these days, for a variety of reasons. The relationship between the broad public and homeschooling has changed recently in three ways: As a historian of American education and a mother of four, I am […]
The Arena
Additional observations on admissions stories
The recent Supreme Court decision overturning the legality of affirmation action in Harvard admissions has been met with all kinds of reactions. There is hand-wringing and rejoicing. There is disdainful headshaking and disdainful crowing. A lot of that is about […]
Can you really “just” unplug?
Recently, I spent five days in the mountains without internet-connected devices. It was great. Meanwhile, however, 207 e-mails were mercilessly piling up in my inbox. Upon my return, I immediately e-mailed a friend to complain and he wrote back right […]
Always let your conscience be your guide
A recent kerfuffle between pro-abortion rights Catholic legislators and the American Catholic bishops offers a convenient reason to consider a pesky little word: conscience. The legislators cite the Catholic Catechism (paragraph 1790) to the effect that a “human being must […]
Difficult students and free speech in the college classroom
I had a very challenging student some years ago. Extremely bright, attentive, focused, curious, well-read–all the things you want. But they answered every question immediately upon its asking, never raising a hand (sometimes answering while it was still being asked). […]
“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” (and some not funny things too)
In the opening number of Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, made into a film by the same name in 1966, the narrator/protagonist does his best to excite the audience about the […]
The bogeyman threat of Christian nationalism
David French wrote in The New York Times yesterday:Â Arguments for a ‘Christian nationalism’ are increasingly prominent, with factions ranging from Catholic integralists to reformed Protestants to prophetic Pentecostals all seeking a new American social compact, one that explicitly puts […]
Bringing it back: mourning clothes
There’s supposed to be a difference between history and heritage and historians are supposed to study the past for its own sake, not to make use of it. There’s a whole section in John Fea’s Why Study History? about uses […]
Doctorversary
Fifteen years ago this week, I sat in a majestic seminar room in Princeton, NJ, with a phone to my left, the rest of my dissertation committee and other faculty members all around the rectangular table, as I defended my […]
Ideas in progress: David McFarland on the teaching life
David McFarland leads a busy life, to use an understatement. He is a high school humanities teacher at Pacific Academy, an IB World School in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. He teaches Social Studies, IB History and Theory of Knowledge, and […]
Stephanie Murray on parenting at The Atlantic today
Balancing childhood independence with childhood safety has been much on parents’ minds lately, as evidenced by the recent Reasonable Childhood Independence laws that have been passed in seven states in recent years, including Virginia, Illinois, and Connecticut in 2023. Yet […]
Another reminder to be a generous reader
In the course of teaching college classes, I encounter all kinds of readers among my students. Some don’t like to read, some love to read. Some are overly accepting of everything in print. Some are the opposite. Occasionally, a student […]
Three songs for July 4th
Happy July 4th from the Arena!
Lincoln’s model for reflective, humble patriotism
Today—the day before the Fourth of July—is the 160th anniversary of the end of the largest and most significant battle of the Civil War. There were more casualties in the Battle of Gettysburg than in any other battle of the […]
Victoria Amelina, January 1, 1986- July 1, 2023
On Tuesday of this past week, a Russian missile struck a crowded pizzeria in the city of Kramatorsk, Ukraine. One of those killed was an award-winning writer, Victoria Amelina. Here is an auto-biographical piece she wrote, “Expanding the Boundaries of […]
Summertime in the city
I love Talia Levin’s writing (even when she over-writes it a little). Here’s some graphs from her How to Survive Midsummer in New York originally published in The Village Voice in 2018. I’ve never spent a summer in New York […]
Reflections on Dorothy Sayers’ work, life, and lost motherhood
I first heard about Dorothy Sayers a little over a decade ago. Knowing of my appreciation for Agatha Christie mysteries, my now husband recommended Sayers’ Peter Wimsey novels. I did not follow up on that recommendation at the time. A […]
Harry Potter sixteen years later
In 2007 I took a trip to the United Kingdom. Toward the end of the trip, I found myself in a small used bookstore in a quaint Scottish village. Needing something to read on the plane ride back, I spotted […]
Belarus, Ukraine, Russia: an eclectic reading list
The events of this past weekend had a number of Cold War and Russian history and politics experts excitedly feeling relevant. What exactly happened and what does it mean? I appreciated this analysis from Tom Nichols at The Atlantic. In […]
American animals
In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, people doing early anthropology were very interested in climate and environmental conditions, but in very different ways from today. Early anthropologists connected geography to the nature of the people living there. Now, this […]