Charlie Kirk and his gang at Turning Point USA are not the only ones encouraging students to record teachers and create watchlists of unpatriotic educators . So is Vladimir Putin and his Russian henchmen. Here is Jeanne Whalen at The...
education
The Author’s Corner with Andrew O’Shaughnessy
Andrew O’Shaughnessy is Vice President of The Thomas Jefferson Foundation and Saunders Director of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies. This interview is based on his new book, The Illimitable Freedom of the Human Mind: Thomas Jefferson’s...
Mitch McConnell petitions Education Secretary to remove the 1619 Project from federal grant programs
The 1619 Project is in the news again. Here is Ryan Nobles at CNN: In a letter obtained by CNN, the Republican leader asks Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to abandon curriculum in American schools that McConnell argues tells a revisionist history of America’s...
Thinking historically about Trump’s Mount Rushmore speech
A lot of conservatives liked Trump’s speech on Friday night. I am told that The Wall Street Journal gave it a positive review. I commented on the speech here, but I thought I would say a few more things about Trump’s...
The Author’s Corner with R.B. Bernstein
R.B. Bernstein is a Lecturer in Political Science at the City College of New York and teaches in the Skadden, Arps Honors Program in Legal Studies at the Colin Powell School of Civic and Global Leadership. This interview is based...
Teaching John Henry Newman’s “What is a University?”
Yesterday in Created and Called for Community we read an excerpt from John Henry Newman‘s “What is a University,” a chapter in his 1852 book The Idea of a University. Newman wrote this book while serving as rector of Catholic...
In Defense of Knowledge
Here is the American Association of University Professors: “Knowledge,” as Francis Bacon observed in 1597 at the dawn of the modern era, “is power.” Without knowledge no nation can govern its economy, manage its environment, sustain its public health, produce goods...
Annette Gordon-Reed Reviews Alan Taylor’s New Book on Jefferson and Education
When a Pultizer-Prize-winning American historian reviews a new book from another Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian it is worth a separate post here at The Way of Improvement Leads Home. Taylor’s book is titled Thomas Jefferson’s Education. Here is a taste of Gordon-Reed’s review at The...
Thoughts on Attorney General William Barr’s Notre Dame Speech
I find myself in agreement with a lot of Barr’s speech. Watch and decide for yourself: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqknuqy2lo0&w=560&h=315] Here are a few quick thoughts: Barr is correct about the founding father’s view of the relationship between religion and the American...
Neem: We Cannot “Think Critically” Without Knowledge
Johann Neem is on fire. Earlier today we linked to his Chronicle of Higher Education piece calling for the elimination of the business major. Now we link to his Hedgehog Review piece on “critical thinking.” I have ordered his book...
Johann Neem: “Abolish the Business Major”
It is hard to argue with Western Washington University historian Johann Neem on this point. The business major is an “anti-intellectual” degree program that should have “no place in colleges.” Why? Neem develops his thoughts in his new book What’s...
Will the Liberal Arts Survive?
Adam Harris, education writer at The Atlantic, tells the story of cuts to liberal arts programs and majors in the University of Wisconsin system. Here is a taste: For many years, Wisconsin had one of the finest public-university systems in the country....
Middle School 2008 vs. Middle School 2018
Brian Conlan, a public school teacher, has written an important piece about social media in schools. It is part of a larger campaign to limit smartphone use among kids. Here is a taste: Let’s imagine a seventh grader. He’s a...
America and the Practice of Democracy
Yoni Appelbaum of The Atlantic believes that Americans aren’t practicing democracy anymore. He writes: “As participation in civic life has dwindled, so has public faith in the country’s system of government.” Here is a taste of his piece: The golden age of the voluntary...
An 8th Grade History Teacher to His Students on the Last Day of Class: “Never Stop Learning”
Jonathan Gold teaches 8th grade history at Moses Brown School, a Quaker school in Providence, Rhode Island. (See his September 2016 piece on teaching history in the age of Trump and his October 2015 piece on teaching historical thinking). Gold...
The Author’s Corner with Robert Gross
Robert Gross is a United States History Teacher and Assistant Academic Dean at Sidwell Friends School. This interview is based on his new book Public v. Private: The Early History of School Choice in America (Oxford University Press, 2018). JF: What led...
Should Conservative Professors Be Leading the Way in Identity Politics?
Jon Shields, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College, thinks that conservative professors should embrace identity politics. Here is a taste of his piece at The Dallas Morning News: When I was in college, I took a class in logic. There...
My Boston Trinity Academy Chapel Talk on Rural America
Get the context here. I gave this short chapel talk to the faculty and students of Boston Trinity Academy on January 16, 2018–JF I am so pleased to be back at Boston Trinity Academy. (BTA) I continue to reflect fondly...
More Thoughts on Cedarville’s “Biblically Consistent Curriculum.”
I am quoted today in a Times Higher Education piece on Cedarville University’s “biblically consistent” curriculum.” Read it here. The quote is accurate, but it is also part of a larger statement that did not make it into the story. Here...
“The Closing of the American Mind” at 30
Allan Bloom‘s bestseller, The Closing of the American Mind, turns thirty this year. Over at The Chronicle of Higher Education, cultural critic and New Left activist Todd Gitlin reflects: “You can slam its young people into universities with their classrooms and laboratories, and when...