The Battered Humanities–Are They Worth Saving?
…point. As George Steiner once put it in conversation, “The humanities have had 23 good centuries—don’t get greedy or upset that it happens to be coming to an end.” Let’s…
…point. As George Steiner once put it in conversation, “The humanities have had 23 good centuries—don’t get greedy or upset that it happens to be coming to an end.” Let’s…
…who don’t embrace Reacting “cling to familiar practices” in the face of clear evidence that Reacting works. However, the evidence is much more mixed than Carnes implies. Let three examples…
…in Henry VI, who exhorts the crowd to “kill all the lawyers,” you probably don’t like the idea of giving those who go to expensive law schools and accumulate lots…
Conservatives and progressives don’t agree on many things, but neither much like the Common Core. The English and math standards, announced in 2010, have been rejected not only by professional…
…ameliorate the problem. Indeed, they were part of the problem. I don’t have the space to discuss these cases here, but I chronicle them in my book, Restoring Free Speech…
…favor immersing them in number theory. I expect a certain kind of mathematical pedant likes the Common Core approach: mathematicians of this sort don’t want students merely to learn how…
…from the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA), a post-college exam that tests students’ gains in critical thinking, complex reasoning and written communication. to conclude that students learn very little during college….
…Their members don’t have to debate policies that radically affect everyone in the community where they live. Above all, members’ participation is voluntary, unlike that of a citizen. Their loyalties…
…U.S. history most associated with NYU historian Thomas Bender. I’ve written about Bender’s efforts previously. He has constructed a series of straw men (U.S. historians don’t pay attention to what…
…this is supposed to be so devastating). 3. You must take money from the Koch Foundation. 4. Economists don’t understand the real world. 5. Prices don’t measure values. Values are…
…U.S. History.” Robbins and Krieger’s analyses are concise and compelling—and have been, of course, either brushed off or ignored by the education establishment. I don’t want to take up much…
…no Caterpillar stock. So why do BDS advocates want to target an investment that does not exist? Because they don’t actually care about divestment. Rather, they wish to destroy Israel’s…
…of the study of politicized disciplines (recall that not just economic libertarian “conservatives,” but President Obama has questioned the value of disciplines like Art History). While I don’t agree with…
…Renaissance scholars, ad fontes, to the sources. Don’t educate kids on a lot of crabbed, monkish commentary and medieval theorizing. Don’t read what 700 commentators have written about Aquinas. Go…
…still don’t know whether it will reach its destination of producing more literate and knowledgeable citizens. So it would be useful to have an informed debate about how the states,…
…genuinely interested but busy student. The courses don’t carry credit and don’t cost money, so students have little but their own curiosity and dedication to motivate them. Theoretically, it’s refreshing…
…justice is. They really still don’t know, although they had learned a whole lot about justice and especially what justice is not. The discussion seemed to have had the same…
…recipients have graduated, or whether graduates earn enough to pay down their debts is not hard. In fact, it is relatively easy.” The reason why we don’t have access to…
…right and run with it. I don’t know that this tactic was necessary to their campaign but it has produced some unsettling results. Among other things, we are seeing the…
…disparities don’t prove racism or unconstitutional discrimination. But in guidance issued last week by the Justice and Education Departments, the Obama Administration signaled that it will hold school districts liable…
…most, college diplomas don’t tell them much about graduates’ readiness for productive work.” The information gap particularly hurts students attending non-selective admission colleges of so-so reputation: how do they demonstrate…
…attend would be substantial. I don’t know whether this loss should be of less concern than the diversity-enhancement gain their presence in the Ivies and other elite institutions would represent….
…in accord with indigenous customs. Critically, students will be told that they are there to learn, not proselytize Western values, and so if men beat their wives, don’t criticize; try…
…and thousands of people have done so. “Research” in such an environment becomes degraded to mere information-gathering, and though the internet in fact offers astonishingly rich resources, students don’t usually…
…waters of survival. When either sex unilaterally wins, both sexes lose. The family boat sinks. We don’t need a women’s movement demonizing men, nor a men’s movement demonizing women. We…
…the human experience, to learn what we don’t know and to seek the truth however illusory it may be. That is a common conversation worth having and from my point…
…he told PBS News, “…the for-profits do a much better job of recruiting and advertising than the nonprofits do. Let’s face it: The nonprofits don’t make a profit, so they’re…
…loan payments generally don’t need to be income-based because they have collateral that can be repossessed if the borrower stops making payments. Since an education is intangible and can’t be…
…when we abstract from or deny the personal element. Scientists who know they’re abstracting are alive to the limits of what we can know through their method. Scientists who don’t…
…young people to start out without loads of debt, even if they don’t consider the implications of making higher payments years down the line. And as much as the plan…