I’m taking a break from talking about conservative diversity to think more about justifying the content of liberal education these days. So here’s an account of chairs of departments of history […]
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One of cartography’s most persistent myths: mapmakers of yore, frustrated by the world beyond their ken, marked the blank spaces on their maps with the legend Here be monsters. It’s […]
Why can we face up to our inconsistencies in the past but not expect more in the future?
Today Counterterrorism adviser John Brennan gave a detailed overview of US policy toward Yemen at the Council on Foreign Relations. Marc Lynch over at Foreign Policy has provided the good […]
Like millions of other Americans over Thanksgiving weekend, I went to see Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece, Lincoln. I was mesmerized by Daniel Day-Lewis’s portrayal of the great statesman. I was also […]
A Republican-backed bill will replace the diversity visa lottery, which offers visas to people from countries with low immigration rates to the US, with a program that focuses exclusively on people with advanced STEM degrees.
What’s the Big Idea? As the K-12 school year starts up again in full force, it’s worth asking: are American public schools really failing? According to the measure set by […]
Psychological Science in the Public Interest evaluated ten techniques for improving learning, ranging from mnemonics to highlighting and came to some surprising conclusions.
Cheers for STEM. But what about the, um, rest of the fabulous, life changing, extraordinary and often more important teachers who don’t teach math, engineering, technology or science?
According to a study, a man’s preference in body type is influenced by his environment.
It’s just a few weeks until the U.S. presidential election, and while nothing is set in stone, Mitt Romney’s hopes are looking increasingly dim. Despite the depressed economy, which would […]
I’ve written in the past about the Secret, more properly called the Law of Attraction, the perenially popular New Age idea which says that merely thinking about something draws it […]
What’s the Big Idea? When it comes to making choices about benefits, keep it simple, says Bruce Finley, Senior Partner and the Director of Global Workplace Communication at Mercer — and calculate, […]
A few weeks ago, I posted a video of “Satellite,” the first single from Anna Dagmar‘s newest album of the same title. I first saw her play at a concert […]
My eighth grade art teacher was the first to introduce me to the concept of “right-brain thinking.” He brought his copy of DRAWING FROM THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BRAIN […]
Humor fosters community and builds character, two virtues that educational reformers neglect.
“If all medicines in the world were thrown into the sea, it would be all the better for mankind and all the worse for the fishes.”
Even the smartest people make irrational choices, says Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel prize-winning psychologist. Here’s why — and what you can do about it.
I’d like to get the Freakonomics guys to explain this paradox of K-12 education: The more money you spend for your children’s education, the fewer days they’ll actually be educated. […]
What is the strongest motivation for space exploration today? According to astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, it’s the promise of economic return.
What is the Big Idea? A new study released on Tuesday shows that immigrants play a leading role in innovation and economic growth in the United States. “Patent Pending: How Immigrants […]
Mitt Romney addresses the nation at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night. How well have his warm-up acts set the stage for his big speech? I’ll assess the four […]
An Internet connection has only now materialized in my new Houston pad, so perhaps you’ll forgive me if I kvetch about last week’s David Brooks column. In the wake of the […]
So the final issue in my class in PUBLIC POLICY this semester is HIGHER EDUCATION. Here are some controversial propositions generated from papers I’ve just read from the class. I’m […]
Believe it or not, this post continues with my theme of Cartesian America. As I explained, the Cartesian/Lockean American understands science basically to be technology. Its point is to make […]
What is the Big Idea? Step into a classroom in North Korea and you will find very little that differs from a classroom in New York City – chalkboard, rows […]
Jad Abumrad loves collecting sounds and playing with high-tech gadgetry, but he deploys his geekery in service of a higher calling – creating in Radiolab a hybrid medium that is a natural evolution of the ancient art of storytelling.
It’s difficult to categorize Siri Hustvedt. She is, first and foremost, a writer and a thinker. Her well-known novels include What I Loved and The Sorrows Of An American. They […]
We expect works of art to enlighten us, and we expect science to enlighten us — yet the two fields are frequently regarded as separate, distinct entities which we respond to using different areas of the brain. Are those distinctions are arbitrary?