Even though there may not be formal meetings, strategy sessions, and the like to coordinate its news reporting with its leftist editorial slant, that leftist slant nevertheless very definitely does permeate its reporting.
CULTURE
A nation’s culture is the sum of the intellectual achievements of individual men, which their fellow-citizens have accepted in whole or in part, and which have influenced the nation’s way of life. Since a culture is a complex battleground of different ideas and influences, to speak of a ‘culture’ is to speak only of the dominant ideas, always allowing for the existence of dissenters and exceptions. — AYN RAND
The Imperative of Lecturing
Every class in elementary and junior high school should be in a lecture format. The teacher must be an authority on the subject, he must grasp its basic purpose, he must carefully define the knowledge to be conveyed by reference to that purpose, and he must present...
How The West Could Lose
After defeating fascists and communists, can the West now defeat the Islamists?
The Religious Conservatives’ War on Birth Control
Virtue, according to Christianity, consists of sacrificing one’s desires and goals in the name of fulfilling one’s duties to God. Sex, on this premise, is at best a necessary evil–a sinful act, justifiable only by the duty to procreate.
Pattern Recognition vs. Real Understanding
Every year, when I give my first test in a grammar or literature class, some new student asks me whether the test will be multiple choice. Every year, I look him in the eye and say "I can assure you that you will never, in any class, under any circumstances, at any...
Race as a Factor in School Assignment To Create “Diversity”
It might be a hilarious comedy routine to have a group of highly educated judges solemnly expounding on something that everybody knows to be utter nonsense. But it isn't nearly as funny when this solemn discourse about nonsense takes place on the Supreme Court of the...
The Homework Lie
Every year, dozens of parents sit at my desk and describe to me the intense frustration they feel as they watch their children get churned through the public schools. One of the refrains of their complaints: endless homework. And no wonder: The work itself is largely...
The Transgender Police
Pick Your Gender and We’ll Enforce Your Choice, Says New York City’s Board of Health
How To Teach Your Child: How To Teach Science (Part 4 of 4)
The science curriculum for the elementary students at VanDamme Academy is taught primarily through experiments. These students are learning principles that are very close to the perceptual level, so we always demonstrate the principle in carefully designed hands-on...
P is for Pajama Party or Paragraph?
Recently, I was visited by a mother frustrated with her son's education and looking for something more.She informed me that mid-way through his kindergarten year, they were still learning their letters--most recently, they had been studying the letter "P." And in...
The Injustice of Saying Grace: Thanking God for the Accomplishments of Men
The religious tradition of saying grace before meals becomes especially popular around the holidays, when we all are reminded of how fortunate we are to have an abundance of life-sustaining goods and services at our disposal. But there is a grave injustice involved in...
Duke University Rape Case
Nothing should be surprising any more about the Duke University rape case. Still, it is a little staggering that, after all these months, District Attorney Mike Nifong has still not interviewed either the accuser or the accused. Rape is a felony with serious...
How To Teach Your Child: Motivating Students To Learn (Part 3 of 4)
Another consequence of the rampant violation of hierarchy in science education, available to both teachers and students alike, is that students find learning about science boring.When I ask people about their experience studying science in school, particularly...
How Not to Fight Religious Fundamentalism: Andrew Sullivan on Faith
A friend of mine recently recommended that I read an Andrew Sullivan article in the Oct 9th issue of Time magazine entitled When Not Seeing is Believing. He found it to be a good article showing that Time was now coming around and taking strong steps towards combating...
The Joys of Reading: A Proper Reading Program
This year, I have the pleasure of teaching literature to our school's Elementary 1 students, children in second and third grades, a class that includes my own seven-year-old daughter Lana. Their uninhibited enthusiasm for learning, their eager quest to see...
How To Teach Your Child: What It Means To Learn (Part 2 of 4)
Several years ago, a teacher from my school was tutoring Kevin, then a freshman in high school. One day, Kevin came to their session asking for help in preparing for a test on protein synthesis. The tutor went over the information Kevin had been presented, helping him...
The Power of Observation: From Art to Literature to Life
One of the great joys of the present school year has been the addition of an art appreciation class, taught by art enthusiast and VanDamme Academy teacher Luc Travers. Mr. Travers' unique approach to analyzing a work of art has transformed my esthetic life, enhancing...
Microsoft and Science Education
Science education is a frequent topic in the news these days. Earlier this month, Microsoft announced a campaign to improve math and science education in the Seattle area. According to Brad Smith, a senior vice president and general counsel for Microsoft: "We're very...
How To Teach Your Child: A Necessary Order To Knowledge (Part 1 of 4)
Imagine what would happen if a first-grade teacher, instead of teaching her students addition and subtraction, attempted first to teach them algebra--or, even worse, in the name of intellectual rigor and in an effort to offer a program of exceptional quality--decided...
High School Physics: Grade F
Physics is the fundamental natural science. Its birth in the 17th century heralded man's coming of age as a rational being. The discovery of the basic laws of nature led to the industrial revolution and modern technology, demonstrating the enormous practical power of...
The Che Paradox
How Che ruined the Cuban economy.
Pope Benedict the Deeply Mistaken
When the Koran or a Mullah asks followers to subjugate or kill those who do not uphold the ideas of Islam, the line from civilized dialogue to rule by force is crossed. Someone who is required to "accept" Islam at the point of a gun has not made a moral choice. Those...
Root Cause of the Failure of Contemporary Education
With little exaggeration, the whole of contemporary education can be described as a process of encumbering the student’s mind with as little knowledge as possible.
The Pope vs. Islam
The Muslim world is storming in violent outrage against the Pope's recent quoting of a 14th Century emperor of the Byzantine Empire. A NY Times editorial says: "The pope quoted the emperor saying, 'Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will...
Books: Solon the Thinker – Political Thought in Archaic Athens
John Lewis’s Solon the Thinker contains a careful reading of the poetic fragments of Solon – not as poetry, but as political thought.
Children as Bombs
As if things weren't crazy enough already in the Middle East, here's the officially sanctioned message in sixth-grade Palestinian textbooks for 11- and 12-year-old kids: "The noble soul has two goals: death and the desire for it." The goal isn't to build magnificent...
The Conservatives’ War on Birth Control
Their war on contraception is not a war against the alleged excesses of the “birth control revolution”–it is a declaration of war against the pursuit of happiness.
You Can Learn a Lot at Hooters
Hooters, in an age of globalization, has imported a Japanese concept without paying a single penny for import duties.
The Looming Lactation-Station Crisis and How to Solve It
The newest crisis of what the left describes as “social injustice.”
Harvard’s “Tolerance” for Brutal Dictators
For many years I have argued that America's intellectuals--those learned people with the greatest ability to understand our virtues and articulate a moral defense of our way of life--have long abandoned America. Another piece of evidence of this betrayal can be found...
Intertwined Insanities
The insanities of Islamo-fascism and of environmentalism are connected.
“The Unbearable Whiteness of Barbie” and Other College Stupidity
Colleges and universities will start their fall semester soon. You might be interested in what parents' and taxpayers' money is going for at far too many "institutions of higher learning." At Occidental College in Los Angeles, a mandatory course for some freshmen is...
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