How do we know what is true and what is not? How do we weigh the validity of another’s opinion, or even the validity of our own?
Some time ago, Julia made a post on the comfort of knowing the truth. This resulted in a comment discussion on the nature of truth, […]
I noted with interest that , after all the bad feeling and conflict between the Islamic world and the west, here is a story that shows mainstream America has something in common with Islamic thought. At Yahoo News, I read about how Turkey made the teaching of creationism mandatory in their schools back in […]
I’ll start out by stating my bias: I’m not a fan of on-line university education. Although I’ve never taken a course on-line, I’ve written and taught on-line graduate courses. I’ll admit that as a doctoral student I did it for the experience (something to put on my c. v.) and for the money. I taught […]
The controversial No Child Left Behind Act has been around for five years now and is up for renewal. States have been charged with ensuring students’ math and reading proficiencies as measured by standardized tests; schools can be sanctioned for not meeting the goal.
Results are mixed. For instance, in Mississippi, 89% of fourth graders […]
Early in my career I taught physics and astronomy at a private religious college in the heart of the Bible belt. I often found myself teaching students who were creationists. As a result there were times when I would find myself using terms such as “billions of years ago” or “over many millennia” […]
A US public High School student was recently arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. His crime was a violent, rambling, and poorly written essay completed as part of a creative writing exercise in his English class. It is quite clear from the essay, which is now available several places on the net including here, that […]
I contribute to an on-line chat board fairly regularly, and I find that I am often the only voice of moderate liberalism. Most of the contributors are right and far right of center. Recently, the topic of Affirmative Action was raised. That discussion evolved into a discussion on education in America, and how […]
The other day, my five-year-old said to me, “Mom, wouldn’t it be awful if we could all do everything perfectly?” Having spent the day sorting through a mass (mess?) of data for my dissertation, I was thinking, “Actually, honey, no, I’d like everything to go smoothly.”
But I knew where she was coming from. She’s just […]
In a recent set of 3 articles 1, 2 and 3, in the Wall Street Journal, Charles Murray makes a series of provocative assertions and proposals concerning education in the United States. In short order, he argues:
1. By definition, 50% of the human race has below average intelligence.
2. Even the highest quality education […]
This term I am teaching an 8:00am University Physics class. For those who aren’t familiar with university life, no one wants an 8:00am class. The students don’t want it because it is too early. They usually struggle to get to class on time, and are often so tired they fall asleep in […]
