Among its mournful fruits, Roe v. Wade has advanced the debasement of sex instruction in our schools. Over a quarter-century after the legalization of abortion, institutionalized “sex ed,” like a caustic agent, has eroded the innocence of our youth. Hence the dark coeval of our time: the murder of unborn children alongside the murder of … Read more
For centuries, universities flourished throughout the civilized world, their work grounded in a view of learning as a disciplined habit of mind brought to perfection through the reading of great, enduring texts. A classical, realistic, and hierarchically ordered model of learning prevailed, rooted in philosophy, especially metaphysics, and illumined by faith. So it was that … Read more
Among its mournful fruits, Roe v. Wade has advanced the debasement of sex instruction in our schools. A quarter-century after the legalization of abortion, institutionalized “sex ed,” like a caustic agent, has eroded the innocence of our youth. Hence the dark coeval of our time: the murder of unborn children alongside the murder of the … Read more
The nation let out a long primal shriek after the school board in Oakland, California, declared ebonics, or black English, a foreign language of African origin and voted unanimously to require that ebonics be taught to African-American students in Oakland schools. That the board, in addition, would seek federal bilingual funding to teach inner-city patois … Read more
There was a time when a kiss was, well, just a kiss. But no longer, not even for innocent young children. Recently, a bespectacled six-year-old boy from North Carolina, Johnathan, was suspended for a day from school and barred from attending a school ice cream party for kissing a girl. Soon after, a seven-year-old Queens … Read more
Hysteria, pronounced Freud, was the psychic disorder to  which Victorians most readily succumbed, whereas narcissism, according to Christopher Lasch and others, is the one to which we twentieth-century dwellers are most vulnerable. Because environmental activists are saturating this and other nations’ classrooms with fear-driven environmental education (E.E.), the most common psychic disorder of the new … Read more
There was snickering across the political spectrum about Hillary Clinton’s recent book on childrearing, It Takes a Village. In fact, the conservative Report Card called it a “Snickers bar of liberalism,” a yummy serving up of every conceivable federal program. Perhaps inspired by Mrs. Clinton’s insipid but telling endorsement of the need for community “town … Read more
America’s brightest children may now gather around for a spellbinding hand of Magic: the Gathering. This card game, used to “enrich” the education of gifted public school students, guides them in fantasizing about and acting out basic features of the occult, such as the conjuring of demons, the sacrifice of victims in hideous rituals, and … Read more
If the high priests of school reform have their way, true-false answers and multiple choice questions are headed for the graveyard of scholastic history. Rote-memory, drill, and measurement of mere lower-order skills have been replaced by an emphasis on measuring “metacognitive processes and attitudes.” In the place of cut-and-dried standardized testing, the teacher of the … Read more
Pity the likes of Henry Ford, George Washington, and Bill Gates, who had to forge their own way in school and in the workplace. However did they manage without the nanny state to guide them? Citizen-workers in the future, however, will no longer have to endure such autonomy, for the ultimate passport to success, the … Read more
Fear not. It’s like the unicorn, it will never be seen on this earth,” pronounced John Fund, a Wall Street Journal editorial writer. In this manner he foretold the stillbirth of Hillary Clinton’s comprehensive plan for national health care. But more like the phoenix, nationalized health care has arisen in new and more alluring guise. … Read more
In Kentucky, a recent social-studies test question included a picture of a homeless person lying on a sidewalk next to the gutter. Fourth graders were questioned as to what should be done to help the homeless. The teacher’s scoring guide gave the highest mark to the pupil who answered, “Some of them even have to … Read more
“Once the dragon is slain,” advised former Secretary of Education William Bennett at a recent conference on education reform, “don’t put another dragon in its place.” Bennett was urging caution upon education reformers as they seek to “end federal tutelage,” that is, undue government involvement in public school education. Advocates of school choice in particular … Read more
Educational change agents, take heart. President Clinton and the education establishment will help you stand firm against troublemakers in your community who question or, more regressively, oppose their recently passed education bill, Goals 2000: Educate America Act. To put an end to such nay-saying, your Department of Education has designed for you a “Community Action … Read more