As counterpoint to an essay by anti-feminist woman who claims women to be intellectually inferior to men, editors of yesterday’s As counterpoint to an essay by anti-feminist woman who claims women to be intellectually inferior to men, editors of yesterday’s Washington Post Outlook section ran a piece by a self-described feminist who describes women voters […]
Education in America
Posted inEducation in America
SINGLE-SEX EDUCATION?
Like Ezra, I recommend yesterday’s New York Times magazine piece on the growing trend of public, single-sex education across the country. Sadly, a good chunk of the 50 or so schools nationwide who’ve adopted the practice are motivated by dogmatic, unproven theories of sex difference as promoted by the psychologist Leonard Sax, who believes boys […]
Posted inEducation in America
SAME SEX EDUCATION CONSIDERED.
My first thought when reading this week’s New York Times Magazine’s cover story on same-sex public education was, “hey, they quoted Sara Mead, proprietor of the fine new blog Early Education Watch!” My second thoughts were more complicated. Leonard Sax, the self-styled neuroscientist attempting to base his schools around studies showing that girls hear better, […]
Posted inEducation in America
OBAMA V. CLINTON ON EDUCATION POLICY.
For those who are still — For those who are still — still — struggling to identify policy differences between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, check out Education Week‘s run down of their education platforms. There are some real distinctions; Obama has supported teacher merit pay pegged to the test scores of individual instructors’ students, […]
Posted inEducation in America
UNDER THE RADAR: CASH FOR GRADES EDITION.
Growing up in a diverse, middle-class suburb, I used to marvel at parents I knew who paid their kids for grades. You know, $25 for an A, $10 for a B, and so on. My parents weren’t the type to look over my homework every night or demand I hand over each graded assignment for […]
Posted inEducation in America
The Middle Is Falling Out of the Economy
What has happened that has so changed the economic life of the American people? And what public policy changes will help remedy our economic malaise?
Posted inEducation in America
VET BENEFITS AS A TOOL?
This Boston Globe article highlights something I observed in a House committee hearing a few weeks ago: The Department of Defense seems to be well aware that the National Guard and Reserve are getting something of a raw deal on education benefits. The buying power of the GI Bill has depreciated greatly over the years, […]
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WHAT WINS CAUCUSES? HARD WORK OR INSPIRATION?
Barack Obama won four more caucuses over the weekend, raising the interesting question of what his extraordinary string of successes in caucus states means. I argued last Wednesday that it is evidence of hard work and planning, because low-turnout caucuses should generally be safe territory for an establishment candidate, while an insurgent usually tries to […]
Posted inEducation in America
Misunderstanding “Generation Me”
Research on whether young people today are more self-involved than previous generations confuses narcissism with disillusionment.
Posted inEducation in America
UNDER THE RADAR: AIDS AND ABSTINENCE EDITION.
Once again, the House Foreign Relations Committee is fighting over PEPFAR, President Bush‘s AIDS relief and prevention bill, which focuses on sub-Saharan Africa. In his State of the Union address, Bush asked Congress to double PEPFAR’s funding to $30 billion over the next five years. House Democrats want to up that number to $50 billion, […]
