Low-level racism is a national contagion, no matter how politely expressed these attitudes and behaviors may be. However, even the mildly afflicted are capable of causing catastrophes when they are police, school teachers, and public officials. Although it is likely true that only a very small faction of Americans are virulent racists, when those in power act on bland impulses… Read more →
America is a sports-mad nation. Our love for professional and college athletics often begins right on the tee-ball field and races up through high school. Anyone who has ever taught or worked in an American high school is familiar with the immutable rhythm of the fall semester—first football game, big game against rival school, Homecoming game, and fingernail-biting last game… Read more →
We, as educators, hold this truth to be self-evident: The subject that each of us teaches is the single most important one to the futures of our students. However, when I was a measly little kid plowing my way through K-12, it always struck me that no one ever bothered to explain why I was spending countless hours learning what… Read more →
Just as any other teacher, I send my students out the door at the end of the school year with my hope that they are able to take what they have learned and make good lives for themselves—but I know I don’t succeed with every student. Students may struggle in school—and later life—for a variety of reasons that are unrelated… Read more →
Summer vacation is now in full swing, but the new school year will soon be upon us, and the hard work of our students, teachers, and parents will begin anew. Parents, of course, hope what is being offered in the classrooms will seem quite the exciting adventure for their children. However, if after only a few days or few weeks… Read more →
Problems with academic rigor in our nation’s public schools are well documented, and too often students enter college seriously unprepared for post-secondary coursework. In a misguided effort to foster self-esteem, our nation’s public schools have instead produced an epidemic of self-delusion that is leaving our colleges with the unenviable task of trying to help millions of students catch up on… Read more →
We have now spent many decades and uncounted hundreds of billions of dollars trying to attain a single goal: improving our often deficient public schools. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of some and the tax dollars of many, we seem to be even further from our goal than ever—and there are many theories regarding why this is so. Some claim… Read more →