Book Review: The Schools We Need and Why We Don’t Have Them by E. D. Hirsch E. D. Hirsch, a first-rate scholar and the author of Cultural Literacy, masterfully exposes the philosophy behind progressive education to its source in 19th-century Romanticism, a European literary movement that produced some beautiful poetry, but was disastrous as an […]
I was attending an education conference a while back and decided that I wanted a sandwich for lunch, so I walked into a nearby mall and found a popular sandwich chain store. I ordered a Chipotle Steak and Cheese with Avocado. “What kind of meat would you like?” she asked. “Uh, well, I think this […]
Almost Half of Highlands Seniors Recognized by National Merit Corp. Yet another reason for studying Latin. Congratulations to Semifinalists Samuel Roberts, Logan Crum, Andrew Thibaudeau, Spencer Henderson, Anna McCain, and Lauren Petrey, and Commended Student, Tom Mangione. Highlands Latin has created a culture of excellence that has led to the highest percentage of National Merit Semifinalists […]
It is, according to one common objection to classical education. But is it really? One of the most common criticisms of classical education is that it imports into Christian education ideas that conflict with the Biblical world view. According to this criticism, classical education tries to incorporate both Biblical/Hebraic thought and Greek thought, and in […]
One of the questions people ask about traditional logic is why it doesn’t teach truth tables. Modern logic, the most common kind of logic encountered in high school and college, uses them, so why does traditional logic ignore them? Many people encounter a smattering of logic in high school math courses. Here, more than likely, […]
Classical Literature as an Antidote to Modern Thought When the movie Les Misérables came out last year, my wife and I went to see it with several of our adult children, none of whom are fans of musicals. I don’t know how this happened. My daughter was the only one who would even consent to sit down […]
Letter from The Editor In M. Night Shyamalan’s film Lady in the Water, we encounter a character named Reggie who lives in the apartment complex in which the movie’s story takes place. Reggie boasts that he only exercises his right arm: “It’s an experiment,” he says. “It’s science.” The consequence, of course, is that […]
For some thirty years after the United States won World War II, there were islands dotting the Pacific where stray Japanese soldiers still hid in the jungles, unaware that the war was over. Even though the end of a war is a big event, it takes a while for some people to get the memo. American education has experienced […]
As Ariel Castro was being sentenced to 1,000 years in prison without parole for keeping several women hostage in his Cleveland home last year, he unwittingly articulated a view of human responsibility that is championed by many of our intellectuals. Castro insisted he did nothing wrong and blamed his crimes on addiction. This is a […]
People who pay attention to education know that the question of how to teach children to read is a controversial one. But what they may not know is that it only became controversial relatively late, historically speaking. There was a time when there was no phonetic alphabet as we know it. Written language, in fact, […]