Lifestyle topics
The modern approach to child development seems to be to tell very child he or she is very talented at x, and a “winner”, and to give participation trophies and prizes out like confetti. So pervasive is this phenomenon that trophy and award sales in the US and Canada are worth $3 billion a year. …
Malorie Blackman, the British Children’s Laureate for 2013-15 wants children to read more. But I take issue with two other thoughts she voiced last week. She talked of how, as a young black girl, she had felt “totally invisible in the world of literature”; and how, when studying history, she had wanted to learn something …
Continue reading ‘On literature, and how some people don’t get the point’ »
“What makes humanities students different isn’t their power of expression, their capacity to frame an argument or their ability to do independent work. Yes, these are valuable qualities, and we humanities teachers try to cultivate them. But true humanities students are exceptional because they have been, and are, engaged in the activity that Plato commends …
Continue reading ‘Humanities students are the best employees’ »
“The consensus among climate scientists that climate change is being driven mainly by human activity is now 95%, according to a leaked draft report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This is up from 90% in the previous – or fourth – IPCC assessment, which was released in 2007. The draft, which synthesises …
It appears that the man who killed 12 people in the Naval Yard in Washington DC was mentally disturbed. Most of the deliberate (as opposed to accidental) gun killings in the US are committed by sick people (by definition) who should be in safe environments where they can do no harm. Back in the days …
Continue reading ‘The devil’s bargain – save tax, get gun slaughter’ »
