Joanne Jacobs
Bible stories shouldn't be 'forbidden fruit'
Students won't understand what they read if they're not familiar with the Bible, mythology, history and literature.
top of page
Joanne Jacobs
- Jul 31
- 3 min
Is it really all that 'weird' for politicians to be pro-family?
Politicians used to kiss babies. Now, they're supposed to diss them, if you believe the anti-Vance campaign.
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 29
- 1 min
A Bible in every classroom
Oklahoma's public school teachers have been ordered to use the Bible in lessons on "history, civilization, ethics, comparative religion,...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 26
- 2 min
If minority parents choose a charter, that's not 'resegregation'
Parents should be able to choose a public school that meets their children's academic needs and their family's values, writes Debbie...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 21
- 2 min
Bible stories should be cultural literacy, not forbidden fruit
Teaching students about religion is fine in public schools, writes Natalie Wexler. "Inculcating specific religious beliefs" is not....
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 21
- 1 min
Thou shalt not establish a state religion
Louisiana's law requiring public schools and universities to post the Ten Commandments is unlikely to be deemed constitutional.
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 5
- 2 min
It's cultural literacy, not Bible lessons, say Texas educators
Texas will add Bible stories and religious history to its K-5 reading curriculum.
Joanne Jacobs
- Apr 6
- 2 min
Sprechen sie ... Don't bother, AI will parlez vous for you
Learning a foreign language may soon be as obsolete as learning how to churn butter, writes Louise Matsakis in The Atlantic. Total...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 13, 2023
- 2 min
Love, marriage, honor roll: Culture closes 'excellence gaps'
Culture explains why Asian-American students do so well in school, writes Helen Raleigh, who's Asian American, in The Federalist. It's...
Joanne Jacobs
- Sep 10, 2023
- 3 min
Is misogyny real? The present is female
Misogyny is a myth, argues John Tierney in City Journal. It's not just that "the future is female." The present is too. In the past,...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 6, 2023
- 1 min
No sex shows for kids in Texas: Why is this controversial?
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign a bill that would ban staging "sexually explicit shows in front of children," reports William...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jun 3, 2023
- 1 min
Good Book or bad book? Bible is challenged in Utah
The Bible is off the shelves at elementary and middle-school libraries in a suburban Utah district, after a parent's complaint, writes...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 3, 2023
- 1 min
The culture war matters
The "culture war"matters for public education, writes Daniel Buck. It's not a distraction, not as the National Education Association...
Joanne Jacobs
- May 3, 2023
- 1 min
'Anything Goes'
“Good authors, too, who once knew better words now only use four-letter words writing prose," wrote Cole Porter (with help from P.G....
Joanne Jacobs
- Apr 30, 2023
- 2 min
Surrendering Concord's Minutemen
Concord High School in Northern California is under pressure to give up its "Minutemen" mascot, reports Stephanie Magallon for NBC Bay...
Joanne Jacobs
- Apr 9, 2023
- 2 min
You are not enough: Love thy neighbor too
"You are enough" is a popular saying, writes Katherine Boyle on The Free Press. But it's not true. Americans have lost their sense of...
Joanne Jacobs
- Mar 8, 2023
- 2 min
Harvard students can't handle 'The Scarlet Letter' -- but prisoners can
“The last time I taught The Scarlet Letter, I discovered that my students were really struggling to understand the sentences as sentences...
Joanne Jacobs
- Feb 20, 2023
- 2 min
AP African American Studies: None dare call it 'systemic'
The new Advanced Placement African American studies course was revised after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called it anti-racist...
Joanne Jacobs
- Feb 3, 2023
- 2 min
It's only Schoolhouse Rock (but I like it)
I'm so old I don't know the words to Conjunction Junction. Schoolhouse Rock, animated musical shorts on grammar, history, civics,...
Joanne Jacobs
- Jan 16, 2023
- 1 min
'Letter from a Birmingham Jail'
"We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom," Martin Luther King Jr....
bottom of page