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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
Jun 5, 20242 min read
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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
Apr 6, 20242 min read
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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 13, 20232 min read
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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
Sep 10, 20233 min read
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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 6, 20231 min read
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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
Jun 3, 20231 min read
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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, 20231 min read
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'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
May 3, 20231 min read
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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 30, 20232 min read
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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
Apr 9, 20232 min read
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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
Mar 8, 20232 min read
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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 20, 20232 min read
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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
Feb 3, 20232 min read
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'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....

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 16, 20231 min read
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If liberal arts are dying, is it suicide?
Liberal educators aren't making the case for liberal arts education, writes John Agresto, former president of St. John's College in Santa...

Joanne Jacobs
Jan 8, 20232 min read
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'You could shoot your eye out'
I saw National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation for the first time on Christmas Eve -- I'm always just a bit behind the culture -- and...

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 26, 20222 min read
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Mastering newspeak at Stanford
Will Stanford continue to award master's degrees? Will my daughter's major -- American Studies -- need a new name? Stanford's IT...

Joanne Jacobs
Dec 23, 20223 min read
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Happy Thanksgiving
I remember making these in school in the 1950's. I don't think much has changed. Bion Bartning of FAIR (Foundation Against Intolerance &...

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 24, 20221 min read
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Most don't want schools to 'say' LGBTQ
Most Americans don't think young children are ready for lessons about sexuality and gender, writes Morgan Polikoff, a USC education...

Joanne Jacobs
Nov 16, 20221 min read
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Raising not-so-American kids
College-educated parents want their children taught in Japanese, Mandarin, French and Spanish, writes Abigail Shrier on Substack. They...

Joanne Jacobs
Oct 8, 20222 min read
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