Posts by Steve Nelson
Curiosity Did Not Kill the Cat
“Curiosity killed the cat.” Among the world’s most foolish aphorisms, this one stands out. It is quite likely that the lack of curiosity is more likely a fatal condition for cats . . . and humans. Yet another lousy OpEd on education graced – or disgraced – the pages of the New York Times…
Read MoreQuestion Authority!
In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing. – Mark Twain I confess to have…
Read MoreWhat’s the Score?
Well, that didn’t take long. Following the short burst of SAT-optional college admission policies spawned by the pandemic, the testing race is back at full throttle, at least at some Ivies. Among the rationales this time around is the preposterous claim that SATs actually enhance diversity. The argument goes like this: Not submitting test…
Read MorePlay Can Save Us
The numbing ubiquity of human despair and political idiocy is enough to get a guy down. I spend far too much of my retired life with the New York Times on my lap. My privilege requires that I pay attention, despite knowing that I can’t do a damn thing about most of it. But there…
Read MoreDemocracy in Peril
New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie wrote this week about the threats to our democratic republic: Democracy, remember, is not just a set of rules and institutions. It is, as the philosopher John Dewey argued throughout his life, a set of habits and dispositions that must be cultivated and practiced if they are to…
Read MoreGive Children Real Life
“This car climbed Mt. Washington.” This bumper sticker is commonly seen in New England and refers to the highest peak in the East. As implied, there is a winding road to the summit. These bumper stickers never fail to irritate, as the “achievement” is remarkably unremarkable. It’s rather like having a CD player with a…
Read MoreReading Madness
An article this week in Chalkbeat Tennessee told of Kamryn Sanders, an 8-year-old Memphis 3rd grader who walked out her school’s front door on the day her reading scores were to be revealed. She walked a mile, finally asked for help, and the police returned her to school. Kamryn was afraid, with some justification, that…
Read MoreThe Myth of Lost Learning
This week yet another New York Times piece by Harvard and Stanford “experts” warned of the devastating learning loses sustained by American kids due to the pandemic. Read the piece if you love arcane, statistical analyses and nearly impenetrable pseudo-scientific prose. Or if you need a sleep aid. The educational establishment is rife with this…
Read MorePhonics Can Cure Cancer
[Editor’s note: Educators may find “A Mathematician’s Lament,” cited and linked in this essay, interesting reading.] Evidently phonics instruction can cure cancer. Well, perhaps I slightly overstate, but a recent New York Times column by Nicholas Kristoff offered some mighty powerful claims of phonics instruction as an educational panacea. According to Kristoff and nearly…
Read MoreThe Content of Character
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. Few readers will be reading this quote for the first time. Those on the anti-racist…
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