Education

Frightened Children Won’t Solve the World’s Problems

6 Comments / Education /

Bjorn Lomborg’s diagnosis: “Decades of climate-change exaggeration in the West have produced frightened children, febrile headlines, and unrealistic political promises. The world needs a cooler approach that addresses climate change smartly without scaring us needlessly and that pays heed to the many other challenges facing the planet.” Decades indeed. Ten years ago: “One in Three […]

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¿Por Qué Los Posmodernos Entrenan—No Educan—Activistas? [Spanish translation]

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[Por Stephen R. C. Hicks. A translation by Fermin Elizalde of “Why Postmoderns Train—Not Educate—Activists,” James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, March 2019.] He aquí por qué adoctrinar a los niños tiene mucho sentido para los posmodernistas. La mayoría de nosotros encontramos adoctrinadores pasados de moda en nuestra educación. Los adoctrinadores piensan de esta

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Universities should be deeply embarrassed …

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… that it’s come to this: Politicians feel they can/must nudge them or coerce them into basic intellectual civility. The President of the United States uses the financial big stick: “Many have become increasingly hostile to the First Amendment and free speech. Under the guise of speech codes, safe spaces, and trigger warnings, these universities

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Why Postmoderns Train—Not Educate—Activists [Open College series]

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A new episode of my podcast series, produced by Possibly Correct out of Toronto. Audio: iTunes Stitcher YouTube Topics: Why indoctrination makes sense to postmodernists // Modern ideal of liberal education // My undergraduate experience // New-fashioned indoctrination Transcription: Forthcoming. Sources: John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (1859), Chapter 2. Mark Lilla: “The history of French philosophy in

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Why Postmoderns Train—Not Educate—Activists

2 Comments / Education /

At the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, my article “Why Postmoderns Train—Not Educate—Activists.” Teasers: Who said this? We cannot escape our ethnocentric predicament. We must, in practice, privilege our own group. And this? You don’t want to build up your opponent’s arguments; you want to squelch them. This? Renounce all philosophical speculation and

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Politicians Should *Not* Enforce Free Speech at Universities

2 Comments / Education, Politics /

Our head politician wants to use political leverage to fix higher education’s semi-censorship problem. Universities should be ashamed that it has come to this — those universities, at least, that do not have healthy free-speech cultures. Of course politicians already use their power — financial threats and regulatory compulsion — to make universities do what

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Montessori and Objectivism — mini-course

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As part of this full lecture on Objectivist philosophy of education and its intimate connections to Montessori’s system, here is the conclusion-drawing section for those already familiar with Montessori: For the full context — overviewing Rand’s and Montessori’s major ideas — begin here: Source: My 15-lecture video course on Philosophy of Education. The Objectivism and

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Dr. Jane Clare Jones, the Intellectual Dark Web, and me

8 Comments / Culture, Education, Philosophy /

Dr. Jane Clare Jones seems like a nice, intelligent person, but my tweet about the ethos of the Intellectual Dark Web prompted a strongly negative response and this chain of exchanges: Dr. Jones replied: I responded, as did she: And with a helpful clarification that she also disagrees with the authoritarian Left: Me on the

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