Tag Archives: education

teen drug addiction

Drug Addiction – Quote of the Day

Up in my part of the country, northern Vermont, drug addiction has been getting a lot of attention of late. In 2014 Governor Shumlin dedicated his state-of-the-state address largely to heroin addition. More recently, Governor Hassan of New Hampshire testified before the legislature in support of a bill to provide more resources to fight the “heroin and opioid crisis.”

By and large the measures advocated for do not address the fundamental issue: why do people begin taking read more

Eric Daniels science education

Science Education – Real Reform [Video]

I was very pleased yesterday when I saw a link for a new talk from one of my favorite speakers, Eric Daniels. In this video of a talk from OCON 2015, he discusses the problems he sees in science education today, the historical roots of those problems, and potential solutions to them.

He gives a quote from an historian that summarizes one way in which science education has gone wrong.

In the relatively short time between 1893 and 1920, the justification for science in the curriculum had shifted read more

Education, Climate Change and Inequality: The Assault on Reason

Every living creature has a means of survival. Plants have roots and leaves to gain nutrients and energy. Birds have wings to seek out food while escaping predators. Predators, such as lions or wolves, have speed, instincts, claws and fangs with which to chase down and consume their prey. While man cannot survive by any of these methods he does have his own means of survival- his rational faculty. His reason.

Ayn Rand sums it up this way in The Virtue of Selfishness:

Man cannot survive, as animals read more

If You Care About the Children, Privatize Education

Record numbers of towns, in all parts of the state of Vermont, have rejected school budgets this year in protest over ever rising property tax rates and education costs spiraling out of control. In St. Johnsbury, the town where I work, residents recently voted down their school budget for the third time.

Those who support the increased school budget often attempt to characterize their opponents as people who hate children or do not care about the future of the town. Comments such as ” It’s read more

Podcast Roundup – May 12th

Each week I try to listen to a couple of podcasts which apply rational principles to issues of everyday life.

Philosophy in Action – Dr. Diana Hsieh and Greg Perkins discussed questions on weak vs strong atheism, weak being the view that evidence of God fails while strong is view that God cannot exist by its very nature, and the rationality of dating someone with psychological problems. One interesting read more

Ah, the Hubris of the Statists

In today’s local paper, the front page contained a story about an upcoming debate about private schools vs public schools taking place next week. Sadly the debate topic is something of a false alternative: Should Vermont school districts use tax money to fund public schools or pay tuition to private schools? Obviously missing is the idea that tax money should not be used at all for education and that government has no legitimate role in education.

What peaked my attention though was a quote read more

Some Interesting Articles

I tend to read a bunch of articles over the course of a week, so I thought I would share some of my favorites from the past week.  I am going to try and do this every Wednesday.  This is by no means a complete list, but it does include most of the articles that I had particularly made note of, at least since I decided to publish such a list.