When I'm driving, my car radio is invariably tuned to KOIT, the leading "easy listening" station in the San Francisco Bay area. My tastes are humdrum and unsophisticated, so the songs merely provide some pleasant background music, occasionally punctuated by commercial ads, mostly annoying but occasionally amusing. One of the better ones began running only... Read More

Some time ago I read a column on the schooling of blacks written by Walter Williams, the black economist at George Mason University, who grew up in the black housing projects of Philadelphia in the Thirties. I have read Williams for years. He is an absolutely reliable witness. He reports that all the kids could... Read More

The following anecdote I hope will demonstrate some disturbing pathologies in our culture at present. What kind of effect might different colored paper have on Hispanic students in terms of their schoolwork? This was the worthy academic query posed by my former colleague in the world of education, a world the Derb described as the... Read More

The specter, on the nation’s campuses, of frightened, middle-aged white educators, mostly men, resigning in fear of a mob rising in rage against hurtful words and gestures—all constitutionally protected speech—is an organic extension of the American educational project, down to your child’s school. If your kids are in the country’s educational gulag—primary, secondary or tertiary—however... Read More

Pain is inescapably part of life and a pre-requisite to accomplishment (“no pain, no gain”). But, that said, fortunes await those who can promise all the benefits sans any pain—think miracle weight loss pills. Most of these schemes just waste money but when it concerns helping the African American underclass, the consequences of eliminating discomfort... Read More

One wearies, or I weary anyway, of the endless news stories reporting that children can barely read or not at all, can’t add, and don’t know anything. This in the United States? The exceptional nation, shining city on a hill, guiding light of mankind? On and on it goes: the national toleration of the stupid,... Read More

Looking back on my time as a teacher, I note with irony that there is a special breed of stupidity which only manifests in those who purport to transmit knowledge to others. Rest assured, it is they who are now in charge. There is no reasoning with them, there is no Socratic dialogue to discover... Read More

Come morning, I receive emails from friends documenting the curious social transformation coming over the US. These missives usually accompany links to some new tragicomic antics. E.g., Harvard, once a university, lets students invent odd pronouns to promote gender equity. “He” and “she” represent oppression and lack of inclusion. Recently a friend, a Harvard PhD,... Read More

For over a half century government has spent billions to eliminate the race-related academic achievement gap and all to no avail. Paralleling this educational failure has been a similar frustration to reverse the pathologies plaguing the black underclass, e.g., crime, welfare dependency, drug addiction, chaotic family life, gang violence and chronic unemployment, among others. Yes,... Read More

As a placidly retired teacher, I know well the outrageous left-wing bias of school curriculums insofar as their content is concerned. Hopefully I demonstrated that to some degree in my last missive. But it’s not just content about which one must be wary; it’s also the process by which the content (or lack thereof) is... Read More

As I retire from teaching, exchanging my piece of chalk for a journalist’s pen, I can’t help but dole out a parting shot to the textbook publishers. I have tolerated them, I have tried to turn a blind eye to their machinations, their half-truths, their lies by omission, their lies of commission. The time has... Read More

Until recently, East Asia shunned globalism. Economically advanced and yet ethnically homogeneous, the region seemed to show that modernity can co-exist with the traditional structures of family, kinship, ethny, and nation. We can be more than just individuals in a global marketplace. Yet East Asia is now catching up to the West. South Korea has... Read More

Just as toddlers ask “Where do babies come from,” adults often ask, “Where do expensive, doomed-to-fail government policies come from?” In both instances the answer is simple: they start out little, barely noticed “embryonic cells” and, if all goes well, grow and grow and grow. In the case of public policies, this expansion is often... Read More

Every society has people of limited ability who need employment and historically many of these folk worked the land. It was a simple and effective solution: you don’t have to be especially smart, even industrious, to herd cows, pick fruit or otherwise help put food on somebody’s table. Nor did society have to spend millions... Read More