Liberal Talk Radio

David Goldstein injects a much-needed reality check into the current debate over the Seattle Public Schools. He’s right that we’re nowhere near the worst urban school district in America. Far, far from it. If you’re a local, read the whole thing.

Ah, Georgetown. Maybe I really was the only person who actually learned anything there … guess that’s why the good Jesuits put up with my best efforts to be Neal Cassidy. Anyway, to contextualize, most of the (non-student) residents of Georgetown are society widows who are now sitting on $4 million worth of property. Which [...]

John Kerry put his foot in it: Education, if you make the most of it, you study hard and do your homework and you make an effort to be smart you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq. But thankfully he’s not waffling. Let me make it crystal clear, as crystal [...]

Great piece from Camille Paglia, icon of “third wave” feminism. Paglia offers a wide-ranging reflection on the (tarnished and tottering) state of our union in Salon. About the Dems, Paglia notes: The Democrats have to start fresh and throw out the entire party superstructure. I was bitterly disappointed after voting for Ralph Nader that he [...]

Over the weekend the Times ran a “scary” above-the-fold article on the way No Child Left Behind is forcing low-achieving schools to cut back on classes like art and science in order to spend more time on reading and writing, the kind of thing that makes education experts say, “What a sadness”*: Schools from Vermont [...]