Absence makes the heart grow fonder… The New York Review of Books ran this excellent, incisive, comprehensive review of “Waiting for Superman”, and I cannot recommend it enough.  The author of the review is important: Diane Ravitch is a longtime education reformer and policymaker, who was active in the Bush administration and helped write NoRead moreRead more

(Aren’t healthcare puns the best??) This post, at The Incidental Economist, is the introduction to a ten-part series that I cannot recommend enough — each part is very short, direct, and easily digestible, so don’t let the length intimidate you.  Essentially, it is a point-by-point breakdown of the specific areas in which the American healthcareRead moreRead more

Mario Vargas Llosa was named the 2010 Nobel laureate for literature, an award which I feel is eminently deserved — of all the major Latin American novelists, I find Vargas Llosa to have the firmest grasp on both history and humanity, and the interrelationship between the two; the manner in which structures of power impactRead moreRead more

My head remains too congested for any serious analysis.  Until then, some interesting bits and pieces about the various environmental damages we’ve wrought as unintended consequences of our pursuit of modernity.  Also, a fascinating discussion of FarmVille, the egregiously popular Facebook game in which users obligate themselves to maintaining a virtual farm. I’ll admit it,Read moreRead more

I was planning on a big post today examining the economics of health care, but I got sick.  (In the words of Alanis Morrissette, isn’t it ironic?)  My head is a bit fuzzy so we’ll just have some links instead, and all the theme of public corruption: The New York Review of Books explains theRead moreRead more

Because my “Getting Schooled” posts were so long, I wanted to take the opportunity for a concise summary of my points.  Basically, my issues with reform are this: 1.  The teachers’ unions are made out to be the biggest impediment to improvement, setting the well-being of children and the well-being of teachers against one another;Read moreRead more

As promised… a weekend follow-up to my Friday post about education reform.  The real centerpiece of reform efforts is the notion of “data-driven education,” i.e., that teachers can be objectively measured according to certain benchmarks.  While perhaps a reasonable principle, what this has meant in practice is an increased reliance on standardized testing.  Standardized testingRead moreRead more

I have been meaning, since the start of this blog, to craft a lengthy essay about school reform efforts, and the conflation of “hype” with “evidence”.  I’ll go into more detail in a post this weekend, but fortunately, the evangelical zealotry of educational reform — reaching its zenith in the forthcoming documentary “Waiting For Superman”Read moreRead more

Malcolm Gladwell wrote an interesting piece in the latest New Yorker about social media and activism, and fellow Tumblrite modernandmaterialthings wrote an even better summation and response. Also, this piece from the New York Review of Books is a sobering reminder of the oppression that young intellectuals face in totalitarian regimes.  It provides a startlingRead moreRead more

You may or may not have heard about the kerfuffle surrounding the reviews of Jonathan Franzen’s latest novel, Freedom.  (Franzen is no stranger to kerfuffles: his last release, The Corrections, temporarily brought about the end of Oprah’s book club.)  NPR has an excellent and even-handed summary of the situation, which discusses some facts that theRead moreRead more