The latest rankings of the Top 400 Universities in the World, 2011-2012. A breakdown of their locations by country followed by some explanatory questions: Top 10: United States 7 United Kingdom 3 Top 20: USA 14 UK 4 Canada 1 Switzerland 1 Top 100: USA 51 UK 12 Canada 5 Australia 4 Netherlands 4 Germany […]
Top universities in the world by country Read More »
I like this paragraph from Michael Strong’s The Habit of Thought: “The effort of Socratic Practice is to develop students’ own standard of intellectual judgment by means of placing the onus of responsibility for understanding entirely on them and providing them with the tools and experiences necessary to develop their intellectual judgment. ‘Does it make
Michael Strong on Socratic teaching Read More »
“Babies Are Born to Dance, New Research Shows” is the headline of a recent report in Science Daily: “Researchers have discovered that infants respond to the rhythm and tempo of music and find it more engaging than speech.” Data like this connect with key issues about mind-body integration. Music seems to be central to every
Are babies born to dance? Read More »
This chart, based on a Bureau of Labor Statistics time-use survey of teenagers, presents data for four racial/cultural groupings: Asian, non-Hispanic white, Hispanic, and black. If the data are accurate, how far does the chart go towards explaining differentials across the races in grades, graduation rates, employment rates, and income levels? Also interesting is the
Homework, race, and success in life Read More »
For this year’s conference of the Association of Private Enterprise Education, I am organizing and chairing a session on two giants of the twentieth century — Friedrich Hayek and Ayn Rand — with four scholars comparing their views on values and political economy. Topic: Hayek and Rand on Values Chair: Stephen Hicks, Ph.D., Rockford College,
Hayek and Rand on values — APEE 2011 conference Read More »
… is now available at Amazon. Here is my theme: “The liberal case for free speech won out in the modern world, but it has been under strong attack in the past generation. The attacks have come not only from traditional conservatives but increasingly from the postmodern left. In this essay, Stephen Hicks presents and
Kindle version of my “Free Speech & Postmodernism” essay Read More »
I have fond memories of my undergraduate institution, the University of Guelph in Canada. It’s a beautiful campus, I got a wide-ranging liberal arts education, and the Philosophy Department was intellectually diverse and (mostly) competent. (Another alumni, John Kenneth Galbraith, was apparently not so impressed with his time there.) Check out pages 48-52 of this
University of Guelph bragging rights Read More »
A stimulating, 11:40-minute animated talk by Ken Robinson. I have qualms about some of Robinson’s intellectual-history-of-education claims, but his portrait of mainstream contemporary education (especially the repulsive cop-out that is the ADHD “epidemic”) and his prescriptions for reform are bang-on accurate. [Which reminds me of my extended series on the philosophy and history of education.]
Sir Ken Robinson on factory schools Read More »