What Is the Point of Tenure?—A Roundtable
Tenure creates a dual world where some professors enjoy more freedom than others.
Bo Winegard, Charles Negy, and Alexander Riley
· 13 min read
Education
A collection of 398 posts
The Emptiness of Constructivist Teaching
In teaching students that all knowledge is constructed through their own interactions, we fail to give them satisfying answers about the world and its meaning.
Patricia Rice Doran
· 9 min read
The Disgraceful Firing of Joshua T. Katz
Joshua Katz knew it was dangerous to go public with his objections to a Princeton faculty letter, but he did so because his conscience demanded it. For this, he has paid an intolerable price.
The Quillette Editorial Board
· 13 min read
Direct Instruction Works. So Why Is It Controversial?
In 2016, I was sitting in the classroom of a Melbourne school as Dr. Kerry Hempenstall described the early stages of a reading program. He projected a series of letters on the screen. First, he displayed an “f.” “This is an ‘f’,” he said. Then he displayed an “f” written
Greg Ashman
· 7 min read
Academic Exile, Two Years On
Academia has become an intellectual prison, and many incarcerated professors are compelled to live a dual existence.
Bo Winegard
· 13 min read
The Liberal Arts Are the Future
Most great scientists and inventors have some background in the liberal arts.
Auguste Meyrat
· 7 min read
Why Did Harvard University Go After One of Its Best Black Professors?
Roland Fryer Jr.’s life is a movie script: A man abandoned by his mom and raised by an alcoholic dad became the youngest black professor to ever secure tenure at Harvard University. After ascending to the academic elite, Fryer didn’t resign himself to irrelevant technical puzzles; he put
Rob Montz
· 10 min read
‘Dissident Philosophers’—A Review
A review of Dissident Philosophers: Voices Against the Political Current of the Academy, edited by T. Allan Hillman and Tully Borland. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 320 pages (November, 2021) Dissident Philosophers, edited by T. Allan Hillman of the University of South Alabama and independent scholar Tully Borland, is a compilation
Spencer Case
· 10 min read
Gender Ideologues’ Alarming Campaign to Get Kids While They’re Young
In the debate about the wisdom of medicalised gender change for the young, there is a common refrain meant to expose the moral panic and ignorance of sceptics. No young person, we are told, gets any medical intervention before puberty. This may be true, but it obscures the more telling
Bernard Lane
· 10 min read
Stephen Kershnar and the Importance of Unaskable Questions
Unpopular, unorthodox and extreme opinions no less than any others need their spokesmen, in order that our chances of discovering truths and making wise decisions be increased. ~Joel Feinberg In January of this year, SUNY Fredonia ethicist Stephen Kershnar appeared on an episode of our philosophy podcast, Brain in a
Mark Oppenheimer and Jason Werbeloff
· 8 min read
The Death of Authority in the American Classroom
“I learned ancient Greek just so I could read Aristotle in his own language.” It was early in the fall semester of my freshman year of college and we were reading a passage from Aristotle’s Politics in a political philosophy seminar. In addition to learning Aristotle’s view that
Jeremy S. Adams
· 11 min read
It May Not Be Possible to Achieve Racial Equity in American Scientific Research
“NIH Stands Against Structural Racism in Biomedical Research.” This was the title of a statement released on March 1st, 2021, by Francis S. Collins, who was then the Director of the National Institutes of Health. The statement continued: As a science agency, we know that bringing diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and
Robert J. Morris
· 10 min read
It’s Time to Start Treating High School Math Like Football
As a skinny, unathletic nerd, I had no desire to play high-school football. Fortunately, no one compelled me to do so. Even if I could have become an adequate player by expending massive effort, much of the time I spent playing would have come at the expense of learning things
James D. Miller
· 6 min read
Paradise Lost?
A review of The Lost Promise: American Universities in the 1960s by Ellen Schrecker. University of Chicago Press, 616 pages (December 2021). The 1960s were the tipping point of postwar American history at which the conservativism of the previous decade evolved into an era of growing liberal consensus. Historian James
Roger L. Geiger
· 9 min read
The Maus That Roared
Maus was important to my life, but there's nothing wrong with protecting kids from encountering the world’s worst horrors before they are old enough to understand them.
Thomas P. Balazs
· 9 min read