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Category: Education
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By Selwyn Duke The Penn State University sex-abuse scandal certainly seems unique. College-football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky (shown at left) could have been investigated as early as 1995 for abusing young boys, but instead was allowed to commit his crimes for another 10 years. School athletic director Tim Curley and senior vice president for business…
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By Selwyn Duke It was 60 years ago that William F. Buckley published God and Man at Yale, a book critical of the hostility toward religion prevalent at the Ivy League school. But now religion may be poised to make a comeback at the institution — at least, that is, if its god is called…
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By Selwyn Duke Once again, a study has show that American students are woefully ignorant of history. Test scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress demonstrate, writes the Wall Street Journal, that only “20% of U.S. fourth-graders and 17% of eighth-graders who took the 2010 history exam were ‘proficient’ or ‘advanced’…” and only 12…
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By Selwyn Duke It was the body slam heard around the world. When some Australian schoolboys decided to videotape themselves bullying 15-year old Casey Heynes, one of them got more than he bargained for. Casey, who had been pushed around and humiliated for years, responded to a punch in his face and other attempted blows…
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By Selwyn Duke Imagine that you’re a young adolescent boy. Like many your age, you’re shy around girls, perhaps to the point at which even talking to one might make your heart race. You also like sports, so you go out for your school’s wrestling team. Then, lo and behold, you’re at a meet, and…
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By Selwyn Duke It seems that it was a well-kept secret. Residents in the Mansfield Independent School District in Texas found out just this Monday evening that the district had decided to force some of their children to take Arabic language and culture classes. As for the impetus behind the move, as they say, just…
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By Selwyn Duke Just about two years ago, people were speaking of a new era: post-racial America. Well, it occurs to me that if we get any more post-racial, we’ll have a race war. And the latest on this front is a new exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science (MOS) called “RACE – Are…
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By Selwyn Duke Last year I wrote about a Tucson Unified School District social engineering plan that had the effect of meting out punishment based on racial quota. The school board had insisted, reported Arizona Republic’s Doug MacEachern, “that its schools reduce its suspensions and/or expulsions of minority students to the point that the data…
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By Selwyn Duke Boys will be boys … or, at least, that’s how it used to be. Now a few boys will be — or would be — girls, and there are plenty of adults willing to play along. And some of these adults occupy the Maine Human Rights Commission, which just ruled that a…
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By Selwyn Duke Back when my family vacationed in Miami Beach, it wasn’t uncommon for the hotels abutting the shoreline to have high diving boards. I mean sometimes really high — maybe even the kind you see on Olympics telecasts. It was a scary jump for me as a child, but I think I mustered…
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