You could write a fair history of education fads as wish to find shortcuts, like searching in vain for the Northwest Passage: teaching reading strategies instead of building background knowledge, 21st century skills, self-esteem, learning styles, personalized learning, et al.

⚠️"To stress critical thinking while de-emphasizing knowledge reduces a student’s capacity to think critically."

⚠️"Giving a child constant praise to bolster self-esteem regardless of academic achievement breeds complacency or skepticism, or both, and ultimately, a decline in self-esteem."

Hirsch goes on to say in his book that in order for true educational reform to take place, we need to have skepticism and look for alternative expertise. Easier said than done because who would want to be found opposing things like "critical thinking or self esteem"

Did you know that instead of knowledge rich, teacher led, direct instruction, schools keep churning out the same rebranded theories they've held since John Dewey in 1902?

“The importance of reading, not slight stuff to get through the time, but the best that has been written, forces itself upon me more and more every year I live.” —Matthew Arnold

SEM self esteem mvmt rebranded to SEL

Fantastic piece. “Too many regard the role of university education as teaching students to repudiate and reject their social order, rather than understanding, preserving, and reforming it for the common good” #cdnpoli thehub.ca/2025/06/30/dee…

A school that fails to bring about subject-matter mastery cannot be counted as a good school—regardless of its other virtues.

Robert Pondiscio Direct Instruction reveals the information and competency gaps in teachers. The instructors that are not masters of their discipline can hide behind practices that do not require deep expertise and knowledge building for their implementation.

The book. The lesson.

Absent a proper rendering of the self, the constant injunction to “be yourself” leads kids into a sort of hedonistic chasing of self indulgence. We are individuals, yes, but we exist in a vast web of social, cultural, and metaphysical obligations. Without that grounding, to

ADHD doesn't exist. Not in the way we are led to believe: open.spotify.com/episode/5Tf3bd…

The subtext of SEL is basically, "if you're not anxious, maybe you should be."

"Elite overproduction occurs when a society produces too many people who feel entitled to high status...and try to form alliances with genuinely marginalized populations in order to depose existing elites and install themselves in their stead." press.princeton.edu/books/hardcove…

Therapeutic culture is a false promise and primarily a form of toxic narcissism and most people will feel better by thinking less about their problems.

This is a smart comment. Some writers who made biggest impression on my right-wing view are Z. Bauman, A. MacIntyre, W. Berry, C. Lasch, and P. Rieff — not all “radicals,” but not really left-liberals. If they don’t really know how to fix it, it’s because nobody really does.

Happy birthday to John Locke, born this day in 1632. If you care about liberty, you should care about Locke. He gave us the intellectual backbone of America’s founding. 🧵

People with narcissistic or psychopathic personality traits are often drawn to certain ideologies and forms of political activism. They use activism as a vehicle to feed their own ego rather than to work toward real social change. People who are high on what psychologists call