How Sputnik changed U.S. education
Education experts said Oct. 4 that the United States may be overdue for a science education overhaul like the one undertaken after the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite 50 years ago, and...
View Article‘Hillary factor’ among topics at leadership and women lunch
Is America on the verge of an explosion of “girl power” — a new level of female leadership in public life? There seem to be signs everywhere. The Oct. 15 issue of Fortune magazine trumpeted the “50...
View ArticleEdelman pumps up Memorial Church crowd
On Oct. 19 at the Memorial Church, while a heavy rain pelted down outside, Marian Wright Edelman pelted a near-capacity audience with facts about America’s social failings. An American child is abused...
View ArticleKSG panel: Early campaigning takes voter toll
The intense media coverage of a small group of presidential hopefuls is prematurely narrowing the field of worthy nominees, many political experts claim. In 1976, journalist Arthur Hadley authored “The...
View ArticleGlendon named U.S. ambassador to the Holy See
President Bush has appointed Harvard Law School (HLS) Professor Mary Ann Glendon as the new U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. The president announced his intention to nominate Glendon on Nov. 5. A...
View ArticleClosing the ‘achievement gap’
The achievement gap in American K-12 schools is well-documented, and is characterized by racial and class differences. By the end of fourth grade, black, Latino, and poor students of all races are two...
View ArticleBorderless America
Sometimes what we call something changes the way we see it. Steven Hahn wants to call the groups of escaped slaves who found refuge in the northern United States prior to the Civil War “maroon...
View ArticleHoughton exhibit features ‘luminous’ historian
While Edward Gibbon was publishing his six-volume opus, “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” a large portion of Britain’s empire was declaring its independence and fighting to break free of the...
View ArticleAtrocities attract healing hands to the Congo
The rape itself was brutal enough, but the woman’s nearly severed hand shocked Susan Bartels. It was early November and her first day working at Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, a provincial capital in the...
View ArticleTutu sees lots of negatives, a few positives, in American foreign policy
Desmond Tutu was a high school teacher in Johannesburg before he entered the ministry, and all these years later he is still very much the pedagogue. “Good afternoon,” he said emphatically as he...
View ArticleFilm insists U.S. educational system is in critical condition
Last month Bill Gates warned Congress that the United States is dangerously close to losing its competitive edge due to a serious shortage of scientists and engineers. The problem required in part,...
View ArticleThe Origins of Canadian and American Political Differences
Guns, government, same-sex marriage — the U.S. and Canada couldn’t be more dissimilar. Kaufman explores the history and culture of the two lands and asks why Canada is so close, yet so far away.
View ArticleThe Race Between Education and Technology
Goldin and Katz discuss the U.S. educational and technological meltdown circa 1980, and examine the glory days of the 20th century when the country’s educational system made it the richest in the nation.
View ArticleA Constitution of Many Minds: Why the Founding Document Doesn’t Mean What It...
Sunstein breaks down the Constitution by looking at the diverse ways and methods it is interpreted. A heady book on America’s revered — and debated — political blueprint.
View ArticleLearning Lessons: Medicine, Economics, and Public Policy
With more than 50 years of experience in the economics and policy worlds, Fein dishes the lessons he’s learned on government, decision making, and more, attempting to breathe new life into our nation’s...
View ArticleIn the footsteps of Du Bois
It was a change for the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum. In a space that has hosted enough leaders and politicians to rival CNN, suddenly there was song. Negro spirituals by the group DivinePURPOSE filled...
View ArticleA tale of two continents
When Elisa New first picked up her great-grandfather Jacob Levy’s entrancing and ornate carved cane, she immediately sensed the unfolding journey on which she would embark. New, an English professor at...
View ArticleRebels to some, achievers to others
What do the American Revolution, public education, HIV/AIDS research, the living wage, and rock ’n’ roll have in common? For Timothy Patrick McCarthy and John McMillian, the answer is clear: They’re...
View ArticleBrain gain
The Chinese have an expression for what you get by studying overseas: du jing, or “a glaze of gold.” “You paint a gold layer on yourself,” said Hong Kong University social scientist David Zweig, who...
View ArticleWhen fear took control
“My mother … told me at age 10, ‘If you’re going to die, you’re going to die. There’s no sense worrying about it,’” historian and author Alice George said Wednesday (Aug. 11), recalling a personal...
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