Sour-grapes agreement
Michael Olneck and Peter Sacks turn petty in letters to the editor about Diane Ravitch that the New York Times printed today. Wow. I agree with Ravitch on a number of things and disagree with her on a number of things, some of which is in our area of expertise (history of education) and some […]
Historians’ automaticity, part 1
Concerns with science and math education are nothing new, and although the rhetoric today focuses on saving the planet and the economy, the argument for urgent intensification of STEM education is remarkably similar in structure to the Cold War era debates in the 1940s through the early 1960s: our country is in crisis, we need […]
Spring break
Classes are not meeting next week, many students are away from campus, and many faculty are as well, so it’s time for me to get stuff done. Certainly not as much as I’d like, but this is an opportunity to… well, maybe move from a molasses pace to a sludge pace on some projects. At […]
PolitiFact Erratum
The St. Pete Times‘s PolitiFact comes down today with the same ruling that I would on Governor Charlie Crist’s statement that the high school graduation rate in the cohort just graduated last year is the “highest it’s ever been.” They rate the claim as Mostly True, and I agree. And their reporting of my remarks […]
Every 24 minutes: why it’s time to vote on the health care bill
By Sherman Dorn on March 4, 2010
Two years ago, a friend I’ve known for more than 40 years who works at the Urban Institute updated the Institute of Medicine’s estimate of the annual excess deaths in the U.S. due to lack of insurance. In 2008, the updated estimate was 22,000 annual excess deaths. That’s an average of one preventable death about […]
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