School Choice: The Phantom Menace, or A New Hope?

“It's a problem of motivation, all right? Now if I work my ass off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime… But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.” Anyone who pays for basic cable and occasionally watches it should recognize this classic from Office Space. This justification of underachievement was used by a fictional techie drone, but it can also serve as a cautionary measure about the dangers of taking unionization too far- and yes, I am applying this to teachers’ unions.

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Social Monkeys: How Facebook and Cooperative Learning is Destroying the American Dream

I sat in a meeting recently when they promoted the idea of social skills, or cooperative learning, as the main purpose and vehicle in creating a truly engaging and successful educational environment. It is sound educational theory that has been developed in the last thirty years and so it is not ground breaking, nor does it need any explanation with jargon or data. What has disturbed my sleep and led me deep into the realm of humanist philosophy is the idea that humans are in fact social creatures. For just a little while, I would like to ponder this notion and see if the idea of promoting a social agenda is truly an American ideal or a way to prevent the masses from exerting their energies to reach individual achievement.

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