“Independent study, community service, adventures and experience, large doses of privacy and solitude, a thousand different apprenticeships — the one-day variety or longer — these are all powerful, cheap, and effective ways to start a real reform of schooling. But no large-scale reform is ever going to work to repair our damaged children and our damaged society until we force open the idea of “school” to include family as the main engine of education. If we use schooling to break children away from parents — and make no mistake, that has been the central function of schools since John Cotton announced it as the purpose of the Bay Colony schools in 1650 and Horace Mann announced it as the purpose of Massachusetts schools in 1850 — we’re going to continue to have the horror show we have right now.”
~ John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
“The decline of community in the modern world has as its inevitable religious consequence the creation of masses of helpless, bewildered individuals who are unable to find solace in Christianity regarded merely as creed.”
Robert Nisbet
American diplomacy should continue to stand up for genuine democracy, freedom of expression, and unapologetic celebrations of European nations’ individual character and history. America encourages its political allies in Europe to promote this revival of spirit, and the growing influence of patriotic European parties indeed gives cause for great optimism. Our goal should be to help Europe correct its current trajectory.
The White House
The National Security Strategy Document
Games stimulate the mind. Kids thrive on mental stimulation. Games teach kids to triumph over challenging problems.
This story out of India: Sarwagya Singh Kushwaha was born in 2022. At 30 months he started learning chess. By age three he had defeated five ranking members of the International Chess Federation, earning him his own official ranking. What’s next? Recognition as a grand master as he continues learn about how chess works, and how victory is achieved against some of the most active minds of his generation.