The Nov-Dec issue features an interview with James Marcus Bach, who writes of being “dedicated to a certain lifestyle of mind. I call it intellectual buccaneering. I call myself a buccaneer-scholar. Just as the original buccaneers would not submit to authority in their pursuit of worldly riches, neither do us modern buccaneers yoke ourselves to [...]
As teenagers, our kids seldom did grammar exercises and never wrote reports and term papers. According to some in the educational establishment, they ought to be poor writers. Not so. Both got “A’s” in their college freshmen English classes. Friends now often ask them for help editing assignments. Both enjoy writing and produce credible pieces [...]
Arithmetic, computation or mathematics … no matter what it’s called in school, the subject often adds up in a child’s mind as plain old boring. Kindergarten worksheets display clusters of objects for children to color and count. By third or fourth grade word problems sneak into the curriculum. I don’t know about you, but when [...]
Dear Mom, Do you remember this? A tiny girl sits, a little speck enveloped in the giant, red living room sofa. Tears stream down her chubby little cheeks. “I just can’t read anymore, Mom! It doesn’t make any sense,” I say, dropping the white list of phonetic words on the floor–rat, cat, bat, mat, sat–as [...]
