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Blog archives for March, 2008


Archive for March, 2008

Heterosexual marriage should not be legal

Our slightly tangential question today is, why are people so irrational about marriage? There have been cultures and times when legal marriage was important, and others when it was not. But there will always be people who are convinced that marriage is somehow a magic bullet for our social problems. Missives [...]

We won’t fix math education without fixing math stigma

Isn’t it ever so satisfying when your hard-earned taxes are spent on something useful and constructive, such as the report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, which was charged with answering the question of why American students are falling behind the rest of the world in mathematical preparation. Of course, enormous piles of research [...]

Economics and the environment, part 1

There is a tendency or those on the political right to invoke economic theory when developing or critiquing environmental policy. This can make sense or not, depending on the context. For example, a cap-and-trade system for dealing with the emissions causing acid rain (sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides) has contributed to significant reductions [...]

Adapt public education to individuals, not demographics

The genetics-solves-everything crowd is continuing to have an influence on society that threatens to set Americans’ notions of equality back decades. I still believe these attitudes are cyclical, but it is always depressing and disturbing to be in the regressive part of the cycle, with no hint of change in sight. The target [...]