Joel's humanistic blog

Here's the perfect opportunity for aspiring  libertarian op-ed writers  to follow  Murray Rothbard's lead  in getting into the opinion section of The New York Times : send in a response to the newspaper's weekly "Invitation to a Dialogue" feature.  I've floated the general idea of having libertarians coordinate on responding with letters to the editor  before , but this feature is particularly suitable for unconventional contributors due to being specifically aimed at soliciting contrasting responses from across the political spectrum to each week's piece (which makes it even more of a letdown when a promising topic gets a weak response).  And while the usual contributions make it clear that New York Times  regular columnists have no monopoly on  banal authoritarianism , this week's opening letter  Invitation to a Dialogue: Skipping 12th Grade  is a surprisingly Paul Goodman-esque  "practical proposal"  "to break the rigi...

From this morning's David Brooks column : Likewise, many teachers have an intuitive sense that different students have different learning styles: some are verbal and some are visual; some are linear, some are holistic. Teachers imagine they will improve outcomes if they tailor their presentations to each student. But there’s no evidence to support this either.