What do parents think of “balanced school day?”

For the past few years many school boards, at least in Ontario, have been using what is called the “Balanced School Day” approach to timetabling. The Boards of Education say the rationale for this type of block learning is to improve academic performance by giving students more time for learning and to improve nutrition and [...]

Totalitarianism: Paved with Good Intentions

The following excerpts are from George Orwell’s, “1984”, probably my second favorite fiction book. This is a pseudo-monologue by the character O’Brien:
“You believe that reality is something objective, external, existing in its own right. You also believe that the nature of reality is self-evident. When you delude yourself into thinking
that you [...]

Norwegian Stave Churches

[This article first appeared on the site Ingebretsen's Scandinavian Gifts at http://www.ingebretsens.com/. Thank you to Molly Ingebretsen for permission to use]
One of the most recognized and familiar examples of Norwegian history and culture is the stave church (”stavkirke”). Unique to Norway, they are medieval yet elegant symbols of Christianity’s initial foothold into a country [...]

June Cleaver Junkies

It seems like only yesterday that the Andrea Yates child murders started to fade from the collective consciousness. Recall Mrs. Yates, who sequentially drowned her five children in the family bathtub before notifying her husband, was originally convicted for first-degree murder but had the verdict overturned and was committed to a mental institution due to [...]