Franco-phobia and the long-standing joke about the leftist bias of the US media.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Feelings, Nothing More Than Feelings
Apr 7th, 2003 6:25 pm | By Ophelia BensonThis is an interesting but irritating essay in the Guardian. It takes a look at the question of what books ‘everyone’ should have read by age eighteen or twenty, and also at the teaching and study of English literature at the secondary school level. It contains some peculiar albeit doubtless popular ideas about what literature is, what kind of people like it and why, what it tells us and does for us.
… Read the restEnglish is perceived as a “girly subject” and it struck me that the essence of the subject lies in being honest about your feelings – your personal response to texts. As Kate in the upper sixth says, it is about “empathy”…For me, this explained a great deal about
Is Literature a Girly Subject? 
Apr 7th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Is it about ‘being honest about your feelings’? What should secondary school students read?… Read the rest
Which is Pollyanna, Which is Jeremiah?
Apr 7th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Complacency about the status quo can be at least as dangerous as optimism about new technology, Matt Ridley argues.… Read the rest
Geeks Can Be Altruistic Too
Apr 7th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
They’re not all Ayn Randian Cyberselfish stock option millionaires, some are underpaid, overworked human rights researchers.… Read the rest
Greenhouse gases in the middle ages?
Apr 7th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Perhaps global warming isn’t only a modern phenomenon…… Read the rest
Don’t Bury the Bones
Apr 7th, 2003 | By Tiffany JenkinsA committee has met behind closed doors in London over the last two years to
decide the future of old bones in British cultural and scientific institutions.
Their deliberations and decision will have consequences for all of us. The skeletons
in the closets could tell us about history, humanity and our health, if only
we would let them.
There is a growing feeling amongst many in the museum profession that
old human remains should be returned to where they were originally found. Tony
Blair raised the issue of repatriation in 2000 when he agreed to increase efforts
to send back remains from Australian indigenous communities. The Department
for Culture Media and Sport subsequently set up a working group to examine … Read the rest
Those Endless Twin Studies
Apr 6th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Exactly how much do genes determine? Natalie Angier says nobody knows yet.… Read the rest
‘The Hook-handed Cleric’
Apr 6th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Is it hysteria, or caution born of experience, that prompts fears about ‘radical Muslim clerics’?… Read the rest
Interview with Azar Nafisi
Apr 5th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Female genital mutilation, oppression in general, should not be brushed off as someone’s ‘culture’, Iranian teacher in exile says.… Read the rest
‘Meritocracy’ is a Canard
Apr 5th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Louis Menand says American education is not meritocratic and never has been.… Read the rest
Jagged and Brittle Style
Apr 5th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Slate adds that the hostile voice of Kelly’s column was hard to square with his personality.… Read the rest
Michael Kelly
Apr 5th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Four New Republic writers on disliking Kelly’s politics while loving his personal qualities.… Read the rest
Insightful on Flabby Presuppositions
Apr 5th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Daniel Dennett joins his enthusiasm for Darwinian biology to years of thinking about free will in ‘Freedom Evolves’.… Read the rest
Hutton and Kagan
Apr 4th, 2003 5:41 pm | By Ophelia BensonI usually whinge a lot about the mediocrity and tameness and blandness of the US public television network, but it does have one excellent show (no, two, Nova is a frequently-good science show): Frontline. It outdid itself last night with its account of Tony Blair’s struggle to keep George Bush and his neoconservative advisers from attacking Iraq without UN sanction. And today it offers an array of fascinating interviews, debates, email arguments on its website.
This one for instance between Will Hutton and Robert Kagan, in which Hutton reminds Kagan that the US is an Enlightenment product too, not a strange Martian novelty.
… Read the restFor what needs to be said as loudly and clearly as possible is that the U.S.A. is
Background on Blair, Bush, and the War
Apr 4th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The PBS show ‘Frontline’ offers a wealth of material on the negotiations over Iraq, the UN, diplomacy, pre-emptive war, and Blair’s role.… Read the rest
A Divided Left
Apr 4th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Paul Berman, Timothy Garton Ash, David Rieff discuss the Iraq war.… Read the rest
Class Divide in Education
Apr 3rd, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Report ‘shows that educational success in Britain is more determined by social class than in any other country.’… Read the rest
Supremes Release Tape
Apr 3rd, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Wide interest in affirmative action case prompts the Supreme Court to release tape of the hearings.… Read the rest
Are Private Schools Unfair?
Apr 3rd, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Adam Swift’s new book argues that educational privilege is incompatible with equality of opportunity.… Read the rest
