Tag: mass education

Official Portrait of Ann Widdecombe. EU Parliament, 2019.

1,090 words

Ann Widdecombe is dead, and what has emerged since should unsettle anyone paying attention to the state of political discourse in the West. Her death was confirmed Friday morning by her management, after she was found dead in her isolated rural home near Haytor, on the edge of Dartmoor National Park. Police believe she was attacked around 12:30pm the previous Wednesday, having failed to appear for a scheduled TV interview that afternoon. A 28 year old man was arrested on suspicion of murder in South Yorkshire on Saturday. Initially, police said there was nothing to suggest a terrorism link. That has now changed. Counter Terrorism Policing has taken over the investigation, and the suspect has been re-arrested on suspicion of commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism. (more…)

4,355 words

Agustina S. Paglaya
Raised to Obey: The Rise and Spread of Mass Education
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2024

Why did societies establish mass education systems? Did democratic regimes produce schools to raise up informed and engaged citizens? Or perhaps, as libertarian writers like John Taylor Gatto propose, scheming businessmen endorsed compulsory education to craft a population of obedient, unthinking workers. (more…)