CONTNUING his ongoing examination of the decline of standards in higher education, Thomas F. Bertonneau, in an article for the John Pope Williams Center for Higher Education Policy, looks at the dumbing-down of the college course syllabus, which now must include detailed instructions and a thorough justification for the act of reading assigned books. He calls it “The Amazing Colossal Syllabus.” Bertonneau writes:

Nowadays my course syllabi tend to run to many pages and always include a punctilious day-by-day calendar of the semester stipulating, for example, precisely which pages in what book students need to have read for class. My instructions to students concerning formal written work have also become replete with prescription in a way that I would not have thought necessary even ten years ago. Colleagues concur that instructors at the state-college level can take little or nothing for granted about student preparedness and that everything, absolutely everything, must be spelled out in advance. Without abundant guidance and prescription, students complain of being lost, as perhaps they are, or of “not understanding what the professor wants,” as is perhaps the case... (more…)

  OR, to put it another way, college costs as much as day care. News reports this week broadcast the supposedly shocking similarity between tuition at public universities and a year of day care. The implication was that caring for a baby or toddler should be cheap, as cheap perhaps as parking a car. The news stories did not mention, of course, that the high demand for day care has been manufactured by relatively new cultural norms or that day care is inferior to the age-old organic form of childrearing.

COL. JOHN W. RIPLEY of the U.S. Marines Corps was famous for his acts of bravery in the Viet Nam War. The story of Ripley’s efforts to blow up a bridge under enemy fire is legendary. 

In 1992, Ripley, who died in 2008, testified before the Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces. His testimony, posted in its entirety at the website Tradition, Family and Property, is worth reading in light of a Congressional committee’s recommendation earlier this year that all restrictions on women in combat roles be lifted.

Here are some excerpts:  (more…)

KENDRA writes:

I recently received this notice from the Indianopolis Museum of Art regarding their new membership policies. The IMA receives government funding.

This part surprised me: (more…)

  This 19th century painting is from the collection at British Paintings, formerly Victorian/Edwardian Paintings.

KAREN I. writes:

Sometimes I have something that is bothering me, but it is hard to put into words until something on your website helps to clarify what it is that I am struggling with. Your recent entry “Anxiety and Weather,” which was about how liberalism induces anxiety, is one of those posts. 

What you write about liberalism with regard to anxiety is correct. It is apparent when it comes to the weather, but as a person with a chronic illness, I see the tendency for many people to seek perfection when it comes to illness. They refuse to accept that sometimes, there comes a point when good enough is the best that can be done. The idea of living with a lifelong illness fills them with anxiety. It is not uncommon for people with my condition (and many others) to search high and low for a “cure” to their upsetting symptoms, despite doctor after doctor saying that these things are part of the illness and they will not go away. (more…)

THE MODERN WOMAN can do anything provided she puts her mind to it. That is the message Allyson Reneau, supermom from Oklahoma City, is telling the public as she heads to graduate school at Harvard University this fall. According to The Oklahoman, Mrs. Reneau owns a gymnastics business and is the mother of 11 children, seven of whom are still at home. She will be seeking a graduate degree in international relations. Her goal is modest: Mrs. Reneau hopes to “empower women around the world.”

Women in the far corners of the globe await Mrs. Reneau’s expertise. The fact that Mrs. Reneau dresses in silly gymnastic clothes should mislead no one.

“It doesn’t really matter how old you are or what obstacles may be in your way,” Mrs. Reneau says, “… If you try, you can do anything.” Those obstacles include children, husband, extended family and community. Mrs. Reneau would have not been on the local news report if she had stayed with her family. But she is in the news because she will be with her children less, pursuing a meaningless degree many hundreds of miles away.

Feminism has given women choice. That’s what we are often told. But everywhere we look, one choice is glorified. In the face of this pervasive message, the modern woman can do almost anything she puts her mind to. Except stay where she is needed.

She is also a willing pawn of institutions that profit from her restless ambition. Yes, Harvard says. Yes. Come and stay awhile. (more…)

A. WRITES:

I just had to respond to your post about anxiety and weather as I think VFR is dangerously off the mark here. I am a weather journalist and I can assure you, extensively covering hurricanes and other major weather events is not about hype, fearmongering or overcompensation. A lot of the discussion of Irene smacks of disappointment that the disaster wasn’t worse in certain areas — that it “didn’t live up to the hype.” But I’m sure the people in Vermont and North Carolina would see it quite differently. Entire towns have been devastated by flash flooding. People have been crushed in their cars by falling tree limbs. At last count, 24 people died, many of them because they didn’t heed the copious warnings and insisted on going out in the storm. (more…)

JOHN writes:

As a male in the military, I would say these are the main reasons why more men do not protest affirmative action in the military:

1) The concept of egalitarianism is primary above the concept of readiness, a warrior ethos, and the various other traits necessary for a successful military. (more…)

LIBERALISM is, in many ways, an expression of uncontrolled anxiety. Those who believe in human perfectibility are prone to fretfulness. If we control our circumstances, if we can master them through social engineering, then it follows that everything bad that happens is the occasion for intense worry and strategic planning.  

Therefore when a bad storm occurs, there is no sense of proportion, as is discussed here at VFR.

(more…)

PAN DORA writes:

When you write about women in the military, in many cases you seem to have excessive interest in their marital status, possible childbearing plans, current parental status and other matters. Why do you not concern yourself equally with these matters when the servicemember is male? (more…)

KRIZIA writes:

I have been reading your blog The Thinking Housewife for almost a year now. I simply wanted to thank you for your insightful writing, your energy in your conversations and your tactful and powerful arguments against all the untruths we’re fortunate to have addressed on your site. (more…)

THE HIDEOUS tattoos on this 78-year-old woman are no uglier, no more grotesquely mutilating, than many of the tattoos we see today. But on an elderly woman they create a walking portrait of decadent, puerile old age. Featured in The Daily Mail, Helen Lamben says exactly what you would expect her to say:

It’s very empowering, I think, for me, in a positive sense. (more…)

   APROPOS of the recent discussions here on male authority, beginning with this entry, Lawrence Auster writes at VFR about this photo in the New York Times: The man--immature, puppy-like, disheveled--looks up to the woman for approval. The woman--cool, sublimely together, overfull of self-esteem--looks down at the man with tolerant affection and more than a touch of disdain. She's the one in charge, he's the number two.

(more…)

JOHN E. writes:

Jim Kalb has interviewed Nikos Salingaros (never heard of him before now) on the subject of architecture as seen in the modern world, and the war that modern architecture wages on human senses. This is an understated way of bringing your attention to what I found to be a fascinating and worthwhile read. Though I think it can only be fully appreciated in the context of the whole interview, one of the best answers Salingaros gives to a question of Kalb’s, who asks Salingaros about the religious implications of his theories: (more…)

KAREN I. writes:

What is one to do when husband does not want to take authority? Men these days have been conditioned to not do anything that may appear like they are trying to have authority over their wives. I could name many examples, but one recent conversation I had with a neighbor sums it up well. She was homeschooling her children, and was asking what I thought of our local public schools because she was considering placing the children in them. I asked what her husband thought of the idea. She said told me “he did not care either way” and he would agree to whatever her decision was. I know her husband and I know she is right.  (more…)

CONTINUING the discussion of male authority in marriage, the reader R.A. Martin writes:

I believe that the concept of authority is often misunderstood. Authority in popular society seems to have the connotation of the proverbial “foot on the throat.” Those in authority have an oppressive power over those under authority, and those under authority must yield, regardless of their protests, either cheerfully or begrudgingly, but yield nonetheless. This concept is a perverted concept of authority, and it is attributable to secular influences. (more…)