Columbus Day Reconsidered
What to know: President Donald Trump issued a Columbus Day proclamation to “reclaim Columbus Day” for Americans.
The TPPF take: Columbus Day is a holiday for all Americans.
“We live in a New World made fit for us and our posterity because Columbus saw a horizon and went beyond it,” says TPPF’s Joshua Treviño. “We live in a republic of laws because Columbus brought that inheritance with him, and by the grace of God, it stayed and flourished. If we are not grateful, we are undeserving.”
For more on Columbus Day, click here.
Put Learning First
What to know: Alamo Heights ISD, after trying to use a loophole in the a new law, has finally banned cell phones from its classrooms.
The TPPF take: Alamo Heights was one of several large San Antonio school districts that had initially defied the state ban on cell phone use for students during the school day.
“Students were still able to use them before, after and between classes, at lunch and virtually anytime they were out of the classroom—totally defeating the purpose of the ban,” says TPPF’s Sherry Sylvester. “Whether it was pressure or the fact that the cell phone ban is proving to be very popular among students, Alamo Heights has reversed course.”
For more on cell phones, click here.
Civics Education
What to know: Classical schools are excelling at teaching civic discourse and civility, educators say.
The TPPF take: Rhetoric, the art of persuasion, is a central theme of classical education.
“When kids are starting to think about the world and how they present themselves to it, classical education comes in with the rhetoric stage, the last of the Trivium,” says TPPF’s Roy Maynard. “It’s time to polish a student—to teach effective and persuasive speaking and writing. At the school I helped out with, Good Shepherd School in Tyler, Texas, we taught rhetoric through competitive debate (mandatory for high school students), Shakespearean plays every year, and writing every day, in nearly every subject.”
For more on classical education, click here.