from the magazine
Science Betrayed The propaganda infecting K–12 science curricula, especially on the environment, won’t go away.
Education
It is a sad irony that the teaching of science in American schools is so unscientific. In a more rational world, children would learn about nature and a mode of inquiry the scientific method that would awaken them to the awe, fascination, and surprise that the universe should inspire. Instead, the chronic problems afflicting K–12 education and the growing politicization of science have pushed us ever further from that ideal.
Science has been misused and poorly taught for centuries. Aristocrats in the United Kingdom espoused eugenics, Soviet Communists embraced Lysenkoism, and theists around the world credit the theory of Intelligent Design. The most enduring betrayal of science in the classroom today is biased teaching about the environment. Whereas eugenics was fueled by fear among the rich that the poor would overwhe
Defining success
It s not about money, but about a building a life that brings you meaning, pleasure, and satisfaction
What does it mean to be a successful furniture maker? I’m always struck by the diversity of ways in which woodworkers answer this question, whether they earn their living from woodworking or pursue it as an avocation in their spare time. While I was a training to make furniture 40 years ago, my fellow students, all men, judged success competitively, comparing their work with that of others. Whose bridle joint fit the best? Whose blind dovetails? Harder joints were worth more. If candidates were equally matched in technical skill, speed became a factor in the accounting: Faster was always better. In fact, impressing others any way you could was generally better, so the cooler the tricks you could muster to wow the socks off your friends and others (the perfect sand-shaded shell inlay, the most convincing relief-carved rendition of a thick hemp rope, a seemingly-im