Social Sciences Education

The liberal arts educational system is under attack. Governors in Texas, Florida, and North Carolina have announced that they will not spend taxpayer money subsidizing the liberal arts. Majors like English and history - which were once very popular and highly respected - are in steep decline, and President Obama has recently advised students to keep in mind that technical training could be more valuable than a degree in art history when deciding on an educational path.

In God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (2007), journalist Christopher Hitchens argues that religious faith is not necessary for humanity’s progress. In fact, faith in supernatural beings has slowed scientific advancement, led to human rights violations, and facilitated the creation of totalitarian regime.

Urban universities play an outsized role in America’s cities. They bring diverse ideas and people together and they generate new innovations. But they also gentrify neighborhoods and exacerbate housing inequality in an effort to enrich their campuses and attract students. In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower takes listeners from Hartford to Chicago and from Phoenix to Manhattan, revealing the increasingly parasitic relationship between universities and our cities.

This House of Grief is a heartbreaking audiobook by one of Australia's most admired authors. Anyone can see the place where the children died. You take the Princes Highway past Geelong, and keep going west in the direction of Colac. Late in August 2006, soon after I had watched a magistrate commit Robert Farquharson to stand trial before a jury on three charges of murder, I headed out that way on a Sunday morning, across the great volcanic plain.

Nul ne peut échapper au droit. Celui qui naît se voit déjà doté d'une filiation, d'un nom, d'un prénom, et aussi sans doute d'un domicile et d'une nationalité. Tout au long de la vie se nouent de multiples liens juridiques créateurs d'obligations diverses (achats les plus quotidiens, mariage, contrat de travail, etc.). Même la mort est soumise à de nombreuses règles de droit (sort du cadavre, respect dû à la mémoire des morts).

This seminal work of nonfiction recounts the new, journalistic mass movement of today. Compiled from more than a decade of investigative reporting, coupled with a vast reference of philosophical research, American Muckraker is the definitive guide of truth-telling in the video age.

Leo Tolstoy was born to an aristocratic Russian family, became a world-famous influential novelist, and then chose to lead the simple life of a peasant. Dating from this last part of his life, Tolstoy’s influential book What I Believe takes readers along on the path to a life modeled literally on Jesus Christ’s "Sermon on the Mount" and the teachings of the Gospels. In revealing and frank essays he reimagines a faith without dogma, centered solely on Jesus’ doctrine of love, humility, and self-denial.

Excellent Sheep takes a sharp look at the high-pressure conveyor belt that begins with parents and counselors who demand perfect grades and culminates in the skewed applications Deresiewicz saw firsthand as a member of Yale's admissions committee. As schools shift focus from the humanities to "practical" subjects like economics and computer science, students are losing the ability to think in innovative ways.

This audio study guide for Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire includes detailed summary and analysis of each chapter and an in-depth exploration of the book’s multiple symbols, motifs, and themes such as oppression, class struggle, and the dialectical interpretation of history. Featured content also includes commentary on major characters, 25 important quotes, essay questions, and discussion topics.

When two parties meet in court, the outcome is rarely preordained. Judges must figure out who wins and who loses by analyzing the facts of the case before them and applying the legal principles of cases that have come before. How Would You Rule? brings that experience alive by presenting you with the critical facts and rules in 31 of the law's most interesting cases and inviting you to test your legal wits and sharpen your legal judgment by figuring out how these challenging cases should be decided.

Leon and the Spitting Image is about a hotel full of animals. It's about an evil ice maker. It's about glass eyeballs and human catapults. It's about really old panty hose and Possibly Fake Hair.

This practical, accessible guide to using CBD-dominant cannabis contains a wealth of information for both first-time explorers and experienced patients who want to know more about safely treating a number of health conditions with remarkable results and low to no psychoactivity or negative side effects. CBD (cannabidiol) is a component of cannabis that can provide relief for conditions such as seizures, pain, inflammation, anxiety, depression, arthritis, and a number of other issues.

In Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids' Brains and What Schools Can Do About It, veteran educator and brain expert Eric Jensen takes an unflinching look at how poverty hurts children, families, and communities across the United States and demonstrates how schools can improve the academic achievement and life readiness of economically disadvantaged students.

The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science (2007) by psychiatrist Norman Doidge explores breakthroughs in neuroscience regarding plasticity, or the brain’s ability to change. Doidge shares inspiring stories of the work done by what he calls “neuroplasticians” - neuroscientists who are pioneering new methods for optimizing brain function....

This book explores the array of principles and practices that have evolved and make up the rich culture that has permeated the school. The Sudbury school model is unique in creating a community that extends to all students the same rights, privileges, and responsibilities available to every adult American for the enjoyment of life, liberty, and the pursuit of a meaningful life. All we did was turn the clock back - or, better, forward - and finish the job the Founding Fathers began...by including children in the ringing phrases of the Declaration of Independence.

Naming names, along with grades and test scores, Golden lays bare a corrupt system in which middle-class and working-class whites and Asian Ameri­cans are routinely passed over in favor of wealthy white students with lesser credentials - children of alumni, big donors, and celebrities. The Price of Admission is a must-listen - for parents and students with a personal stake in college admissions but also for those disturbed by the growing divide between ordinary and privileged Americans.

Published in 1961, the year of Frantz Fanon's death, The Wretched of the Earth is both a powerful analysis of the psychological effects of colonization and a rallying cry for violent uprising and independence. The book rejects colonial assumptions that the people of colonized countries need to be guided by their European colonizers because they are somehow less evolved or civilized. Fanon argues that violence is justified to purge colonialism not just from the countries themselves, but from the very souls of their inhabitants.

The Critique of Pure Reason is a work that examines the faculty of reason and the qualities inherent in human thought. Before this time the influence of the knower on that which was sought to be known was not considered in a thorough and developed manner. Kant attempted with this critique to establish a limit to the knowable based on the nature of human cognition. His work was an attempt to address the failings in philosophy and metaphysics and provide a solid foundation for the proper use of reason to expand knowledge.

On the surface, Riverview High School looks like the post-racial ideal. Serving an enviably affluent, diverse, and liberal district, the school is well-funded, its teachers are well-trained, and many of its students are high achieving. Yet Riverview has not escaped the same unrelenting question that plagues schools throughout America: why is it that even when all of the circumstances seem right, black and Latino students continue to lag behind their peers?

This is an audio summary of Factfulness, an urgent and essential book that will change the way you see the world and empower you.