Most actors achieve press attention promoting a book, film, TV, play, cause or, in rare instances a public mea culpa for some infidelity, (e.g. Hugh Grant). While Angelina Jolie-Pitt has addressed causes in the past, she took the unusual step in talking about her personal decision-making regarding a medical choice she began two years ago, and the reasons behind her...

In a big step to change the culture of misconduct on its campus, Dartmouth College President Philip J. Hanlon announced last Thursday, that it would ban hard liquor on campus. “The measures Dr. Hanlon announced Thursday in a speech on campus had been expected and were based largely on the work of a panel he created nine months ago to...

According to the Pew Research Center (Aug. 24, 2010), “The public continues to express conflicted views of Islam. Favorable opinions of Islam have declined since 2005, but there has been virtually no change over the past year in the proportion of Americans saying that Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence. As was the case a year...

Dartmouth has a history as a top Ivy League college. Long esteemed for its schools of medicine, engineering, business as well as liberal arts, Dartmouth has now gained another distinction. The Boston Globe reported (Jan. 8), that “Up to 64 Dartmouth College students — including some athletes — could face suspension or other disciplinary action for cheating in an ethics...

Imagine that you’re the black parent of a 9th grade student opening a textbook on United States History and read that the slave trade is referenced as the “Atlantic Triangular Trade.” How about this one: that same parent is helping his son study for a history final and read that during the era of segregation only “sometimes” were schools for...

How do you make sense of the senseless? As soon as I logged-on to The Washington Post Saturday morning, I stared in disbelief at a headline reporting that the latest school shooting had occurred just twenty minutes from where I live. From late Friday night to Monday morning, our small community continues to be shaken by the fact that we have joined...

According to a survey by the Gallup organization (Aug. 2013), “Most Americans (80 percent) believe that today’s schools should teach… critical thinking… to children.” “Critical thinking,” as defined by The Critical Thinking Community, “is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide...

Confession: I once cheated, big time, on a college Astronomy test, but I had several good reasons. 1. The text was over-the-top incomprehensible. 2. The teacher was over-the-top boring. 3. The class was held at 7:00 in the morning! (Mornings are notmy best time.) Fortunately, I had a friend who was “over-the-top” crazy about astronomy. So,  » Read more about: Cheating  »...

That’s the question a friend recently asked. I decided that it might make an interesting assignment for Professor Stephen Ambra and Sarah Hébert’s ethics class at The New Hampshire Technical Institute. Clearly the wording appears a bit cynical, suggesting that if we live in unfair surroundings we are somehow absolved from acting rightly, and many student responses reflected this idea....

Last Month (Nov. 15), I wrote how Corbett Middle School football Coach Randy Burbach (pictured), over the objections from school officials, took his team to a local Hooters restaurant and bar for an end-of-season celebration. After learning of the location in advance, Corbett School District Athletic Director Jean-Paul Soulagnet asked Burbach to change the location. When he refused, Soulagnet sent a letter to...