PUBLIC MARKS with tags opinion & education

Girls may well opt for arts degrees over engineering, but that's not because nobody has told them that engineers earn more than academics - it's because the 'male' professions have fallen out of favour even among men.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson wrote in the landmark case of West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943) that “if there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.” His words were a ringing affirmation of the freedoms of conscience and expression that are central to American liberty.

Reading isn’t always good for our kids. How’s that for an opening sentence to stir a little controversy among the educational elites?

As a father of two (one a college-bound teenager), Mark decided to check out a diversity event at UNC-Asheville.