Cloze Ironically, the intellectual tools currently being used by the political right to such harmful effect originated on the academic left. In the 1960s and 1970s a philosophical movement called postmodernism developed among humanities professors 1 being deposed by science, which they regarded as right-leaning. Postmodernism 2 ideas from cultural anthropology and relativity theory to argue that truth is 3 and subject to the assumptions and prejudices of the observer. Science is just one of many ways of knowing, they argued, neither more nor less 4 than others, like those of Aborigines, Native Americans or women. 5 , they defined science as the way of knowing among Western white men and a tool of cultural 6 . This argument 7 with many feminists and civil-rights activists and became widely adopted, leading to the "political correctness" justifiably 8 by Rush Limbaugh and the "mental masturbation" lampooned by Woody Mien. Acceptance of this relativistic worldview 9 democracy and leads not to tolerance but to authoritarianism. John Locke, one of Jefferson's "trinity of three greatest men," showed 10 almost three centuries ago. Locke watched the arguing factions of Protestantism, each claiming to be the one true religion, and asked. How do we know something to be true? What is the basis of knowledge? In 1689 he 11 what knowledge is and how it is grounded in observations of the physical world in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Any claim that fails this test is "but faith, or opinion, but not knowledge." It was this idea—that the world is knowable and that objective, empirical knowledge is the most 12 basis for public policy that stood as Jefferson's foundational argument for democracy. By falsely 13 knowledge with opinion, postmodernists and antiscience conservatives alike collapse our thinking back to a pre-Enlightenment era, leaving no common basis for public policy. Public discourse is 14 to endless warring opinions, none seen as more valid than another. Policy is determined by the loudest voices, reducing us to a world in which might 15 right—the classic definition of authoritarianism.
It's all annual back-to-school routine. One morning you wave goodbye, and that 16 evening you're burning the late-night oil in sympathy. In the race to improve educational standards, 17 are throwing the books at kids. 18 elementary school students are complaining of homework 19 . What's a well-meaning parent to do? As hard as 20 may be, sit back and chill, experts advise. Though you've got to get them to do it, 21 helping too much, or even examining 22 too carefully, you may keep them 23 doing it by themselves. "I wouldn't advise a parent to check every 24 assignment," says psychologist John Rosemond, author of Ending the Tough Homework. "There's a 25 of appreciation for trial and error. Let your children 26 the grade they deserve." Many experts believe parents should gently look over the work of younger children and ask them to rethink their 27 . But "you don't want them to feel it has to be 28 ," she says. That's not to say parents should 29 homework first, they should monitor how much homework their kids 30 . Thirty minutes a day in the early elementary years and an hour in 31 four, five, and six is standard, says Rosemond. For junior-high students it should be " 32 more than an hour and a half," and two for high school students. If your child 33 has more homework than this, you may want to check 34 other parents and then talk to the teacher about 35 assignments.