Browsing: Education

A Brief History On August 29, 1958, the United States Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, Colorado, opened, joining the US Military Academy, the US Naval Academy, and the US Coast Guard Academy as the premier officer producing schools of the US military. Digging Deeper Established in 1954, the Air Force Academy produces graduates with a Bachelor’s degree and a commission as a second lieutenant in the Air Force.  About 1200 new cadets enter each year, with attrition leaving an average of about 4300 cadets in residence. Located at an elevation of 7,250 feet above sea level, USAFA cadets claim…

A Brief History On August 9, 1854, Henry David Thoreau published his book, Walden; or, Life in the Woods, a book about his life with nature and self-reliance, a reflective story of his own philosophy of Transcendentalism. Digging Deeper A leading proponent of Transcendentalism was Ralph Waldo Emerson, who along with Thoreau and other Americans decried the then current state of society in what they saw as senseless conformity and instead urged people to find their own individual way in the universe.  The Transcendentalists also developed an aversion to the institution of slavery. Emerson praised Plato, Moses, Jesus, Luther, Copernicus,…

A Brief History On May 28, 2016, animal lovers were subjected to the horror of a zoo worker from the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden shooting a beloved adult male gorilla named Harambe to death.  A three year old boy had climbed into the gorilla exhibit and was scooped up by the big ape, causing fear that the boy would be harmed. Digging Deeper The mother of the subject child was at the zoo with perhaps four children and lost track of the boy who climbed into the gorilla exhibit.  Her inattention led numerous people to accuse her of causing…

A Brief History On May 25, 2001, American mountain climber, adventurer, author, and speaker, Erik Weihenmayer, became the first blind person to reach the top of Mt. Everest in Nepal.  A year later, he added to his collection of fantastic feats by becoming the 150th person to scale each of the “Seven Summits,” the tallest mountain on each of the continents. Digging Deeper Weihenmayer suffered from a degenerative eye disease as a child, resulting in his vision loss by his teen years.  A high school wrestler, he also began rock climbing, graduated from Boston College, and became a teacher while…

A Brief History On May 3, 2023, a 13 year old Serbian schoolboy opened fire at an elementary school in Belgrade, Serbia, killing nine students and a security guard.  An additional six people were wounded.  Incredibly, due to Serbian law, the shooter was not criminally prosecuted due to his age! Digging Deeper The teenaged shooter used his father’s legally owned pistols in the event, firing 57 shots during the attack. Although not charged criminally, the shooter did wind up under psychiatric care.  His parents, in a scenario eerily similar to a recent case in the US, found themselves in legal…