http://www.insidehighered.com/sites/default/server_files/styles/large/public/CRW.jpgBy Lee Skallerup Bessette. I read to my kids every night at bedtime. Right now, we’re reading Matilda by the great Roald Dahl (probably my favorite children’s author). It exaggerates a certain…old-school style of teaching that involves shame, humiliation, and physical violence. The Trunchbull, the larger-than-life and exceedingly violent headmistress, hold all children in contempt, unable to believe that many of them can or should learn. The usual reaction to The Trunchbull is for everyone to accept it as the way things work, and to simply get through it. Read more...