Annie Holmquist

Editor

Annie is Editor of Intellectual Takeout. In her role, she assists with website content production and social media messaging.

Annie received a B.A. in Biblical Studies from the University of Northwestern-St. Paul. She also brings 20+ years of experience as a music educator and a volunteer teacher – particularly with inner city children – to the table in her research and writing.

In her spare time Annie enjoys the outdoors, gardening, reading, and events with family and friends.

Recent blog posts by this author

Today’s Man Bites Dog Story: Public School Teacher Takes On Unions

Rebecca Friedrichs had a rude awakening as a young student teacher. Concerned about the physically abusive teacher in the class next door, she asked her own master teacher what they should do about the abuse. The answer she got? “Nothing.”...

Today’s Schools Are Passing Kids Even When They Fail

Are schools increasingly passing students on to the next grade despite poor performance in class? That’s the issue recently explored by Jay Matthews in the Washington Post. Matthews describes the experiences of one parent who knew her daughter...

Cursive: Easier Than We’ve Been Led to Believe?

You’ve either heard of a situation like the following or been in it yourself: The 29-year-old head of the customer service department walks down the hall and passes a hand-written complaint to a middle-age employee. “Here,” she says, “can you...

Was Your High School English Class Better than Your Grandma’s?

My grandmother passed away a few months ago. While looking through her belongings, I discovered several scrapbooks from her school days in the 1930s and 40s. One page in the scrapbook focuses on her 9th-grade English course in a small, rural high...

Men and Women: Equal but not the Same?

Those of us born after the sexual revolution of the 1960s have been raised to believe that there is no inherent difference between men and women. Furthermore, we have been told that those differences which seem to exist are only surface-level and...

As If Tuition Wasn't Bad Enough...

It was my first course in college. Nervous and uncertain about how to navigate this new world, I examined the class syllabus, called the college bookstore, and ordered the required textbook for my course. It came in the mail a day or two later: a...

Is American Education Missing This Important Component?

With achievement gaps growing, proficiency scores stagnating, and other countries getting ahead of American students, it’s easy to frantically search for the latest and greatest solution to our education woes. But do these latest and greatest...

High School History Lessons: 1936 vs. Today

How do today's American history textbooks differ from those of nearly a century ago? I found myself wondering this when I obtained a copy of the popular AP U.S. History textbook America’s History. According to a group of over 100 prominent...

But What About the Socialization?!?

The Washington Post recently reported on a new study about the effects of television viewing. Apparently, the more television a toddler watches, the more likely he is to be bullied in middle school. “[E]arly television viewing is linked with...

U.S. Department of Education: Parents Are Support Staff

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Education released a document detailing ways parents can foster a better education for their child. Upon the release of the document, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan declared: “’I have never met a...