About Annie Holmquist

Annie Holmquist is Research Associate at Intellectual Takeout. She earned her B.A. in Biblical Studies from the University of Northwestern St. Paul and specializes in the historical aspects of America's educational structure.

Books Your Kids Should Read to Combat Wokeism

By |2021-04-27T16:29:15-05:00April 27th, 2021|Categories: Education, Great Books, Wokeism|

The type of virtues taught in “woke” history courses have little to do with traditional, Christian virtues. So how do parents circumvent this progressive teaching of history? Here is a list of books that your kids should read. “Our children need to learn more history and civics!” is a regular rallying cry for those who [...]

Our Dumbed-Down School Exams

By |2019-01-21T12:51:56-06:00May 18th, 2018|Categories: Culture, Education, History|

Do facts and data back up the anecdotes of old-timers—namely, that the eighth-grade education of the past was just as challenging academically, if not more so, than that which happens in today’s college classrooms?… Today’s education system has a myriad of advantages that earlier generations never would have dreamed about. Smartboards. Tablets. Advanced science labs. [...]

American Children and the Culture of Disrespect

By |2020-09-13T07:56:48-05:00April 24th, 2018|Categories: Culture, Family|

Is it time for today’s parents to reverse course and begin teaching their children to respect others first, instead of their own little selves? Let’s face it. Almost every child has likely had some type of meltdown in public, causing great embarrassment to both the child’s parent and to other witnesses in the vicinity. But [...]

How Music and Memorization Can Save Our Failing Schools

By |2019-05-23T13:20:27-05:00October 10th, 2017|Categories: Classical Education, Education, Imagination, Music, William Shakespeare|

While the common-sense approach to early childhood education was standard practice for centuries, it has been abandoned in recent years. Shunning rote learning, we have instead told young children to draw on their own (limited) experience or feelings when completing school assignments... We all want the best for our kids. Because of this desire, it’s [...]

Why Kids Should Play With Wild Animals

By |2017-10-03T22:32:35-05:00October 3rd, 2017|Categories: Books, Culture, Family|

In America, we have taken the happy childhood, which encouraged children to be independent explorers, and instead cultivated petulant, incapable, and safeguarded children… When it comes to children’s stories, an old favorite of mine is The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett. Being a classic, many will know that the story revolves around three children who discover a long-abandoned [...]

Ten Books Turning Our Freshmen into Social Justice Warriors

By |2017-09-29T10:43:59-05:00June 7th, 2017|Categories: Books, Education, Featured, Social Order|

If colleges are rapidly increasing the amount of social justice-based material that they feed their students, is it any wonder that they are experiencing a surge in protests…? It seems one can’t open an internet browser these days without seeing some new story on the unrest and chaos prevailing throughout college campuses. One of the [...]

Why Handel’s “Messiah” Has Been Forgotten at Eastertime

By |2021-04-01T14:05:47-05:00April 15th, 2017|Categories: Christianity, Music, Western Civilization|

Handel’s “Messiah” was originally intended for Passion Week, but by the 1960s had been almost completely transformed into a Christmas event. Why? The other day, I heard an announcer on a local classical radio station gently chide his listeners, saying, “It’s almost Easter, and I haven’t had one request from our audience for selections from [...]

How Latin Helps Us Learn

By |2019-09-19T13:10:47-05:00April 6th, 2017|Categories: Classics, Education, Featured|

By nixing Latin instruction from our schools, have we knocked the feet out from under generations of students, leaving them to struggle through the fog of schooling and literacy on their own…? A little over a year ago, it was reported that Australian schoolchildren were suddenly making dramatic gains in a number of subjects. The [...]

Teddy Roosevelt vs. Clinton & Trump on Reading

By |2016-09-16T17:37:33-05:00August 10th, 2016|Categories: Books, Featured, Great Books, History, Politics|

The Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, was asked to give a list of books he’s reading. As the Los Angeles Times notes, the fact that he couldn’t name the titles suggests that the question caught him off guard. He did give a little information about the books, however: "I'm reading the Ed Klein book on Hillary [...]

Why We Should Read the Anti-Federalists

By |2016-08-12T13:42:52-05:00July 9th, 2016|Categories: American Founding, Featured, Federalist Papers|

The path to the adoption of the Constitution wasn’t smooth. A number of arguments and cautions against the Constitution were offered in the months preceding its adoption. Many of these arguments are chronicled in The Anti-Federalist Papers, a collection of disparate writings of Anti-Federalist authors (many of whom used pen names), edited by scholar Ralph [...]

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