Just because I’ve been stuck in the 1810s all week doesn’t mean you have to be. Here are some of the top ILYBYGTH-themed news stories from 2019 for ya:

NPR podcast on the history of evangelicals and politics.

Yes: Schools can’t FIX America, schools ARE America. At The Atlantic.

Where are all these school-Bible bills coming from? Mark Chancey digs into the “Project Blitz” playbook. At TBaI.

How do parents feel about the creepy no-excuses style of discipline? At EdWeek.

The Black and Latino parents we interviewed in a no-excuses middle school valued discipline, but viewed it as more than rule following. They wanted demanding academic expectations alongside a caring and structured environment that would help their children develop the self-discipline to make good choices.

Student protests get expensive: Oberlin ordered to pay $11 million for libeling local bakery as “racist,” at IHE.

• Will the punishment make cautious university presidents re-think their support for student activism? Here at ILYBYGTH.

I’ve been deep in the 1800s all week. What have you missed from the archives?

• Rich people in Philadelphia were TFAing before TFA.
• Philadelphia had no problem with mandatory vaccinations for schoolkids in 1830.
• White and black school observers saw white and black students differently in the 1800s.

Ouch. So this principal totally copied his graduation speech from—you guessed it—Ashton Kutcher.

Teaching evolution without alienating creationists, at TC. HT: AP.

It is not the role of educators to forcefully convert doubters into accepting evolution, but to build an inclusive classroom that encourages those less comfortable with the concept to willingly engage with it. What is important is that all students can explore and understand the theory in a context that doesn’t force them to choose between science and their religious beliefs.

No big surprise: Cutting funding hurts students, at The Economist.