Conjoined twins.  Bearded ladies.  Pinheads.  Eight-foot men.  Human skeletons.  Alligator and lobster boys.  A mother with four legs. Few can say they are not irresistibly intrigued by freak shows. Medical abnormalities, grotesque life forms, the deeds of serial killers – the mind struggles to rationalize these oddities and outrages.  For example, how does a calf have two heads?  How do we  account for Albert Fish, who infamously commented, "I like children. They are tasty"? Many find the same sick appeal in K-12 theories and methods.  These often constitute a Ripley's Believe It or Not of classroom anomalies, a News of the Weird about public education – for example, college students who don't know which side won the Civil War. A professor at Notre Dame sums up our predicament: "We...(Read Full Article)