Education
The Next Bubble
by Clay Staggs
Taxes get tossed around a lot in Christian circles for the burden the put on poor people. And that’s OK. They should be examined and the question should be asked.
But it’s not the only thing that should be scrutinized. Take, for example, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac …
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Education
Just sayin’…
by Peggy Drinkard
You may have read recently in the Tuscaloosa News about the switch in local schools from the Alabama Course of Study guidelines to the national “core curriculum.” I thought, while teaching in the public school system here, that the course of study was not too bad, just hard, (maybe impossible …
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Education
Hear Horton on Classical Education
by Tim Lien
Dr. Mike Horton (White Horse Inn) briefly explains the consistency between a child’s life in the church and Classical Education. It’s about 3 minutes.
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Education
Projecting Poverty
by Tim Lien
We are not poor. We are enslaved, but not poor. We are discontented, but not poor. We don’t have as much as our neighbors, but we are not poor. We really screw up missions when we look at all things in through the lens of material/technological possessions.
Check …
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Education
Homeschooling Blindspots
by Tim Lien
Joshua Harris has a great article on the blindspots among homeschoolers.
Before you dash off an angry email, consider the following:
1) This should not deter anyone from homeschooling.
2) This is not saying homeschooling is bad.
3) Public, private, Christian, etc., schools have blindspots too.
4) Blindspots are areas …
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Education
What is Success? - Part D’Oh!
by Clay Staggs
So the Tuscaloosa City School Board has had its final round of interviews with candidates for its new superintendent. I roundly criticized a previous candidate’s answer to the question of what defines success for the system in this post. In the final round, candidate Barry Carroll was asked the …
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Education
What is Success?
by Clay Staggs
The Tuscaloosa City School System is in the process of hiring a new superintendent. In today’s Tuscaloosa News, an article ran detailing the public interview held with two of the candidates. The following exchange caught my eye:
Board member Marvin Lucas asked the candidates for their definition of a …
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Education
A Tale of Two Schools
by Clay Staggs
In the past few days, I have run across two news stories of public high schools that bear comment. The first is in Dallas, Texas, and it’s pretty shocking.
Essentially, in a high school geometry class, one student stands up and repeatedly punches another student in the head with …
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Education
D-Dub Tattoos and Videos
by Tim Lien
When historians discuss “the mark stamped on the American evangelical landscape,” by pastor-theologian-rabble-rouser Douglas Wilson, they will inevitably stumble across the current, trending oddity of his most ardent fans: Douglas Wilson tattoos. Apparently, “D-Dub” tattoos are cropping up in Pullman and Orlandoâ?? and all points in between.
Robert Cahill, a …
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Education
Hot Cross Disciplines
by Tim Lien
Quotation by Dorothy Sayers: (“A Note on Creative Reading,” from Begin Here)
Pray get rid of the idea that books are each a separate thing, divided from one another and from life. Read each in the light of all the others, especially in light of books of another kind. Try …
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Education
Repelled by the Magnet
by Clay Staggs
I just donâ??t understand modern education.
Perhaps Iâ??m just too deep in the tank with the classical model to be objective, but I donâ??t think thatâ??s it. I think itâ??s a case of the emperor having on no clothes. Case in point: the new magnet …
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Education
A Logic Quiz
by Clay Staggs
If you’re sick of reading my posts bemoaning the fact that we don’t teach logic anymore, then you probably should skip this one. For those of you brave enough to read on, I offer the following as a quiz. Yesterday Senator Obama gave a major speech on his …
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Education
Economic Ignorance
by Clay Staggs
I’ve bemoaned the fact that no one teaches or learns logic so many times that I’ve lost count. But examples of people saying and doing things that are totally irrational just keep on coming. The latest one was at the President’s press conference yesterday.
The question you …
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Education
Because The Schools Have Nothing Better To Do
by Clay Staggs
Barack Obama gave a speech in Colorado recently on the subject of service. You can read the whole text here. I’d like to focus on his comments on service for those in middle and high school:
Finally, we need to integrate service into education, so that young Americans are …
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Education
An update on the California Homeschooling case
by Jeff Miller
Clay recently blogged about the California judicial case regarding who may or may not be allowed to homeschool. There is an update today.
From the Home School Legal Defense Association’s Newsletter:
Court of Appeal Grants Petition for Re-hearing
On March 25, the California Court of Appeal granted a motion …
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Education
Back to Basics
by Clay Staggs
The Wall Street Journal published an opinion piece earlier this week that caught my attention. It was an argument for the restoration of a standard liberal education curriculum in the nation’s universities. The writer, Peter Berkowitz, who taught at Harvard, witnessed there the ill effects of the failure to …
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Education
A Little More than “Poor Judgment”
by Clay Staggs
This is outrageous. Absolutely outrageous. While on a field trip to a state park, the assistant principal, teachers, and other staff members from the Scales Elementary School in Murfreesboro, TN, decided to have a little drill with their 6th graders (11 and 12 year olds). They staged a fictitious attack …
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Education
Kookabunga
by Tim Lien
There is an old schoolyard joke that has undergone various revisionsâ??each with different levels of the grotesque and explicit. It goes something like this:
Two missionaries head into the heart of the Amazon jungle. They stumble into a clearing headlong into the Kookabunga tribe. The chief and his tattooed …
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Education
Mary, Mary, Why Ya Buggin?
by Clay Staggs
I am a fan of Macintosh computers. I work on a MacBook Pro, which I adore, and there are no fewer than 7 other Macs in my house. It’s one of my interests. So, I peruse several Mac-related websites on a regular basis.
Recently, I came across an article …
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Education
News Flash: Sun Rises in East
by Clay Staggs
Sorry for the snarky title, but stories like this really get under my skin. Lo and behold, there’s now an academic study that says that praising your children when praise is not deserved is - brace yourselves - counterproductive. Stop and ask yourself how many stories you’ve read from the …
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Education
The edges of truth
by Peggy Drinkard
My eighth grade son and I have the privilege of participating in a trial run of Patria Institute’s first upper level mathematics course. It is taught by James Nickel, author of MATHEMATICS, IS GOD SILENT? (a book I recommend to anyone, but especially those involved in any aspect of …
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Education
Fat Studies
by Clay Staggs
It never ceases to amaze me what passes for scholarship at universities today. Yes, apparently the next wave in victim-identity pseudo-studies is upon us, and it’s fat. The New York Times has a write- up that you can read here.
Honestly, I suppose it’s just easier to sit …
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Education
Bulletproof Books?
by Clay Staggs
I know that everyone is concerned about school safety, but has it really come to this?
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Education
Civic Illiteracy
by Clay Staggs
Here’s a link to an interesting article about the civic literacy of American college grads. If true, the fact that seniors only scored 1.5% better than freshmen is yet another devastating critique of the state of higher education in America.
The fact that the elite universities fared among …
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Education
I Was Eavesdropping
by Tim Lien
I was sitting in a booth, reading my paperâ??initially, minding my own business. A cell phone rang behind me. It started out as Inadvertent Overhearing. And then it progressed into Casual Curiosity. And then it ended with Intentional Eavesdropping:
â??Hello.â?
[pause]
â??Ainâ??t nothinâ?? wrong with …
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Education
Doing Some Homework on Homework
by Clay Staggs
I’ve heard several friends complain about the amount of homework that their elementary age kids have to do. Just a few years ago, I would have thought that such comments were just whining and that the kids needed to suck it up. My views have since changed. In fact …
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Education
Book Group Redux
by Jeff Miller
Just a note & a plug….
The Riverwood Book Group has one week left on Augustine’s City of God. Last night’s discussion was very engaging. We talked about ‘degrees of Heaven & Hell’, aesthetics & culture and attributes of God among other things.
Everyone is more than welcome to come next …
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Education
Must Reads
by Jimmy Hopper
The September Salt and Light is now up on this web site under “Ministries”, “Newsletter” and Peggy Drinkard’s page, “Our Kids” is a must read. It is the first of two successive articles on the catechism for children but, as background, she addresses not only the loss of an …
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Education
John Knox Spins in his Grave
by Clay Staggs
Our good friends in the PCUSA have published a book (under their Westminster John Knox imprint) that purports to examine the events of 9/11 from a Christian perspective. Apparently, the book ultimately concludes that there was no attack. Instead, people in the administration conspired to bring down the World …
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Education
An Argument for Liberalism
by Tim Lien
And I mean “Liberalism,” as in a “Liberal Arts Education.” And by “Liberal Arts Education,” I mean integration of learning across academic disciplines. As I’ve told some of you, I’ve been on a John Steinbeck kick, lately. It struck me, again, while reading the introduction to To a …