One thing that has concerned me in the wake of Newtown’s recent tragedy: the utter absence of the word “evil.” On the left, we’re blaming guns. On the right, we’re blaming the lack of prayer in schools (or something). All around, we’re sort of vaguely blaming mental illness (which, incidentally, is still unconfirmed in this … Continue reading
…for all my fellow churchgoers out there. Fact One: the Bible instructs me to let my giving “be done in secret,” and backs up this instruction with stories exhorting the value of anonymous giving, expecting no reward or payback. Fact Two: As we enter December, I (and millions of other believers) will studiously collect check … Continue reading
…I know, but life is BUSY and I have three kids and grown-up stuff to do. And now a dog. A small dog. We call him Ninja. Ninja the Ninja Dog. He’s a year old, picked up from the pound this week. He’s great with my children, and marvelously nervously twitchy, and a genuinely dapper … Continue reading
Freedom consumes me. So this seemed appropriate today. From Bonhoeffer’s Life Together, the chapter titled “Ministry.” It is, first of all the freedom of the other person that is a burden to the Christian. The other’s freedom collides with his own autonomy, yet he must recognize it. He could get rid of this burden by refusing the … Continue reading
Macy is reading The Cat in the Hat to Ellie. Laura is cleaning the kitchen. I am lying on the couch next to Jack Tyler, listening to Macy read and dozing off. It is the perfect domestic moment. The ghost of Norman Rockwell is floating around the room, painting away. This is when Jack Tyler decides … Continue reading
Bill Gates, in a recent interview on education, had this to say about how schools are marketed and just what, exactly, are they measuring to determine success? If you try and compare two universities [or private high schools], you’ll find out a lot more about the inputs—this [school] has high SAT scores compared to this … Continue reading
…then you should probably buy my $0.99 book. It’s about Disney World, and having children, and rude livestock, and Florida. You’ll probably giggle at least once. And if laughter is the best medicine, then that 99-cent pill cost less than the cheap antibiotics at Wal-Mart. If you don’t giggle at least once, hit me up … Continue reading
This morning, from Kentucky trappist monk Thomas Merton, I find this piece of excellence: If I cannot distinguish myself from the mass of other men, I will never be able to love and respect other men as I ought. If I do not separate myself from them enough to know what is mine and what … Continue reading
I read a LOT. I also feel a compulsion to curate a collection of stellar lines and great ideas. For a long time, I would go back through every book when I finished, and type those lines into a saved document on my computer. It was time consuming, obviously, and it presented problems, such as … Continue reading
1. Number of people in the United States: 311,591,917. Number of people incarcerated, on parole, or probation: 7,225,800. Clearly, something is terribly wrong. So help me, if you go all political on this point, I’ll lose it. We are extremely broken, and from what I can tell, we’ve had 88 years of Democratic presidents and … Continue reading
From The Schools Our Children Deserve: “[It's impossible] to motivate someone else, such as your child. The truth is that doing so is impossible, unnecessary, and undesirable…First, while you can often make someone else do something–in effect buying a behavior with a bribe or a threat–you can never make him or her want to do something, which … Continue reading
In my lifetime, my personal political development has undergone a radical shift, from the rightest-of-right-leaning conservatives to…well, I can’t quite say the word “liberal” in reference to myself, but I am definitely in the process of questioning much of what I once accepted as received wisdom. For instance: Competition is the American Way, and students … Continue reading
This was too good to pass up. 68. The Bing detour Here’s a simple example of the difference between pushing kids to memorize a technique and selling them on a process and an attitude: The Bing search engine is owned by Microsoft—it’s their alternative to Google. In order to increase usage, they’ve built it into … Continue reading
From his free online manifesto, Stop Stealing Dreams: 43. How not to teach someone to be a baseball fan Teach the history of baseball, beginning with Abner Doubleday and the impact of cricket and imperialism. Have a test. Starting with the Negro leagues and the early barnstorming teams, assign students to memorize facts and figures … Continue reading
It is 8:00 as I write this. Macy came home with some work to do. This was her fault, because she chose to spend her after-school time running around with a friend in a creek. I also have a STRONG hunch she had adequate time to handle both assignments during the course of her normal … Continue reading
I teach English. (Also chemistry, pre-Algebra, and–sometimes–a Bible elective. But this post is about English.) I love words. I love ideas. I love it when something someone else wrote makes my lungs get tighter. I still remember the moment in Mrs. Pickett’s classroom my junior year when “The Hollow Men” by TS Eliot made me … Continue reading
Here it is: a small gathering of artifacts from the web, humbly presented to get you through the work week. This Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal cartoon combines my love of extremely dry humor with my hatred of bureaucracy. Here’s Jamie the Very Worst Missionary, harping on Tourism Christianity Buzzfeed’s 48 Pictures that Perfectly Capture the … Continue reading
This is how I learned to drive a car: My dad took me to the Thompson High School parking lot. Then, I drove around. I am sure, looking back, that it was terrifying. I am sure that I wobbled left and right, and accelerated unevenly, and braked much too suddenly. And then, for the next … Continue reading
I bake bread. It is stupendous. It is relaxing, and it calms me down, and it’s a way to interact with my grandmother, and I don’t care if you make fun of me for it, because it is excellent bread. That’s the background. So the other day, I’m at home with the kids after school … Continue reading
That guy. That heroic guy. That heroic guy who gunned down his daughter’s laptop after she disrespected him on Facebook. THAT GUY now has an official website. And it is GOLD. Go read it–all of it–right now. But make SURE you read his response to Dr. Phil. Anyone who knows me well is familiar with … Continue reading
