Angelina

Dr. Carol Reynolds, in her program Exploring America’s Musical Heritage Through Art, Literature, and Culture, connects music and the arts to American history, culture, geography, and far more so that we can understand historical events with new eyes and new ears. A music history professor for 21 years, Professor Carol explains in Unit 1 that, […]

Andrew Kern once said that most reading lists are motivated primarily by pride. School administrators, teachers, and parents hope to impress with long, intimidating reading lists. Our students read all of these great works of literature; therefore we are a good school. Be impressed. English: Illustration of Queequeg and his harpoon. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) And

“Aren’t you worried you are going to screw up?” That question, or one like it, is often asked of homeschoolers. Some parents find the responsibility of educating their own children so great and so intimidating that they can’t even contemplate it. My answer to the question is “Yep! You bet I’m worried that I am

Stan Carey of the Macmillan Dictionary recently wrote a short blog about language inflation, which ultimately creates devaluation in meaning. Today, popular expressions like epic and brilliant are used to express a more modest meaning than their traditional uses. Brilliant actually means clever, and epic actually means surprising. Carey explains, “Such is our need to

Lists of rules for introverts have been floating around the Internet in recent weeks. These lists include such admonitions as 1) let them observe before speaking, 2) let them think and don’t demand instant answers, 3) respect their need for privacy, 4) don’t interrupt them, and 5) respect their introversion and don’t try to remake

This week The Sun reported that schools across the United Kingdom are instituting bans on best friends. If a teacher notices that two children are developing more intimate friendships, they direct the children to play in a large group instead. A member of the National Association of Head Teachers confirmed that some schools are implementing

The sin of laziness plagues our students, especially boys. Over the years I’ve had many opportunities to observe this particular sin up close. When I talk to parents about this struggle in their child, the conversation generally plays out like this: I tell them that Johnny is very lazy and not putting forth much effort

Women of my generation grew up under the shadow of radical feminism. Gender is a social construct, high-profile feminists taught us. “Biology is not destiny!”, was the banner under which we were told to march. In other words, differences between men and women are entirely made up. We don’t have to bow to the oppressive

Image via Wikipedia – Joshua Bell On a cold January morning world famous violinist Joshua Bell entered a metro station in Washington, D.C., during rush hour as part of a social experiment conducted by the Washington Post. The Post wondered if people would perceive beauty in an unexpected context or stop to appreciate it. Armed

In the fable “The Tortoise and the Hare” Aesop teaches us that steady, persistent hard work is better than natural talent, overconfidence, and a poor work ethic. That part is true. But the “slow and steady” moral of the fable has its limits. Parents and teachers looking for slow, steady incremental improvement in their students

There are a few popular Christian books published in recent years which encourage women to think of themselves as helpmeets and to find joy in domesticity. I applaud the efforts of these books even while I think they are fundamentally flawed because they fail to recognize that the Industrial Revolution has altered the domestic landscape

There is an interesting conversation going on right now about college education. Skyrocketing tuition costs and a serious economic depression have combined to create a large group of highly educated but unemployed people saddled with serious college debt. As a result, many people are beginning to question what just a decade ago was a self-evident