I hope not to spoil this Father Brown story, but it has made a recent impression on me. A man is retelling to Father Brown the details of an unsolved murder that took place several hundred miles away. Those who were there believed the murderer to be a man that the victim’s dog barked at […]
Isaiah Berlin argued in his Inaugural Lecture on liberty in 1958 that human freedom takes two particular forms when the individual moves toward the self: self-abnegation, and self-realization. Self-abnegation has historically taken the form of the monastic, the ascetic. Many interpret asceticism as a form of escapism from the corruptions of the world, or rather,
Again, you simply can’t think efficiency with people. You think effectiveness with people and efficiency with things. –Steven Covey, 7 Habits A little bit later Covey notes how common management systems are out of harmony with the principle that people are more important than things. At the heart of education is the human soul. At
In The One, the Three, and the Many the late Colin E. Gunton works through the lectures of Sir Isaiah Berlin on the title Two Concepts of Liberty . Berlin arrives at a point that defines human beings not as individuals, but as social beings. All humanity is related. This concept reminds me of a
Hence! home, you idle creatures, get you home: Is this a holiday? What! know you not, Being mechanical, you ought not walk Upon a labouring day without the sign Of your profession? Speak, what trade art thou? –Julius Caesar Sometimes I tell my middle school students they must learn how to tell time. I draw
There are few pleasures in life greater than watching someone you mentor grow. Buck Holler joined the CiRCE apprenticeship far beyond any need for me to mentor him, and yet he has embraced my instruction with an eagerness that shows why he hardly needed it. It is my great pleasure to introduce Buck to you
Yesterday morning I exchanged replies with a parent who was concerned that my assignment translated into a form of punishment. The assignment required the students to correct a wrong answer by rewriting it 10 times. In the next week or so I will ask the questions again to repeat the assessment. Is this appropriate, and
In her newest book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education, Diane Ravitch outlines the primary causes behind today’s deterioration of our schools, and prescribes four vital courses to generate education reform. No Child Left Behind (NCLB), according to Ravitch, largely contributed to the problems
