Joshua Gibbs

There are many ways a teacher can make his students’ lives difficult. An incompetent teacher can make their lives difficult by failing to teach his subject properly or failing to assess students in a lively, humane manner. A truly great teacher can also make students’ lives difficult, though. Fully formed students become like their teachers, […]

Don’t show a video in class. Far too many videos are shown in modern classrooms, even classical classrooms, and if a school banned every teacher from ever showing a video of any kind in the classroom, students would miss out on a few neat things, but they would also be saved from a colossal waste

In case you haven’t heard, ChatGPT is about to “end” high school English. This, at least, is what Daniel Herman breathlessly argued last month in The Atlantic. Perhaps it’s not entirely fair to use the word “breathlessly,” though, as it makes Herman sound a little pathetic and I’ve had several conversations with respectable colleagues who

Every year, classical Christian schools open by the dozen. Many start with fewer than forty students, but it is not unusual to see a classical school go from forty students to one hundred in less than a decade, and that decade goes fast. Despite how common such growth is, many schools are not founded on

As a teacher, writing an article about what the Harry Potter series gets right about education is a somewhat risky move. At very least, it is a move far more likely to please students than fellow educators, because the series is a fair representation of private schools, warts and all. While the series falls squarely

Movies about iconic lines of work—cops, soldiers, lawyers, doctors—don’t have a reputation for being very accurate. Likewise, most movies that are “about teachers” and reflect only the easiest and most fashionable beliefs about education. The movies with the most to say about education aren’t about education per se. Similarly, if you get a fellow thinking

Prospective parent: We’re really excited about the possibility of Tristan coming here next year. The tour we received of the school was amazing. Admissions: Great. Well, we have a few standard questions we ask of prospective parents and if you have some time to do the interview now, we might be able to move your

Of all the many and diverse tasks which the humble high school teacher must be capable of performing, the most difficult is also the simplest. I call this task the most difficult because, in my experience, more teachers fail at it than any other. It is not a failure unique to literature teachers, language teachers,

When you’re eighteen, thinking about what sort of person you would like to marry is sort of fun. Thinking about what sort of person you are worthy of marrying is significantly less fun. It’s one thing for a young man to know that he would like to marry a girl who is beautiful, patient, kind,

Gibbs: Allison is having a fine year. She’s interested in class, makes a lot of thoughtful comments, and seems to really enjoy school. Parent: That’s good to hear. Her mother and I are both excited that she’s here and that she’s figuring out what her passions are. Gibbs: What do you mean by that? Parent: