I am consistently struck by the persistent emphasis on the question, “What do you do?” Frequently, it is lobbed around in a careless, off-hand way, with the anticipation of a brief reply. It seems mostly meant to elicit a quick answer for a fill-in-the-blank mentality that at worst wants to pigeonhole its interactions or at …
My father was a lifelong educator and one of the founding fathers of the International Baccalaureate. In the 1960s, at its inception, he brought the IB to Iranzamin Tehran International School in Tehran, Iran—one of the first seven schools around the world to implement it. My mother, too, was a teacher of music for decades. …
Could there be a primary criterion used to best evaluate the educational vision, methods, and curricula for students? With so many choices currently available in such a variety of formats, how can we determine which we most want to embrace in our homes and in our schools? Surrounded as we are by a multitude of …
We travel along old roads. They are pathways purposefully cut out and trodden down for us by those who came before. Just like us, these individuals had places to go, things to do, and people to see. Often, in the heat of our current activities we forget that for millennia our ancestors lived surprisingly similar …
In the beginning, we walked with God. We saw that God saw us, and we saw God face to face. Then we reached out, took, and ate of the Tree of Knowledge. We absorbed into ourselves a sudden onslaught of the discernment of divinity. We crumbled under the substance of it: we saw ourselves, and …
What is classical education? Who has the authority to define it and categorize it? What is its purpose and what should its outcomes look like? These questions frequently circulate in classical circles, and, at first, it may appear that such debate is a mark against classical education. It’s as though, in the zeitgeist of our …
The author of Hebrews writes, “the Lord disciplines the one He loves” (12:6). The word “discipline” in the Greek is paideuō, a verb whose primary meaning is to train up, or educate, a child. Its secondary meaning is to chastise or correct. Like a parent or a teacher, the Lord instructs and corrects the ones …
Our world is caught in a surreal stasis. A pandemic flows over us, and while its consequences ripple around us daily, many of us are existing in suspended animation. We’re living in a time when we’re asked to deny ourselves agency – to refrain from exercising control and influence. We’ve stepped back from daily life …
Our society puts a heavy emphasis on individuality (“no one should dictate who you are”) and independence (“no one should tell you how to be who you are”). It’s difficult to live like that, though. Even those who shout it from the rooftops either are subjected to constraints or put them on others. We nevertheless …
Ozymandias Eroding: Idolizing Individuality and Independence Read More »
Advent is a time of awe, awaiting the celebration of Christ’s birth. Madeleine L’Engle, famous for her book A Wrinkle in Time, wrote in her poem “The Birth of Wonder”: But now is the hour When I remember An infant’s power On a cold December. What is this infant’s wondrous power? Nothing less than to …
