A few thoughts on Freddie deBoer’s updated article on why education doesn’t lead to educational mobility (children moving from one level of educational attainment to another, over the course of their formal education). First, people failing to appreciate how percentiles work always causes me to languish. I have a son who is over the 99th…
I picked up Andy Crouch’s new book after listening to a podcast interview with him. I had a sense that he was speaking my language, and he didn’t disappoint. While the book discusses technology at length, the the bigger idea that presents is that we – all of us – are persons. If you are…
I appreciate this post from Nancy Kelly, which is a transcription of Charlotte Mason’s notes on her trainee teachers’ teaching. There is no one around to observe a homeschool mom when she teachers her children (unless your husband is working from home upstairs), but I imagine I’m not the only one who finishes a lesson,…
I think that school’s terrible. It’s not a great fit for human nature. Some people like to sit in a chair, and be talked at for a long time, and then go off and read a lot, and so forth. But, we, generally, are not creating a very curious, fun, even intellectually-engaging place for young…
My family is back home after a long trip to visit my parents in the US. And like I mentioned before, I have come home with lots of Plans to Improve My Life and Finish My Book. Or at least get a second draft completed. Of course, it’s hard to find time and space for…
I’m working my way through Brad East’s new book, The Doctrine of Scripture. It’s good – a book of the read-one-section-a-day-at-the-most variety. I’ve also added his blog to my RSS feed reader (you should use a feed reader, FYI), and in exploring the archives a bit, I found a lovely, provocative post on giving up…
It’s to hilarious to me to think how much we talked about the dangers of modernity twenty years ago and how had malformed Christians and we just created super high expectations, doctrine heavy, dogma heavy community, that was not really great at forming people and didn’t value how important it is in those critical moments…
Our vacations over the last few weeks included quite a bit of driving. Some families seem to pick an audiobook to play over the car speakers and everyone listens in. Personally, I pick out an audiobook and then give my kids headphones. The opportunity for uninterrupted conversation with my husband is too precious. These conversations…
I mentioned that I barely read anything over my family vacation last week. It’s too easy to fall away from a good habit – reading before bed, reading in spare time, etc – and the reading rut followed me home. I can only justify reading so many detective novels, as good as they are at…
Most students aren’t stupid, but I think many haven’t been effectively challenged or trained. It’s also harder for the instructor to teach close reading than it is to have meandering discussions about how a given work, which has probably been at best skimmed, makes students feel. Insightful article from author/teacher Jake Seliger. This, again, articulates…