Quite possibly the most reasoned and intelligent conservative on the scene, Brooks always has his feet planted firmly in history and is the kind of guy you sense comes to conclusions after meaningful, judicious thought. We received no less from him today: In the 19th century, industrialization swept the world. Many European nations expanded their [...]
Archive for the ‘Education’ Category
Fresh Start Conservatism (David Brooks)
Posted in Culture, Education, Politics, tagged conservatism, David Brooks, education ideas on February 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Oswald Chambers on the Discipline of Dejection– (Part IV)
Posted in Culture, Education, Religion on January 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
“But we trusted…and beside all this, today is the third day…” Luke 24:21 Every fact that the disciples stated was right; but the inferences they drew from those facts were wrong. Anything that savours of dejection spiritually is always wrong. If depression and oppression visit me, I am to blame; God is not, nor is anyone [...]
Leonard Pitts, George Bush on Discipline (Part III)
Posted in Culture, Education, tagged discipline, George Bush, Leonard Pitts on January 30, 2008 | 1 Comment »
If Hell were a place to be joked about, I might compare it to an Iowa winter right now as I saw that Leonard Pitts, the far left Miami columnist, had something reasonably positive to write about George Bush, even if it was one line. Pitts wrote, “When President Bush decries ‘the soft bigotry of [...]
Personal Thoughts On Discipline (Part II)
Posted in Culture, Education, Religion, tagged discipline, Hebrews 12 on January 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This is an eight-post series on discipline continued in the next four parts with the writings of the Scottish Oswald Chambers who lived for only 42 years but not before writing a beautiful meditation, My Utmost for His Highest. The writer of Hebrews reminds us that the Lord disciplines those whom He loves. Reading Martin [...]
Rick Majerus on Discipline (Part I)
Posted in Culture, Education, tagged discipline, Rick Majerus quote, training on January 29, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Rick Majerus, St. Louis University basketball coach, will start Men Like Trees Walking off on an eight-post series which will include Majerus’ pithy quote, four meditations by Oswald Chambers on discipline, a couple of pop-psychologists, and an excerpt of a conversation that I had with John McCain’s cell mate Colonel Bud Day. Parents want to take all [...]
Hiking Compulsory Age Helps No One
Posted in Education, Letter to the Editor, tagged compulsory education, Education, Iowa education issue, school attendance age on January 19, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Lawmakers in Des Moines are considering hiking the compulsory attendance age to 18. The last thing our public schools need is more kids who don’t want to be educated. Some legislators have a new take on the old saying: you can lead a student to a school and you can make him think. While some [...]
J’Accuse: School Administrators and What Many Communicate to Kids
Posted in Education, Politics, tagged administrators, Education, school, students, teachers on January 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
D.M. Thomas wrote a moving biography of the great Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Alexander of Solzhenitsyn: A Century in His Life. In describing Solzhenitsyn’s demanding Soviet-style education with 12-14 hour days of studying Russian literature, French, chemistry, calculus, and world history, Solzhenitsyn said that he understood what he was getting from his education and that his learning [...]
Clarence Thomas’s My Grandfather’s Son–A Place of Torment and Salvation (Part I)
Posted in Culture, Education, tagged childhood, Clarence Thomas, discipline, Education on January 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
One of the greatest frustrations in public education is that administrators (and some teachers) believe that discipline, strictness, and great expectations are unkind. Instead, they favor a friendly learning environment, mutually agreed-upon rules, and “reasonable” expectations, usually code for lowered expectations. From a theological perspective, “Those whom the Lord loves, He disciplines” (Heb. 12:6) and people [...]
The Advantage of Not Reading the Bible
Posted in Education, Religion, tagged audio Bible, Christian experience, literacy, reading on January 5, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Zondervan recently published an audio Bible, “Inspired by the Bible Experience,” which was the 2007 Audio Book of the Year. I bought the 79 CDS, which is the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation, for $99 at the Christian Bookstore for my wife for Christmas. My wife, whose second language is English, looks forward to [...]
Person of the Year: Ernest Grant
Posted in Culture, Education, Politics, tagged Ernest Grant, hero, veteran, World War II on December 26, 2007 | 13 Comments »
So TIME Magazine chooses the former KGB member Vladimir Putin as man of the year. Wow. Instead of choosing someone who has uplifted, inspired, and helped to mold this country, TIME chose a snake-like, duplicitous man who has seen some of his most courageous rivals disappear. Granted, TIME says that it does not choose the person to [...]
