I suppose it is time to write about Common Core again, in light of the recent withdrawal of a former Bush administration pro-Common Core staffer, Hanna Skandera, from consideration as an assistant secretary for the Department of Education. This blog is not about her specifically, though she is a member of one of the Common […]
Archives
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The Core Problem of Common Core.
26 Mar 2017
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The Examined Life–With Some Help
17 Feb 2017
Why do people still read Plato? Aristotle? The Bible? Augustine? Thomas Aquinas? John Locke? Immanuel Kant (well, maybe not so much)? What unifies them? It isn’t religion. Plato and Aristotle were most certainly not Christians. Augustine and Aquinas would have disagreed on the extent of man’s capacity to know and to will the good. The […]
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The Liberal Arts in the Christian Context
05 Feb 2017
Leland Ryken, Professor of English Emeritus at Wheaton College, has a fine track record of scholarship over a career that began in 1968. He has written thoughtfully about integration in his field, among other topics, but in particular I encourage you to focus on his well known essay entitled “The Student’s Calling.” In it he […]
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I have written on this blog before about the importance of the liberal arts, but I now have an interesting negative example of how universities have been marginalizing not only the liberal arts but also American civilization in particular. Let me begin with a quote from this article by Ian Tuttle in the National Review […]
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Trump’s Trumps
15 Dec 2016
A new controversy–well, not really new, just renewed–has now taken the stage regarding President-Elect Donald Trump’s transition. This one concerns the “flavor” of his cabinet choices, taken collectively. The media and Democrats are trying to figure out (1) what they tell us about Trump and (2) what the supporter–stakeholders think about the choices. Those are […]
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Elitism and Elitism
02 Dec 2016
Am I an elitist? Does the fact that I support the continued existence of the Electoral College make me elitist? Does my sometimes suspicion of democracy in its raw form make me elitist? And, is being an elitist all bad? Or is there some distinction between being an elitist and a pernicious brand of elitism? […]
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Miscellaneous Interesting (and Weird) News
13 Sep 2016
There are all sorts of interesting and disturbing issues and events out there in the news these days, some obscure and others more obvious and with greater implications. Below I simply want to list a few I have been reading about in recent days, and then later perhaps write some longer blogs on some of […]
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It has been pointed out by historians and journalists that political campaigns have always been a little bit or a lot vicious, with a good deal of “over the top” rhetoric. Witness the Adams-Jefferson campaign of 1800. It was pretty overheated on both sides. But I see something different at work now among liberals, or, […]
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I have so far avoided taking any position on the two main candidates for president. For my colleague Mark Smith, don’t worry, I will. I intend to continue the path of avoidance in this blog. Today I would like to examine and evaluate each candidate’s economic program. I say nothing about their personal morality, or […]
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Another Federal Failure
22 Jul 2016
I have no doubt that the following blog will be controversial, but it is so important that I must permit the controversy to rage. I read and agree with a recent piece in SeeThruEDU by George Leef, entitled “America’s Ridiculous Notion: Accreditation is What Makes Colleges Good or Bad.” (http://seethruedu.com/americas-ridiculous-notion-accreditation-is-what-makes-colleges-good-or-bad) The argument in the article […]
Bert Wheeler
Jeff Haymond
Marc Clauson
Mark Caleb Smith
Tom Mach