Author Archives: Joshua Gibbs

Tom: Let’s order the tableside chips. Harry: What’s that? Tom: The waiter wheels a cart out with a bag of chips on it and you like get to see him rip open the bag of chips and then pour the chips in a metal bowl. Then he, like, places the bowl of chips right onContinue reading “Let’s Order The Tableside Chips”

This week, I delivered a talk defending the lecture (and explaining the origins of the terms “guide on the side” and “sage on the stage”) at the Flagler University Institute for Classical Education Workshop.

“You all have made it to the end of another school year, and I want you to know: I have seen your sacrifices. I have not seen all of your sacrifices, but I have seen some of them. I have not seen all of your sacrifices because you are virtuous men and women, which means you doContinue reading “What Teachers Need To Hear From Administrators At The End Of The School Year”

Thanks, AI.

What I love about this sketch is that you can sense the punchline before you know exactly what it will be. Good comedy, much like good teaching, isn’t wholly bound up in surprise, but in confirming what we already suspect. And yet, this video also follows the rule of three, and the way Robert WebbContinue reading “Unbelievable Timing”

“He is a man who is worthy neither of the great censure nor the great praise presently attached to his name. Nonetheless, there is little disagreement on what he has actually said and done. There is only disagreement on what it all means. The very same qualities of his personality which drive his admirers to hail him promptContinue reading “Character Sketch”

The day my son Laurie started kindergarten he renounced corduroy overalls with bibs and began wearing blue jeans with a belt; I watched him go off the first morning with the older girl next door, seeing clearly that an era of my life was ended, my sweet-voiced nursery-school tot replaced by a long-trousered, swaggering character who forgotContinue reading “Charles (1948) by Shirley Jackson”

From “Act of God,” the fourth episode of Season One of The Crown.