Joshua Gibbs

Quit Asking Potential Teachers About Their “Personal Philosophy of Education.”

Skip asking potential teachers about their “personal philosophy of education.” That won’t tell you anything about them. Ask them to write a description of a school which calls itself classical, thinks of itself as classical, but isn’t. How have they fooled themselves? What allows the illusion to persist? When is the illusion likely to beContinue reading “Quit Asking Potential Teachers About Their “Personal Philosophy of Education.””

Resolutions For Classical Schools

This year, resolve to not pray that God would “help us all to have a good time tonight.” This year, resolve to not call your students “you guys.” Your name isn’t Madison and you are not a Chili’s waitress. This year, resolve to use the word “prayerfully” in ways that do not involve asking peopleContinue reading “Resolutions For Classical Schools”

My Favorite Song By…

Miles Davis: “It Never Entered My Mind” The Beatles: “The Long and Winding Road” Oasis: “Slide Away” The Rolling Stones: “Emotional Rescue” Nirvana: “Something In The Way” U2: “Ultra Violet (Light My Way)” The Clash: “Straight To Hell” Tom Petty: “Walls (Circus)” R.E.M.: “At My Most Beautiful” The Cure: “All Cats Are Grey” Simon &Continue reading “My Favorite Song By…”

Modern Obsessions

Tom: For the next part of our meeting, I think we should break up into small groups. Harry: There’s only four of us. Tom: Still.

Merely Asking Tough Questions Won’t Do Much Good

“Weak teachers want asking tough questions to be enough because it deflects their own moral responsibility to speak the truth and places it back on students. Tough questions can unsettle a student from complacency and make him pliable, but tough questions are incapable of forming a student. What forms a student is tough answers.” -from Asking Tough QuestionsContinue reading “Merely Asking Tough Questions Won’t Do Much Good”

A Matter Of Taste Vol. II

A sequel to A Matter of Taste. Perfectly suited to entertaining, cooking, decorating, unwinding, and eveninging, but with an autumnal mood.

The Consolation Of Bad Reviews

When one of my books gets a two star review on Goodreads, I generally check the user’s other ratings and it’s usually a consolation to find they have given five star reviews for Glennon Doyle, Jen Hatmaker, and Karen Armstrong books.

Ted Lasso’s Secret? He’s An Evangelical

Ted Lasso only makes sense as an evangelical, though the writers of the show refuse to admit it. It’s not just the blend of optimism and humility which make him an evangelical (not just generically Christian, but Midwestern evangelical in particular), but the fact he is obviously patterned after the most famous Christian television characterContinue reading “Ted Lasso’s Secret? He’s An Evangelical”

Worse Than Profanity

We would be better off without the word “toxic.”

On Getting COVID And Losing My Sense Of Taste And Smell

“After testing positive for COVID last week, I entirely lost my sense of smell and my sense of taste. The symptoms which prompted me to get tested were too mild to even mention, but when I tasted my coffee the following morning and found it as odorless and tasteless as tap water, my first thought was,Continue reading “On Getting COVID And Losing My Sense Of Taste And Smell”