“New humanities teachers are often given massive manuals (compiled by previous teachers to satisfy accreditation requirements) and told, ‘This is how to teach this class.’ The existence of such manuals is a comfort to administrators and a terror to everyone else. Why? For the same reason bureaucracy is always a terror to reasonable people.” -from StopContinue reading “Let’s Direct A Critical Eye At Accreditation”
Category Archives: CiRCE Links
Why We Need Jane Austen More Than Ever
“When reading and discussing Pride & Prejudice with my students, I explained they would all meet Charlotte Lucas someday. ‘When you’re in your early thirties, you will someday be invited into the home of a young married couple, perhaps some friends, whose children are wildly disobedient, profoundly unhappy, and yet the couple will dispense adviceContinue reading “Why We Need Jane Austen More Than Ever”
A Bracing Little Speech For The First Day Of School
“Not every teenager is good at being a teenager, just like not every adult is good at being an adult, not every newlywed is good at being a newlywed, and so forth. There are many stages of life, and you can be good or bad at any of them. Doing well as a teenager meansContinue reading “A Bracing Little Speech For The First Day Of School”
You Are Obligated To Respect Others, Not To Make Them Feel Respected
“A humble man trains himself to feel respect when he is shown conventional signs of respect, while an arrogant man is unwilling to train his feelings and instead demands others train their actions around his feelings. The idea that anyone is morally obligated to make others feel respected is just godless relativism dressed up inContinue reading “You Are Obligated To Respect Others, Not To Make Them Feel Respected”
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”
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”
Talking With My 12-Year-Old Daughter About The Rich
“Camilla: Is it good to be cosmopolitan? Gibbs: Being cosmopolitan will not save your soul, but it is good that some people are cosmopolitan. In Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke says it is good for the church to have a few wealthy, well-travelled bishops. Cosmopolitan bishops are easier for rich people to respect,Continue reading “Talking With My 12-Year-Old Daughter About The Rich”
On Human Beauty
“Our perspective on human Beauty is skewed by the glut of the Beautiful involved in the entertainment industry; when we think of human Beauty, we do not think of Helen of Troy or King David, but Heidi Klum. The sultry photographed faces gazing at us from the Victoria’s Secret show window have sullied the reputationContinue reading “On Human Beauty”
Why I Love Watching The Olympics
“While the lines of competition are drawn between nations, watching the Games tends to produce a remarkable balance between love of one’s own people and love of others. When watching, I intuitively pull for the United States, but I find myself easily won over to charismatic athletes from other countries. In distinguishing athletes by nation, the GamesContinue reading “Why I Love Watching The Olympics”
Excerpt: “I Want My Son To Become A Better Writer” & Other Daydreams
“Many classical Christian schools hold themselves to absurdly low standards when it comes to writing instruction. A few graduates come back from their freshman year in college and report, ‘After writing my senior thesis, college writing work is easy,’ and the school congratulates itself on how well they’re doing. Twenty years ago, I took aContinue reading “Excerpt: “I Want My Son To Become A Better Writer” & Other Daydreams”
