“Many teachers defend showing videos in class on the grounds they’re “educational,” but this proves far too little. You can teach children data with a screen, but data isn’t formational. Screens are formational, though. A little child who uses videos to learn the alphabet may learn his subject much faster than a little child learning the alphabetContinue reading “How To Show A Video In The Classroom”
Category Archives: CiRCE Links
What “Top Gun: Maverick” Gets Right About Education
“Top Gun: Maverick is a gazillion dollar action movie, but most of the film takes place in a school. It’s an elite flight school for fighter pilots, sure, but a school nonetheless, and the relationship between the teacher and his students in the film is strikingly free of modern classroom cliches. For starters, the teacher in TopContinue reading “What “Top Gun: Maverick” Gets Right About Education”
Love What Lasts: First Look
Advance reader copies of Love What Lasts are out for review now. The pre-sale should begin fairly soon.
A Classical Education Is Not About Finding Your Passions
“Parent: High school is the time and place to figure out who you are and what you love. Gibbs: It’s really not. Parent: No? Gibbs: No, I wouldn’t say it’s the place to figure out who you are and what you love. At very least, a classical Christian school isn’t that sort of place. IContinue reading “A Classical Education Is Not About Finding Your Passions”
Megachurching Classical Christian Schools
“Classical Christian education has gotten popular enough that we’re probably only a few years away from naming schools Lift, Summit, Impact, Sponge, or whatever church names are fashionable at the time… A good many classical Christian schools already style themselves after megachurches. They talk about “taking over this city for Christ,” have dope Instagram accounts,Continue reading “Megachurching Classical Christian Schools”
Film As Metaphysical Coup
“As I near my 40s, the most fundamental question I ask when my wife and I are deciding what movie to watch on an evening is not “Drama or Comedy?” Neither do I first ask, “New movie or old movie?” Rather, the first pebble we drop down the well of our souls is, “Something weContinue reading “Film As Metaphysical Coup”
Too Catholic: A Classical Odyssey
“It is probably safe to assume that every classical Christian school in the country sees itself as the rival of some better funded, more liberal Christian school across town.” Too Catholic: A Classical Odyssey is now available on the CiRCE website. This piece originally appeared in an issue of FORMA several years ago, but thisContinue reading “Too Catholic: A Classical Odyssey”
Speaking Event Tomorrow
Tomorrow I will be speaking at the CiRCE regional conference in Sterling, Virginia. It’s not too late to sign up for Saturday’s block of lectures, if you would like. I will be giving a lecture which reflects on what I’ve learned about human nature from teaching short fiction workshops to high school students.
Talk To Me
“I don’t allow students to email me about anything which could be addressed in person. Students who don’t have the nerve to boldly ask adults for favors, opinions, or permission will be at a significant disadvantage when they enter their 20s. The only way to acquire such nerve is through practice.” -from “Do Not EmailContinue reading “Talk To Me”
How To Pick A Church When You Go Off To College
“Given the profound importance most Christians now place on community, Christian high school seniors cannot be blamed for thinking Christian friends will help them keep the faith when they go to college . ‘Building community’ and ‘being in community’ are nearly the whole point of the modern church, whose chief purpose is to facilitate smallContinue reading “How To Pick A Church When You Go Off To College”
There are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity. 