“As a teacher there is little which vexes me more than hearing students unjustly praised, but there is little which delights me more than hearing students justly praised. That’s why I love end of the year awards ceremonies.” -from my latest for CiRCE
Category Archives: CiRCE Links
Tips For College Teachers Applying At Classical High Schools
“I’ve seen many college profs conduct high school classes with the same game plan they use in a Lit 510 discussion of Milton or Dante. It doesn’t work. They ask a lot of provocative questions and get a lot of short answers, bad answers, or silence. Socratic discussions work far better among older people whoContinue reading “Tips For College Teachers Applying At Classical High Schools”
A Few Comments On My Latest Book
“When I was young, popular music was a sort of religion to me, but then I got a job teaching classical literature, and over the last twenty years, I’ve come to see just how very different things which last are from pleasant, trendy things that come and go quickly. I’ve also seen how prolonged exposureContinue reading “A Few Comments On My Latest Book”
Act Like A Lady
“There are aspects of the aristocratic life which people born average are never going to participate in. They’re never going to shop on Saville Row. They’re never going to pay a talented composer to write a requiem mass. They’re never going to subsidize the composition of an epic poem which pays tribute to the historicContinue reading “Act Like A Lady”
Signs Of A Great Teacher
“In many Christian schools, the ethos of an “ideal” teacher is far more defined by Christian radio, youth group, books about the family, and devotional literature written for small groups than it is by, say, the Rule of St. Benedict. The contemporary Christian teacher is aghast by old adages like, “Don’t smile until Christmas.” We’reContinue reading “Signs Of A Great Teacher”
Proverbial, Episode 117: Once Upon A Time In Shaolin
The latest episode of Proverbial is about dead cats. It’s my favorite episode of the last couple months.
In Praise of Difficult Students
“Just as small-minded administrators, parents, and students cannot distinguish between different kinds of difficult teachers, small-minded teachers lump every sort of difficult student into the same “bad” bunch. A disobedient student is a liar, a cheat, a scofflaw who disregards small rules, a queen bee enthralled by the shallowness of popular culture, a bully whoseContinue reading “In Praise of Difficult Students”
How To Show A Video In The Classroom
“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”
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.
There are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity. 