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’re convinced that the only way students will like a teacher is if the teachers tries his hardest to be likeable. If karate were taught at a Christian school, we’d fire Mr. Miyagi and his pointless “wax on, wax off” schtick after five minutes. Too hard. Too pointless. Not friendly enough.”

-from Signs Of A Great Teacher, my latest for CiRCE

Three Ideas For Productive Faculty Meetings

“Classical education is growing rapidly, which means the average school has teachers who have been around for ten years, five years, and five months. They’re not all on the same page—there’s no way around this, but it needs to be acknowledged. The way to get them all on the same page isn’t to make them read and discuss the same books—which won’t hurt, but won’t really do all that much, either.”

-from my latest for CiRCE