Category: Education
The Case for the Christian Liberal Arts in a Polarized, Fractious Age
Physicist Leonard Mlodinow opens his entertaining book The Drunkard’s Walk with the story of a lottery winner whose lucky ticket ended with the number 48.[1] However, according to the contestant, luck had nothing to do with it. Claiming clairvoyance, they dreamt the...
A Univers(ity) Without a Story
Blessed are those who dwell in your house, ever singing your praise! Selah -Psalm 84:4 Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi is a novel open to myriad interpretations. One reading of the story is as a parable helping us rediscover the integrative power of the...
Moral Values and the Intercultural Development Inventory
In a previous article, I wrote about my concern with Christian organizations employing the Intercultural Development Inventory for two reasons, the undermining of the image of God and the undermining of objective moral values.
Christian Organizations Should Reconsider Using the Intercultural Development Inventory
If you’ve ever taken the Intercultural Development Inventory, a psychometric assessment administered at multiple secular and Christian organizations, you may have sensed that there’s more to it than your ability to get along with people of other cultures. In a...
Contemplative Pedagogy: Notes on Educating Screen-Addled Students
Not long ago I taught a summer class in creative writing to middle schoolers. On one sun-drenched day, I took the class outside to wander through our campus and down to our stretch of shoreline on Narragansett Bay. Their task...
On Unlearning
Come now, O Lord my God. Teach my heart where and how to seek you, where and how to find you. Lord, if you are not here, where shall I seek you, since you are absent? But if you are...
An Appeal from a Christian Liberal Arts University President
According to legend, thousands of years ago the mighty King Croesus of Lydia consulted with the oracle of Delphi to determine whether he should battle the great Persian Empire. The oracle famously replied, “If Croesus goes to war he will...
The Market Made Me Do It: The Scandal of the Evangelical College
Mark Noll’s The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind turned twenty-five last year. If we know a classic by its ability to speak across eras, one single event from this past summer is enough to assure everyone of the continuing tragic...
Against Textbooks: Why We Need Bigger Stories
“But Mom, how do you know I’m learning?” This was a frequent query to my poor mother during her tenure homeschooling me. As a type A, achievement oriented child, I was exasperated with my mother’s refusal to do homeschooling like...
Contemplating the Covid-19 Classroom: Pandemic as Our Sacred Present
The county in which I teach just released its tentative plan for reopening schools in August 2020. Scanning it, I saw my previous daily routine of leading children through learning, singing, and creating replaced with a new routine—one of taking...