How to Wake Up Slumbering Minds – WSJ.com. I might have to check this book out this summer.? Daniel Willingham’s Why Don’t Students Like School?, according to this review, seems to take some of the psychological studies that educational theory stays away from and attempts a different sort of educational psychology.? I’m not surprised that [...]
Two sophomore lit papers left.? Then 33 sophomore response papers from last Tuesday.? Then 22 freshman portfolios.? Then 33 sophomore lit papers.? Then 22 more freshman portfolios.? Then 35 sophomore final exams.? Then dissertation chapters.? Then a new job.? Then a baby.? Then next Christmas. I do sometimes think that I’ll just schedule a good [...]
3 Pithy Remarks on Handling the Doctrine of the Trinity | The Scriptorium Daily: Middlebrow. Alright, Scriptorium.? You’re slowly turning me into a fanboy. I’m just waiting for the next post about Rush Limbaugh to snap me back to reality.
Three reported slain at theater One of the three was Ben Teague, husband to my dissertation director Fran Teague and friend to many of my friends. If you pray, pray now.
Gifted or Determined? I always enjoy stories of late bloomers not named Michael Jordan, and this one from Scriptorium Daily is worth repeating: Intellectual pursuit demands diligence and responsibility. A couple of years ago world class pediatric neurosurgeon Fred J. Epstein died. What makes his story remarkable is that he had dyslexia. He was told [...]
While I’m out of town, I figured I’d give you readers some food for thought, and here’s the question of the day: is Christian preaching primarily the transmission of content that happens to involve rhetorical performance, or is it primarily performance that might or might not have content? Behold: Jess, if you’re reading, I know [...]
I wrote this post back on December 22 originally, but I figured it might bear a quick revision and a repost while most of my readers aren’t on Christmas break.? So here it goes! El Ick’s blog recently had quite an interesting conversation about differences between proselytizing (a word for which I always need spell [...]
Beowulf is over, and so my semester of experimental literature survey wraps up with it. ?I was dog-tired when I taught today, impending events having robbed me of some sleep, and I felt like the lesson suffered somewhat, but Beowulf?is a strong enough poem in its own right that, despite my own fatigue, the material [...]
The ultimate reaping of what one sows: right-wing edition – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com. I have to admit laughing out loud when I read this.? I know that four-year amnesia is common among the noisy class, but these complaints about the Department of Homeland Security and about the surveillance state in general really do blow [...]
With a Single Keystroke People writing dissertations will get this.
Thoughts on Jesus Camp The post in general is a review of the documentary Jesus Camp, but I thought this observation of the relationship between childhood faith and adult faith was spot on: The Jesus Camp method of intense indoctrination, filling the mind with strongly prejudicial opinions and fears, and depending on emotional experiences will [...]
Here’s a double-whammy Micah post for you. The first part is a brief clip from Athens Christian Church’s Easter service. The second is a gallery of Micah’s many Easter egg hunts and some more pics from Easter Sunday. Enjoy! And thank you to all who wished me a happy birthday on Facebook, Theologica, the U.S. [...]
Day two of Beowulf is in the can.? Once again I had too much in my notes to squeeze into a seventy-minute class, but that’s an alright embarrassment of riches, as far as I’m concerned. We started out where today’s section of the poem did, reviewing the Grendel family’s genealogy, which runs back to Cain.? [...]
Return to the Arena part 1 Return to the Arena part 2 Return to the Arena part 3 It’s now been twelve days since I departed that fateful Friday afternoon for my return to the world of great-hall youth ministry and thirteen since I came back.? Whereas I couldn’t have told you a phrase from [...]
Strangely enough, even though I had just as much amateur linguistics lore, Tolkien tidbits, and other distractions in my notes today, our class on Beowulf turned out more focused than did our class on Anglo-Saxon elegies just before spring break.? We covered more of the poetry, got in some discussions of big cultural questions, and [...]
Return to the Arena Part 1 Return to the Arena Part 2 Those of you who read my “kids these days” book reviews in the summer of 2008 know that I’m no great cheerleader for the culture of “multitasking.”? Neil Postman and other grumpy conservative writers have convinced me that watching television while doing one’s [...]
Return to the Arena part 1 I know it’s been almost a week since I posted about CIY, but reflecting on my teaching comes first here at HLW, and posting Micah pics also comes first, so I do not apologize, but I do thank you for your patience with the delay and with my lack [...]
The New Atheists? Easter message? ?Grow up or die? | spiked. It’s always nice to read a bit of complex thought, especially when proponents of us-versus-them have been pounding away at a division of the world into… us and them.? Right.? I already said that. At any rate, I’ve never read anything else by O’Neill, [...]
I’ve also got video clips that I might upload at some point, but I figured people might like to see the basic stills of our outing, so here they are! Medieval Times There’s not a whole lot to talk about from yesterday’s English Lit class. I gave my students a break, assigning a relatively brief [...]
The story of the lost Postman book did not end Tuesday.? When I got home that night (after a rip-roarin’ night at Medieval Times, which will yield pictures and possibly video clips soon), I could not put my hand on the book.? The next day, I tore the house apart and still could not find [...]
