Tonight I saw the latest Spiderman movie at our local theater.  It was an enjoyable two hours, and to me the best part was the theme. (I know … I sound like an English teacher.) But truly, (without giving any spoilers) the movie was about how Peter Parker would rather see a villain redeemed than to see a villain simply vanquished. Even one who has done him great personal harm. And I find that a deeply Christian concept.  It is exactly what thrills me every time I see any version of The Christmas Carol. No matter what license Hollywood takes…

 An absolutely disgusting article in the Daily Mail about Kenneth Copeland today: “America’s Wealthiest Pastor”. I have never understood how people continue going to a church led by such a man. When your pastor has a 7 million dollar “parsonage” and pays zero property taxes by exploiting Texas laws, I doubt it is a secret among the congregation. Nor is the fact that he has his own little airport and a 10 million dollar Gulfstream jet. And how about his justification for owning his own jet? Flying commercial might make him “angry” and that would affect his preaching negatively.  Sounds…

I took Latin as my foreign language during my high school years. Mrs. Kelley was a great teacher and she knew her subject well. She also took a group of students on a trip to Rome every summer.  I never went. In fact, I never even seriously considered the possibility because my family could not afford it. But I sat in her class and watched her slides of my classmates standing in the Forum or outside the Coliseum, and I wished I could be a part of one of those trips.   At some point in college I had a breakthrough…

This morning just before the start of first period, a couple of my students walked into my classroom and asked, “Why are you leaving?” I had been putting off telling my students about my decision to leave Hauser at the end of the semester, but I knew word would get around and eventually I would get to explain, especially since the school is actively advertising for a new 8th Grade English Teacher.  Today was the day. I gave a little explanation at the beginning of each class. It was the quietest and best-behaved my students have been in a long…

“You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen,Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen. But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all?” This is the dumbest line in the entire genre of Christmas music. And it will cause me to switch the radio station faster than if I hear the opening few bars of Feliz Navidad.*  Why would you assume I know the names of eight reindeer who are absolutely indistinguishable from each other, but I WOULDN’T recall the one who is actually famous? That’s like asking, “You know Milgram and Leavitt and Florey and Kepler,Pauling and Lemann and Gilbert…

Even though it seems Covid fell flat as a spur for educational innovation, the pandemic inspired “distance learning” could still serve a role in the future of education: as a contrast to learning in the “metaverse”.  If you’re not familiar with the coming metaverse, it looks to be an advanced combination of apps, video games and virtual reality technology. The pitch is that you will be able to strap on a pair of goggles and enter into cyberspace, instantly transporting from one “location” to another at will, all the while interacting with the avatars of other individuals who are in…

I had hopes that the pandemic might stir up some changes in our country’s approach to education. That maybe all the disruption would produce some out-of-the-box experimentation.  I have been disappointed. In fact, there is little creativity even in addressing the gaping holes in our students’ progress, holes produced by entire semesters of so-called “distance learning”.  There was plenty of distance and precious little learning. Some students disappeared off the grid. “Playing hooky” had never been easier, and it lasted for weeks and months on end. And apparently, the majority of parents didn’t have either the know-how, the time, or…

I don’t know if this was caused by the pandemic or some cultural trend independent of Covid 19, but the current junior high students are dead set against homework. I have had to completely change my approach to class to allow all work to be done within the given period because at least half of the students will simply never do homework.  And it’s not that they forget to do it. Or that they are too busy to do it.  They are adamantly opposed to the very concept of homework.  A few days back in one class I announced that…

Faced with the need to answer a critic tomorrow, I am reminded of this pair of seemingly contradictory proverbs: Proverbs 26:4 – “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him.” And Proverbs 26:5 – “Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.” Odd, isn’t it? I don’t know Hebrew, but it looks like the “according to his folly” part is not quite the same in the two verses and this might be the key to resolving the “contradiction”. (Which is important because we…