Category: Article

Forcing the worst ideas of history on the next generation . . . for their own good  From 1961 to 1989, a wall famously encircled what was then known as West Berlin. West Germans called it the “Wall of Shame” (Mauer der Schande), a phrase coined by then-Mayor Willy Brandt. In the U.S., we called it simply “the Berlin Wall,” and though the term is neutral we all knew the wall was there to keep the residents of East Germany from escaping to the West—in other words, to keep them…

One of the great Christmas traditions is Frank Capra’s masterful film It’s a Wonderful Life. James Stewart, that most American of actors, plays the lead of George Bailey, an Everyman, a small-town ordinary guy struggling against the deceit, selfishness, and cynicism of a power-broker named Potter. Yet, for all its Americana, I find It’s a Wonderful Life a profound reflection on the teachings of my favorite saint, Francis de Sales, a seventeenth-century French bishop.  De Sales lived from 1567 to 1622 and was the titular bishop of Geneva, Switzerland, but…

Wicked will now take a one-year intermission. Enjoy the snacks at the concession stand.  By far the most important thing to know about the film release of Wicked is this: it’s only Act One of the musical. This caught me by surprise, because the film is called Wicked (rather than, say, Wicked, Act One or Something Bad Is Happening in Oz or even How the Flying Monkeys Got Their Wings). And I had noticed that the run time was 2:40, which seemed about right for a Broadway musical adaptation. When…

When you take pen in hand and write a word, you do something approaching the divine. You are giving physical form to a thought. It is, in its way, an Incarnation. To do this with beauty and grace is to honor this Incarnation. This is penmanship.  Along with speaking, it is the most common form of Incarnation. We do it every day whether we’re signing a credit card receipt, writing a grocery list, or putting down our deepest thoughts in a journal. Like all Incarnations, it reflects who we are….

Dr. Matthew Mehan encourages us to re-examine the role metaphor plays in our lives. He notes how much hope they hold when crafted well.

Is there a tension between schools preparing students for professional excellence and for serving others? Can Elon Musk and Mother Theresa both inspire students?

Graduation speeches customarily supply profound words and lofty exhortations; yet one of the best I’ve ever heard of gave a simple and homely piece of advice. It was this: have a hobby.  Life is difficult, the speaker said. You have ups and downs, get worried and hurried, stressed out and hemmed in. You need something to get you by. Something which, for a little while, helps you forget everything that you can’t seem to forget. Something you take seriously that really isn’t serious. So, get a hobby.  What’s a hobby?…

The humanities were not killed by STEM; they were gutted from the inside and only survive in institutions that value the truth.

Veteran teacher of almost 40 years, Mike Ortiz reflects on how we can all retain the best aspects of a young teacher as we add wisdom each year.

This spring saw the publication of two books arguing forcefully that our children are struggling and the adults are to blame. One of the books met with nodding heads all around and generated real enthusiasm for curbing the pernicious effects of technology on adolescent mental health. The other, Abigail Shrier’s Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up, met with a much chillier reception, but it confronts parents and teachers of adolescents with questions that are both challenging and important. To understand the controversy regarding Bad Therapy, it is helpful…