Category: Article

The importance of parents in the life of the school cannot be overstated. As the primary educators of their children, parents bear the responsibility for forming their sons and daughters in all areas of life. The fact that parents welcome us as teachers to partner with them in this all-important endeavor is both humbling and inspiring. With this partnership in mind, we must consider parent communication to be a primary role in our work as teachers. St. Josemaría Escrivá even went so far as to say that parents, not students,…

To approach a healthy way to look at smartphones, we need to move our focus away from dopamine spikes and addictive apps, and towards a love of reality.

Of Students and Sandwiches Grinders are not heroes. In Milford, where I grew up, there were the Oliva brothers who established a small Italian market in 1961 called, what else, Oliva’s Market.  Never mind that two blocks west was Commolli’s Market, and one block east was Mazzarelli’s Market.  Oliva’s is the only one left today and going stronger than ever. Babe, who became the sole proprietor, brought in his oldest son and daughter, and it has expanded into a fine catering business and gift shop in addition to the traditional…

My bride said to me one day, “By the time I get to the end of The Road, I feel cleansed.” We immediately agreed without further words that The Road is awesome, that Blood Meridian is a bit much, and that everyone should read Cormac McCarthy. Then in the back of my mind an interfering little question popped its mischievous head to interfere with our unifying thoughts. Why is that book so good? Because my interfering questions tend to grow rapidly, a bigger question tromped in to ask why any…

I realize that the not-too-distant memory of pandemic shutdowns doesn’t make being alone a very comforting prospect. Nevertheless, we need solitude, at least a little, each day. We also need a guide if we are not only to endure but to thrive in the challenges presented to us in solitude. In this way, solitude can in due time reveal to us another way to view ourselves and the world that is like a bay window looking out on a seacoast with horizons extending to eternity. The wonder will be all…

The story of science is one that is often left untold in our classrooms today. This is an unfortunate situation, especially when we consider the words of Alexis de Tocqueville from The Old Regime and the Revolution describing the events leading up to the French Revolution. History… is a picture gallery containing a host of copies and very few originals.[1] The history of science is no different. Among the host of copies, we find scientists carrying out the normal processes of science to make slow and steady progress, but we…

In recent years, many writers have offered advice about how to manage a Thanksgiving conversation with friends or family members who hold very different opinions about politics, religion, or the newly radioactive topics of epidemiology and immunology. Most of these articles recommend that we avoid areas of known disagreement for fear of disrupting the emotional ecosystem of a holiday get-together.  But what should we do when we’re in the classroom, and the uncomfortable topic is historical rather than political? Specifically, what do we do about historical events in which some…

I heard on the radio the other day that 37% of people making $200,000 a year live paycheck to paycheck. I think they were trying to increase pity for people, like we all need to make way more money just to get by. But I didn’t get that message. All I heard was “people waste a lot of money,” and it saddens me that we are so pathetic. According to the World Bank, nearly half of the world lives on less than $5.50 per day.  Sure, things in the US…