Reflections on God … Man … Life
Have you heard that changes are afoot again with the SAT tests? You know, those examinations by which you try to get into college? Already there have been changes since the 1960s that have “recentered” the scores. What that means in the real world is that a score today that is the same score one might have received along about 1963 is not really the same score—a 1200 today, for instance, would have come out lower back then. We’re making… Read more »
I spent a number of years researching Noah Webster, who became the subject of my doctoral dissertation. He’s known primarily for two things: his Speller, which taught Americans to read and write correctly; his dictionary, a monumental effort of about twenty years of his life, and which defined terms in the context of his Biblical worldview. Webster started out his career as a devotee of the Enlightenment, that movement of the eighteenth century that gave far more credit to human… Read more »
Charles Finney had a lot to say about the effective means of communicating a message, particularly the most important message of all—the Gospel. He was continually criticized by other ministers for using plain language in his messages; he should show off his learning with superb rhetoric, they argued. Finney argued back in this way in his autobiography: The captain of a fire company, when a city is on fire, does not read to his company an essay, or exhibit a… Read more »
Another semester comes to a close tonight with the fall commencement at Southeastern University. I’m in my twenty-fifth year of teaching at the college level and have now witnessed a multitude of these. As I watch the graduates cross the stage and receive their diplomas, I hope that the four years they have invested were worth all the effort and the money that was spent. At least I have a higher comfort level at a university like SEU, knowing that… Read more »
When I talk about the dangers of government-controlled education, I share one of the truisms I use in my American history survey courses. It goes like this: Value-neutral education is a myth; everyone teaches from a distinctive worldview. When certain groups wanted to change education in the nineteenth century, one of the goals was to take education away from the influence of the churches. They said it was wrong to have what they called “sectarian” education. Instead, they promoted a… Read more »
Education in American began as a mostly private affair; the only thing even halfway resembling what we have today was when a New England town collected local taxes to cover the costs of a “common” school. Yet even during that time, private schooling prevailed, whether at home, with a paid tutor, or at a private academy. The big change occurred in Massachusetts in the 1830s. That state became the first to set up a state-level board of education. One of… Read more »
Today’s commentary is more personal. If you would rather find something about the shutdown or the debt ceiling, you won’t find it here today. Now’s your chance to go elsewhere before you read any further. Okay, too late—you must now continue. Professors are people, too. Sometimes we get discouraged. Even those of us who are doing this as a ministry and sense the call of God on our lives to teach can, at times, wonder what we are accomplishing. Although… Read more »