Are Too Many Students Going to College?

That’s the question asked by the Chronicle of Higher Education to a panel of experts. And also, what to do about it.

Filed under: America, Current Events, Education, Philosophy, Politics

Wise Words

The Anchoress provides us with some words of wisdom about what a teacher should be:

Amma Theodora lists these qualities for a teacher:
– Have no desire to dominate
– Have no interest in vanity or pride
– Never be distracted by flattery or gifts
– Be in control of the stomach
– Be slow to become angry
– Be as patient, gentle and humble as possible
– Be properly examined and without political ties
– Be a lover of souls

God, forgive me, for I am none of these things. I hate most of my students, I hate the subjects that I teach, and I love those moments when I can show how wise and worldly I am to them, my students. I teach them my truth. Please, through the intercession of your Blessed Mother, the Seat of All Wisdom, may I become the teacher you want and need me to be, so that I might lead my students to the Truth which is Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who with You and the Holy Spirit, are the Triune God, Three in One, into eternity. Amen.

Filed under: Catholic, Current Events, Education, Personal, Philosophy, Religion

Books to Read

Archbishop Charles Chaput tells us what we should be reading.

(h/t)

Filed under: Books, Catholic, Classics, Education, Entertainment, History, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Rome

About that Catholic Clergy Sexual Abuse Crisis

Some facts about the sexual abuse crisis in the Church versus in the rest of the world.

Summary: though still horrible, the Church has less instances of sexual abuse of minors than Protestant churches, Jewish groups, and public schools.

But priests abuse kids because they can’t get married.

Filed under: Catholic, Current Events, Education, Religion, Rome

Interesting Class Discussion

We were discussing Ralph Waldo Emerson in class today. I can’t remember exactly how I got on the topic, but I asked my students if they still believed that America was a land of opportunity, where anyone could come and be moderately successful if they were willing to work hard.

This class is made up of all international students: one student from Greece, one from Korea, and about fifteen from China. But they all agreed on the answer to my question.

Yes, America is still a land of opportunity.

I was a little shocked. Had my cynicism about the American Dream somehow blinded me to a truth my students saw? Is it really still the case that anyone with a few bucks and a strong work ethic can do well-enough in America? Honestly, I’m not entirely sure I believe that anymore; me, a patriotic, conservative American!

But my students, all from the outside of this country, think I am wrong not to believe in the American Dream.

Interesting.

Filed under: Amazing, America, Education, Personal, Philosophy, Politics

The Resilience of Western Civilization

Jeff Jacoby:

1989 exemplified with rare power the resilience of Western civilization. In our time, too, there are brutal despots who imagine that their power is unassailable: that their tanks and torturers can keep them in power forever. But the message of 1989 is that tyranny is not forever – and that the downfall of tyrants can come with world-changing speed.

So say we all.

Filed under: Democracy, Education, Europe, History, Politics

It’s Only Life or Death!

John Unger: “The best thing that ever happened to me was the night an angry, messed up cab driver pulled me into the back room of a 24 hour diner and held a huge handgun to my head for over ten minutes, all the while describing in intricately fetishistic detail exactly what would happen when he pulled the trigger.” Seriously?!

(h/t)

Filed under: Amazing, Education, Entertainment, Manliness, Personal

Guide for the Perplexed

The Opinion page of the WSJ has collected all their writings on Obamacare onto one page. Lots of good stuff.

Filed under: America, Current Events, Education, Election 2008, End of the World, Health Care, Hippies, Politics , Healthcare, Hippies, Obama, Politics

The Paradox of True Freedom

From Fr. Baker’s editorial in the latest edition of Homiletic and Pastoral Review: “The assumptions of the secular humanists, who deny the existence of God and see man as descended from the apes with no immortal soul, have taken a commanding position in our culture and are proclaimed incessantly in the media and in the public schools and universities.”

I wrote something similar a few years ago. Great minds think alike!

Filed under: Catholic, Education, History, Philosophy, Politics, Religion

Confessions of a Home-Schooler

Salon.com features the start of a feature about the experiences of its home-schooling editor.

Filed under: Current Events, Education, Funny, Politics, Religion

The Confederate Leviathan

Was the Confederacy a libertarian paradise, facing down those evil damn yankees Union forces? Not so much.

Filed under: America, Education, History, Politics

A Political Gadfly

The NYTimes profiles James E. O’Keefe III, Eagle Scout, student of G.K. Chesterton, and my personal hero for the moment.

Filed under: Amazing, America, Current Events, Education, Elections 2010, Entertainment, First Amendment, Hippies, Politics, Scouting

Happy Constitution Day!

222 years ago today, the second generation of American Founders fulfilled the promises set forth in their forefathers’ Declaration of Independence. If I were still at UD, I’d be enjoying some great BBQ.

Acton has some commentary.

Filed under: Acton, America, Current Events, Democracy, Education, History, Politics, University of Dallas

Government-Managed Capitalism: A Love Story

Acton explains the economic crisis (alas, all too briefly):

Way too short for what needs to be said, but still pretty good.

Filed under: Acton, America, Current Events, Economics, Education, Politics

Ted Kennedy, Victorian Hero?

Ronald Bailey:

One crucial difference between the senator from Massachusetts and the protagonists in Victorian novels is that the latter did not generally wield political power. Our natural suspicion of would-be dominators obliges politicians to portray themselves as selfless public servants, i.e., prosocial cooperators. But the plain fact is that becoming a United States senator is a pretty good example of successful dominance seeking. And once this kind of social dominance is achieved, it is often sustained by selflessly dispensing other people’s money to “deserving” individuals and groups.

Just so.

Filed under: America, Current Events, Education, Health Care, Hippies, Politics

What “right” to health care?

Jeff Jacoby:

It is not hard to understand the urgent passion with which so many people approach the issue of health care. And it would take a remarkably cold heart to be indifferent to the desperation of those who need medical help but cannot afford it. But rights do not spring from passion or need. Wanting something does not entitle you to it – not if someone else must provide or produce that something. The rights delineated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are negative rights only – they protect our autonomy, allowing us to peacefully live life and pursue happiness, neither coercing others nor being coerced by them.

UPDATE: Sorry, forgot the link.

Filed under: America, Current Events, Education, Health Care, Hippies, Politics

Mike Rowe Works!

Even if it’s Labor Day.

Filed under: Amazing, Current Events, Education, Entertainment, Politics, TV

9/11 Revisited

Here’s Fr. Schall’s essay from a few years ago.

Filed under: America, Current Events, Education, Politics, Terrorism

Need an Obamacare Alternative?

Pick one.

Filed under: America, Current Events, Education, Health Care, Politics

The President Is Not a Guidance Counselor

Jesse Walker on the cult of the presidency and why Pres. Obama shouldn’t be speaking to the children.

UPDATE: Byron York: “When Bush I spoke to students, the Democrats investigated and held hearings.” (h/t)

Filed under: America, Current Events, Democracy, Education, Hippies, Politics

Alinsky Nods

Tigerhawk on the right’s new interest in Saul Alinsky: “My theory, which I have written before, is that the right was essentially ignorant of Alinsky and his book until Barack Obama became a leading contender. Suddenly, even the mainstream media was interested in understanding, or at least explaining, what a ‘community organizer’ is.”

(h/t)

Fr. Z notes an interesting acknowledgment:

Acknowledgment from Rules for Radicals

Filed under: America, Books, Current Events, Democracy, Education, Hippies, Politics

Come and Take It

Best use of a $20 bill ever?

Nice.

(h/t)

ASIDE: It occurs to me that if there really is a “right” to health care, the federal government is not allowed to do anything about it. Why? The 10th Amendment: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.” Since the providing of health care is not an enumerated power of the federal government, they aren’t allowed to do it.

Filed under: Amazing, America, Current Events, Democracy, Education, First Amendment, Health Care, Hippies, History, Politics

Wish it was Real

A honest answering service at a public school:

(h/t)

Filed under: Amazing, Education, Entertainment, Funny, Politics

The War That Never Ends

Terry Teachout: “the success of ‘Inglourious Basterds’ suggests that most Americans, no matter how they feel about waterboarding, gay marriage or health-care reform, pine in their secret hearts for a lost world in which everyone can agree on at least one thing: Nazis are no damn good.”

Filed under: America, Current Events, Entertainment, History, Movies, Politics

Woodstock Authoritarians

George Neumayr: “The unruly left-wing protesters of yesteryear have become the authoritarians of today, criticizing and clamping down on protests far tamer and more sober than the ones they engineered in the 1960s.”

Filed under: America, Hippies, History, Music, Politics