Tag Archive for education

Bird Brains and Screen Junkies

December 14, 2016 Intellectual Formation No comments

A friend shared a frightening article on social media the other day, on the terrifying effects of electronic gadgets on the minds of young children. Many parents today have a love-hate relationship with tablets, smart phones, computers, and game systems: they see educational benefits, entertainment options, and opportunities to reward or punish, but they also have an instinctive (if not firsthand) sense that time spent on these gadgets is not quality time and fosters ugly attitudes and habits in their progeny. But this article goes further, relating a story of a boy whose early and constant exposure to electronics put him

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Solid Intellectual Food In a Meta World

April 15, 2016 Intellectual Formation One comment

As my Junto brothers know, our eldest has been in the process of choosing a college. I have a 15-year history in higher education, as a student and marketing/communication professional, so it’s been interesting to see how different universities pitch themselves to prospective students. I’ve also been asked countless times where we want our teen to go: BigU? Ivy League? Catholic college (and if so, “Catholic” or, like, Newman Guide Catholic)? I have been decidedly unimpressed with most of the materials and approaches we’ve seen, but it wasn’t until this morning that I put my finger on exactly why. As providence would

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Still Time to Write Good Things On the Sky

August 1, 2015 Intellectual Formation No comments

During a long road trip this past week, I had the opportunity to listen to an audiobook version of The Wise Men Know What Wicked Things Are Written on the Sky, a volume of eleven lectures by Russell Kirk, sponsored by the Heritage Foundation and given delivered in the 1980s. The theme of the lectures was whether, on the heels of President Reagan’s election, our country was conceivably at the beginning of an “augustan age” which would see us reclaim the ideals and virtues of our forefathers and our sense of mission in this world. These lectures were a followup to an earlier series

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We Are Doomed!

March 2, 2015 Intellectual Formation 2 comments

Some examples of our nation’s intellectual atrophy need no color commentary.  If you think that our educational woes are overstated, that our young collegians really do understand the historical foundations of our liberty, and are prepared to responsibly exercise their citizenship, watch and weep! St. Thomas More, pray for us.

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More Shenanigans:
NYC and Notre Dame

February 22, 2015 Featured No comments

Well, it’s that time of year again: time for the annual pre-St. Patrick’s Day rant. In a few short weeks, Americans of all nationalities, colors, and creeds will dress in green and ignore our nation’s anti-Catholic tendencies in order to get drunk and celebrate all things Irish-ish. What better way to get in the leprechaun-loving spirit of things than to highlight a couple of news stories that would have the Apostle of Ireland feeling green around the gills. First, we turn to New York City, where the annual celebration of the Big Apple’s patron saint and Irish (or Irish Catholic, depending on your agenda) heritage

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From the Slums: a Lesson for Mother Church?

January 28, 2015 Moral Action, Obedience No comments

A recent podcast of EconTalk, hosted by Stanford’s Professor Russ Roberts, was an interview and discussion with Professor James Tooley of Newcastle University, who has studied the surprising phenomenon of private schools set up for the poorest citizens of countries like India and Nigeria– some of the poorest on earth.  He wondered if there was such a thing as a private education system in these slums, and amazingly there is.  Although the so-called “government schools” are free of charge to everyone, parents complain about consistently poor teacher and administrative performance.  Really bad; teachers simply not showing up for work, and

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An Unfortunate Anniversary

January 22, 2015 Intellectual Formation, Moral Action, Obedience One comment

Today marks the 42nd anniversary of the infamous Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade.  Today, hundreds of thousands will gather in Washington D.C. and pass by the White House and Supreme Court building.  Today, this annual event will once again be ignored by virtually all popular media and be viewed as an annoyance by the multitude of residents in the Capitol. In 1973,by a 7-2 margin, the Supreme Court overturned State restrictions on abortion, although allowing for implied restrictions during the latter part of pregnancy, loosely linked to the terms “woman’s health” and “fetal viability.” In subsequent years, even

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Reflections on Race in America: A Catholic’s Perspective Part 2

November 29, 2014 Moral Action One comment

So what do I believe is happening to black America?  In order of causality and importance:   FAMILY LIFE I am inclined to think that the systematic dismantling of the black family in America is the single most important factor in the relative stagnation of aggregate black living standards.  This is certainly not an original thesis, but there is merit in learning the underlying data in order to defend the position. According to CDC, the out-of-wedlock birth rates in 1964 for white and black children were 7 % and 25 %, respectively; currently those rates are 29 % and 72 %,

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More Ivy League Notions of ‘Tolerance’

May 9, 2014 Featured One comment

Last month: being pro-life is incompatible with Yale students’ notions of social justice. This month? Satanism is a form of protest against tyranny, and a Black Mass is not a mockery of Catholicism, according to folks at Harvard. Apparently, it’s educational — and they will use bread, but not a consecrated host, so Catholics should have a problem…right?

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Lux et Veritas?
No ‘Social Justice’ for
Pro-Lifers, Unborn

April 23, 2014 Intellectual Formation One comment

Over the past two decades I have spent considerable time on a wide variety of college campuses. In that time, I have seen firsthand a steady march away from authentic free inquiry and open debate — away from any concept of Truth in favor of an earthy Progress. So I was more disappointed that surprised to see that students at one of our country’s “great” universities had deemed the campus’s pro-life group unworthy of full membership to the university’s social justice and community service non-profit: Yale Pro-Life Group Rejected by ‘Social Justice’ League. Perhaps I should be encouraged by the

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