Essay / Culture

Gifted or Determined?

People in general are not born with amazing intellectual or physical giftedness. I continually have to remind myself of this. Most individuals have to work very hard to attain the level of excellence that we admire. Our culture reinforces this belief about natural abilities with

Essay / Education

Paul Spears, Master Teacher

“Master Teacher” sounds like some kind of superhero, or ninja elder, or cult leader, or maybe the first line of a contemporary praise song. But today Paul Spears won his university’s “Provost Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching,” and if that acclamation from his peers

Essay / Culture

Playground Morality

Elementary school is a rather treacherous place to learn to navigate as a child. The first time I ever read Calvin and Hobbes, I discovered a kindred spirit. Calvin’s view of elementary school was akin to an intergalactic prison where the alien life forms torture

Essay / Art

The Space of a Sonnet

Nuns fret not at their Convent’s narrow room; And Hermits are contented with their Cells; And Students with their pensive Citadels: Maids at the Wheel, the Weaver at his Loom, Sit blithe and happy; Bees that soar for bloom, High as the highest Peak of

Essay / Education

High Table: Luther

Our reading assignment: Martin Luther’s “Theses for the Heidelberg Disputation,” “Two Kinds of Righteousness,” and “The Freedom of the Christian” from Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings. Faculty training at the Torrey Honors Institute puts our pedagogy to the test. We call our semesterly training meetings

Essay / Education

Two Ways to Study Great Books: Torrey Honors Institute

Everything that we post here at the Scriptorium Daily is an overflow from the learning community we have in the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola. The faculty members who contribute to this blog all teach in our great books program. All the faculty teach all

Essay / Education

Vocabulary Quiz on The Horse and His Boy

A few years ago, I taught the Chronicles of Narnia as part of a college course. I always feel odd teaching a class on books that people read for fun, books with a very high entertainment value. Isn’t that what people outside the academy assume

Essay / Culture

The Election in Classical Context: Victor Davis Hanson at Biola

Here is audio from Victor Davis Hanson’s recent speech at Biola. Following the news day by day can kind of beat up your mind, especially right now with the election, the war, and the financial crisis. These are all big stories that don’t fit daily

Essay / Education

In All Things, Be Fearful

I just returned recently to southern California after a nice, long vacation with my family. As well, I was able to spend two good weeks at the National Institute for Newman Studies in Pittsburgh, PA. The Institute, run by the Pittsburgh Oratorians, is a research

Essay / Education

Shame on You

We have all done it before. Driving home from an enjoyable evening with friends we start to replay the evening events and conversations in our mind. In the darkness of the night alone with only our own thoughts and the passing headlights we dissect our

Essay / Education

A Very Decent College

Salvo magazine is all about being feisty, and the latest issue, on education, is no exception. Every article is sure to start a fight of some kind. Check out, for example, the article “Pick Your Poison,” by Les Sillars and John Basie (it’s not one

Essay / Education

Prayer for the Class of 2008

Father in heaven, We bring these graduating seniors of the Torrey Honors Institute before you today with thankfulness, joy, and relief. We present them to you with their Torrey educations completed. And in this sweet moment of successful accomplishment, we admit to you that we