The Scriptorium Daily

Category: Education

  • Honorable Education

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    Paul Spears
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    It is beginning of August, and I am starting to think about the coming school year. Soon students will be returning to the university with a new or renewed sense of commitment to their academic pursuits. First year students are especially interesting to watch. Not only are they trying to figure out where their dorm…

  • A Prayer for the Class of 2007

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    Fred Sanders
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    This is a prayer for the 2007 graduates of the Torrey Honors Institute, spoken at the commencement ceremony on May 25, 2007. Our Father in Heaven, we bring before you today these graduates of the Torrey Honors Institute. They have spent four years with us, talking and talking and talking. They have talked in seminar…

  • On Picking a College: A Parental Perspective

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    Paul Spears
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    Yesterday, Dr. John Mark Reynolds posted a letter that he had written to a student who was attempting to make a choice between Biola University and UC Berkeley. Parents should think through the implications of a university choice, and should consider what is the proper criterion by which a student chooses the institute of higher…

  • Understanding and Engagement

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    Paul Spears
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    How does a parent know that their children are being educated? To say that someone is educated necessarily entails assessment but, often in today’s academic institutions much of what turns out to be an attempt at education and assessment turns out to be a mindless comportment to a set of dictated standards. Parents are often…

  • Cursed Cursive

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    Paul Spears
    in

    I hate writing in cursive. When I have to write with a pen onto paper I print. The last time I wrote anything in cursive other than my signature was when I was taking the GRE to get into graduate school. The ETS testing folks mandate that you rewrite the GRE statement of honesty in…

  • Kiss and Tell

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    Paul Spears
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    Kissing is an interesting thing. When we are young we kiss our parents, our siblings, and sometimes (often under duress) our extended family. When elementary school children discuss kissing technical language is often brought into play. A word like “cooties” (which is defined by the OED as an imaginary germ with which a socially undesirable…

  • Excellence: Expected in the NFL, Elitism in Education

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    Paul Spears
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    As the NFL draft is almost upon us it is hard not to notice the focus sports fans and sports writers have on excellence. Potential professional football players are be scrutinized by owners, coaches, writers and fans about what they could bring to their respective teams. The NFL Combine is where those players are most…

  • Getting Schooled

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    Paul Spears
    in

    There is a growing crisis today with our public school system. Dropout rates are growing at an alarming rate. Academic standards are falling rapidly. Everyone from the Bush Administration to The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are interested in reforming our problematic public high schools. While it is agreed upon by everyone that the rising…

  • The Life of Leisure

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    Paul Spears
    in

    Occasionally, I am a little self-conscious of the fact that I have what some would call academic “guilty pleasures.” I like to read for pleasure works by and about Winston Churchill. I also enjoy books on 18th and 19th century British naval history. There have been times that I feel I should apologize to people…

  • The Three Essentials for Education: Part II

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    Scriptorium Admin
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    John Mark Reynolds, 2005. Read Part I here, and Part III here. Part II — Right Questions Find an educational enthusiast and you will meet someone with more faith than a fighting fundamentalist at a tent meeting. Whatever his system, he believes it contains the answers to all of life’s problems. Just do what he…

  • The Three Essentials for Education: Part I

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    Scriptorium Admin
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    John Mark Reynolds, 2005. Read Part II here, and Part III here. Part I — Community If I tell you to be a good student, you think of being alone in a library or sitting in a room chewing on the end of a pencil as you work on a hard problem. There is little…

  • The Spoils of Egypt…

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    Scriptorium Admin
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    John Mark Reynolds, 2004. I have been thinking about Chrystostom’s Sermons on the Gospel of John and on Augustine’s “On Christian Teaching.” With much groaning, I have come to repudiate liberal arts education.Augustine famously described the “liberal arts education” as using the “spoils of Egypt” for God’s use. Secular wisdom would benefit the people of…