Category: Article

When you take pen in hand and write a word, you do something approaching the divine. You are giving physical form to a thought. It is, in its way, an Incarnation. To do this with beauty and grace is to honor this Incarnation. This is penmanship.  Along with speaking, it is the most common form of Incarnation. We do it every day whether we’re signing a credit card receipt, writing a grocery list, or putting down our deepest thoughts in a journal. Like all Incarnations, it reflects who we are….

Dr. Matthew Mehan encourages us to re-examine the role metaphor plays in our lives. He notes how much hope they hold when crafted well.

Graduation speeches customarily supply profound words and lofty exhortations; yet one of the best I’ve ever heard of gave a simple and homely piece of advice. It was this: have a hobby.  Life is difficult, the speaker said. You have ups and downs, get worried and hurried, stressed out and hemmed in. You need something to get you by. Something which, for a little while, helps you forget everything that you can’t seem to forget. Something you take seriously that really isn’t serious. So, get a hobby.  What’s a hobby?…

The humanities were not killed by STEM; they were gutted from the inside and only survive in institutions that value the truth.

Veteran teacher of almost 40 years, Mike Ortiz reflects on how we can all retain the best aspects of a young teacher as we add wisdom each year.

This spring saw the publication of two books arguing forcefully that our children are struggling and the adults are to blame. One of the books met with nodding heads all around and generated real enthusiasm for curbing the pernicious effects of technology on adolescent mental health. The other, Abigail Shrier’s Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up, met with a much chillier reception, but it confronts parents and teachers of adolescents with questions that are both challenging and important. To understand the controversy regarding Bad Therapy, it is helpful…

For many, summer brings respite from the grind. We may take a trip to the beach, visit relatives, go camping, or have a “staycation” where we sleep in and have a second (or third) cup of coffee at breakfast. We may also find a chance for some reading. But it’s summer, and that means—to me—a different kind of reading.  Summer reading should be, first and foremost, enjoyable. You read a book now, not because you have to, not because you “should,” not because it will “improve you,” but simply because…

During the summer before my own seventh grade year, my father and I made a canoe trek up the Oswegatchie River in the western Adirondacks of northern New York. My dad grew up on the banks of the river, learning from his father how to fish for trout, and then, with his own children, made regular visits to teach us and to share the area’s profound beauty and peace. This particular trip, however, coming shortly after my twelfth birthday, was special. Like my brother before me, I would be paddling…

Logic and history teacher Mark Grannis challenges ChatGPT alongside his students to explain what it means to be an American. Is it right?