To a Degree

            It’s been a year since I wrote Part One of this series of reflections on effective teaching. I really didn’t intend that such a length of time to intervene; it simply happened, and I won’t waste time reporting on what transpired. I will simply continue on this and other topics in this blog. My subject matter will center on the follow remark directed towards me the other day: “Students who are homeschooled don’t get the necessary ‘real-world experience’ they need to navigate their way in [fill in adjective] society.” Taken aback at this glib statement – and hearing this at the end of a very tiring day – I reserved comment until later. Now, it’s “later.”             Let’s unpack this statement. It starts out with fallacious assumptions: 1) Homeschooled students are sheltered in an anti-social manner. 2) Their education lacks exposure to ‘real-world problems.’ 3) Th...

              Great balls of fire! Just the other day, Smith College, the largest of the “Seven Sisters” colleges – and open exclusively to “cis, trans, and nonbinary women ” – has flexed its intellectual muscles in an area to which it believes it is entitled. Recently, the Department of Field Education became – by an act of magical decree – the Department of Practicum. Now this department refers specifically to social work – roughly the work that people do “in the field of living.” Why on earth would a supposedly-serious institute of higher learning do such a foolish thing as to ban this word?             The rationale behind this bizarre move has something to do with – what else? – slavery (i.e., racism – that “scourge of American society”). Here’s how their thread – and it is barely a thread – of logic goes: Slaves were present in America from the 1600’s. They work...

I had every intention of writing my blogs consistently this year. I even congratulated myself on have gotten through the first few days of the New Year with such resolve. Then what happened? Did I wax cold? Did the “fire in the belly” go out? No. I got the “YouTube Bug.” Yes – “that place” that many, many people belittle, judging its content to be a “guilty pleasure” that faithful Christians avoid like the plague. Well, if my exploration of YouTube this past month is a “plague,” it certainly is not one I want a cure for! Why is that? Primarily because I have been using YouTube judiciously, picking and choosing what I view. I started out watching “The Snipe Life” (a snipe is a bird with a long, probing beak) because the host did an excellent job of interviewing the cast of The Chosen at the November Atlanta premier of Season 3. I had seen the premier (which consisted of the first two episodes of the season) in my own nearby theater, and I was interested in watching it again...

The issue of exactly who has access to higher education is a thorny one, full of truths, half-truths, and outright lies. Recently, I was reminded of an incident which took place over thirty years ago, before the preponderance of “woke” assertions regarding education became “common knowledge.” Back in 1992, my son (a white male, by the way) was about to graduate from high school. He had his heart set on attending California Institute of Technology, and it looked very promising that he would end up there. However, to explore his options and to prepare for summer employment – possibly even an internship or two – he applied to a certain government agency for an entry-level summer job in mathematics. Now, at this point, I should explain that my son was a top mathematician in his high school, holding a place on the Math Team and the It’s Academic Team. In fact, he graduated as valedictorian, and I proudly listened from the stands as he delivered an excellent exhortation to his fellow stud...