partsofspeaking

Loved this article, except, as always, the evolutionary biology stance. Why do these writers insist on everything human being some throwback to "when we were lower life forms"? Why can't humans just be humans? However, play and discovery is necessary. I remember playing as a child more than being in school, and I liked school.  My brother and I did crazy things, unsupervised, with the other kids and learned by our mistakes, such as how there was only so high you could go off a ramp on a bicycle without injuring yourself. Today children are sheltered from all that.  https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-play-deficit I used to pooh-pooh the complaints about the constant testing from No Child Left Behind. I no longer do, because I see the results. My students today work hard, but they tend not to take risks or think outside the box (unless they have been in the arts). That's a generalization, and I like my students as people and I think we have a good time. (It...

I am privileged to go to a church that understands church, doctrine, service, missions, and worship. This morning we sang: How deep the Father's love for us How vast beyond all measure That He should give His only Son To make a wretch His treasure  How great the pain of searing loss The Father turns His face away As wounds which mar the Chosen One Bring many sons to glory Behold the man upon a cross My sin upon His shoulders Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice Call out among the scoffers It was my sin that held Him there Until it was accomplished His dying breath has brought me life I know that it is finished I will not boast in anything No gifts, no power, no wisdom But I will boast in Jesus Christ His death and resurrection Why should I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer But this I know with all my heart His wounds have paid my ransom Why should I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer But this I know with all my heart...

Is any song more insidious than "All the Single Ladies"? The time I save going through the self-check line is taken up by having to get the attendant to fix something that goes wrong. I am in the middle of the first draft of a novel. It's obsessive!

There is so much to say about this I don't know where to start. The worst part for me personally is that what my colleagues and I do will be conflated with this crime. I work in an access college. We have no prestige like a Yale or Stanford or UCLA, despite doing great work. We take everybody and put them through the boot camp of higher education. A lot don't make it; access institutions have lower graduation rates. We cost less--less than 20% of these prestige places.  We don't have luxurious dorms. We don't have professors who appear on cable news shows and Good Morning America . We don't have Division I athletics teams and we don't have lazy rivers for students to float down when they should be studying.  We work hard. We actually teach. One of the first things our faculty have to learn is that our students are unique and require innovative teaching. (I wrote my dissertation on this, so I kind of know.) Most adapt and do quite well. I run a Thank-a-Teac...

"His words fell strange and sweet upon her ears, and so, trading mysteries, they sang up the moonrise." from a book review in Christianity Today on Penric's Mission . 

For anyone coming to this blog for the first time, please check out the archives. You will find a number of topics addressed here and on highereducationobserver.blogspot.com They may seem random, but they are not! Anyway, post for the day. Should you be in a writers group? Yes, if you are serious about writing but haven't really made the big time or have a professional publisher who will take the place of a writers group. Yes, if you want feedback from people who aren't your relatives and who aren't worried about whether they are being depicted in the work. Yes, if you want to return the favor and read more of their work than they will read of yours (definitely a downside if you are crunched for time, although as an educator I am glad to do this). Yes, if you respect the knowledge and taste of your group members. Yes, if you can take criticism in a calm matter and not get huffy when someone states an honest opinion about what doesn't work for them. In ot...

Studying Revelation 2, we encounter "they who overcome" as a defining characteristic of Christians. What do we overcome? How do we overcome? What are the benefits of overcoming? I could answer these but a good teacher doesn't answer her own questions. I'll just say that we only overcome because He overcame. But to expand the thought, we do not define ourselves as overcomers. We can be a group of real "sad sisters" as I've heard old people say (which is essentially a put-down of women); however, the thought is that we only see the bad and get influenced by it rather than having a different paradigm of victory. Here's a good musical reminder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWXcRVZWTb8

This is a long time project of mine, a daily reader on John's gospel. Two thoughts: John described himself as the "disciple whom Jesus loved." I think we'd all be much happier if we described ourselves that way and give our other attempts at significance a rest. Second, I am always amazed by the matter-of-factness of the Bible writers. They never say, "There was a miracle, can you believe it, lo and behold, look at this miracle" etc. They just state it, even the resurrection. They are faithful witnesses. Third, as my life group class studies Revelation, I see in every verse that John borrows from all the rest of the Bible and it is remarkably interwoven, even with his own gospel.

At a conference last week for women in leadership, I met a young woman (younger than 30) who works in a campus center for faculty learning and leadership. I'll skip any comments on how much a person under 30 can say about leadership. However, in talking to her, I mentioned how something she was saying was basically The Peter Principle. She had never heard of it. There are certain concepts that explain everything. One is Venn Diagrams. The other is The Wizard of Oz . Another is Occam's Razor. When it comes to higher education leadership, the fourth is T he Peter Principle. It was all the rage in the '60s and '70s. Here is a more recent take from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/roddwagner/2018/04/10/new-evidence-the-peter-principle-is-real-and-what-to-do-about-it/#2243cbb01809 As a department head, I am a leader, and I am always conscious of the fact that the skills that got me there are not necessarily the skills I need in the job. The saying, "Dance wit...

Trump is frequently called a Nazi, the new Hitler. Hyperbole much? I personally think he is too shallow to have an ideology, even an evil one. Not a defense. He does say things that belie racist attitudes. And while I at first thought his attempts to talk with the Kim regime had some benefits, his fawning is sickening. But he wants approval too much to commit genocide, so I don't think he quite makes the Hitler category. Such is the state of our rhetoric. SAD, to quote the real Donald J. Trump. I recommend Jeffrey Tulis' The Rhetorical Presidency. It's one of those books that really explains our politics, or at least how the presidents talk. I'm reading the new edition again to prepare for a rhetoric class in the fall.

When is hypocrisy really "putting on an act" and being intentionally duplicitous? When is our inconsistency just perceptual blindness? Many on my campus decry climate change and want massive political change to deal with it. But they don't turn out the lights in their office or the classroom. AOC, who I think a lot of us are getting sick of, says "recycling is tough" so she doesn't recycle those plastic bags from the supermarket. I take mine to Walmart and hope they do recycle them. I have taken recycling to the center myself (no pick up) for over 30 years, to the extent we have minimal garbage. I would talk about our water saving methods, except that we've had so much rain this winter that seems unnecessary. This planet was given to us to steward. We have not done a good job; "creation groans" because of human sin and awaits its redemption (Romans 8). The second coming of Christ has nothing to do with whether we should address climate ...

The Life Group for which I share teaching duties wanted to study Revelation. Hoh boy! Not my first choice, but I got us all John MacArthur's study booklets (which I highly recommend, by the way) and today we started. The main thing: It is not titled "The Revelation of the future and crazy stuff that's gonna happen." It's titled "The Revelation of Jesus Christ." Keep that in mind when you get stuck in the middle with the whore of Babylon and stars falling out of the sky. Second, it's written by John. I don't think it makes sense to study Revelation until one has had lots of study in John and immerse yourself in his worldview, which is intense and partly what makes his gospel distinct from the Synoptics. I wrote about this in my book, The Gospel According to Lazarus. John is a Jew but living with and writing to Gentiles (in all five of his books).  He is a rebel against the Jewish authorities that plotted and killed Jesus; his descriptions...