MartinCothran

@buanadha Yes, both are necessary.

I think that is true. I read anything and everything when I was young, and while much of it isn't particularly helpful, it provides a great deal of context and depth around events and concepts that can't be easily replicated But I think the fundamental ability to read is the starting point, and if they can't read they can't ever gain context and depth

My hypothesis re: the 8th grade reading problem is that, although students may have been taught reading skills properly, they don't have the background knowledge they need to understand what they're reading, which is the result of weak and unrepresentative reading content.

Our Classical, Et Cetera podcast came in 4th on Million Podcasts' list of "Best 30 Classical Education Podcasts." I didn't even realize there WERE 30 Classical education podcasts. millionpodcasts.com/classical-educ…

The Common Core reading list for English Language Arts was not too bad. In fact, it was greatly influenced by E. D. Hirsch, Jr., one of the good guys. Trouble was, as you point out, states control such things, and my impression is that few of them paid much attention to the list.

Parents should absolutely hold schools accountable for ensuring their children are taught how to read, write, and communicate well, but they must also understand that the process begins well before their children ever start school. It starts with them.

The first time I heard somebody say the Department of Ed should not exist I thought they were nuts. Then they asked me to list just one academic metric that has improved since its inception in 1980. I couldn’t. Nobody can. SHUT IT DOWN.

🚨BREAKING: Local governments around Kentucky's BlueOval SK boondoggle are now facing budget shortfalls after dumping MILLIONS in taxpayer cash into this "EV miracle" startup. Hardin County is staring down holes in its budget thanks to layoffs & no revenue.The state threw $250M (forgivable loan) + tax breaks + free land + free training for hired employees at it for promised 5,000 jobs by 2031. The plant idled after 4 months, all 1,600 taxpayer-trained workers laid off, second site never opened. Part of the deal involved Hardin County giving the plant a 15-year property tax exemption. The only way the county could offset the infrastructure investments made was through occupational (income) tax. With the layoffs, that tax revenue is no longer coming in, and the county has been left holding the bag. I called this YEARS ago when the deal was first made—this was never Ford building a proven auto manufacturing plant. It's ALWAYS been a startup gamble dressed up as "economic development." Politicians & cheerleaders who fell for the hype (Beshear & crew leading the charge) look like absolute fools. Nobody is being held accountable, and nobody is learning from the mistakes as more economic development gambles continue.

Oxford professor John Lennox in an interview with Jordan Peterson in 2023 explained his view that there is no conflict between science and Christianity: "I never saw the tension between Christianity and science because very early on as a teenager I was introduced to the writings of a scientist who was a Christian who drew my attention to something Alfred North Whitehead wrote, and it was really put in much simpler language by C.S. Lewis when he wrote 'Men became scientific because they expected law in nature, and they expected law in nature because they believed in a Lawgiver.' And so, very early on, and I was fascinated by the idea, that actually modern science is a legacy of the biblical worldview, and therefore, it's no accident that the pioneers—Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Maxwell, and so on—were believers in God. And as you pointed out, it underpins the tradition that lies behind the great universities of the world that the doctrine of Creation was actually the belief, the underlying presupposition, that allowed people to do science. So I've come over my life to the conclusion that science and the biblical worldview sit very comfortably together, but it's science and atheism that do not sit comfortably together."

It’s an incredible dynamic, as American students get dumber by every other metric they are doing better than ever on College Board’s AP! I am in communication with administrators from the most selective universities in America and they universally think AP is a joke.

@audhumlagrange And the weekly short essay assignments can instead be several shorter forum posts, on the reading or responding to other students' posts, that would be the equivalent of a short essay.

@MartinCothran Does this require any paper writing?

Starts next Monday. memoriacollege.org/register/elect…

@audhumlagrange It requires one text outline of an eleven page reading and five roughly five-paragraph short forum posts on one of the readings for each week. That's only if you want to take it for credit, though. This class is open to non-credit students as well.

This is great on so many levels.

Interesting article on how ideology is killing history as an academic discipline. It is one more argument in favor of detaching serious intellectual endeavor from the modern university, where it will otherwise die altogether.

One of the less self-aware academic types is the figure who retains the combative anti-establishment political outlook of the 70s, while now being in their 70s and very much of the establishment.

Your points are all over the place, what phonics-related question are you asking about?

Coming this summer.

Governor Andy Beshear went to a private school and sent his kids to private school.

As a Bishop, I cannot stay silent. I have today drafted and sent an open letter to His Majesty King Charles III, the text of which reads as follows: To: His Majesty, Charles III, King of the United Kingdom and the Realms, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, Bearer of the ancient title Defender of the Faith. Your Majesty, I write to you neither as a politician nor as a commentator, but as one of your loyal subjects who, as a bishop of Christ’s Church, cannot remain silent while the Christian foundations of this kingdom are steadily dismantled. Sir, there are moments in the life of a nation when silence becomes a form of betrayal. If I refused to speak to Your Majesty now, this would be such a moment. For more than a thousand years the Crown of this realm has stood in solemn covenant with the Christian faith. The laws of this land were shaped by it. The liberties of our people were nurtured by it. The conscience of our civilisation was formed by it. From the abbeys of medieval England to the parish churches of our villages, from the preaching of the Reformers to the missionary zeal that carried the Gospel to the ends of the earth, the Christian faith has not merely influenced Britain — it has defined her. Yet today that inheritance is being quietly but deliberately eroded. Across the institutions of this nation there is a growing hostility toward the faith that built them. Christian belief is mocked in the public square. Christian morality is dismissed as intolerance. Christian institutions are pressured to surrender doctrine in order to conform to the ideology of the age. Within the very Church that bears the name of England, voices have arisen that appear more eager to mirror the spirit of the age than to proclaim the eternal truth of the Gospel. Meanwhile, beyond the walls of our churches, powerful political movements openly speak of removing Christianity from its historic place within the life of this nation. What would once have been whispered is now proclaimed openly: that Britain must become a post-Christian state. It is in this context that I write to you, Your Majesty. For the British Crown does not stand apart from this crisis. The Sovereign of this realm bears a title that is not merely historic but sacred in its origin and meaning: Defender of the Faith. Those words are not decorative. They are a charge. They speak of a monarch whose duty is not merely to preside over the ceremonies of the Church, but to stand as a guardian of the Christian inheritance of the nation. Yet many among your subjects now ask, with increasing anxiety: “Who will defend that inheritance today?” They see a nation drifting from its foundations. And they ask whether the Crown will remain silent while that inheritance is dismantled. Your Majesty, may I be so bold as to observe that your coronation oath was not a poetic formality. It was a solemn vow made before Almighty God to maintain and preserve the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law. Those words bind the conscience of the sovereign. They remind the Crown that its authority is not merely constitutional but moral. The monarch is not merely a symbol of national continuity, but a custodian of the spiritual inheritance that shaped this realm. History records moments when kings and emperors were confronted by the Church and reminded that their authority was accountable before God. In the fourth century Ambrose of Milan stood before the Emperor Theodosius I and reminded him that even the ruler of an empire must bow before the moral law of Christ. That tradition of prophetic witness has never disappeared. Nor should it. For when rulers forget the foundations upon which their authority rests, the Church must speak — not with hostility, but with holy clarity. And so, I write to say this, Your Majesty: The Christian character of this nation is under profound and accelerating assault. If the Crown does not stand visibly and courageously in defence of that inheritance, history will record that the guardians of Britain’s institutions watched in silence as the foundations were removed. The issue before us is not nostalgia. It is civilisation. Remove Christianity from the story of Britain and you do not create a neutral society — you create a moral vacuum. And history teaches us that moral vacuums are never left empty for long. Your Majesty now stands at a crossroads that few monarchs in modern history have faced. For the erosion of Britain’s Christian inheritance will not ultimately be judged by speeches made in Parliament or debates in the press. It will be judged by whether those entrusted with the guardianship of our ancient institutions chose to defend them — or merely preside over their quiet surrender. You may preside over the quiet dissolution of Britain’s Christian identity. Or you may rise to the ancient responsibility entrusted to the Crown and speak with clarity about the faith that built this kingdom. The first path requires little courage. The second will require a great deal. But it is the path that history honours. Your Majesty’s subjects are not asking for religious coercion. They are asking for leadership. They are asking that the sovereign who bears the title Defender of the Faith remember what that title means. They are asking that the Crown hear the growing cry of anguish from Christians across this land who feel that the spiritual inheritance of their nation is being surrendered without resistance. And they are asking whether the Crown will stand with them. For the faith that shaped Britain is not merely a cultural ornament. It is the wellspring from which our laws, our liberties, and our moral imagination have flowed. If it is cast aside, the nation will discover — too late — that it has severed itself from the very roots that sustained it. Your Majesty, to many the Crown is a symbol of authority. But before God it is also a symbol of stewardship. And stewardship carries with it the duty to defend what has been entrusted. May Almighty God grant Your Majesty the wisdom to discern this hour, and the courage to fulfil the sacred duty entrusted to the Crown. Yours faithfully, Bishop Ceirion H. Dewar FSHC Missionary Bishop Diocese of Providence Confessing Anglican Church @PhilHs10 @RevBrettMurphy @revwickland @BishopRobert1 @GBNews @TalkTV @danwootton @Jacob_Rees_Mogg @LozzaFox @BackBrexitBen @RupertLowe10 @KemiBadenoch @JohnCleese