My Current Bannockburn Reading

NEA and Homeschooling

With the current and various battles raging against home schooling, I found the following quotes from an article posted on the National Education Association website to be quite enlightening:

Home Schools Run By Well-Meaning Amateurs
Schools With Good Teachers Are Best-Suited to Shape Young Minds
By Dave Arnold, Custodian and member of the Illinois Education Association

There's nothing like having the right person with the right experience, skills and tools to accomplish a specific task. Certain jobs are best left to the pros, such as, formal education…

So, why would some parents assume they know enough about every academic subject to home-school their children? You would think that they might leave this—the shaping of their children’s minds, careers, and futures—to trained professionals. That is, to those who have worked steadily at their profession for 10, 20, 30 years! Teachers!...

Don’t most parents have a tough enough job teaching their children social, disciplinary and behavioral skills? They would be wise to help their children and themselves by leaving the responsibility of teaching math, science, art, writing, history, geography and other subjects to those who are knowledgeable, trained and motivated to do the best job possible.

These statements indicate just how far some in the profession of teaching have drifted in their priorities with regard to what is true education.

Modern Parables Interview

CBN did an interview with Modern Parables director and writer, Thomas Purifoy. Thomas talks through the purpose of the film series and how they bring the message of the parables to life in our own times.

Thomas is also offering free iTunes downloads of the six films for a limited time on his website. You can also purchase individual films as well.

Liberal Arts Education

Inside Higher Ed has an interesting article on the state of Liberal Arts colleges and what their future holds. While debunking the common arguments for a liberal arts education, the author posits more worthy reasons. However, even these fall flat without an appropriate theological basis, foundation, and purpose for education. Nonetheless, the author has some interesting insights, statistics, and trends.

Current Reading

Following are the books I'm using in an Epiphany Term class on Feasting.

Review of Modern Parables

I recently wrote a review for Reformation21 about Modern Parables, a series of short films and lessons. I am currently using these films in a Sunday School class and am having wonderful feedback as well as in-class discussion.

The Loss of Cultural History

Richard Pells wrote a fascinating article about the lack of cultural studies and cultural ignorance in college American History courses. “History Descending a Staircase: American Historians and American Culture” makes a compelling case for integrated subjects as well as exposing the current trends and thoughts in academia about American Studies. While I don’t agree with all his thoughts, Pells makes a strong case for examining the past through multiple interrelated perspectives.

More Harry Potter Discussion

As a follow-up to last month's literature discussion, here are the next two installments discussing Books 4-6. These are non-edited files that contain extraneous comments and details (such as what books we will read next and when we'll discuss them).

These are a continuation of the exploration of the spiritual and medieval symbolism inherent in these books and how J.K. Rowling uses the elements of alchemy as a structure for the stories.

Part One
Part Two

King's Meadow Classical Christian College Survey

King’s Meadow is moving through the preliminary process of establishing a Christian classical college program. One of the steps necessary in order to be authorized by the state of Tennessee is to demonstrate the need for such a program. We’ve developed a short (16 question) on-line survey to ascertain the potential interest of the community. Please take a minute to complete the Classical Christian College Survey and please pass it along to other folks you know who might be interested.

Happy Birthday, Sebastian!

Johann Sebastian Bach was a musical genius, an intellectual giant, and a gracious man. Bach’s achievement in the area of music is one of the greatest tour de forces in the history of the world - on par with, or surpassing, that of Shakespeare, Michelangelo, Dante, Leonardo, Rembrandt, Milton, Aristotle, Augustine, or Aquinas. Bach was that great and significant. Even more compelling is the fact that he consciously and deliberately wrote all of his music from a Christian perspective and for the Glory of God.

Bach was able to function on a multiplicity of levels: a conservator of past styles and musical elements and an innovator of new forms and styles; a craftsman who brought his art to the highest imaginable summit while creating timeless works of beauty; an artisan who perfected his art with almost scientific precision while remaining lively and accessible to average listeners; a communicator who clearly conveyed a message while simultaneously embedding layers of symbolism - musical and extra-musical - that requires studious inquiry to uncover.

Sebastian Bach remains an agent of the power of cultural change through his clear presentation of the gospel in his work, his commitment to biblical excellence, and his reformational approach to cultural change. In all these areas he provides a corrective and example of how to fulfill the calling of an artist from a biblical perspective and how to engage the world.

The Future of Writing

CNN.com has reported the rise in usage of “IM” language in formal writing. Predictably, there are some educators who support the student’s creation of new language. I’m just reminded that subduing the earth and taking dominion often has nothing to do with being efficient or pragmatic.

You can read the full article here.

Education: Why Music is More Important than the Other Arts

Although we have a sense that the arts are an important part of a child’s education, typically our approach has more to do with a secular understanding than a biblical approach. A smattering of knowledge about the great composers and artists usually suffices.

However, even our measure of who is “great” has much more to do with secular criteria than with a biblical model of artistic objectives.

The importance of music education is to train worshippers. God calls some to be artists; God calls all to worship. As such, the focus and aim of music education is to train and equip students to learn to read, understand, analyze, critique, and create music for the purpose of worshipping well in spirit and in truth. Music itself can be true—not just the lyrics. Since beauty is an attribute of God, ought we not to offer back to Him in worship that which is truly and objectively beautiful? As such, we need to better understand the nature of music to more fully assess its worth and objective value.

In order to that, we need to train students in music for a task greater than recognizing the melodies of symphonies. I love the arts and have taught art history and aesthetics for a number of years; however, to give equal weight to the visual arts and to music in education short changes our ability to worship well. The fact that we do not have a fully integrated concept of music in education is testimony to the triumph of Enlightenment principles.

For the sake of worship, we must restore music to its rightful and equal place in the “core” curriculum of our education.

Psalm 66:1-4 (ESV)
Shout for joy to God, all the earth; sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise!
Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.
All the earth worships you and sings praises to you;
they sing praises to your name.”