Hannah Eagleson's first guest blog series, which she wrote before joining ESN as a writer/editor in 2014. At the time Hannah was a musician, writer, and recent PhD recipient living in central Pennsylvania. The Summer Quote Series offers brief reflections on quotes that she found helpful when thinking about her academic work. Thank you, Hannah! I've always loved Dorothy L. Sayers' Peter Wimsey mysteries. There are many reasons, but two of them are Lord Peter's love of quotations and his affirmation of … [Read more...] about Quote: Simone Weil on Effort, Attention, and Unexpected Results
end of education
Week in Review: Why Can’t We Be Friends? Edition
What are you reading, watching, thinking about this week? As usual, here's a few which have been on our mind. Let us know your thoughts on any/all of them. If you have items you'd like us to consider for the top five, add them in the comments or send them to Tom or Mike. 1. In the last Week in Review we kicked off with highlighting Seth Godin's take on the coming melt-down in higher education. Since then, the Chronicle of Higher Education thought Godin's piece was worth posting. That action, along with the … [Read more...] about Week in Review: Why Can’t We Be Friends? Edition
Lost in a Blizzard of Hidden Persuaders?
Find yourself in blizzard conditions as you reflect upon the larger structure of education, but can't quite figure out why or the proper direction for next steps? In Chapter 4: The Information Economy of Education, Paul D. Spears and Steven R. Loomis move from tracing several important knowledge traditions vital to Christian thought and indispensable to a complete education ... [to] an exercise in the ontology of education as a social institution. -- Education for Human Flourishing: A Christian Perspective.* … [Read more...] about Lost in a Blizzard of Hidden Persuaders?
Justified True Belief
After rattling the reader's cage by exploring Have you been properly educated?, Paul D. Spears and Steven R. Loomis argue: Most of the abilities that we associate with knowledge in the educational field turn out to be mostly a capacity to recite. ... As humans we are constantly engaged in mental activities. We constantly access and categorize everything around us. We experience the world around us and we have beliefs about the world, some of which are true and some of which are false. We justify our ideas … [Read more...] about Justified True Belief
Have you been properly educated?
Educational standards are the foundation of the modern educational endeavor. Statements about educational success imply standards. Measuring whether or not students are being properly educated involves testing them in particular subjects with its prescribed set of grade-appropriate standards that they must meet or exceed (Paul D. Spears and Steven R. Loomis. Education for Human Flourishing: A Christian Perspective.* InterVarsity Press, 2009. p.100). The battery of standardized tests which Spears and Loomis go onto … [Read more...] about Have you been properly educated?