A Fine Thing

Nearly two years ago, disquieting rumors hit my work group: our jobs were moving out of the area, across the country. I did not want to move out of my home, away from my friends and family, or face restarting our home business in another state, especially since I would just be trading one earthquake… Continue reading A Fine Thing

STEMs and Roots

Everywhere we see extravagant public handwringing about education. Something is not working. The economy seems to be the symptom that garners the most attention, and there are people across the political spectrum who want to fix it directly; but most seem to agree that education is at least an important piece of the solution. We… Continue reading STEMs and Roots

Homer: It’s All Greek to Me (And It’s Better That Way)

In any translated work of literature, much of the artistry is lost. There is simply no way to capture all the nuances of the original language in a translation. Works of poetry especially suffer in translation, because it is very difficult, and in many cases impossible, to preserve the original work’s meter, rhyme scheme, and… Continue reading Homer: It’s All Greek to Me (And It’s Better That Way)

Autonomy of Means revisited: the Internet

Last May I wrote a piece for this blog entitled “Autonomy of Means and Education”. The choice of phrasing was drawn from Charles WIlliams, “Bors to Elayne, on the King’s Coins”. I’ve recently had reason to revisit the question again, from a different direction. I’ve just finished reading Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows: What the Internet… Continue reading Autonomy of Means revisited: the Internet

Making Sense and Finding Meaning

My intermediate and advanced Greek and Latin classes are largely translation-based. There’s a lot of discussion among Latin teachers about whether that’s a good approach, but much of the dispute is, I think, mired in terminological ambiguity, and at least some of the objections to translation classes don’t entirely apply to what we’re doing. What… Continue reading Making Sense and Finding Meaning