Category Archives: Technology

Informing Ourselves to Death

Informing Ourselves

With one exception I have never heard anyone speak seriously and comprehensively about the disadvantages of computer technology, which strikes me as odd. After all, anyone who has studied the history of technology knows that technological change is always a Faustian bargain: Technology giveth and technology taketh away, and not always in equal measure. A […]

Tablets or Textbooks?

Tablets or Textbooks?

God has instilled in us a passion to learn and a need for knowledge. Education as we know it has been with us for over two millennia, but the tools of learning have changed. In biblical times, texts were meticulously copied onto scrolls using nothing but a sharpened reed and ink. Over time, reeds were […]

The Judgment of Thamus: Education Technology and the Outsourcing of Knowledge

The Judgment of Thamus

I was at a meeting of private educators in our state a couple of years ago, and afterwards an acquaintance, who was the superintendent of a local private school system, came up to me. He was very excited. He had gotten a grant to provide students in his schools with iPads. I didn’t have the […]

Special Needs Q&A: Spring 2016

How can I help my struggling student with his online classes? 1. Begin with only one course. We strongly recommend starting the student with only one course, unless he is accustomed to completing large amounts of advanced classwork.  2. Plan to complete each assignment. A structured online class may require a great deal of time for the struggling student, so […]

Why Johnny Can’t Add

Add

My father was an aerospace engineer. When I was growing up, I never really knew what he did, since his job involved mostly top-secret projects. In fact, I never once visited his office, which required a high-security clearance even to enter. But over the years, I did manage to piece together a few facts about what he did. One day, when […]

Letter from the Editor: Winter 2013

winter establishment

Our educational establishment is very good at making promises, but not very good at keeping them. Every couple of years, a new initiative is launched to give us hope that things will get better. The initiative is launched amidst great fanfare, agreements are signed, money is exchanged, meetings are held, acronyms are assigned, and for a […]

The Siren Song of Education Technology

technology

In the world of education, there are many temptations that would lure us to our destruction, and none greater than the siren song of education technology. The computer is, of course, only one form of education technology, and education technology is anything but new. Those of us educated in the 60s and 70s will remember […]

Informing Ourselves to Death

Informing

With one exception I have never heard anyone speak seriously and comprehensively about the disadvantages of computer technology, which strikes me as odd. After all, anyone who has studied the history of technology knows that technological change is always a Faustian bargain: Technology giveth and technology taketh away, and not always in equal measure. A […]

Letter from the Editor: Summer 2013

I was recently asked to speak to a Chamber of Commerce meeting about classical education. The initial reason for the invitation was to talk about one of our Highlands Latin School campuses in the area. The group was founded as part of an effort by the local Chamber to create a partnership effort between businesses […]

7 Habits of Highly Educated People

habits

Most critics of American education today have a good grasp of one part of the problem: our children don’t have enough knowledge. They cite poor test scores and the general lack of awareness of important events in history as proof of this. And they are right. But although this analysis is correct, it is not […]