Can a group project be valuable and productive? Of course. Are most group projects valuable and productive? Hardly.
Joshua Gibbs
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It is May, which means that classical schools across the country are finalizing plans for graduation ceremonies, setting calendars for next year, determining schedules for summer school, and trying to figure out what to do with a few senior boys whose theses were laughably bad.
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Every American should work in food service for a few years before marrying. So many of the virtues Americans claim come from playing team sports can be acquired far more easily working the registers at Burger King. One learns tolerance and longsuffering and humility. A man cannot truly understand how rude Americans are, how ridiculous, how entitled, until he has been paid next to nothing to serve his fellow countrymen French fries and shakes.
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Student: I know how you feel about the matter, but I’m thinking about going to a secular college next year.
Gibbs: How come?
Student: I don’t want to live in a bubble. If I don’t go to a secular college, I’m worried I’ll go through my whole life without ever knowing anything about other people’s views.
Gibbs: Huh. You think college is your last chance to encounter “other people’s views”?
Student: Sort of.
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Tom: It is not enough to punish crimes like theft. You have to look at the underlying causes of theft. You have to ask why people steal. Figuring out why people steal can help prevent theft in the future.
Harry: And why do people steal?
Tom: Studies show one of the biggest underlying causes of theft is poverty.
Harry: And what is the underlying cause of poverty?
Tom: Often enough, it’s racism.
Harry: And what is the underlying cause of racism?
Tom: Well, racism is simply evil.
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In the last several years, agrarian metaphors (cultivating, nurturing) have come to dominate the way classical schools describe themselves. However, we have become entirely too dependent on the agrarian metaphor, which is helpful but insufficient by itself to provide a complete picture of a classical education.
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John Calvin once said the human heart was “a perpetual factory of idols.” Similarly, the typical modern institution is a perpetual factory of clichés. A cliché is an idea which once had power but has become impotent and meaningless through overuse. Classical Christian education is presently filled with clichés, but so is every movement. We need not despair, but we do need to repent.
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The mitochondria is having a moment.
No, you read that right. The mitochondria.
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In a Target parking lot…
Gibbs: Excuse me, sir. I know you have shopping to do, but I was wondering if we could speak for a moment.
Driver: About what?
Gibbs: About your bumper sticker.
Driver: Which one?
Gibbs: The one that says in very large letters, “My children receive a classical Christian education.”
Driver: What about it?
Gibbs: I should tell you now that I followed you a little ways because I wanted to ask you about it.
Driver: Yes?
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Parent: Do you know anything about movies?
Gibbs: Not much. How come?
Parent: Well, my son wants to see this new Batman movie and I don’t know how I feel about it.
Gibbs. How old is your son?
Parent: He’s fourteen. The movie is PG-13, and I often let him see films with that rating, but I’ve seen the trailer for this film, and it looks quite dark.
Gibbs: Agreed. It does look quite dark. What’s the debate in your mind?
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