Pursuing Paideia
We kid ourselves when we think we’re multitasking. Studies have now shown that, especially when media are involved, we’re getting less done with our time and wrecking our ability to do deep, creative work in the process. I finally admitted this over the course of the last year and have been detoxing ever since.
Dragon has an intriguing etymology that has to do with sight and traces all the way back to the Homeric epics. Can you stand the sight of a dragon?
Polybius asserts that the best training for politics is the study of history. But why does a Greek prisoner-of-war pen a history praising the virtues of his captors? Does he have any other reasons for writing history?
In the second post on the historians defending themselves, Thucydides not only vociferously defends his history, but he attacks inferior historians too! Read more about Thucydides’s definition and defense of history!
Herodotus has been known as the “Father of History” but has also been called the “Father of Lies.” Why did he write his history? Let’s hear from him in his own words.
In my final post on reading, I delve into the most formative part of reading, which I call ruminating. I believe this sets our students up for the real work of creative and critical thinking, the ability to contemplate—impressive and elusive but also necessary in this age of Snapchat and the selfie.
This is my third post on regular, vanilla reading. I think it’s important for us to remember that we are models of reading as teachers and parents, and so I give some sobering statistics about the state of reading in America as well. Be the change you wish to see!
This is the second post on the ways I encourage my students to read. I extend the analogy and we catch some fish.
I try to teach my students to read in four basic ways. This post covers the first and introduces the analogy of texts being like a large body of water (I prefer the ocean, but you can think the Great Lakes if you’d like).
Quid est veritas? A good question, dear reader! We explore its etymology from three directions.