My academic life has specialized in general education: helping find the tools to learn anything. There is so much beauty, great art, wonderful movies, profound books, and stirring teachers that I am thankful for eternity. Just opera, learning to appreciate and love opera, will take me centuries! When I was a little boy in West Virginia, the stars were easy to see. Clendenin, West Virginia, does not do light pollution. I knew just enough to think of the burning lights in... Read more
Ugly is easy. Read more
When I was a child, I would roll the dice and then count the dots. One day I did not. I could see three and know “3.” It was not even the shape on the die, but “3.” Teacher could put three dots on the board in any pattern and “3” came to me. Don’t take that for granted. The number 1 exists, but is immaterial. You cannot show “1,” though you can count one object. The reality of numbers... Read more
There are Christmas miracles and then there are good parents. I have seen both and generally I prefer good parents, if I must choose. Read more
During Advent, I try to turn from seeing problems in other people to examining my heart. Sigh. Read more
If variety is the spice of love and music is the food of love, most of us get an unvaried diet. However you define it, not many of us listen to classical music. If you like blue grass, you might avoid all modern country. My friends who appreciate hip hop may turn away from any pop. The fights I have generated between jazz musicians and rock musicians were highly educational! All of us tend to get stuck listening to the... Read more
Music matters. Teach your kids any instrument and have them stick with it to the point where they can play some basic songs. I have known hundreds of gifted and talented college students, and people who play an instrument are always some of the best students. Don’t over expect: you don’t need to raise a Von Trapp to have done some good. I know from personal experience. The first concert of The Saint Constantine School had much talent: professionally trained instrumentalists,... Read more
We no longer expect our leaders to know anything. Read more
College could wait, so could every other class at The Saint Constantine School. Snow came to Houston and it was glorious to see kids attempt a snowman who had (almost) never touched snow. There was so little of the stuff that snowballs all ended up tiny and hard to toss, but it was glorious, gloppy, and grand. Houston needed some fun weather. We cursed the weather with Harvey, a deluge that had us considering an ark, but today was a... Read more
They still remember Pearl Harbor at the ceremonies in our government and my guess is that they will while direct memory of the event endures. It is meet and right so to do. When the veterans remember Pearl Harbor, they recollect reality. The rest of us look backwards and try to have pious thoughts, though in an ahistorical age, those are hard to have. The brave lads are now just the “olds” (as my students say) and we are not... Read more
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