Teaching high school these days, I am often reminded of Maximus from Ridley Scott’s Gladiator, imploring the crowd, “Are you not entertained?” I scan my students’ bored, simultaneously hopeful faces, and I want to tell them: as you turn older, your lives will become both more boring, but paradoxically more pleasurable; that’s if you’re lucky!… Continue reading “Are you not entertained?”: boredom, silence, age, and youth
Tag: Teaching
Summer course: Teaching as a way of being
Dear friends, I want to host a course this summer called “Teaching as a way of being.” This will be a Zoom course, so no need to be physically present in Santa Fe! The theme of the course is those subtle, pervasive ways we act as teachers and learners in a myriad of circumstances, which… Continue reading Summer course: Teaching as a way of being
The college years
One of my earliest memories of college involves showing my freshman year roommate what I had smuggled into the building on move-in day. Among my possessions, my parents and I had trucked in a pair of blue, plasticine beanbags, and it was after my parents left that I picked up one of the beanbags and… Continue reading The college years
The future of education: how and why
A few months ago, I was asked by a friend for my thoughts on the future of education, and I think he was surprised when I spoke to a shift in values and the kinds of lives this shift would produce. Most often, when people speak of the future of education, they do so in… Continue reading The future of education: how and why
Coda: on respect and freedom in modern education (L:HtR/UtW)
Written for lovers of literature interested in self-actualization, Literature: How to Read and Understand the World teaches readers how to derive principles of wisdom from literature and apply them to their lives. The book achieves this through a series of five essential steps, including identifying with literary characters, aggregating principles of wisdom from their experience,… Continue reading Coda: on respect and freedom in modern education (L:HtR/UtW)