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Irrigating Deserts: C.S. Lewis on Education by Joel D. Heck
“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. The right defense against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments.” C.S. Lewis, “Men Without Chests,”...
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Teaching Screwtape for a New Generation at CSLIS Colloquium
I am fully enjoying my weekend at the C.S. Lewis and the Inklings Colloquium at Taylor University in Indiana. My brain is full with idea from the dozens of workshops, but what is really thrilling is...
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Teaching Screwtape for a New Generation: My Conference Talk
Anyone who follows A Pilgrim in Narnia knows of my interest in The Screwtape Letters. I have written reviews, asked questions about influences, looked at Screwtape copycats–including the first by...
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Shaking Off the Ailments of a Troublesome Term
C.S. Lewis begins a March 31, 1928 letter to his father: “I have succeeded, at last, in shaking off the ailments of one of the most troublesome terms I have yet had.” As I read that line I immediately...
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A Quick Detour: On Choosing University Readings
I am at that time of year when I am finalizing readings for an upcoming course. I’m thrilled to be offering a new course at Maritime Christian College called, “From Middle Earth to the Garden of Eden:...
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A Disappointed Review of the DVD Series “Saving Jesus Redux”
I have written hundreds of reviews, and most of them have been positive. I am quite hard on academic authors, but still work hard to accentuate the positive. When I was a music reviewer, there were a...
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Wow, What a Fall!
Or a trip–choose your double entendre. I have been impeccably busy these last few weeks, so that family meals have been like Gatorade cups in a marathon, and my garden has started to engulf the...
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Why Poetry?
Brenton Dickieson:I am a fan of John Benjamin’s “The Bully Pulpit” page. Every couple of days he captures an intelligent, compassionate, witty, or startling quote from a leading author or historical...
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The Charm of Mystery: An Encouragement to Christian Teachers in Secular Schools
Last week I posted a fun and thoughtful “schools out forever!” post for students. Thinking of the end of term got me to thinking about the teachers. Although I have done youth work and subbing in...
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How I Stumbled into C.S. Lewis (“On Pretending to be in a PhD” pt. 1)
In my 400th blog post I noted that In 2011 I began pretending I was in a PhD. It is doubtless an odd thing to say, though it has been normal for me for so long I didn’t even think about it! One of the...
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The Charm of Mystery: An Encouragement to Christian Teachers in Secular Schools
I am right now furiously at work on the 3 Day Novel Contest, so I thought I would rework this note of encouragement to Christian teachers. I think, despite its focus, that all teachers will be...
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Teaching Screwtape for a New Generation: My Conference Talk & Paper
We are moving well along in our series on C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtapee Letters. I have written reviews and will write at least one more. I have asked questions about influences and genre, and looked at...
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A Lament for the Loss of Young Teachers
Last week I wrote a post about the problems of the lack of women in academic publishing, using my favourite publisher, Zondervan, as a test case for the conversation. Senior editor Katya Covrett...
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Changing Signs of Truth: Thinking about Postmodernism with Stan Grenz and...
I will always be indebted to InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) for its culture of developing the Christian intellect. It isn’t that I had come from a brain-less community. My undergrad studies...
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Teaching Students to Ask Their Own Questions, with the Right Question Institute
After a teaching foundations course (theory), my first college course in teacher prep was “Teaching Methods.” Ever since, I have loved the diversity of ways that we can draw a group of people to a...
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The Real Problem with Teached Helplessness
On Tuesday I posted an article called “12 Loving Ways You Can Ruin Your Kid’s Career,” which has gotten a bit of chatter. Most readers understood pretty clearly the satire. There is a lot of talk these...
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Why Religion Matters: A Mini-Vlog Series
One of the trade-offs of my recent vacation and research trip to the U.K. was that I had to miss the first week of classes. In our “Inquiry Studies” class we were simply doing introductions, so I...
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Top Ten Ways to Do Better on Exams
I am at that point in the semester when I am getting my exams ready for students to write. I am always unsatisfied with exams–and many of the ways that we evaluate students. In first-year religious...
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New Approaches to Academic Writing: An Unusual Marking Note for a Good Student
I am at that time of year when the marking pile on my desk is higher than my laptop screen. Like a fool, each year, I go into the marking expecting great things. So far, I have never had a semester...
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Why My Kid’s Science Teacher is Awesome
Not just his science teacher, actually. Nicolas just won a poetry contest that his grade seven homeroom teacher encouraged him to enter. But more of that later. To science. One of our initial anxieties...
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