The Patriot

Only lazy people work hard

John Cook — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:35:51 +0000

From “The Contemplative Pastor” by Eugene Peterson

It was a favorite theme of CS Lewis that only lazy people work hard. By lazily abdicating the essential work of deciding and directing, establishing values and setting goals, other people do it for us; then we find ourselves frantically, at the last minute, trying to satisfy a half dozen different demands on our time, none of which is essential to our vocation, to stave off the disaster of disappointing someone.

But if I vainly crowd my day with conspicuous activity or let others fill my day with imperious demands, I don’t have time to do my proper work, the work to which I have been called. How can I lead people into the quiet place beside the still waters if I am in perpetual motion? How can I persuade a person to live by faith and not by works if I have to juggle my schedule constantly to make everything fit into place?

Making sense of truth, goodness, and beauty

John Cook — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:17:20 +0000

From Reinhold Niebuhr:

Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore, we are saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore, we are saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own,; therefore, we are saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.

Source: Quote Snack

Choosing between truth and beauty

John Cook — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:36:39 +0000

From mathematician Hermann Weyl:

My work always tried to unite the true with the beautiful; but when I had to choose one or the other, I usually chose the beautiful.

Reading for pleasure

John Cook — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:20:32 +0000

From T. S. Eliot:

I incline to come to the alarming conclusion that it is just the literature that we read for ‘amusement’, or ‘purely for pleasure’ that may have the greatest and least suspected influence upon us. It is the literature which we read with the least effort that can have the easiest and most insidious influence upon us. Hence it is that the influence of popular novelists, and of popular plays of contemporary life, requires to be scrutinized most closely.

Covenant Academy Golf Tournament

John Cook — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:47:40 +0000

The 7th annual Covenant Academy Golf Tournament will be October 23 at Longwood Golf Club starting at 1:30 PM. For more information, see the tournament web site.

Online instruction beats face-to-face?

John Cook — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:56:13 +0000

A recent headline from the New York Times proclaims Study Finds That Online Education Beats the Classroom. There has been quite a bit of buzz about this article (or at least its headline) but not much analysis. Nicholas Carr looks more carefully at the original study and is much more reserved in his conclusions.

Be less helpful

John Cook — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 04:13:33 +0000

Dan Meyer explains how he teaches math in this presentation. At one point he says that what he knows about teaching can be summed up in three words: Be less helpful. He says teachers can be helpful in all the wrong ways by spoon-feeding students. Sometimes this help can be subtle, such as a teacher’s face telegraphing the desired answer.

Modern triviality versus classical trivium

John Cook — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:24:04 +0000

Some things are unimportant, so it’s important to get them right.

Important because it’s unimportant

Dirty jobs and classical education

John Cook — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:17:10 +0000

Mike Rowe, star of the Dirty Jobs television series, was classically educated. He reflects on his classical education and what he has learned from Dirty Jobs in this video. He begins his presentation by describing lamb castration in more detail that you might want to hear, but there is a point to his story.

Mike Rowe celebrates dirty jobs

Education as placebo

John Cook — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 18:06:32 +0000

Comparing Modern Education to a Placebo