According to Wikipedia, Woke (/ˈwoʊk/ WOHK) is a term that originated in the United States, referring to a perceived awareness of issues that concern social justice and racial justice. It derives from the African-American Vernacular English expression stay woke, whose grammatical aspect refers to a continuing awareness of these issues. First used in the 1940s, […]
Teaching & Education
New at Kepler! Teacher Certification Course
If you are a teacher or homeschooling parent, I’m delighted to introduce Kepler’s 3-track Teacher Certification course with Dr. Robert Woods, founder of the Great Books Honors College at Faulkner University and author of Mortimer Adler: The Paideia Way of Classical Education. In whatever capacity you are teaching–or even if you are an adult interested […]
Thinking Christianly
One of the goals of Classical Christian Education is to teach students how to think Christianly. Naturally, it follows that the first question we need to answer is what it means to think Christianly. At first glance, it seems this expression must mean we are to teach students to think biblically. And that is true, […]
Pray as We Ought
Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,” lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken. -Psalm 13:3-4 In this second stanza, David petitions the Lord with the same covenant language about each of his […]
What I learned Working with Darren Doane
I’ve recently been privileged to do some work with Darren Doane, filmmaker extraordinaire. I wish I could say I was making a documentary or a music video with him, but I’m still trying to decide on a name for my band. So, there’s that! What we’re actually working on is something more closely related to my […]
$1 Live Online Classes for Students Affected by COVID-19-related School Closures
In light of the recent school and homeschool COOP closures, Kepler teachers have stepped up to help meet the needs of students and families who have been affected by these sudden changes. Kepler is offering live, 8-week classes for only $1 a class. You read that correctly. And, in most cases, all the books and […]
What are the Great Books?
The short answer could be, the 1952 publication of Encyclopedia Britannica’s The Great Books of the Western World series. But that would be a truncated, and quite possibly, unhelpful answer. Plus, that answer would thwart my penultimate purpose in writing this post, which is to provide some insights into what actually makes up a Great […]
Seven Reasons to Read the Great Books
If you’ve ever considered reading the classics, or as Mortimer Adler referred to them, the Great Books, I want to suggest seven reasons for starting, immediately. Let’s jump right in. Reason #1 Mark Twain famously noted that a classic is a book everyone talks about, but no one has actually read. Because the publishing of books […]
Why Secular Education is Untenable
One of the hallmarks of modern education is the belief that education should be secular. According to the OED, secular is defined as being “distinguished from the church and religion; civil, lay, temporal… meaning non-ecclesiastical, non-religious, or non-sacred.” The modern notion of education is an attempt to transfer knowledge from one generation to the next […]
Is This Going To Be On The Test?
Inevitably I will have students who ask questions like, “Is this going to be on the test?” or “Do we have to turn this assignment in?” If you’re a teacher, this query is not a matter of if, but when; and educators worth their salt will immediately recognize this line of thinking as problematic. Education […]