Teaching argumentation in the high school English classroom in fall 2016 proved more challenging than any other leading up to it thanks to one man: Donald Trump. Many of my students loved him: they wore Trump shirts, MAGA hats, and spoke excitedly about attending his rallies and having the chance to vote for him. These […]
“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” —Charlie “Tremendous” Jones I finished fifty-four books in 2018. I know because I kept a list. I’m not sure why I did this. I haven’t kept a list of what […]
Whenever I find a book that I love, everyone around me knows about it. According to my new favorite book, 5 Voices, that is because my foundational voice is a Connector: “It doesn’t matter if it is a movie or a restaurant or a business colleague they want to introduce you to, whatever Connectors are […]
I am a 3 with a 2 Wing. For those unfamiliar with the Enneagram, the previous sentence may sound like a foreign language or the beginning to an enigmatic riddle. Let me explain. I began studying the Enneagram after hearing an overview of it in a podcast interview. Essentially, the Enneagram is an ancient system […]
Every day one of our Bible teachers selects a quote to add to the announcements scrolling on the TV screens around our school. I often read the quote as I walk the halls, appreciate the wisdom it contains, and continue about my day. One day this past January, however, I read the quote and had […]
About a year ago, Cedarville University, a Baptist school in Ohio, enacted a new curriculum standard based on Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” As reported then in Christianity […]
Over the years, readers have contacted the CEJ with numerous questions about this column. Editor Mark Brink compiled the most frequently asked questions and conducted an interview with columnist Jan Kaarsvlam. Mark describes the interview as “challenging, yet not particularly enlightening” and describes columnist Jan Kaarsvlam as “generally disagreeable, yet not altogether affable.” When Mark […]
In his money management course Financial Peace University (FPU), Christian financial counselor and best-selling author Dave Ramsey tells his audience something to the effect of “your parents never talked about sex; they never talked about money; you thought they had neither; turns out they had both!” In a humorous way Ramsey identifies at least one […]
Editorial I found out at a Monday morning prayer meeting that Josh had died in a motorcycle accident. I first met Josh when he was a student in my sophomore English class. Before then, I had known him as the kid who wore his Boy Scout uniform on the first day of school (a habit […]
Last night, our school held its annual open house for parents. Throughout the evening parents moved from classroom to classroom to hear their children’s teachers talk about what they would be teaching this year and how they would integrate faith with their instruction. During my presentations to parents of my English 4 and AP English students, I […]