April 2012
Editorial
As another school year moves to its conclusion, this issue of CEJ again introduces a number of books that hopefully will serve to inspire, revive, and challenge Christian educators during a somewhat more relaxing time in the summer. As several of the reviews included here point out, reading seems to be under some pressure as […]
Review
Sherry Turkle, The Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT and founder and director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and the Self, has devoted her life’s work to studying the effects of technology on human relationships. When Turkle spoke at Calvin College’s January series, a colleague […]
Review
The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains
“The effects of technology do not occur at the level of opinions or concepts,” wrote McLuhan. Rather, they alter “patterns of perception steadily and without any resistance” (Carr 3). When Nicholas Carr quotes Marshall McLuhan in the prologue of his book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, he introduces […]
Review
A Place for Truth: Leading Thinkers Explore Life’s Hardest Questions
This review first appeared in the Christian Scholar’s Review. Reprinted with permission. In 1992, a group of Christians at Harvard University started The Veritas Forum, hoping to promote discussion of the “big questions” that they felt were being ignored in the secular academy. The Forum has clearly been a success, staging high-profile events at universities […]
Review
In an ever more confusing and challenging way, students are required to navigate between their communities of faith and the more secularized worlds of their neighborhoods, entertainment venues, and media sources. Listen to the language young people use. Sometimes their words are strident and even bigoted or homophobic; other times, we hear “whatever” or “it’s […]
Review
Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind
Mark Noll is no stranger to scholars of the humanities. His professional area of expertise is the history of Christianity in the United States, and his intellectual endeavors have been both wide ranging and well received. Noll was named one of America’s most influential evangelicals by Time in 2005, and received the National Humanities Medal […]
Review
Teaching 21st Century Skills: An ASCD Action Tool
The ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) has long been a tremendous source for the professional development of administrators and teachers. In Teaching 21st Century Skills: An ASCD Action Tool, author Sue Z. Beers delivers a well-written and concise explanation of a workable framework of twenty-first-century skills, as well as delightfully easy ways to […]
Article
Ten Books to Revive Teachers This Summer
Teaching is important, but exhausting work. In addition to being a time for revising lesson plans, rethinking units, and engaging in professional development, summer is also a sabbath, a time to rest and breathe and get ready to do it all over again when September comes. So summer reading should not only be about teaching […]
P@nel.edu
Al Boerema prompts the conversation: The topic for discussion this time is books and reading. Maybe you could write about your own experience of finding time to read, the importance of reading to you, or anything that hits in this area. And if you want to mention some new books that are important to you, […]
From My Window
Jumping Off of the “‘Banned’ Wagon”
“Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads.” —G.B. Shaw “Our culture has traded books for Web page views, words for icons, and study for entertainment. We have, in fact, become a society full of people who are merely functionally literate rather than deeply […]
Slouching Toward Bedlam
From: principal.vanderhaar@bchs.org Sent: 4/18/2011 10:48 AM To: wordnerd42@aol.com (Christina Lopez) Ms. Lopez, I am wondering if you would be willing to make a presentation for our April 22 in-service. I think you would be the perfect speaker to address how teachers can improve “professionally” by reading in their field while managing the “busy-ness” that comes […]