Chesterton tackles the WASL, more or less...

G. K. Chesterton explains exactly why our schools have failed. "Education", he says, "is only truth in a state of transmission." (If we do not agree on the truth, how can we teach it to our children?) Remember, he was writing in 1910 in England, yet even then he recognized the "tendency toward new educational theories--such as the idea that education is not instruction at all, that the teacher is simply there to 'draw out' of the child his own inherent knowledge and abilities."
Chesterton goes on,
"You may indeed 'draw out' squeals and grunts from the child by simply poking him and pulling him around, a pleasant but cruel pastime to which many psychologists are addicted. But you will wait and watch very patiently indeed before you draw the English language out of him. That you have got to put into him; and there is an end of the matter."
G. K. Chesterton, What's Wrong With the World?

Parents, do you know where your iPods are?

Bob Kauflin recently did a great job pointing out ways in which the ubiquitous iPod has almost overnight made responsible parenting even more challenging. (Just what we needed, right?) Read his analysis and practical suggestions here. And check out his worship matters blog once a month or so- he's worth listening to.

Too busy to read to your kids?

"Each night I spend about 45 minutes reading to the boys. I first of all read some book like Algonquin Indian Tales, or the poetry of Scott or Macaulay. I have also been reading them each evening from the Bible, most recently the story of Saul, David and Jonathan. They have been so interested that several times I have had to read them more than one chapter. Then each says his prayers and repeats the hymn he is learning. Each one finally got one hymn perfect, whereupon in accordance with previous instructions from their mother, I gave each one of them a nickel."
The White House, 1903; President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt

Do you want to biggee size that preacher?

"I measure ministers by square measure. I have no idea of the size of the table, if you only tell me how long it is; but, if you also say how wide, I can tell its dimensions.--So, when you tell me what a man is in the pulpit, you must also tell me what he is out of it, or I shall not know his size." John Newton

How to read the epistles

"The uncertainty lies always in the intellectual region, never in the practical. What Paul cares about is plain enough to the true heart, however far from plain to the man whose desire to understand goes ahead of his obedience." George MacDonald