Used book sale lets you prosper as state libraries disgorge stacks
This find by Thomas Cahill at the Chattanooga library castoff sale will find a good home with me, though I already have a well-marked copy. Any book by Robert Kaplan is worth reading, as he is an expert on the American empire. This volume cost me F$2 at the Friends of the Library book sale […]
Haslam, industry titans reject marketplace, digital redo in education
A sop for defenders of a decaying business model (the public school), Gov. Bill Haslam is pushing free community college for all high school grads, as proclaimed in a mailer. By David Tulis Gov. Bill Haslam’s Tennessee Promise program of free associate degrees for high school grads is being flooded with applications, not to anyone’s […]
Tennessee Promise props broken system
Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream Gov. Bill Haslam’s giveaway of associate degrees to high school grads seeks to intervene on behalf of a bureaucratic schooling system facing erosion from the digital marketplace where PDFs, free materials, free lectures, YouTube and online resources dominate. It’s as if he were the Fed, spewing credit into the […]
Public schooling: Getting out is not enough
By Tammy Drennan I talked with a young lady the other day – 14-years-old – who loves horses and aims to own stables and teach riding, among other things. She’s been working with horses since she was five. She’s good enough now that she “breaks” new ones and retrains ones facing changes in the use […]
Christian families in state schools fight reform, refuse to exit
The Christian’s commitment to godly education is part of his duty to enter in at the narrow gate rather than taking the broad way that leadeth to instruction. By David Tulis The alarm among Christians who patronize government-run schools has a clear cause. Common Core, the name of the latest spate of reform, promises further […]
Leadership program in Hamilton schools tips over no moneychanger carts
Adam Smith’s classic appeared in 1776. By David Tulis The growth of liberty in the hearts of hometown folk grows here, and shrivels there. On the Lord’s Day, when we hear the story of Naboth, who refused sale of his vineyard to the wicked king of Israel, Ahab, we are enlarged in our liberty. We […]
Dad, let’s rediscover the great gift of intellectual hunger
By Tammy Drennan In his excellent autobiography, My Grandfather’s Son, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas talks about discovering the joy of reading for the first time. It wasn’t as a child, nor as a grade school or high school student. It wasn’t at the colleges he attended, not even Yale. Instead, after getting hooked on […]
Coming paradigm: Certifying the student, not the institution
The Nearly Free University is available in print or electronically. [Excerpt from The Nearly Free University, by Charles Hugh Smith, available at Chattanooga bookshop Winder Binder Books & Records. David Smotherman would be happy to order it for you. He will mail it to you if you like; or you could use its arrival at […]
Despite school follies, hope of public persists
By David Tulis I am encouraging myself not to be surprised at the persistence of confidence in the state. It is more than realism. It is more than pragmatism. It goes beyond the bright fruit of university graduation. It’s a religion. The faith in the modern state in many respects is buckling. Poll numbers show […]
Administrative bloat, piles of student debt hint colleges a legacy system
The courtyard outside the library at UTC. The average debt load for students at the government university in Chattanooga is around $14,000. [This essay appears in the April 1 edition of Esprit newsletter, serving hundreds of homeschool families in the Chattanooga area. — DJT] By Charles Hugh Smith Once we accredit the student, not the […]