Category: education
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Examination of conscience: 1st day of spiritual exercise
For St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), devout Catholic and author of Spiritual Exercises, the examination of conscience was a vital exercise for one who wished to make spiritual progress. We might liken this practice to an intellectual-moral pilgrimage: a pilgrimage of self-transformation. A word before we begin. The virtues and defects I write about are…
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Standardized testing: the iffy, the bad, and the ugly
The biology teacher, writing anonymously, takes a moderate view of standardized testing. On the one hand, he believes that this movement fails to cultivate a student’s desire to learn for its own sake and, because many of the tests are poorly written, fails to measure student or teacher progress. In general, he’s appalled by the…
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Montaigne the philosopher
When Montaigne retired to his tower and started scrawling quotes on the ceiling, his only plan was to surround himself with his friends. Then he got the idea of writing the quotes down, then he began commenting on them, then musing about them and mulling them over, and finally, as if by accident, his scribblings…
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On drinks, on driving, on Plato, on life with Robert Rowland Smith
Last night I had cocktails with Robert Rowland Smith, who’s in town promoting his book, Driving with Plato. Back up because I’ve already fudged things a bit: I had cocktails, and he had beer. There we are. Temple Bar. Noho. The darkness, as you walk into Temple Bar, is seductive and complete. The figure greeting…
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The life need of philosophy
Update: You can also read the following at Huffington Post. — A manifesto We know what a hammer is used for: it is used to pound in nails. When we need to pound in nails, we open the drawer, pull out the hammer, and use it for its intended purpose. In building our lives, hammers…
Andrew Taggart, Ph.D. 