May, 2013

The meaning of words

Tweet David Brooks writes a column in the New York Times today about a Google database of books published since 1500 which can be used to tot up word usage. He notes that words such as virtue, decency, conscience, honesty, patience, compassion, bravery, fortitude, faith, wisdom, and evil have been used with declining frequency since 1930.  He further […]

Contemplative Pedagogy: Standing Meditations

Tweet The class has insisted all semester on keeping to our Thursday meditation schedule. It has been a challenge to think up new meditations.  My role is to conduct a writing class, not a meditation class. The goal is to introduce them to the concept of meditation, and to allow them to experience the feelings […]

Student comments

Tweet At the end of every semester, students are asked to write a reflection.  For the first freshman course, it is to reflect on one of the principles of good writing they learned, and in the second freshman course, they are to reflect on something they read which touched or interested them. Marios was in […]

Endangered Languages Week

Tweet Did you know this was endangered languages week?  I didn’t, but I’m glad it’s happening.  With all the alarming news that has hogged the headlines over the past few months, endangered languages have sunk to a lower rung of our consciousness, mine anyway.  So it’s time to stop and think for a moment about […]