All posts in November 2006

Today is my unschooled daughter’s birthday; Pippa’s thirteen years old today, and getting more wonderful, more beautiful, every day. We’re going out to dinner in a few minutes with our friend Ellen, and I’ll have to work pretty hard not to spend the whole time beaming and boasting about her my daughter. [How cool is…

Doc compares unschooling with Spot-On’s unpapering of the journalism business. . . .

Sunday’s New York Times featured an article on unschooling, the approach to home education that we’ve practiced for fifteen years. While I am not surprised that the newspaper sought out the ominous undercurrent of this subversive practice, I do marvel that a professional educator provides them with the sensational blare for their warning: “the folks…

Stephen Downes takes a half hour out to list ten things that he thinks you need to learn. I think he’s hit the mark on almost every point; at the same time, I’m beginning to think that I can summarize my own perspective on “what you need to learn” in the three-word phrase, “knowing the…

Our friend from old days at Evening Prayer in Princeton, Curtis Hoberman, stopped by last night for a catch-up visit. We took him out to Cozy Noodle, pumped him for details of his visit to Washington to receive the Jefferson Award for Public Service, and learn what’s been happening in our former, and future, home…

My iPod is getting a little old (in digital terms — if it were a hammer, it would still be in its early years of usefulness), and the battery has lost a lot of its capacity, but I didn’t expect this: Every now and then, the “shuffle” function will forget that it’s supposed to be…

The anniversary of Kirsty MacColl’s sad death comes round in a couple of weeks; yesterday, walking down to Pippa’s Latin lesson, her prescient “Soho Square” came on my iPod. One day you’ll be waiting there, no empty bench in Soho SquareAnd we’ll dance around like we don’t careAnd I’ll be much too old to cryAnd…

And our bounden duty. A couple of months ago, Micah emailed me the link to this page, which I promptly forgot about until a recent spasm of emailbox-cleaning. From my exalted position as Writing Director at Seabury (“no benefits, just more responsibilities”), I have several reactions to the article and its attendant comments. First, I…

Over the weekend I confirmed to relevant authorities that I plan to accept the offer of membership at the Center of Theological Inquiry for the 2007-08 academic year. The financing remains to be worked out, but Margaret, Pippa, Bea and I will spend next year based in Princeton. Over and above the honor of being…

I’m ba-a-a-a-ack. What do theologians do when they go away to an academic conference? The answer presumably involves someone in conference planning who doesn’t keep alert to online jargon (definitions two and three). My response to Dale Martin’s Sex and the Single Savior follows in the extended link at the bottom of this post. The…

Headed to the airport, on our way home. Will check in later.

The annual meeting is pretty much complete, except for the Tuesday-morning “it’s on sale, it’s such a bargain, I really ought to read it” impulse purchases at the book display. My response to Dale’s paper went well, but it’s on my computer, not Margaret’s (which I’m using to compose this, since our hotel makes you…