Life of the Mind: Brookewood & Avalon Schools

Ep. 28: David Steiner's A Nation at Thought, with Rich McPherson

David Steiner, the executive director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, is the author of A Nation at Thought and spoke at the New York Encounter, where he spent his day with Avalon and Brookewood president, Rich McPherson.  Steiner's dark view of the current ed scene is interesting to us, as is his book.  Steiner believes in teaching for content (not skills in isolation, as has been the emphasis in contemporary education for decades) and connecting great texts to the deep, meaningful questions they raise.  He thinks American teaching in general lacks urgency.  Rich and I had a wide-ranging conversation, and I hope you enjoy it.

Ep. 27 On Reading Whole Books, with Elizabeth Eames

The podcast is back!  We apologize for the hiatus, technical in origin, and are delighted to have returned, now with this conversation with fellow English teacher Elizabeth Eames.  Together we discuss The Atlantic's article "The Elite College Students Who Can't Read Books" by Rose Horowitch.  At Brookewood, especially in the upper school English department, we make a point of teaching students to read books in their entirety, rather than rely on an anthology of excerpts.  Teaching with excerpts has its place, but too often the result is an overly simplified understanding of ideas, and excerpts leave the door too open to an over-emphasis on one point or another, often to promulgate a particular theory, philosophy, or stand.  In general, we like our literature more complex than that.

Ep. 26 The Extinction of Experience, with Fr. José Medina and Andrea Francois

In this new episode, I (host Cherie Walsh) talk with Andrea Francois and Fr. José Medina about Christine Rosen’s new book, The Extinction of Experience.  Building from our previous work on Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation, our conversation begins where Rosen’s book does:  the degree to which our experiences are increasingly mediated by our technological choices and how, as a result, we become spectators rather than agents of our activities.  This change in how people live of course has implications for our students and for ourselves, as we all strive to embrace our lives as fully present, embodied creatures.

Ep. 25 Anxious Generation, with Andrea Francois and Fr. José Medina

I am excited to talk with Andrea Francois and Fr. José Medina about Jonathan Haidt's book The Anxious Generation.  Haidt's book was the faculty summer reading at Brookewood, and we like his thesis.  We talk about the phone-free school day in terms of attention, embodiment, reflection, and reasonable physical risk.  For us, going outside in what Haidt calls "Discovery Mode" has been part of the curriculum for years, and we've tightened up our phone policies this summer as the data has come in about the clear correspondence of social media use and the rise of anxiety and depression, especially among girls.

Quentin Walsh ended up producing this one after all, so we thank him for helping to balance us out, as it were.

Ep. 24 The Goldfinch, with Andrea Francois and Ann Vitz

Andrea Francois and Ann Vitz join me for a discussion of Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch.  The novel uses its contemporary idiom (and some rough material) to discuss some of the great themes of literature:  art vs. life, mortality, the role of tradition in modern life, and so on.  We read the books behind the book (Keats, Dostoyevsky, Dickens, and so on).  Finally, we appreciate the novel's ultimately Catholic worldview and find the characters and world fully drawn and ineluctably memorable. (NB:  One of us quotes a vulgar word from the text, and maybe this is an episode not to listen to with the kids in the car anyway...)

Ep. 23 Brief Loves that Live Forever by Andrei Makine, with David Booz and Andrea Francois

David Booz and Andrea Francois join me to discuss Brief Loves that Live Forever, Andrei Makine's 2013 novel exploring the end of the USSR.  David was keen to talk about Makine, as Erik Varden mentions him in The Shattering of Loneliness, among the non-Christian writers whose works feature a longing for meaning beyond ideology or pleasure.  The novel explores the childhood and later life of its nameless narrator in chapters that read as luminous vignettes with moments of real emotion that allow for glimpses of the transcendent.

Ep. 22 Erik Varden's The Shattering of Loneliness: On Christian Remembrance, with David Booz

Podcast regular David Booz joins me to talk about Erik Varden's The Shattering of Loneliness:  On Christian Remembrance.  When a friend gave me this book as a present, I thought she felt sorry for me, but once I got past the title, I found a deeply insightful, rich, accessible treatment of God's commands regarding memory.  David says this book changed his life.  Our conversation includes Andrei Makine, Stig Dagerman, Rainer Maria Rilke, Vassily Grossman, Gustav Mahler, Maïti Girtanner, and more.  

Ep. 21 The Diaries of Etty Hillesum, with Fr. José Medina

In this episode, Fr. José, Brookewood chaplain and teacher, and I talk about the diaries of Etty Hillesum.  Hillesum was in her 20s in the Netherlands when she wrote her diary about her external experience during the Nazi occupation and more importantly about her internal experience of God.  

Ep. 20 Yascha Mounk’s The Identity Trap, with David Booz and Andrea Francois

David Booz and Andrea Francois join me for a discussion of Professor Yascha Mounk's new book, The Identity Trap.  We talk about what we learned from reading Mounk's history of identity politics from Foucault to Ibram X. Kendi, and we discuss Mounk's conclusions about the promotion of universal values.  Mounk's book is significant in part because he comes to the discussion from the left.  We find plenty to agree with him about, even as we wish he had gone further in acknowledging the Source of the values he touts.

Ep. 19 Great Moral Stories, with Ann Vitz

In this episode, I talk with Mrs. Ann Vitz, longtime Brookewood parent and new Brookewood teacher, about her program, Great Moral Stories, which we're implementing in grades K-12 this year.  Based on Core Virtues by Mary Beth Klee, and designed with Aristotle's virtues as its foundation, this curriculum is helping Brookewood girls to learn more about how to live a virtuous life.  Here's the article Ann and I reference, the piece by Andrea Francois.