Life of the Mind: Brookewood & Avalon Schools

Ep. 18 Camino of Maryland, with Rich McPherson

Today I talk with Rich McPherson, Head of Brookewood and President of Avalon and Brookewood, to learn how he spent his summer vacation.  Having made a number of one-day pilgrimages and thought for a long time about multi-day routes, Rich has devised a two-week pilgrimage, a Camino of Maryland, he hopes to initiate this next summer, with the help of many pastors and other community members along the way.  While I kept calling it "Rich's Camino" all summer, he kept correcting me:  "It's God's Camino," he said. And, indeed, as Rich finds the doors opening to him and the various outpourings of support along the way, it does seem to be a project helped along by the Holy Spirit.  Listen to Rich talk about it and see if you are inspired to join.

Ep. 17: Pieper’s Leisure the Basis of Culture and ”Hope,” with David Booz and Andrea Francois

David, Andrea, and I (with improved audio) sit down to discuss two works by Josef Pieper.  These two works are both important and accessible to non-philosophers.  In Leisure, Pieper posits that real leisure relies on a capacity for contemplation and is anchored in divine worship.  In "Hope," Pieper highlights our status as pilgrims "on the way" in our earthly lives and develops the implications of that status viator in interesting and life-changing ways.

Ep. 16 Dostoyevsky Reads Hegel in Siberia and Bursts into Tears

In Episode 16, I'm joined by Andrea Francois and David Booz to discuss the Hungarian Lazlo Foldenyi's collection of essays.  We talk about the title essay, the problems Foldenyi finds with Enlightenment rationalism, and the problem of the cultural erasure of God.  Foldenyi explores his set of issues by/while looking at various answers offered by Romanticism and by Modernism, Surrealism, and so on.  Foldenyi is interested in visual art, theatre, and literature.  This is a longer podcast, and it gets better as we go.

Ep. 15: ”The End of the English Major,” with Elizabeth Eames

Fellow Upper School English teacher Liz Eames and I discuss the New Yorker article "The End of the English Major."  We explore the phenomenon, its causes, and general trends in our culture, along with shifts in university education, that take people away from serious literary study.  Placing English in the center of one's education allows for increased empathy, safe places to think through and act out different futures, greater self-awareness, the companionship of stories and poems--and, yes, jobs, too!

Ep. 14 Why We Give Exams, with David Booz, Shannon Garvey, and Liz Eames

We've noticed a trend away from giving (high school) midyear and final exams--a shift we saw before Covid and see post-Covid--yet we still give exams.  An exam is a good educational tool that helps students synthesize material and it's good college prep as well.  Listen to David Booz, Shannon Garvey, and Liz Eames talk with me about their exam practices and how they contribute to the project of a sound high school education in which both content and skills are important.

Ep. 13 Poetry, with Sally Rosen Kindred

Poet Sally Rosen Kindred (sometime Brookewood guest and judge for the Joseph W. McPherson Poetry Contest) and I talk about poetry in general, poetry memorization, poetry and growing up, and teaching poetry.  Then, Sally reads selections from her award-winning 3rd collection Where the Wolf, from Diode Editions.  I am sorry that my audio is a little weird on this one;  I think this is one of the best of the podcast conversations.

Ep. 12 Chivalry in the 21st Century with John Acevedo and Kevin Davern

Avalon head Kevin Davern and Brookewood teacher (and longtime Avalon-Brookewood teacher/administrator and parent) John Acevedo join me to talk about chivalry in the 21st century.  I sound like some anthropological NPR reporter for a while, but then Kevin, John, and I talk about John Eldredge's book Wild at Heart, which takes an evangelical approach to discuss the roles of adventure, quest, and rescue in a man's life.

Ep. 11 Live with Glencora Pipkin, Jessica Hooten Wilson’s The Scandal of Holiness

In our first live podcast, Glencora Pipkin and the Brookewood faculty (feat. Judy Kearns, Barbara Gagliotti, and David Booz) discuss Jessica Hooten Wilson's The Scandal of Holiness.  We explore UD connections and then talk about JHW's technique of reading literature the way we read an icon, as a kind of window to a way of seeing the world, with special attention to how literature can help us know how to live.

Ep. 10 Donna Tartt’s The Secret History with Andrea Francois

Andrea and I discuss Donna Tartt's The Secret History, a novel I have loved since it came out and which Andrea encountered through a book club.  This is not a book appropriate to be taught at Brookewood, but one for adults interested in family and friendship, in the consequences of actions.  The novel stands out for its memorable characters, its relationship to Dostoyevsky and to Greek tragedy, and its brilliant writing.  We have fun talking about it, and hope you'll enjoy our conversation.

Ep. 9 John Dewey & the Decline of American Education, with David Booz

David Booz and I talk (in his somewhat echo-y dining room) about Henry T. Edmondson III's 2006 book John Dewey and the Decline of American Education, a critique of Dewey that has become more relevant now as mainstream education has become increasingly devoted to social reform.  David and I talk about human nature, the goals of education, the role of teaching methods, and the importance of tradition.