Some quick thoughts on tonight’s debate: I am not sure if Donald Trump said one truthful thing tonight. He is a liar. He is a felon. He is incompetent. He is a threat to democracy. He has no vision for […]
Way of Improvement
Boston Seminar: Day 3
Our week in Boston with Roanoke-area K-12 history teachers marches on! Find out what happened on Day 1 and Day 2. Day 3 started with a morning lecture on the Enlightenment in Boston. My lecture was an attempt to explain […]
The Author’s Corner with Elizabeth Garner Masarik
Elizabeth Garner Masarik is Assistant Professor of History at the State University of New York, Brockport. This interview is based on her new book, The Sentimental State: How Women-Led Reform Built the American Welfare State (University of Georgia Press, 2024). […]
Another small Christian college is closing
From the Eastern Nazarene College (Quincy, Massachusetts) website: The Board of Trustees of Eastern Nazarene College today announced it has voted unanimously to begin the process of closing ENC and transitioning it into a new educational enterprise that will carry […]
Boston Seminar: Day 2
If you missed the Day 1 summary get up to speed here. Day 2 of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History/Wilderness Education Project trip to Boston with Roanoke, VA-area teachers was packed with educational opportunities. We started out at […]
Boston Seminar: Day 1
I’m in Boston this week with a great group of history and social studies teachers from Roanoke, Virginia. We are exploring the colonial and revolutionary history of the city. The week-long seminar was made possible by the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of […]
More questions about Cornerstone University’s decision to fire humanities professors
Not familiar with this story? Get up to speed here and here and here. Cornerstone University is trying to refute our claims that it has eliminated all arts and humanities programs. In an interview with MinistryWatch blogger Warren Cole Smith, Cornerstone spokesperson Heide […]
Sunday night odds and ends
A few things online that caught my attention this week: What can Joe Biden learn from the Lincoln-Douglas debates? In Phoenix, water and political dysfunction are connected. Summer camp Garry Wills on Mother Jones Women and refugee settlements in the […]
Cornerstone University alumni react to the termination of Arts, Music, and Humanities programs
Cornerstone University recently terminated its Arts, Music, and Humanities programs. Tenured faculty were fired. Get up to speed here and here. Some of our sources in Grand Rapids have gathered these comments from Cornerstone alums and former students: A Journalism […]
Volunteers and prayers are keeping the doors open at a Pennsylvania Christian college
Back in the day, when I was a student at Philadelphia College of Bible (now Cairn University), we used to play a school from Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania called Baptist Bible College (BBC). The BBC Defenders basketball team dominated the now-defunct […]
What is popular this week at CURRENT?
Here are the most popular features of the week at Current: Here are the most popular posts of the last week at The Way of Improvement Leads Home blog: Here are the most popular posts of the last week at The Arena blog:
“Welcome to East Beltline Trade and Vocational School”
David L. Turner, a former professor at Cornerstone University’s Cornerstone Theological Seminary (formerly Grand Rapids Theological Seminary), reflects on the recent cuts to Humanities and Arts programs at Cornerstone. Here is a taste of his blog post: Bad news about […]
The Harlem Renaissance librarians
We don’t normally think about librarians when we talk about the revival of African-American culture in Harlem during the 1920s and 1930s. But as Jennifer Schuessler notes in a recent piece at The New York Times, scholars are starting to […]
Grading robots?
I am heading back to the classroom in August after a year-long sabbatical. I am wondering just how much has changed since I left, especially in terms of student use of AI. Here is Beth McMurtrie at The Chronicle of […]
Eric Metaxas will interview Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
I am sure there will be a lot of anti-vax conversation when these two guys get together. Metaxas is charging $100 for the event. Learn more here. I wonder if they will discuss some of these recent Metaxas tweets:
Jenna Ellis pleads “not guilty” to felony charges in Arizona
Jenna Ellis is back in the news today. The lawyer who helped Donald Trump try to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and an outspoken evangelical Christian, pleaded “not guilty” today to forgery, fraud, and conspiracy charges in the Arizona “fake […]
Why do WFAN’s Sal Licata and Mike Francesca hate Grimace?
OK, it’s time to take a quick break from Trump, evangelicalism, and the problems with higher education. Friday is the first day of summer. Time for a little fun! As some of you know, I am a fan of the […]
What to read for Juneteenth
Still unfamiliar with Juneteenth? Get up to speed here. The Atlantic offers some reading suggestions, including this take on Annette Gordon-Reed’s On Juneteenth: Back in 2021, about a month before Juneteenth became a federal holiday, The Atlantic published an excerpt from Annette Gordon-Reed’s […]
Cornerstone University responds to our story on faculty cuts and the termination of humanities and arts programs
Earlier this week, we called your attention to Cornerstone University’s decision to fire tenured professors and terminate all humanities and arts programs. Get up to speed here. Yesterday, WOOD TV-8 the Grand Rapids NBC affiliate, did a story on our […]
Vin Scully meets Willie Mays
On the day of Scully’s final Dodgers broadcast: RIP Say Hey Kid! And as long as we are talking about Scully, I still love his rendition of the Lord’s Prayer: