The first-year experience (FYE) is a decades-old programmatic initiative aimed at introducing students to campus culture, improving transitions, and promoting retention, often through a course or classroom seminar. Research shows that FYE courses are valuable for students in general, as well as in specific subpopulations (e.g., international, first-gen, etc.) typically in need of additional support…

Teachers, have you ever cried in front of your students? With your students? I have not. I have come close a few times. When I stood in front of my class shortly after a campus shooting, I felt the heaviness of the collectively traumatic experience. When I asked my students to join me in prayer…

This virtue is not on any of the lists of character qualities for character education in public schools. One will also not find it on lists of virtues compiled by positive psychology scholars. Yet, it is perhaps one of the most important missing virtues among North American college students today. For example, Christian Smith found…

I wrote recently on this blog about Robert Cox’s distinction between “problem-solving theory” and “critical theory” In that post, I suggested that we ought to be graduating students who are capable not only of solving the specific problems that will arise in their work, but also of thinking critically about the institutions in which their…

“Build to-day, then, strong and sure, With a firm and ample base; And ascending and secure Shall to-morrow find its place.” -H.W. Longfellow- Since the ostensible end of the COVID pandemic, and with the return of students to in-person classes, America has seen an interesting shift on law school campuses. Observers note a rising wave of activist students that the National Jurist called “the protest generation.”Julia Brunette Johnson, “The Protest Generation,” National…

“My song is love unknown, my Saviour’s love to me; love to the loveless shown, That they might lovely be.”Samuel Crossman, “My Song is Love Unknown,” hymnary.org, 1664, https://hymnary.org/text/my_song_is_love_unknown It is common practice in many Christian denominations to reflect on the Passion during Lent. For instance, in the Catholic Church, there are the Stations of…

I was recently engaged in a conversation with an old friend who took up teaching late in life and via a non-traditional path (read - no formal pedagogical training). He was discussing his mounting pile of grading and his complete disinterest in reading his student’s papers. I believe we have all engaged in conversations regarding…

DAVID: Some years ago, I was teaching an intensive graduate class in curriculum studies to a group that included students from multiple countries. The first significant written assignment came a few days into the course. I asked students to write about how their upbringing and identity were likely to bias their curriculum work. Which of…

I recently wrote about how God’s kindness is directed to those considered vulnerable or oppressed in society, such as widows, the fatherless, and those in bondage. As a result, in our efforts to imitate God’s kindness, Christians’ kindness should also be specifically directed to these groups. Yet, another theme in the Bible is that the…