What do George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and Steve Jobs have in common?

| joshsabey

starwars

After seeing the final iteration of The Hobbit saga, my wife joked with me that Peter Jackson must have called George Lucas for advice—think about it. Who else would you ask about how to make a second trilogy that was actually a prequel to the first trilogy but had a younger audience demographic in mind? I mean, imagine the conversation:

“The first thing you have to realize, Peter, is that your fan base in finicky and won’t want more of the same. To keep their interest you’ll have to add more spectacle, less plot, a few cartoony characters, and a contrived love story with horrendous dialogue developed between action sequences. Continue reading →

How Should we Study the Bible?

| joshsabey

moby

I have recently been working on creating an interfaith and interdisciplinary study Bible with the goal of broadening our approach to the good book. The project would allow readers to gather any relevant video, literature, art, music, et cetera, around passages of scriptures—anything from graffiti to Talmudic commentary. I began the project because I believed and still believe it could be an important step in interfaith dialogue as well as a way to revitalize the Bible from what I believe may be a tragedy of our time: the division of the spiritual and secular worlds. For a thousand years the Bible has been at the center of life, culture, education, art, philosophy, and science. It inspired Dante, Spencer, Milton, Wordsworth, Dickens, and Dostoyevsky to name just a few authors. But now it is increasingly becoming a shield situated between the spiritual self and that dreaded secularization—or the world outside of religion. While this bifurcation helps to maintain Christian identity, I’m not convinced it is the most productive use of scripture. Continue reading →

Thoughts on Teacher Preparation (Part 2)

| davidsabey

The most common conceptualization of what happens when we learn is some version of inputting: We imagine that learning involves taking something located outside of our brain and bringing it inside. Though intuitive, this conceptualization of the learning process is problematic. This is the way that many teachers think about student learning, and it is also the way that teacher preparation programs approach the learning of prospective teacher’s. Indeed, this philosophy of teacher preparation may actually be at the root of our failure to adequately prepare teachers for the demands of the profession. I intend to explain why I think this is so, and offer an alternative model of learning that seems to me less problematic and more promising.

When prospective teachers enroll in a teacher preparation program, usually at a university’s school of education, they take courses where they learn about educational psychology, curriculum design, and teaching methods. All of this is generally interesting and potentially valuable. However, this inputting, though arguably necessary, is not sufficient. Once teachers enter a classroom, Continue reading →

Reply to Equality is NOT a False Ideal

| briansabey

lady-justice

Here is my reply:

Thank you so much for your thoughtful response, Rob. Our blog desperately needs dialogue with differing views–both for balance and for interest. And all of us desperately need dialogue with differing views for mere sanity. That said, though, I agree with much of what you say here. But I still maintain that equality should not be considered an end in itself.

My goal with this essay was not to argue that equality is never proper or good or even requisite. It sometimes is all of those things. My goal was to show that it is never the fundamental good that is at issue in any context, and that it is illegitimate to think of it as a fundamental good. My description of it as “a false ideal” may be a little strong, but the strong formulation is intended to grab the attention.

What do I mean by a “fundamental good”? I would say that there are two types of fundamental goods Continue reading →

Equality is NOT A False Ideal (Rob’s Response to Brian)

| thebrotherssabey

My friend and cousin, Rob Blair, posted this thoughtful rebuttal of my article on Facebook. I repost here with his permission, my response to follow soon. Thank you, Rob!

The “equality of discernment” argument is not one made by any who espouse equality as a political or philosophical value. It is, in my experience, exclusively a straw-man argument, popularized by Ayn Rand.

To say that the race justification of slavery was a secondary evil is problematic. It is that institutionalization that caused continued damage and disadvantage to members of that race. Further, debating which was more evil (the terrible treatment or the way it narrativized an entire race of people in a way that would continue to be destructive to that race in the centuries to come) is rather besides the point. There is no reason we need to choose which one is more important; they are both fundamentally wrong and both deserve attention, consideration, and resolution.

I don’t agree with your premise that equality is not an end to itself. Continue reading →

Equality: A False Ideal

| briansabey

FrenchState

“Liberty, equality, fraternity!”: the equality sandwich served up by the French revolutionaries. The outer terms were there mainly because the meat—like the French laborers—needed bread for support. “Equality” seemed to them infinitely more palatable when surrounded by such fine-sounding terms as “liberty” and “fraternity;” airy yet substantial, like a baguette. But the essence of the Revolution was that the Nobles and Royals and Priests were to be pulled down, and the People elevated.

Tastes have changed, and perhaps grossened, since those guillotine days; we now find “equality!” palatable as an entrée unto itself. Most contemporary people seem to take it for granted that equality, in and of itself, is a worthy goal. In our zeal for “equality!” we have eschewed all varieties of discrimination. But some types of discrimination can be a very good thing—for example, the types that are synonymous with “discernment” or “good taste.” Continue reading →