On Fridays, we bring you the week’s best from around the web. This week’s round-up features a taxi driver’s thoughts on the value of work, a new vision for America’s education system, and more.
1. “40 Years After ‘Working,’ A View From the Driver’s Seat” by National Public Radio
In the early 1970s, radio host and oral historian Studs Terkel went around the country with a tape recorder, interviewing people about their jobs. […] Among them is an unexpected interview with Helen Moog, a taxi driver. […] Moog told him she enjoyed her work because she liked driving and meeting people from all walks of life.
2. “Multiple Choice: Expanding Opportunity Through Innovation in K-12 Education”: Joined by Andy Smarick of Bellwether Education Partners and Jeffrey Baily of the Alete Scholars Fund, AEI’s Mike McShane discusses the vision for education reform that he lays out in his new book.
3. “The Lie Poverty Tells Us” by Grace Biskie, Christianity Today
The cycle of poverty seems so systemic, so inescapable that it’s hard for the poor to see it as a phase or a temporary condition waiting to be fixed by a government program or even a lucky job offer. Being poor becomes an identity we carry.
4. “The Meaning of Work in Life—and Death” by Art Lindsley, Institute for Faith, Work & Economics
If the Son of God was a small businessman, then we know that God values the mundane as well as the sublime, work and productivity, as well as miracle working, providing for your family as well as preaching to the multitudes. Not only did Jesus make good tables, but his toil was not in vain. If Jesus’s work for twenty years was not in vain, then how does that change the way we evaluate our own lives or those of others?
5. “Four Ways to Spot a Great Teacher” by Dana Goldstein, The Wall Street Journal
…[W]hat seems to matter most is getting one’s child inside the classroom of an effective teacher. Parents who do so see their children’s test scores rise by as much as 8% in reading and math, the study found.
