On Fridays, we bring you the best of our blog and the best of the web. This week’s roundup includes an interview with Arthur Brooks, a closer look at the Chicago teacher’s strike, a review of education technologies, and more.
1. Earned Success: An Interview with Marvin Olasky and Arthur Brooks: Marvin Olasky, editor-in-chief of World Magazine, interviews Arthur Brooks, the president of AEI, about fairness, earned success, and his atypical path to a think tank presidency.
When you told your dad about your new plan [to move from a prestigious orchestra position to academic work], what did he say? I said, “Dad, I want to become an economist.” After a silence he said, “Why would you want to do that? You’re at the top of your career.” I said, “Because I’m not happy.” He said, “What makes you so special?”2. Anti-Capitalism Drives Chicago Teacher Strike: Joy Pullmann explores the motivations behind the strike of the Chicago teachers.
In short, capitalism has made teachers comfortable while government-monopolized education has destroyed many children’s futures. If teachers are so obviously and openly hostile to and ignorant of this historic, central fact, what might they be teaching children about capitalism in the classrooms?3. Many-to-One vs. One-to-Many: An Opinionated Guide to Educational Technology: Arnold Kling reviews the most, and least, promising technologies for the future of education.
The attempt to achieve large scale in college courses is misguided. Instead of trying to come up with a way to extend the same course to tens of thousands of students, educators should be asking the opposite question: How would I teach if I only had one student? Educators with just one student in their class would not teach by lecturing.4. The RJ Moeller Show: Caroline May and Adam Carnehl: This week RJ talks with reporter Caroline May about the recent conventions and Adam Carnehl about British writer G.K. Chesterton.
5. Economic Man Versus God’s Grand Design: Elise Amyx traces the roots of the dehumanization of the modern “economic man.”
The study and practice of economics has evolved from social science to a math-centric science by gradually erasing the truth of humanity and God in economics. If homo economicus has eclipsed God’s design of humanity—complex, intricate, and made in His image—how then should we as Christians approach economics?
