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A La Carte (2/23)
- 02/23/11
- 16
In case you missed it yesterday (because I posted it a little later in the day), be sure to check out the special giveaway I wrote about. You could win a manuscript of a sermon preached by Charles Spurgeon. It’s a great little collector’s item.
Where Have the Good Men Gone? - This is an interesting article from the WSJ. “But for all its familiarity, pre-adulthood represents a momentous sociological development. It’s no exaggeration to say that having large numbers of single young men and women living independently, while also having enough disposable income to avoid ever messing up their kitchens, is something entirely new in human experience.”
The Feeling of Reading - I enjoyed this article about the feeling of reading a book. “As I held books that were thirty years old yesterday, flipping the dusty pages, reading autographs and inscriptions, and admiring cover art, I realized I'm missing something. There's something, something I can't explain, about the way a book feels to hold and read that no digital version can match. Yesterday I felt like I was holding a story, an entire world ready for me to explore--I've never felt that way on my iPad.”
Vatican Files - Reformation21 is beginning what looks to be an interesting series. The series, titled “Vatican Files,” will look at Catholicism in the 21st century.
8th Grade - Gene Veith looks at a test for eighth graders from 1895. I wouldn’t do so well on it.
Update on Said Musa - Denny Burk offers an update on Said Musa, the man imprisoned in Afghanistan. “Smeitana says that Said's wife and children have already fled the country, that Said has been moved to a safer prison, and that the Afghan authorities are feeling the pressure from American officials to release Said himself.”
Piper on Technological Distraction - John Piper speaks on the growing problem of technological distraction and its relation to prayer.
We must never talk about the failure of Christianity. It is impossible for Christianity to fail. What fails is the shabby counterfeit to the real thing that we are willing to put up with. —Geoffrey King
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
Releasing on April 1, The Next
Published in 2008, this book
This is a guide that calls men,
This review of the bestselling
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This is a guide written
Comments (16)
I think that test was from 1895. By 1985 you passed if you could put your name on your test.
Oh brother. I could swear it said 1985!! Going for more coffee now….
I will tell you where have all the good men gone , the feminist movement neutered them , and for the last 40 years boys have been ridiculed in the media , schools have been feminized as well as Churches and most men don’t even know who they are anymore. Plus I have grown tired of its all a mans fault. I’m 47 but have a few male friends who are in their mid 20’s , are into solid careers and have been dumped by women who don’t want family’s and the mess it comes with having kids. Plus having raised 2 sons who are entering their adult years , I have seen the pool of girls that are their peers and its not a pretty sight.Do I think many young men need to grow up , yes they do but I think this is a equal opportunity offense with women as well. The street runs both ways .
Membership has its privileges.From the 19th century test:RULES FOR TEACHERS18724. Men teachers may take one evening each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if they go to church regularly.
Just a brief comment on the “Where have the good men gone”? topic: I think it’s safe to say that we’re more of an individualistic culture than ever, at least in the Western world. Most advise gurus will tell you to discover yourself and fulfill your own desires for true happiness. This even trends a bit to the Christian subculture, where something like marriage is not really as “noble” or “fulfilling” as going overseas for two years or spending five years getting a seminary degree. Not bashing either of those examples…just realizing that marriage seems to be on a less-respected tier of “things to do”, even among Christians.
Such a self-centered mindset can tend to lead to a more selfish lifestyle that prolongs the adolescent period. As a young 23 year old single male myself, I am constantly having to guard myself from slipping into the “fulfill my own selfish desires all the time…because I don’t have to worry about anyone or anything else!!”
RE: 8the Grade
Notwithstanding the questions being asked, did anyone notice the SIX HOURS they give to complete it? I thought exams lasting three hours were long!
The question isn’t really whether any of us would do well on that test, but whether we’d do well on a test of “*comparable difficulty* that reflected more contemporary educational concerns. And by “contemporary educational concerns,” I don’t mean faddish stuff or junky stuff, but things like the fact that it’s much more important nowadays to know who Robert Goddard or Robert Oppenheimer were, than Elias Howe. Things that, even in the best light, are more relevant to a modern education than things that were really important to people when sewing machines were still transforming society. In 1895, Thomas Edison didn’t even make the test. Granted that our woefully uneducated modern kids probably don’t know who Thomas Edison was to an acceptable percentage, it’s the fact that they don’t know that, that matters more than the fact that they don’t know the name “Howe” when they see it. Just as an example.
And there were educational fads reflected on that test, as well. Who says you have to be able to diacritically mark words to be literate, speak well, or spell properly? It’s good and right to test for all those things if you want to set high standards, but the methodology was a fad of the late 19th century, not a sine qua non of good rhetorical education.
So the fact that practically no eighth graders or even college graduates could pass *that test* tells us nothing, but what’s worrisome is that you could substitute questions of similar complexity reflecting modern knowledge and teaching methods, and they wouldn’t do so hot, either.
Re: 8th grade test: So many of the questions are purely based on memorization. Even the math questions.
Consider question 2. All you need to know is that the volume of the wagon is height multiplied by width multiplied by depth. Then you divide by the volume of a bushel of wheat to figure out how many bushels it holds. So you need to have memorized the volume of a bushel of wheat.
For question 3 you need only realize that computing total cost requires multiplying the poundage by cost per pound, then subtracting the tare amount.
Question 5 is trivial as long as you know how many pounds are in a ton.
Now contrast that with the modern 8th grade math test, which has students solving for variables in algebraic equations. Students need to know the concepts of irrational vs. rational numbers, prime vs. composite, mean vs. median vs. mode, standard deviation, etc. Honestly it seems more challenging than the 1895 version, aside from the memorization requirement.
What impresses me most about the 1895 test is that it isn’t multiple choice. Students have to produce the information unprompted instead of just choosing the correct answer from 4 or 5 options. It also includes several essay questions.
Some things I wonder about: what is the percentage of children in the community that would have taken this test? Was it the case in Selena, Kansas in 1895 that only those children with aspirations of higher learning would have taken this test? If so, then we could talking about a group of kids that were self-selected for high aptitude and not a general sampling of the population. Was school compulsory? If not, then the only kids who attended school were the ones who either 1) wanted to learn or 2) had parents who were serious enough about their education that they were willing to go without the child’s labor. In an agrarian community that could be a significant financial sacrifice. In both of these cases we’re selecting for kids likely to overachieve (i.e. either self-motivated or having highly motivated and self-sacrificial parents).
The CNS piece Veith links to is also misleading. Compared to its neighbors, Wisconsin’s 8th grade reading scores are better than those of Illinois and Iowa, but worse than those of Minnesota. It does spend the most per student, but the difference is slight. $10,791 for Wisconsin vs. $10,353 for Illinois, $10,048 for Minnesota and $9520 for Iowa. If he’s trying to make the point that unions are killing education in Wisconsin, then it’s worth noting the list of states with the highest 8th grade reading scores: Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Vermont. I’m guessing these states have strong unions compared to the rest of the United States. (Not that I necessarily think strong unions contribute to better reading scores, but the fact that those particular states have the highest scores seems to work against the thesis of the CNS piece.)
Kudos to Reg (#3) and Pentamom (#7) for cutting to the core of those two issues.
Yeah, since men can’t get their act together, it MUST be the woman’s fault. Women are responsible for all ills - from the fall in Genesis to the modern day immaturity of men. Women must be put in their place. Sigh. Sexism and blame shifting is alive and well.
Lets not blame women OR men. How about more self-responsibility for all? Kudos to J Hogan for his more balanced thoughts on our individualistic western culture. And he is a 23 yr old male! We need more young men like him.
Reg @ #3, exactly.
And, along those lines, here’s an excellent rebuttal piece to the WSJ nonsense.
Men need to stop eating this WSJ-style nonsense up. It’s killing us. And it’s not good for women either, for that matter.
http://artofmanliness.com/trunk/750/where-have-the-good-men-gone-or-here…
Another response to the WSJ article (by a woman) that doesn’t let men off the hook, but calls out women as “enablers”:
http://www.frumforum.com/whos-to-blame-when-men-act-like-boys
For what it’s worth, the “Grade 8 test” has been around the internet for years. The original does NOT say Grade 8, but refers to “applicants” and many believe it was a test for aspiring teachers.
Here is the original. http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kssvgs/school/exam1895/8th_exam_orig.pdf
I was watching/listening to the Piper video, then realised that at the same time I had flicked between several different tabs on my browser and clicked several links…… Challenging.
And, some women write poetry about men, instead of simply criticizing. Likely a more productive approach:
This poem is presumably riding around on Vancouver city busses these days:
http://dawn-marie-kresan.blogspot.com/2010/09/poetry-in-transit.html
Actually most of the “men problems” rests on past parenting methods. Our parents told my wife and I not to marry in 1998 at 21 and 20, too early, you’re in college (i.e. you’re broke) and “you don’t have health insurance!” We did it anyway. Then they told us we were too young to have children at 25, but we did it anyway. Then the second one came along and they said “again?” When the 5th kid arrived this year, they had learned to just be joyful and stop asking questions.
Since the 80’s, parents want their kids to wait. Get an education, get a good job, then get married, then pay off student loans, then maybe have kids (cause, you know, kids cost so much!) Have fun while you’re young. Carpe diem and all that! After all, kids will be kids, and young men will be kids, and 30 yr. olds will be kids still living at home.