Are We Living in a Golden Age of Stupidity?

Are We Living in a Golden Age of Stupidity? by Sophie McBain at The Guardian. With some MIT colleagues, research scientist Nataliya Kosmyna set up an experiment that used an electroencephalogram to monitor people’s brain activity while they wrote essays, either with no digital assistance, or with the help of an internet search engine, or ChatGPT. She found that the more external help participants had, the lower their level of brain connectivity, so those who used ChatGPT to write showed significantly less activity in the brain networks associated with cognitive processing, attention and creativity. Read 

Students Are Reading Garbage by Liza Libes at Minding the Campus. It’s no secret that student literacy is declining. SAT reading scores of Ivy League admits are consistently lower than their SAT math scores, with students from Brown, Columbia, Penn, and Harvard scoring 40 points lower on reading comprehension than on math. Similarly, the National Center for Education Statistics has reported a consistent decline in both fourth- and eighth-grade reading scores since 2019, with students in 33 states performing worse on standardized reading tests in 2022 than they did in 2019. While it is easy to blame the rise of technology, something more insidious is happening both in and outside of the classroom. Read

How Phonics Saved British Primary Education featuring Sir Nick Gibb at Anchored by the Classical Learning Test. On this episode of Anchored, Jeremy is joined by Sir Nick Gibb, the former UK Minister of State for Schools. They explore the educational reforms he led in Britain, examining how these changes delivered real, measurable change. They also talk about the key role that foundational tools, such as phonics and multiplication tables, played in driving educational transformation. Listen

New Catholic Sports Coaching Program Focuses on Mind, Body, and Soul by Kate Quiñones at Catholic News Agency. As a competitive figure skater growing up, Rachael Popcak Isaac experienced firsthand the pressure that comes with competitive sports. Now as a devout Catholic and a professional counselor she has launched a new program for athletes inspired by St. John Paul II’s theology of the body. Read

Opinion: Why Catholic Schools Need Catholic Teachers by Chuck Koach at Catholic World Report. If a Catholic school is serious about forming Catholic students, it must be equally serious about hiring Catholic teachers. That shouldn’t be controversial. But in many circles, sometimes even within Catholic education itself, it is. There remains a strange reluctance among some Catholic institutions to affirm what should be self-evident: that Catholic identity begins with Catholic people. You cannot transmit what you do not live. Read

Making Scripture Come Alive by Haley Stewart at Word on Fire. Haley interviews Emily Stimpson Chapman. Emily is mom to three toddlers, the voice behind popular Substack Through a Glass Darkly and co-host of The Visitation Sessions Podcast. She is a household name in the Catholic writing world, co-authoring books with Scott Hahn and writing for both children and adults. In this episode we’re talking about her brand new project with Word on Fire Votive: The Story of All Stories: A Story Bible for Young Catholics. Listen

I Picked One of the Most “Extreme” Catholic Colleges—and It Changed Everything by Chuck Koach at Crisis Magazine. I see the genius of a college where faith isn’t just fused to an after-school young adult group but is, instead, integrated into the heartbeat of campus life. Christendom hasn’t just offered me a degree. It has given me clarity and direction. It has given me a foundation—one I didn’t even know I needed. Here’s how this “extreme” Catholic school became the best decision of my life. Read

The Purpose and Goal of Education by The Rev. Michael Rennier at Pondus Meum Amor Meus. The philosopher Plutarch, in his treatise on education, says, “The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.” I wonder if the typical American conception of education isn’t quite the opposite, that there are a certain number of texts, a canonical syllabus of sorts, that must be read, studied, and commented upon. The speculative content of the texts must be gotten into the minds of – when we’re talking about high-schoolers – somewhat reluctant recipients. We’re in a rush to cram intellectual learning into those wonderful minds of theirs. Read

Pope to Issue Document on Catholic Education, Name St. Newman Co-Patron by Cindy Wooden at Our Sunday Visitor News. Pope Leo XIV will issue a document on Catholic education Oct. 28, marking the 60th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on education, a top Vatican official said. Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, also told reporters Oct. 22 that in the document Pope Leo will name St. John Henry Newman “co-patron” of Catholic education. Read

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Throwback Thursday

Of Montessori Interest by Kirk Kramer at The Catholic Thing on March 8, 2009. Nobody teaches a young child language. They absorb it. That should cause us to be in awe at the power of a young child…Prior to the age of reason, the human being possesses what Maria Montessori called ‘the absorbent mind’. There’s no limit to what the young child can take in through the senses…Whatever’s in their environment is right and good. That’s why it’s important for parents to allow in their children’s environment only what’s right and good. Read