There was a time, about 120 years ago, when almost everyone in Canada could read and write well, could do the math calculations needed in their daily life and work, often without pencil and paper, knew a good bit about world history and understood how governments worked. It is not that way today. It is … Continue reading Public Schools: mediocrity is the goal
grammar
No-fault schooling
A friend told me how he had applied for a job as a technician at a chemical plant, claiming diplomas that he did not have. When he got the job, he spent the weekend cramming with chemical textbooks, started work on Monday and quickly became an expert technician. After a number of months, he told … Continue reading No-fault schooling
Illiteracy in Elementary and Secondary Schools
[The decline in the public education system did not begin yesterday. These paragraphs are excerpted from a book published almost 60 years ago. The difference today is that most people accept this as normal - they don't remember a time when things were different.] Is it possible that this timidity, this excessive appeal to "interest", … Continue reading Illiteracy in Elementary and Secondary Schools
What is this world coming to?
In the home where I grew up there was a marvellous old gramophone and a hundred or more cylinders with recorded music. The gramophone consisted of a well crafted wooden case with a crank on the side that provided the power to turn a spindle under the lid. To play, I would first wind it … Continue reading What is this world coming to?
Five Reasons NOT to go to University
1. You won’t learn any useful work skills. Employers are looking for people who are articulate, literate, numerate and willing to serve. They find that most university graduates are lacking in these qualities. A large proportion of university graduates test as functionally illiterate. 2. You will learn to party. That will not be a useful … Continue reading Five Reasons NOT to go to University
Who was Benjamin Eby?
Benjamin Eby was a great-great-grandson of Jacob Eby, who was ordained bishop of the Mennonites at Zurich, Switzerland in 1663. Jacob’s son, Theodor us Eby, left Switzerland in 1704 to escape the persecution of the Mennonites that was going on there. This Eby family settled in Lancaster County Pennsylvania in 1715. Benjamin Eby’s older brother, … Continue reading Who was Benjamin Eby?
Language Difficulties in the AV
After four centuries the 1611 translation is still unmatched as the purest expression of the Word of God and as the greatest literary masterwork in the English language. There have been a few shifts in meaning and usage over the years, but they are not many and not difficult to comprehend. Here are a few … Continue reading Language Difficulties in the AV
The language of the Authorized Version of the Bible
Note: In this and future posts, I will refer to the 1611 English translation of the Bible as the Authorized Version, or AV, as this is the name by which it is known in most of the English-speaking world. In the USA, and to some extent in Canada, it is referred to as the King … Continue reading The language of the Authorized Version of the Bible
Massachesetts Melodies
Three hundred and seventy-four years ago, the good shippe Confidence landed at Watertown in Boston Bay and disembarked a group of men and women come to establish a new home in a new land. They moved inland to an area along the Musquetaquid River and established the town of Sudbury, the second town above tidewater … Continue reading Massachesetts Melodies
Flatlander Faith 