Category: Education

Let’s start with a hypothetical proposition:

If God exists, I will not see the movie “Catwoman.”

Sounds simple enough! I mean to say that if God exists, He makes certain demands on us with regard to moral behavior. Seeing Halle Berry (proverbially) prowl around the world seeking the ruin of male souls in her Catwoman outfit would be acting contrary to those demands. Her disguise can harldy be called an “outfit” – it’s more like cat ears and three postage stamps. To see this movie would be a near occasion of sin at the very least and in all likelyhood actually sinful. Consequently, I will not see the movie “Catwoman.”

The mixed hypothetical syllogism in standard form, minus the stuff about demands, moral behavior, cat ears, postage stamps, and sin:

If God exists, then I will not see the movie “Catwoman.”
God exists.
I will not see the movie “Catwoman.”

This is a formally valid syllogism. It’s logical form is known as modus ponens, or affirming the antecedent.

Philosophy professor James Tuttle is suing Lakeland (OH) Community College. The College reduced his teaching schedule and thus his salary — contrary to seniority rules — in an apparent move to punish him after he disclosed his Catholic point of view to his students and even — shock — mentioned it in a class syllabus!

Dean Brown went on to suggest that Dr. Tuttle “would be happier in a sectarian classroom.”

Just imagine the outrage if some other philosophy professor were urged to go get a job at another college because his philosophy was… (you fill in the blank).

Some weeks ago I volunteered to help manage and train the altar servers at my parish. I’ve noticed that the vast majority of them have no clue what is going on during Mass; they don’t say the proper responses or sing things like the Alleluia, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. Does anyone know of a simple booklet out there to teach kids what the Mass is all about? I’m looking for something small and inexpensive. Give Mr. Sal some help now and we might get more vocations out of this parish!

Giving ‘Exodus’ a new meaning, Cal Thomas – washtimes.com

Now comes what could be the most radical and most successful education reform proposal ever made. The Southern Baptist Convention — the nation’s largest Protestant denomination with about 17 million members — meets this week in Indianapolis, and among the resolutions it is considering is one calling upon parents to withdraw their children from public schools and either educate them at home or enroll them in private Christian academies.

This might be interesting to Catholic Light readers, especially since the previous discussion of universities veered off into a discussion about Catholic primary schools:
Jeff Jacoby, a Boston Globe columnist, reports that the Southern Baptists may consider a resolution at their convention “urging the denomination’s 16 million members to take their children out of public schools and either home school them or send them to parochial schools.”
If this becomes a trend, it’s a huge shift for Protestant churches. It used to be that “secular” schools taught an essentially Protestant worldview, complete with Bible readings in many school districts. Therefore, Protestants — including “good guys” like the Southern Baptists — have been reluctant to give up on public schools.
This is an entirely good thing. We need more fellow citizens to stand up for the principle that it is parents who raise children with the assistance of the schools, not the other way around. Evangelicals are roughly a third of the electorate, as are Catholics. If we join forces, maybe we can enact the best school reform of all, which is getting the state out of directly running schools altogether.