On Friday morning, I learned of a tragedy. Dr. Samuel Hsu, Philadelphia Biblical University’s Distinguished Professor of Music and Chair Keyboard studies, died. He was struck by a car while walking in Center City in Philadelphia. I did not know Dr. Hsu—or at least I did not think I knew Dr. Hsu. As the day continued, I learned that this man has had a profound impact for Christ in our community. Two of our faculty members—Mr. Reese and Mr. Siegenthaler—were students of his at PBU. Both of them were immensely influenced and blessed by his work and investment in them. As the day continued, I learned of other family’s that knew Dr. Hsu and were influenced by his kindness and his investment in their lives. (more…)

My final word for now on this is that the furor of the Occupy Movement (and they did seem angry when they were marching toward Emily and me beating drums and chanting obscenities) is misguided. They are angry at Wall Street. I can understand this anger. The Wall Street bankers were greedy and stupid. They made silly bets that were doomed to fail (see Michael Lewis’s excellent book The Big Short or my blog post on it The Big and Short of It). They did this and when the bets went bad they went begging. The government (who should be the enforcers of things like law and discipline) flinched and,  fearing a catastrophic meltdown of the world economy ran the credit card for the entire nation to bail out these bad decisions. This might have saved the economy from a meltdown (my bet is that it just made the problem bigger and that the slow train of judgment will just arrive a little later and will be moving even faster when it gets here.)  

The action of the government was morally wrong. The American people should not have to pay for the bad bets (stupid, greedy, idiotic bets) of nincompoops. These brokers should not have walked away with plenty of money in their own bank accounts. They should be in jail or in a new career having all their assets stripped from them. For that matter, everyone who was making money buying investments that were stoked by the subprime boom should have lost their shirts. They did not. The government stepped in a kept the just judgment from happening.

Occupy is steamed about this. I am too.

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You might not have caught this or you might have listened to it on the way home—or you might have heard it, but not realized it. On Thursday, N.D. Wilson (Douglas Wilson’s son) was featured on National Public Radio’s All Thing’s Considered. Here is the interview:

Epic Fantasy Meets Americana In ‘The Dragon’s Tooth’ 

N.D. (or Nate) was a student at the Logos School in Moscow. His books have become increasingly beloved by young people. He cut his teeth on the very education that your children are getting. In fact, when your kids study Omnibus I here at Veritas Academy they read and study Herodotus’ Histories. N.D. is the author of that Omnibus chapter. Sometimes, parents ask why classical Christian education stresses reading stories and writing. N.D. Wilson will be one of the authors forming the imagination of this generation. What might that mean? I am not sure, but it could be very good.

Enjoy the interview, and if you would like a great story about N.D. and his efforts to raise funds for our school just stop by my office and ask.

Last week I finished Louis Auchincloss’ excellent book The Rector of Justin. It chronicles the life of a fictional Episcopal Boys Boarding School and its legendary Headmaster Frank Prescott. If you want a copy it is available at:

Barnes and Noble: The Rector of Justin

You should read it. While reading this book several things shocked me. First, I recognized that this is the only positive portrayal of a Evangelical Christian School Headmaster that I can recall in the history of Western Literature. (I was a quick fan.)

Second, the novel recounts the life of this man through reflections of others—primarily one of his Master Teachers (Masters), and through words written about him by wealthy and shallow board members, rebellious and sometimes repenting students, and by his own wife and daughter. I was both disheartened and paradoxically encouraged by these reflections. Sad, because I know a little of the pain of loss that is recounted. The misunderstandings and disappointments of building an institution. Prescott’s school serves the very wealthy and the very apt (scholarships are given for poor but promising lads). Even in this positive portrayal there is a lot of pain and a lot of regret. Most of the book is done in flashback to earlier times. In the book’s present, the old Headmaster is retiring and he is struggling with the changes that his successor is making to the school that he built. I was encouraged, however, by someone writing so knowingly about these struggles and I was encouraged by the character of Prescott who continually aims, though flawed, is both a heroic and sympathetic character.

Finally . . .

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I recently finished Rick Perlstein’s Nixonland. It was a riveting work about the most tumultuous and, perhaps, the most meaningful time in American political history since the Founding Fathers—1964 through 1972. The character at the center of this story is Richard Nixon. But there are many other characters. The book begins in unity and consensus and ends in division and chaos. It begins with Nixon exiled to political oblivion after his humiliating loss to John F. Kennedy in the 1960 presidential election. It revels in the backstory of Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon revealing the deep divisions that existed even when America did not believe that these divisions were real. In Nixon’s mind one the great division was the divide between “Franklins”—wealthy, educated, people, who went to the right schools, were members of the right clubs, and who generally held power. The other class of people were “Orthogonians”. These were strivers who relied on moral uprightness and sweat to reach their goals. (Nixon actually started a group in college called the “Orthogonians”.)

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I wanted to share this article with you about a young lady at Princeton who has excelled in the study of the classical languages. She is planning on attending graduate school and advocating for the value of more classical language study in schools. Here’s the article:

Latin at Princeton

Yesterday might have been a watershed (an Epiphany if you will). I woke to this headline and article: Teachers’ salaries rise here even as schools face deficits

This story begins (tentatively) to ask one of the questions that we are going to have to answer as a culture over the next decade: “Can we afford to continue to fund education in the way that we have in the past?” (BTW, this is only a subset of the larger question: “Can we afford to live in the way what we have in the past?”) The obvious answer is no.

This answer keeps staring us in the face. We keep looking away. It has not stopped staring. The Federal government is answering this question presently by printing money to maintain a false, unsustainable reality. I am convinced that the Federal government so long as it has this power will never answer the question. States cannot print money so right now they are having to think how they will actually live sustainably—i.e., spend only what you have. 

The story is a watershed for this area because . . . .

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Part of my ongoing education is listening to important speeches from the past. Today, I listened to part of Bill Clinton’s Farewell Address. I never dreamed I would be nostalgic about Bill Clinton.

I opposed him at every point when he was President. I thought of him as an unprincipled pragmatist. As a rather philosophical fellow then, (and still) I thought that there were few curses that could be uttered that were more damning than “pragmatist.”  

I was wrong! Way wrong! Listen to this snippet of the speech and tell me what you think:

Clinton’s Farewell Speech

Some things might cause giggles (highest home ownership in history…how were we doing that?) but look at where we were 10 years ago. We were on a track to cancel the National Debt. Clinton brags that he (remember that Republican majority in Congress) got us a smaller government. He brags about it! I feel sick, but I have to admit…I am nostalgic for Clinton.