2 (and a half) Rants

Sippican Cottage rants quite skillfully about the American educational system. Gorgeous snip:

Devotees of the modern approach to learning don't like it when you point out that critical thinking requires knowing things, hard factual things, so you can tell if someone's pulling your leg or not. They'd rather that critical thinking consist of half-remembering the prejudices of your teacher on cue. But they can't even get the kids to remember those. Taking that word out of Huckleberry Finn and another hundred billion in school loans oughta do it.

And then there's Jeff Dunn at the Internet Monk (which, btw, is rounding into a very fine group blog), who rants here and then again here on the prevalence of self-help teaching in the church. Like this:

If you are striving to be a winner in this world, I would avoid Jesus if I were you. He wants you to lose. Lose your life, lose your hold on doing things your own way. But if you are willing to be a loser, then (here is where you expect me to say, “You’ll find you are one of life’s winners!” Sorry. Keep reading.) you’ll find great company. Most of the men and women we read about in Scripture were grand losers in the eyes of the world.

Oh, and see Demaris Zehner's response to Jeff. She's not exactly in hearty agreement with Jeff, and she makes some strong points for her team.