NewsWatch

Reviving an Old-School Teaching Method

IntellectualTakeout.org, 5/8/23, “Georgia and Arkansas Revive an Old-School Teaching Method” [Excerpts]: In his rousing keynote address at The Heritage Foundation’s 50th anniversary gala last month, then-[former] Fox News host Tucker Carlson offered an unexpected piece of advice: “Don’t throw away your hard-copy books.”

Unlike digitized books, films, and albums that can be canceled, rewritten, or vanished altogether, physical copies are “the enduring repository that cannot be disappeared.”

With their resurrection of poetry recitation requirements, educators in Georgia and Arkansas are protecting that repository in more ways than one, steeping students in a reality they can affirm, trust, and love.

Both states’ recently proposed revised K-12 English language arts standards that would require that students recite “all or part of significant poems and speeches as appropriate by grade level,” as the Georgia standards put it.

Against the incessant barrage of screens, images, and headlines that seems inescapable, leisure requires the silence, space, and attention to apprehend reality.

Hence, while no child needs to be taught how to be outraged or entertained, children must be taught how to occupy their leisure. That has always been the case...but is especially vital in a day and age in which children—indeed, all Americans—are constantly bombarded by different forms of entertainment totally at odds with genuine leisure.

https://bit.ly/3Cace1E

Bullet Proof Spiders

CreationMoments.com, 5/9/23, “Bullet Proof Spiders” [Excerpts]: The silk produced by spiders is very different from the silk produced by silkworms in some very important ways. While silkworm silk is strong yet not prone to stretching, spiders make silk that is both strong and stretchy.

In fact, spider silk is stronger than an equal amount of steel and yet it stretches. Spider silk is made of nothing more than proteins. However, scientists are finding it extremely difficult to study the chemical structure of spider silk because it resists most of their efforts to break it down into its chemical parts. Scientists have finally resorted to hot, concentrated acids to break down the silk. They are learning that one type of spider silk is made up of lengths of very stiff amino acids, separated by segments of amino acids that form a springy helix. Together they contribute to the strength and stretchiness of spider silk.

Scientists are exploring how spider silk is made, because this wonderful material promises new methods for creating stronger and lighter materials for human use. One possible use would be making cloth that is both comfortable and bulletproof.

God has done all things well. The fact that we can learn to design better things by learning how He designed things is a witness for His wisdom as well as a witness against claims that the creation designed itself by trial and error. However, there is much more to God’s plans for us, as you can learn from the Bible.

https://bit.ly/43tHip1

King James Bible Banned from Some Schools

ToddStarnes.com, 6/2/23, “King James Bible Banned from Some Utah Schools” [Excerpts]: The King James Bible is being removed from elementary and middle school libraries in Davis County, Utah, after a complaint that it contained passages describing sex and violence.

High schools in the county will still be able to keep the scriptures on their library shelves. A three-person committee, appointed by the county school district to determine if the Bible is appropriate for students to see, found it contained vulgarity or violence, The Salt Lake City Tribune reported.

Davis County School District Communications Director Christopher Williams said that while the committee did not find that the book contained “sensitive material” as defined in Utah law, some vulgarity and violence was found to be inappropriate for younger readers.

The complaint against the Bible was filed by an unknown person in March, according to ABC4. It came after a statewide law passed in 2022 permitted challenges to books found in school libraries.

ABC4 noted that...Davis County has removed 33 books for material deemed inappropriate for younger readers, including sex, vulgarity, and violence.

Meanwhile, Williams said an individual has already filed an appeal of the decision in an attempt to make the Bible available to all age levels in schools in the county.

https://bit.ly/3quJzlh