Shall the Fundamentals Win by Harry Emerson Fosdick

In the short book of “No Heroes, No Villains” by Steven Phillips On June 28, 1972, a Transit Authority patrolman, John Skagen, was on his way home from testifying at court for an arrest he made a couple of weeks prior. Skagen was taking the train home to the Bronx when he saw and stopped James Richardson who was awaiting the subway train which would take him to work at Lincoln Hospital. Skagen ordered him to “put up your hands, and get against the wall”. Skagen’s actions seem unprovoked and unnecessary. After a short tussle the two men exchanged shots and Richardson fled the scene on foot. Two other officers that were on the main street above the subway station rushed to the scene.

The reading I chose to critically analyze was written by Diane Ravitch and is named, “Essentials of a Good Education.” In the article, education activist Diane Ravitch, expresses her opinion about how the public education and schools in the United States are failing society. She indicates that schools are wasting their money and time on preparing students to pass state test instead of teaching them valuable life skills needed to succeed. She provides interesting support for this argument and explains why schools need to stop teaching the importance of test scores and focus on a full liberal arts curriculum, where students have a better chance to obtain an education they can take into the real world. Ms. Ravitch’s argument that the

In most affluent schools, parents have the expectation that their kids are being offered a full liberal arts curriculum that will allow them to further their creativity and curiosity. However, many schools have been only focusing on the subjects that are being tested on standardized tests set by the state, because they receive more school funding if they achieve higher test scores. In her article titled “The Essentials of a Good Education”, Diane Ravitch, utilizing direct examples of schools, and policies that limit student’s knowledge of the arts in order to have more time preparing for tests, points out that this shift in focus is causing students to suffer academically and is killing their curiosity and creativity.

"Battleground America," written by Jill Lepore, provides a strong history of guns and the way they have changed in the eyes of the American through the years. She proves her point with strong evidence throughout her article, sprinkling it with opinion and argument that is strongly supported. She presents her argument to convince her audience that the open availability of guns allows citizens to undeservingly purchase them by displaying the credibility in her sources, using negative connotations in her speech, and the strength and objectivity only a strong logos appeal can provide.

“Essentials of a Good Education” is an article by Diane Ravitch regarding the No Child Left Behind legislation and its effect on public schools in America. According to her, since that legislation was put into place, schools have cut funding to subjects that don’t get tested. This has taken some of the most ambitious students in the schools in poorer communities and put them at the same level as the students that don’t care about school and don’t try. That keeps the ambitious and advanced students from reaching their full potential in school. Although Ravitch makes good points about her opinion, she doesn’t consider any opposing opinion and she cites little to no sources for her information.

After our class viewing of the Age of Champions as well as reading the numerous articles including one by Rowe & Kahn, it is clear that there is a variety of ways people can view the term “aging successfully.” A variety of gerontologists have similarities and differences in their definition of the term, and this paper will compare some of the athletes from the film these definitions.

“College for the Masses” by David Leonhardt is a great article that displays the many benefits among lower-income students attending a four year college. “Why Poor Students Struggle” by Vicki Madden displays many examples from hers and her colleagues experiences while providing statistics of the lower-income joining a four year college. The two articles both display the benefits of attending a four year college and that the education pays off. David’s article talked about the different education levels based on their test score before attending the university and the amount of income, while Vicki’s focused more on the income and the effects on grades of students while attending the college on low income. David also goes more in detail about the disadvantages of community college than Vicki’s description of community college. “College for the Masses”, in my opinion, had more intensive descriptions and examples on the benefits of starting in a four year university, rather than community college.

The main message in Christianity & Liberalism is what the only object of faith is Christ. Machen composes his book into doctrine, God and man, the Bible, Christ, Salvation, and the Church; he shows all of this doctrine should be directly connected with the faith in Christ. If not, he declares that that should not be Christianity. In chapter 1 and 2, Machen emphasizes that how maintaining traditional doctrine is important. The reason for that is classical conservatives tried to keep the doctrine upon the Bible; however, classical liberalism attacked the traditional doctrine because Machen points out that liberal theologians and preachers want to interpret the truth from the point of a human. Machen even warns that the liberalism is shaking the faith in Christianity. In other words, it could be proper understanding that the liberalism rebelled against the truth and God’s word.

In the late 1980's, David Bebbington attempted to define what it meant to be an evangelical in America. He came up with a four part definition. The definition has four criteria and they are: biblicism, conversionism, crucicentrism, and activism. He wished to find a definition that would show what unified different evangelical movements and denominations during his time. Bebbington's definition can also be applied to modern or historic denominations and movements. Bebbington's definition should fit with any church that defines itself as evangelical, but what about a modern non-denominational bible church meets that definition? Also what does Bebbington's definition say about the pre-bible belt Baptist movement in colonial America? If both a modern non-denominational bible church and a pre-bible belt baptist movement meet the definition set forth by Bebbington, then they should have some meaningful connection. However, that connection between a “evangelical” church and a “evangelical” movement is not so clear. Bebbington's four part definition is too wide and accepting to different interpretation to be called meaningful. Each part of his definition needs to be explained and evaluated to see if any meaningful connection between a bible church and the Baptist movement of early souther America have have any meaningful connection under Bebbington's definition of evangelical.

Millennials, backed by the rising Generation Z, have proved themselves to be the most secular demographic that the United States has ever borne witness to. On the political spectrum, too, there has been an increase in support from these generations for leftist viewpoints and alignments. This palpable change within the nation’s politics has raised concerns about the communion between religious people and the far left. Matthew Sitman’s article, “Against Moral Austerity: How Religion Can Revitalize the Left,” emphasizes a need for the conjoined forces of faith and liberalism to inspire political change. Written from the biased perspective of a devout Catholic, Sitman struggles to appeal to the secular end of the spectrum through a valid argument but provides enough supportive detail behind his ideas to create, at the very least, an acceptable

Recently I read the book How Children Succeed, by Paul Tough. This book had five main sections. These sections included How To Fail (And How Not To Fail), How To Build Character, How To Think, How To Succeed, and A Better Path. In each of the five sections the book talked about many different points. Each point had a number. These numbers would go through about one to seventeen per each section of the book. Along with giving a summary of the book I will analyze it. We will start with section one, How To Fail (And How Not To).

In Richard Taylor’s chapter “Meaning of Life”, he concluded that objectively, life is meaningless. He stressed his opinion by arguing that life tends to be a cycle of goals that cumulate to nothing. These goals require sequences of exhausting work and attempt that will continue throughout the rest of life but will have no meaning. As one goal is reached, the next is sought out for, forgetting the one that was just achieved. I do not support Taylor on his objective meaningless of life. Life has a meaning, even if it is just being alive, we were created by God and he has a plan for us. Goals help us become better people and they are important to us. Taylor explained that we can find meaning in our lives when a will is put behind our actions. This means that meaningfulness can be found within the veins of anyone. I agree with Taylor, that our actions should be of interest to us, yet his account fails to show that they will make our lives have a meaning. There is no validation, that a change of the state of mind will cause our lives to achieve meaning.

Liberalism will be the first to be covered in this paper, as well as the most radical in some aspects. Liberals took a new approach to what they viewed has an out of date religion, and changed the authority of the Bible and considered other sources of authority to help adapt Christianity into the new modern thinking of their time. “Reason, culture, experiences and science would all be employed in challenge to the classical authority of revelation.”(Bingham) The father of the Liberalist movement was the German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher. Schleiermacher made an effort to separate religion from theology. To him religion wasn’t just beliefs or ethics, but was based in knowledge and action, theology is then the reflection of said actions. Religion ending up being nothing more than just feelings and experiences and each person’s own experiences turn into their revelations. This also made the teachings of the Scriptures important. His view on Jesus was that he was just a good teacher that’s job was to awaken people to God so they can work through them,

In the book the advantage by, Patrick Lencioni he talks about how he believes it is possible to build a better company. He believes that creating clarity is the second most important aspect of creating a successful and healthy organization also referred to as achieving alignment by an increasing number of business professionals. achieving alignment is a growing concern throughout the business world because it try to create clarity in so many different areas such as disorder, confusion, and infighting many professionals has reconciled all the benefits it is capable of bring to their organization if utilized properly and that is where the problem lies.

After a robotic bell sounds across a high school, hordes of students exit their classrooms and enter the hallway. After a minute, the congested hallway shows a variety of categories of student types. Those quick to get to their next class condense to their lowest form, while socialite trouble-makers shove each other in hopes of a “domino effect” of falling bystanders. Standing next to the two are the elitist seniors who, tired of high school, force through any cluster of students preventing their access. Luckily, these chaotic transition periods only last for a few minutes, but with a longer timeframe, more permanent damage is virtually guaranteed. Although fictional, William Golding predicts this type of situation in Lord of the Flies,