The Patriot

See The Art of Asking Questions for a discussion of the importance of training students to ask good questions.

See this blog post: Spurgeon: Yet He Want’s Books. Justin Taylor comments on Charles Spurgeon’s sermon on 2 Timothy 4:13. In that passage, Paul asks Timothy to bring him his books.

He is inspired, and yet he wants books!

He has been preaching at least for thirty years, and yet he wants books!

He had seen the Lord, and yet he wants books!

He had had a wider experience than most men, and yet he wants books!

He had been caught up into the third heaven, and had heard things which it was unlawful for a men to utter, yet he wants books!

He had written the major part of the New Testament, and yet he wants books!

I’m teaching a graduate class in statistics. The semester is almost over and I’m teaching a topic not included in our textbook. I wanted to use a book that I believe is one of the best on the subject, but it’s too hard for the students to read on their own. I thought about using a more accessible text, but instead I decided to guide them though the difficult book.

I copied the first few pages of the advanced book and passed them out. We’re going through these pages line-by-line the way a literature class might go through a difficult passage from Milton. I provide lots of commentary. We have discussions. We go on tangents. But we have a text to return to that keeps us on track. So far I believe this experiment in applying classical pedagogy to advanced statistics is working well.