Heather Johnston > Recent Status Updates

St. Francis of Assisi - talks a lot about Brother Bill in Chicago

St. Thomas Aquinas - greatest Catholic philosopher and theologian in history. Faith and reason are compatible.

Peter- often made mistakes

Dorothy Day - she is like me! Wild in youth. College educated. Had an abortion. Married a man who hated religion. When pregnant with daughter she began to feel call to God. The Long Loneliness - autobiography. Started Catholic Worker paper. Founded Catholic Worker houses and farms for the poor. Attended political protests for workers rights.

Pope John XXIII - fat, happy pope. Yes my Pope for 5 years. Called for Vatican 2 which made some mad. Wanted to bring the Church to all people.

Mother Teresa- left her order to serve the poor

Pedro Arrupe. Leader of the Jesuits. Focused on helping the poor. Was mistreated by the church for being to much like a socialist or communist.

St. Ignatius founder of the Jesuits. The Spiritual Exercises and retreat schedules.

Thomas Merton - a man of contradictions. Trappist monk in Kentucky

St. Therese of Lisieux - the Little Flower. Not everyone can be a rose. Be a daisy or a wildflower as God intended. Do the little things with love.

Joan of Arc seemed crazy. She followed the voices of Sts Michael, Catherine, and Margaret. She was betrayed by the king.

K-12 about memorization not problem solving. Without understanding argument literacy a “persuasive research paper” makes no sense. Application of concepts to scenarios makes no sense.

Biggest stumbling block to success is students don’t understand or practice: argument literacy (take position and support with persuasive reasoning), can’t discover or invent problems, don’t know the language.

Success resulted from the students’ perceptions of the instructors’ attitude and classroom environment.

Students needed a lot of positive comments to recognize this. Students need to perceive the environment as encouraging.

Successful approach includes: 1) expecting students to accomplish work that they found challenging; 2) inviting them to participate actively as “college” students in the classroom; 3) addressing students’ anxiety with step-by-step, transparently clear directions; and 4) offering constant encouragement.

Last para

Teachers with higher success rates “filled the role of authoritative expert in their classrooms, and engaged in strategies that aimed to alleviate students’ anxieties and provided students with constant encouragement.”

The students role is to accept and passively consume.

Students’ firmly held expectations regarding instruction undermined the instructors efforts to achieve their pedagogical goals. Non-traditional pedagogy led to overt resistance and prevented them from benefiting from the approaches.

Chapter 4 - How is that helping us? Student want facts for the test, not examples and application. Outside ideas are irrelevant and distracting.

“Most students seem resigned to undergoing a dreadful experience in order to earn the desired credential.”

“Fear of failure—rather than actual failure or evidence of unsuitability—prevents full commitment and engagement.

Not participating or doing assessments keeps students from being exposed as not cut out for college.

A first step in making a place for hospitality may be to make room in our hearts.

A first step in making a place for hospitality may be to make room in our hearts.

Many of us live in abundance, not scarcity. But we often act as if resources are scarce; we fear there won’t be enough, even before we begin sharing what we have. The problem may have much more to do with our willingness to respond than with our resources.

“One great reason why the rich in general have so little sympathy for the poor is because they so seldom visit them. Hence it is that one part of the world does not know that the other suffers. Many of them do not know, because they do not care to know: they keep out of the way of knowing it - and then plead their voluntary ignorance as an excuse for their hardness of hearts.” John Eesley

Because so much of “helping” has been turned into a profession with paid specialist, it is very unusual when someone gives focused attention to a needy stranger outside of a paid relationship. Giving a stranger full attention communicates that he or she is interesting and worthwhile; we pay attention to what we value.

Warning to contemporary practitioners to consider the destructive aspects of too-rigorous needs tests that can seem designed to shame and embarrass applicants. Those forced to depend on others don’t deserve abuse especially from those who would have to give an account for their lavish tables and excess resources from which nothing had been shared. Chrysostom