Papa-Lu: February 2007 Archives

Tormenting the Wife, 3

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The Educational Benefits of Video Games

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Time for me to play the hypocrite. I have no problem with the research that says video games can be educational.

How do I square this with my loathing of Leapfrog and V-Tech? Easily:

Hard data is scant so far--most of the MacArthur-funded research projects are just getting under way--but there's no shortage of anecdotes testifying to the educational benefits of video and computer games and new multimedia tools. Simulation games in particular have already been embraced by some educators, as well as many businesses and the U.S. military, as effective ways to introduce people to environments and situations that would otherwise be too expensive, dangerous or impossible to access.

Kurt Squire, another University of Wisconsin researcher, has been observing students as they play Civilization, a simulation game in which players build historically realistic civilizations and interact with them as they evolve.

"We've got middle-schoolers now who are going to their teachers and saying, `I've built this historical model of the American Revolution, which took about 40-50 hours--can I submit this with a paper about it?'"

My friends, this is a far cry from a giant frog screaming at my kid: "I Love You, SO Much!"

First of all, all the examples offered are for older children than the V-Tech target audience. That's important.

Second, it's not even "educational toys" per se that are thought to have educational value. The researchers in the article instead point to the benefits of certain video games that simulate real-world or historical situations. These are games that make you use reason and knowledge if you wish to be successful. I guess here is where I embarrassingly admit that I've learned more about medieval history and weaponry from playing "The Age of Empires" than I previously knew. Trebuchet? I had no clue until one was laying siege to my kingdom.

Still, there are a couple of important things the article left out. First, these educational benefits can often be missed if a child playing these games doesn't give a crap. A game that takes place in a specific historical context is great, but if that context is incidental to the game - if it serves as a background that doesn't really have to be engaged in order to be successful, then the educational value is diminished.

Second, and this seems to me the more dangerous problem, David Shaffer, quoted in the article as saying, "we spend most of the first six or seven years of math education teaching kids to do what a 99-cent calculator does," seems to be suggesting that technology can replace the need for basic literacy. Sure, computer games can be used as a supplement - a practical application of actual lessons that can help children master concepts - but computers cannot obviate the need for the three R's. Balance is needed. I don't care if a calculator can multiply, my kids are going to learn their tables. And I don't care if the whole world can be run off of machines, kids still need an education in what it means to be human, which means engaging with flesh and blood humans in person and through the ideas of literature and history.

In the end, it falls to parents and educators to integrate technology as a part - yes, an increasingly important part, but still only a part - of a child's human formation.

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Reading Assignments

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Blogwatchin':

New stuff:

Old Stuff:

  • The Human Difference - A lovely meditation by Eric Cohen on what separates us from the animals.
  • A challenge to the stereotype of a cruel Old Testament God. From the Fall 2006 In Character which also included this interesting reading list of classics on justice.

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What the Pope is up to

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This week - on retreat

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - On February 25, the first Sunday of Lent, the annual spiritual exercises of the Holy Father and the Roman Curia will begin in the Redemptoris Mater Chapel of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace. This year's exercises, dedicated to the theme "The Things of Above," will be directed by Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, Archbishop emeritus of Bologna, Italy. The retreat will begin with Eucharistic exposition at 6 p.m., the celebration of Vespers, an introductory meditation, adoration and Eucharistic blessing.

Over the following days there will be the celebration of Lauds and meditation at 9 a.m.; celebration of Terce and meditation at 10.15 a.m.; meditation at 5 p.m.; and Vespers, adoration and Eucharistic blessing at 5.45 p.m. The spiritual exercises will come to an end on Saturday, March 3, with the celebration of Lauds and a closing meditation at 9 a.m.
During the retreat all audiences will be cancelled, including the weekly general audience of Wednesday, February 28. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 23/2/2007; righe 13; parole 177)

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Tormenting the Wife, Part 2

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Stuff to read

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Newer stuff:

Older stuff:

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What do you get a bibliophile for Father's Day?

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Roses are Red, Violets are Blue

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Tormenting my Wife

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Happy Lent!

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Religious Left

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"As I have traveled around the country, one line in my speeches always draws cheers: 'The monologue of the Religious Right is over, and a new dialogue has now begun.' We have now entered the post-Religious Right era." - Jim Wallis

Yes, that's Jim Wallis of Sojourners writing in Time. Are we to find it indicative of some trend that Sojourners types don't like the religious right? I'm not necessarily disputing that the political movement known as the religious right is largely in decline, but let's recognize that the people cheering Wallis on aren't exactly objective observers.

His whole article is pretty silly. Of course, it's desirable that the truths of faith are best left separated from partisan politics. But, um, let's remember that Wallis has written a book called God's Politics and that he runs a lefty blog of the same name, and that his magazine invokes God's name to argue for the Democratic party line.

I repeat, it's not that I dispute in any way that the "religious right" is waning, and it's not that I categorically diagree with everything that the Sojourners crowd stands for. Indeed, especially compared to the wine and cheese leftism of the Commonweal crowd, I find Sojourners more honest and more often on the side of truth, but I also see them mirroring the worst of the religious right's crassness in explicitly aligning themselves with a particular political agenda. The answer to the usurpation of religion by politicians is not to become the Democrat's version of Jerry Falwell.

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Blog Recommendation: Daniel Larison

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I've linked to Daniel Larison's blog Eunomia a few times from here. Larison is a grad student at the University of Chicago who, judging from the volume of his posts, does not sleep. Either that, or maybe U of C is not quite as rigorous as we've all been led to believe. How often does he post? Well, he's allegedly on hiatus for the month of February, but Bloglines tells me he has posted 88 times. To his credit, he didn't post until the 4th of the month.

Anyway, he's becoming one of my favorite bloggers, yet paradoxically the one I dread reading the most simply because he posts so much. But it's almost always worth it, as you can see here where he makes Rudy Giuliani look foolish (not that it's terribly hard) or here where he eviscerates Jody Bottum. If you have the endurance, check him out.

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Around St. Blogs

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Sell outs

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Once again, Peggy Noonan demonstrates her journalistic superiority.

Earlier this week I heard a minister quote a spiritual genius: "All the problems in the world are caused by man's inability to sit quietly in a room by himself." We're restless and need action, which in a modern media world means information. We need the busy buzz--the Internet, TV, instant messages, magazines and newspapers, the beeps and boops and bops. Rudy's up in Iowa. Hillary's stuck. We want to be among the first to have this information and the first to share it. And we want it not because it's crucial but because it distracts us from the crucial. It takes our minds away from what is most important. Who you are, for instance, or what we are about. It's a great relief not to think about the important. It's a relief to focus on factoids.
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Marriage and Muslims

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Stanley Kurtz is making a very interesting argument in a series for NRO that the tradition of cousin marriage in Islamic culture renders those societies incompatible with modern life. This, he says, is the key to understanding the terror war.

I'm a bit torn on this. Kurtz generally does excellent work on marriage and family issues, but he often sounds insane and when talking about war and the middle east. My guess is he'll make a sensible and sobering analysis of Islamic marriage culture and then use it to demagogue on the need to fight more Middle Eastern wars. I'll be very interested to see how he develops the argument and what critics will say.

Here's the first two installments in the series: 1, 2.

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Sacraments

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This is a very busy and exciting weekend for us. Tonight we're heded out of town to stand up in a very special family wedding. And then on Sunday, we get to be the Godparents at Baby Michael's baptism.

It is certainly an honor in both instances, and we ask you to please join us in praying for the happy couple and for Michael and his proud parents.

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Billy Goat Department

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Kerry Wood falls from hot-tub, bruises ribs.

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I Link it Like That

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Newer stuff:

  • Florida's pro-choice license plate option shows a baby star floating upward (heavenward?) from inside a mother star. I can't decide if it's monstrously sick and twisted or refreshingly blunt and honest.
  • Even Stanley Kurtz can't tolerate D'Souza's book.

Older stuff:

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They're Back

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Ross and Reihan at The American Scene have returned from hiatus and are blogging their brains out. Lots of good stuff over there to check out, including this post that stands what we think we know about Democratic primary politics on its head.

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On Blogging

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The Cub Reporter has an interesting meta-post up on the relationship between sports blogs and mainstream sports media.

This says it all:

...earlier this year one of The Cub Reporters sent out very cordial emails to a variety of “real” journalists asking their support in promoting the work done here [Papa-Lu sez: I mentioned this series here] by “Dying Cub Fan” arguing for Ron Santo’s selection to the Hall of Fame. The premise was that while the Veteran’s Committee casts the votes, pro-Santo publicity by the mainstream media could only be a positive influence on the VC’s decision. Some of the journalists sent courteous replies of varying degrees of interest. One “journalist,” however, responded with the terse rebuke that they knew of Santo’s credentials, and that it wasn’t up to the fans to decide.
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More on Electronic Toys

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Keeping up on this theme, Christine Rosen offers a slightly fleshed out version of this article I blogged last month. And by "fleshed out," I mean there's two extra paragraphs.

Excerpt:

Despite the potential hazards, why are so many children playing with electronic toys? "I think electronic toys are appealing to adults" says Linda Crowe, an associate professor in the School of Family Studies and Human Services at Kansas State University. "They think, 'Wow! These are really exciting toys; look at all of the wonderful things they can do!" But electronic toys remove social interaction and in many respects may inhibit creativity. The toy provides the fantasy and removes the opportunity for a child to mentally produce something hypothetical or imagined.” Crowe is also concerned about the effect of such toys on children’s brain development. "What's happening neurologically with these kids when they are watching flashing lights and electronic toys versus an old-fashioned play toy? Which areas of the brain are activated and what kinds of neurological connections are being established? I'm seeing outcomes in the form of shorter attention spans, but we don't know exactly what is happening in the brain."

Susan Swanson, who works for the Excelligence Learning Corporation and has been an arts educator in Monterey County, California schools, has similar concerns. "Electronic toys don't encourage dramatic play," she says. "And what is going to happen to these kids who are used to having a quick electronic fix and who think things happen at the push of a button?" she asks. Parents can go to the other extreme too, of course. "I live near Berkeley," Swanson says with a chuckle, "and you can find stores there where the only toys are those made entirely out of recycled tires or natural fibers."

Tech toys are here to stay, of course, in large part because anxious parents fear denying their children any novel advantage. "Parents believe that this is a way for their child to be ready for the academic setting," says Crowe, "and you can't fault parents for that." But she encourages parents to limit their children's use of such toys and to offer more traditional toys (such as building blocks, trains, and dolls) that encourage open-ended, creative play. Children also make their play preferences known, and they are often refreshingly low-tech. When asked by University of Stirling researchers what they most wanted to do during playtime, young children did not beg for quality time with T.M.X. Elmo. They wanted their parents to take them to the park. Sometimes, toddlers know best.

I'm a bit more cynical, so with regard to that first paragraph, I would posit that parents find additional appeal in that these gadgets keep kids out of their hair. Being the father of two toddlers, I can sympathize with folks who are tempted by toys that won't require any assistance beying swapping out double-As. But to tell me that a machine that screams the ABCs at my son is teaching him something at all - let alone in a way better than I could - falls somewhere on a continuum between condescending and insulting.

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Link it up!

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I herein inaugurate a new, periodic (adj. - whenever I get around to it) feature, where I provide links to interesting articles I've found on the web, handily divided into stuff that has just appeared and older stuff that I've juse come across.

Stuff from today:

Older stuff:

  • The War of the Imagination - A damning look at the initial phase of the Iraq war published in late November. Lengthy, but necessary.
  • Plumbing the archives of the excellent journal Touchstone, I found two gems in the October 2004 issue. In "Swift Prophet", Anne Barbeau Gardiner looks at Gulliver's Tavels as a allegory of British Christianity. And in "The Lovely Dragon of Choice", Anthony Esolen slays said dragon - which is not simply the euphemistic "choice" of abortion, but a far more hideous and menacing beast:
    I am not merely saying that there is a freedom higher and more blissful than the freedom to choose how one spends one’s money or where one buys a house or whom one marries. I assert that even regarding questions of money or dwelling or spouse or any earthly thing, there is a freedom that slays the freedom to choose. Call it the wisdom of tossing the choice away. Call it the hope not in choosing but in being chosen.
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A Valentine's Gift

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ONE WEEK 'TIL PITCHERS AND CATCHERS!

Oh, and just 'cuz... here's the Cubs 2007 schedule.

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The Uglification of Campus

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The Daily Illini has an article about the destruction of beautiful old homes in Urbana to make way for cheap, hideous apartment buildings where the owners can pack more students in.

On the one hand, this is a shame. Instead of old, classy homes with lawns and porches, they're putting up the college equivalent of McMansions that crowd the sidewalk and never have enough parking spaces.

On the other hand, and here I'm putting on my completely selfish "it's all about me" hat, the more students we can pack into the 2 square miles of campustown, the less drunken loudmouths we'll have spilling into respectable neighborhoods. And if we're going to be replacing fine old houses with cheap construction apartments, better on campus than out in the neighborhoods where families live.

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"My Dear Young Friends"

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On years when there is not an international World Youth Day celebration (like Sidney 2008 or Toronto 2002), World Youth Day is celebrated at the diocesan level on Palm Sunday. Here is the Papal Message for the 22nd World Youth Day, to be celebrated April 1, 2007.

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Truth at the Bottom of a Glass

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Colin Bower makes a heroic sacrifice to investigate the relationship of thruth, metaphor and language by swigging a Malbec.

These are questions of a profound epistemological weight. They reflect the uncertain status of anything we claim to know and understand. If I don’t understand the meaning of a word, and I look it up in the dictionary, I see it explained in other words. Those other words, in case I don’t understand them either, are explained by yet further words. There is no absolute point of reference. So where does knowledge begin? Aren’t we all just refracting meaning around from one word to another in a pleasant verbal gavotte to fill in the time as we wait for death?

And that's before he uncorks.

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Accuracy in Translation

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Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, Pennsylvania, who has drawn much ire around Catholic blogland for his criticisms of the new translation of the Mass, has an op-ed of sorts making his case in the UK Catholic paper The Tablet. Specifically, he pushes his argument against the "for many" translation of the latin phrase "pro multis" in the institution narrative of the Eucharistic Prayer.

In Matthew 26: 28 and following, we read: "For this is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins." The reference to the "many" is certainly drawn from Isaiah 53: 11, where we read: "Through his suffering, my servant shall justify many and their guilt he shall bear."

In this passage the term "many" is a Hebrew word that means "for everyone", since there was no Hebrew word "for all". The term was originally inclusive and signified "everybody". The Jesuit scholar Max Zerwick's Philological Analysis of the Greek New Testament is still an unsurpassed authority. On Matthew 26: 28 Zerwick explains that polloi, the Greek for "the many", translates a Semitic expression that can signify a multitude and at the same time a totality. It means "all (who are many)".

This was strongly affirmed by the Congregation for Divine Worship in 1970 when the Congregation commissioned Zerwick to research and write an article on the meaning of pro multis. That article was published in the official organ of that Congregation (Notitiae) in May 1970 (pages 138-140). It states: "According to exegetes, the Aramaic word which in Latin is translated ‘pro multis' means ‘pro omnibus': the multitude for whom Christ died is unbounded, which is the same as saying: Christ died for all. St Augustine will help recall this: ‘You see what He hath given; find out then what He bought. The Blood of Christ was the price. What is equal to this? What, but the whole world? What, but all nations?' "

In 1970 the Congregation for Divine Worship made a definitive judgement and published it in its official organ. What reasons now compel the Holy See to reverse itself? The English word "many" is normally taken to exclude some. The Pope's decision to revert to this literal translation does not seem to express in English the true meaning of the phrase. "Many" does not mean everyone. On a pastoral level we must have from the Vatican a better rationale for this major change than what has been given. With full respect and love for the Holy See, we need a pastoral explanation for the people. Cardinal Francis Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, concedes that "for many" does not convey at face value the Lord's universal salvific intent, but that this belongs to catechesis. Is not the liturgy the best form of catechesis? The Catechism of the Catholic Church says: "The liturgy is the privileged place for catechising the people of God" (Paragraph 1074).

This argument is much more credible than his last attempt at making this point ("it's too confusing!"). I, however, not knowing any Hebrew or Greek, find myself unable to evaluate the merit of the new piece. I'd be interested if anybody knows where I can find this treated more fully.

UPDATE: Father Z fisks brutally:

Remember: this is all based on a conjecture (oopps… "guess") about what the Lord might have said in Aramaic – which we don’t know. This sets up a conflict between the "guess" and the Greek text of the New Testament. In other words, people who make this claim are creating their own text by which they judge the veracity of the New Testament accounts of the Last Supper. Neat, huh? NOTE: I demolished the passe argument that follows in a four part WDTPRS series. In that series I show the sandy foundations the following arguments rest upon. Also, kindly note that when you translate liturgical texts you are not translating Scripture. The Pope agrees.

He also claims to have treated this in a four part series, though he doesn't say if that was on his blog or his in his Wanderer column.

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About this Archive

This page is a archive of recent entries written by Papa-Lu in February 2007.

Papa-Lu: January 2007 is the previous archive.

Papa-Lu: March 2007 is the next archive.

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