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Following the Western tradition of spiritual autobiography—established by writers such as St. Augustine and Thomas Merton—G.K. Chesterton compiled his religious views in his most celebrated work, Orthodoxy. Written as a sequel to the critiques found in his earlier book, Heretics, Orthodoxy serves as both a formal apologetic and a personal testimony of his conversion to…
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The Great Divorce, written by C.S. Lewis, is a direct response to William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Lewis believed Blake’s attempt to marry the two realms was a “disastrous error.” He argues against the notion that “some way of embracing both alternatives can always be found; that mere development, adjustment, or refinement…
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In my previous posts, I explored the symbol of true royalty and the “Solid Land” of goodness in George MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin. To conclude this series, we must look into the caverns. MacDonald provides a stark contrast to the King-papa and Princess Irene through the Goblins—a race that represents a “false picture”…
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Ursula Le Guin once observed of George MacDonald’s masterpiece: “A princess is a girl who behaves nobly; a girl who behaves nobly is a princess. Curdie the miner…is a prince. The king is king because he’s a good man. No other definition is allowed. This is radically moral democracy.” Le Guin’s assessment holds because MacDonald…
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In a modern Grade 7 classroom, to be called a “princess” is rarely a compliment. The term has become a pejorative—a shorthand for selfishness, arrogance, and entitlement. While we might endow younger girls with the title in a spirit of play, we despise it in older ones who are perceived as being “too big for…
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Beyond the Grade: The True Purpose of a Good Book As a teacher, my most frequent advice to parents is simple: Give your children the time and space to read good books. Guide them toward them, discuss the stories with them, and—perhaps most importantly—model the habit by reading good books yourself. We often justify reading…
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Whether you are a parent, teacher, or grandparent, we have all faced the same dilemma: How do you start—and sustain—a meaningful conversation with a child? The answer is simpler than you think: You have to trick them. I don’t mean this in a deceptive way, but in a “pedagogical” way. Most children (and, let’s be…
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“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible… all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” — Colossians 1:16-17 Lately, I have been convicted of a quiet failure: I have stopped practicing the discipline…
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Four years ago, I had the surreal experience of whitewater rafting the Nile River in Jinja, Uganda. Over a six-hour journey, our group navigated twelve Class 4 and 5 rapids. I was thrown from the raft or flipped over entirely on four of them. It was exhausting, terrifying, and ultimately transformative. I walked away with…
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“Seeing is not believing—it is only seeing.” — George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin Our modern society is obsessed with the material. We aren’t necessarily “materialistic” in the sense of craving jewelry or yachts, but we are addicted to physical matter. We are a people who demand to have our feet firmly planted on…