children 40
Faithful Lives in Faithless Times
To the tomb, all life hastens. But while death is ineluctable, the growing good of the world is not. There is an intrinsic vulnerability to civilization (and parenthood), in large…
P.D. James’ Children of Men and Modern Parenting
I didn’t intend to welcome two children into an era marked by so much bleakness and turmoil. With James’s help, I’ve remembered that there is no project more local, no…
Atticus, Scout, and the Gift of Children: On Reading To Kill a Mockingbird with my Daughter in 2020
This is the humbling gift our children offer. If we seek to shape their character, at some point in the journey we’ll find ourselves backed into a corner, faced with…
The End of Childhood Play
Too many children grow up learning no lessons, organising no peers, and exploring no territory, unless it be shifting electrons around a screen, and the screen becomes their world.
In Praise of the Children’s Choir Accompanist
Every few weeks, in what I assume is a uniquely Protestant ritual, a dozen small children stand at the front of our church and sing for the congregation. A kindly…
The Craft of Education
“Then education is the craft concerned with doing this very thing, this turning around, and with how the soul can most easily and effectively be made to do it.” Plato,…
You, Child, are Our Bond
“And children seem to be a bond of union.” Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics Moved by these words of Aristotle, I write here... An Open Letter to My Child Even your father can…
Gifting Children
Some friends and I are celebrating the good news that one of our company was expecting another child. None of us are the Duggars, and the offspring of the three…
The Beauty of Tolkien’s Quest
Tolkien understands the deepest of our longings and makes us understand them better than before.
Where Are All the Grownups?
Why is it taking so long for Americans to become “real” grown-ups?
Why Australia Needs a Renewed Culture of Natural Marriage
Human nature, innate human longings, human biology, and human history are all on your side.
Cultivating Gratitude
Blairsville, GA. Recently I was with a friend whose oldest son, having just completed his junior year, is home from college. The young man has not yet found a summer…
Why we do not own a Television
April was "Media Awareness Month" at our sons' school. I took a couple weeks off from the Porch, and I also published a first draft of this piece in the…
Home-Making for Home-Coming
RINGOES, NJ. You’ve seen the commercials.A middle-aged couple drops their son off at college. As they drive away, nest now empty, they feign sorrow. Quickly, though, their mournful countenances are…
No Wealth But Life
JEFFERSON COUNTY, KANSAS. William Allen White, the noted editorialist of Emporia, once named our shared home country America’s tenth muse—the muse of prophecy. If Kansas is muse, surely one of…
