Bookmarks:
Amulet • R.I.P. Andre Crouch • Schools should teach against date rape? • Individualization in the classroom • The One Universal Secret To A Lasting Marriage • When a loved one has mental illness • A genetic predictor of breast cancer

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Scientists Discover Ancient ‘Magical’ Amulet With Odd Two-Way Inscription

The text and accompanying images clearly indicate that the object was created by someone who subscribed to a mixture of Christian (or Jewish) and pagan beliefs. This would have been circa 500 C.E., in Cyprus. Such a mixture is called “syncretism.” The authors of the Old Testament history books disapproved of the shrines on the “high places” for reason that syncretic worship practices occurred there.

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Gospel legend Andrae Crouch dead at 72

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Schools aren’t teaching enough about sexism. It’s the best way to end dating violence.

The author, Vanita Sundaram, senior lecturer in education at University of York, seems to me to have an inflated notion of schools’ ability to solve every conceivable social problem. First, I don’t know where such instruction would find its place in the curriculum. The schools I am familiar with have their hands full already simply struggling to impart literacy. Second, her article reports absolutely nothing that might substantiate the thesis of her headline.

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Differentiation Doesn’t Work

In another case of — belling the cat — “educators'” and “reformers'” seeking to burden schoolteachers with more than they can bear — the author argues that individualized instruction, in the classroom, simply isn’t practicable.

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The One Universal Secret To A Lasting Marriage

“Luckily, new research has boiled the key to spousal success down to one simple tip. And this tip holds true worldwide, across cultures, ages and incomes: Find a significant other who is also your best friend.”

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Mental illness turned my ex-husband into someone I didn’t recognize. Still, his death left me reeling.

This is principally a memoir of this one woman’s grief. I cite it to illustrate the heartbreak and havoc mental illness can wreak in life, given the prevalence of mental illness among the homeless.

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BRCA, guilt and motherhood

Another memoir. I was struck by this passage:

“BRCA was the first genetic marker identified for hereditary forms of breast cancer. Testing positive for this mutation means a 50 to 80 percent chance of getting breast cancer, and a 27 percent chance of ovarian cancer, with a little pancreatic and melanoma thrown in for good measure. * * * With BRCA, now a known part of my family’s DNA, my siblings and children’s chances of testing positive would be 50 percent.”

That’s a shocking statistic.

Originally posted 2015-01-19.